The Second World War

by Keegan, John

• ISBN13: 9780143035732
• ISBN10: 0143035738
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-01
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Summary

Praised as "the best military historian of our generation" by Tom Clancy, John Keegan here reconsiders his masterful study of World War II, The Second World War, with a new foreword. Keegan examines each theater of the war, focusing on five crucial battles and offering new insights into the distinctive methods and motivations of modern warfare. In eloquent, perceptive analyses of the airborne battle of Crete, the carrier battle of Midway, the tank battle of Falaise, the city battle of Berlin, and the amphibious battle of Okinawa, Keegan illuminates the strategic dilemmas faced by the leaders and the consequences of their decisions on the fighting men and the course of the war as a whole.

Author Biography

John Keegan, one of the most distinguished contemporary military historians, was a senior lecturer at Sandhurst, the British Royal Military Academy, and defense editor of the London Daily Telegraph. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Keegan is the author of numerous books.

Table of Contents

Prologue
Every man a soldier	10	(21)
Fomenting world war	31	(23)
Part I The War in the West 1940--1943
The Triumph of Blitzkrieg	54	(34)
Air battle: the Battle of Britain	88	(15)
War supply and the Battle of the Atlantic	103	(24)
Part II The War in the East 1941--1943
Hitler's strategic dilemma	127	(15)
Securing the eastern springboard	142	(18)
Airborne battle: Crete	160	(13)
Barbarossa	173	(36)
War production	209	(11)
Crimean summer, Stalingrad winter	220	(20)
Part III The War in the Pacific 1941--1943
Tojo's strategic dilemma	240	(11)
From Pearl Harbor to Midway	251	(17)
Carrier battle: Midway	268	(11)
Occupation and repression	279	(11)
The war for the islands	290	(20)
Part IV The War in the West 1943--1945
Churchill's strategic dilemma	310	(10)
Three wars in Africa	320	(24)
Italy and the Balkans	344	(25)
Overlord	369	(27)
Tank battle: Falaise	396	(19)
Strategic bombing	415	(21)
The Ardennes and the Rhine	436	(14)
Part V The War in the East 1943--1945
Stalin's strategic dilemma	450	(8)
Kursk and the recapture of western Russia	458	(25)
Resistance and espionage	483	(20)
The Vistula and the Danube	503	(13)
City battle: the siege of Berlin	516	(20)
Part VI The War in the Pacific 1943--1945
Roosevelt's strategic dilemma	536	(10)
Japan's defeat in the south	546	(15)
Amphibious battle: Okinawa	561	(13)
Super-weapons and the defeat of Japan	574	(14)
The legacy of the Second World War	588	(8)
Bibliography and Index	596