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

The importance of the fifth theme, the connection between war and society, was
demonstrated in all respects by World War II. This was a total war, a people’s war. It was
a war of total mobilization. Civilians were combatants, both literally as the targets for
bombs, and functionally as the providers of the material sinews of war. Moreover, in all
belligerent countries, even Nazi Germany, public opinion – which is to say morale – was
courted, manipulated where possible, and sometimes measured fearfully. Between 1939
and 1945, societies, not merely states, made war.
Finally, the sixth theme is the thread that links war and peace and peace and war. World
War II was born not so much out of the result of 1918 and the peace settlement of 1919,
but rather out of the purpose and character of the Nazi regime that came to power on
30 January 1933. The strategic context that Hitler was able to exploit in the 1930s was a
direct consequence of World War I, which had destroyed the old balance of power, and
also of the way in which that war was terminated.
Moving forward in time, the international stage for the Soviet–American Cold War
largely was set by the ways in which the members of the temporary anti-German Grand
Alliance chose to conduct their military operations. But first one must address the other
war of 1941–5: the conflict in the Pacific and Asia against Japan. It is remarkable how
separate were the two conflicts. Of course the wars were connected, but it is also true to
say that the United States was alone among the belligerents in its commitment to the
waging of warfare on the largest of scales in Europe and Asia simultaneously.

Questions

1. Is it an exaggeration to claim that World War II was ‘Hitler’s war’?


2. What difficulties did the Wehrmacht face in its invasion of Russia?


3. How important was Allied air power in the defeat of Germany?


4. Could Germany have won the war in 1941, 1942 or 1943?

World War II in Europe, II 155

Key points

1. Nazi Germany had to wage war if it were to fulfil its ideologically mandated
   purpose.


2. Despite extensive, though still very incomplete, mechanization, 1939–45 was
   another great war of attrition.


3. Air power did not win the war, but the war could not have been won without
   superiority in the air.


4. Allied maritime dominance was a crucial enabler of victory in global war.


5. For the second time in the twentieth century, Germany was as proficient at
   warfare as it was incompetent in the conduct of war.


6. The verdict remains open on whether Germany could have won the war in
   1941, 1942 or even 1943.