On July 6th 1940 in Berlin Adolf Hitler celebrated his victory in Europe, his army chief called him the greatest warlord in history. From Moscow Hitlers collaborator, the Russian leader Joseph Stalin sent his congratulations. In London the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was isolated and the American President Franklin Roosevelt stood aloof.

In the coming five years everything in the relationship between these four men would change in ways that seemed unimaginable. While their nations fought a war of weapons, these four great warlords of the 20th century fought a war of the mind.

At the heart of this private war was a series of psychological duels in which they lied, schemed, charmed, flattered and deceived to win.

In this four part series we examine the interaction of the leading protagonists of WW2, looking in some depth at the nature of the relationship and interaction of these ‘warlords’. The use of primary materials and memoirs as sources gives the psycho-historical analysis some substance.