It is 1942. Germany controls almost the entire resources of continental
Europe and is poised to move into the Middle East. Japan has wiped out
the western colonial presence in East Asia in a couple of months and is
threatening northern India and Australia. The Soviet Union has lost the
heart of its industry, and the United States is not yet armed. Democracy
has had its day. The Allied victory in 1945 has since come to seem
inevitable. It was not. In Richard Overy's incisive analysis, we see
exactly how the Allies regained military superiority and why they were
able to do it. Overy offers a brilliant analysis of the decisive
campaigns: the war at sea, the crucial battles on the eastern front, the
air war, and the vast amphibious assault on Europe. The eastern front
was critical. Having lost four million men and tens of thousands of
tanks and aircraft in the first six months of fighting, the Soviet Union
was able to relocate its industrial base to the east, intensify its
industrial production, and defeat the German forces at Stalingrad and
Kursk. This was the turning point, the victory of one authoritarian
system over another. Overy also explores the deeper factors affecting
military success and failure: industrial strength, fighting ability, the
quality of leadership, and the moral dimensions of the war.
