War, Peace, and International Relations. An Introduction to Strategic History

practices of central state control improved. When the whole of society is regarded as a resource for the war effort, it follows ...

World War II was nothing if not complex, with combat on three continents and on land, at sea and in the air. However, the confli ...

Poland, a country that they were in no position to assist militarily. In confident and accurate expectation of Anglo-French impo ...

of effort, especially to the Mediterranean theatre, the focus was always in the East. As one historian reminds us, ‘More than 8 ...

attack. In addition, the German military discovered much about their forces’ performance in Poland which a process of ruthless s ...

colleagues were convinced that Britain should continue the struggle, given the obvious absence of any plausible theory of victor ...

205 divisions, but 60 were not available for the war in the East: 3 8 were deployed in France, 12 in Norway, 1 in Denmark, 7 in ...

that be achieved? And how long might it take? The German Army advanced on three diverging axes: Army Group North swept through t ...

taking Moscow. After all, it was the national capital, it had priceless political symbolic value, it was the hub of Russian rail ...

to a policy principle he had already agreed with the British of defeating Germany first. However, one must record the fact that ...

of effort. So, 1942 turned out to be something of an operational replay of 1941. A still mighty German Army attempted to accompl ...

point of the war. Hitler’s intention there was literally to smash the Red Army. The battle was not about the Kursk Salient or an ...

1944: the trap closes In 1944 the promise of strategic disaster was duly, though not quite inevitably, realized. After the failu ...

Battle of the Bulge. Hitler assembled in secret virtually the last remaining panzer reserves available, and concentrated them in ...

Conclusion Some readers may regard the strategic history told in this chapter virtually as a choreographed tragedy for Germany a ...

Persecution and murder, even mass murder, became the industrial-scale slaughter of the Holocaust as a direct consequence of Germ ...

Questions Was there a decisive battle in World War II? What were the strategic consequences of Germany’s failure to take Britai ...

11 World War II in Europe, II Understanding the war Introduction: what was the war about? When delving into the rich contextuali ...

Hitler’s war The war was not about Germany seeking to reverse the few remaining terms of the Versailles Settlement. Between them ...

There it was, the grand vision (almost design) laid out clearly in 1924. There is no reason to doubt either the sincerity of Hit ...