Opening paragraphs................

This new year of the Second World War, 1942, opened upon us in an entirely different shape for Britain.  We were no longer alone.  At our side stood two mighty Allies.  Russia and the United States were, though for different reasons, irrevocably engaged to fight to the death in the closest concert with the British Empire.  This combination made final victory certain unless it broke to pieces under the strain, or unless some entirely new instrument of war appeared in German hands.  There was indeed a new instrument of war for which both sides were avidly groping.  As it turned out it was into our already stronger hands that the secret of the atomic bomb was destined to fall.  A fearful and bloody struggle lay before us and we could not foresee it course, but the end was sure.
-Winston Churchill,  The Hinge of Fate