The story of how, in the darkest days of the Second World War, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met over Christmas in Washington and launched their grand strategy to defeat the Axis powers.

By Christmas Eve, 1941, the war could hardly have been worse for Britain or the United States. Barely three weeks earlier the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and a week before Christmas the Italian navy penetrated Alexandria harbour in Egypt and sank the British battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant.

The full story of how Churchill and Roosevelt spent three weeks charting the future strategy of the Allies has now been pieced together for the first time. One Christmas in Washington shows how two very different nations learned to work together and how two super-egos were joined by a common purpose - to win the war.

David J. Bercuson is the director of the University of Calgary's Centre for Military and Strategic Studies. A celebrated military historian, he has published on a wide range of topics including modern Canadian politics, Canadian defense and foreign policy, and military history. He has written, co-authored, or edited over thirty books, including The Fighting Canadians: Canada's Regimental History from New France to Afghanistan; The Patricias: The Proud History of a Fighting Regiment; and Blood on the Hills: The Canadian Army in the Korean War. In 1997 Dr. Bercuson was appointed Special Advisor to the Minister of National Defence on the Future of the Canadian Forces. A member of the Minister of National Defence's Monitoring Committee from 1997 to 2003, he also served on the Advisory Council on National Security from 2005 to 2008. Until 2010 Bercuson was an Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of 41 Combat Engineer Regiment, a Land Force Reserve military engineer unit of the Canadian Forces. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, which awarded him the J.B. Tyrrell Historical Medal in 2002, and serves on the board of the Royal Military College. In 2003 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.

David J. Bercuson's profile page

HOLGER H. HERWIG is the Canada Research Chair in the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies and a professor in the Department of History at the University of Calgary. He has published numerous books and articles on World War I and other topics in military history.

Holger H. Herwig's profile page