FOREWORD
This is the most compelling work of military geography I’ve ever
seen. It’s a testament to the titanic scale of the conflict of 1939–1945,
which dwarfs all others in world history. The ferocity of World War
II— the level of its violence and the cost in human life—almost
defies description: up to 80 million deaths; some 20 million on the
battlefield; and around three times more than that among civilians
caught up in the firestorm of bombing and all-embracing warfare
on land, sea, and air. What these maps explain in intricate detail
is the mobility and speed with which mechanized armies could
sweep across vast areas, and with which warships and aircraft
could inflict destruction at ranges never before dreamed of.No earlier conflict has demanded such comprehensive mapping. No
other conflict has been as challenging to the cartographer. Each of
the pivotal moments of the war is marked by more movement and
the exercise of more industrial might than in any previous war. It
is maps such as these that can help us to envisage the scope, the
size, and the sheer pace of Hitler’s blitzkrieg, which crushed the Low
Countries and France in the spring of 1940. Other instances of mass
mobility are illuminated for us—the see-sawing of the rival armies
in North Africa in 1940–1943, the great leap across the Mediterranean
by Montgomery’s and Patton’s armies from North Africa to Sicily
and Italy, the lightning Nazi assault on Stalin’s Soviet Union, andUS_008-009_Foreword.indd 8 19/03/19 7:27 PM