 | |
| Author | Antony Beevor |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | World War II |
| Publisher | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
Publication date | 2012 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 863 |
| ISBN | 978-0-316-02374-0 |
The Second World War is a 2012 narrative history of World War II by the British historian Antony Beevor. The book starts with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, [1] and covers the entire Second World War. It ends with the final surrender of Axis forces. [2]
In the introduction, Beevor discusses Yang Kyoungjong, a Korean soldier forcibly conscripted by the Kwantung Army, then in turn taken prisoner by the Red Army and the Wehrmacht, eventually being captured by American troops. He also discusses the background of the war, including the rise of Nazism in post-World War I Germany, and the formation of alliances with Italy and Japan. [3]
Throughout the bulk of the book, Beevor jumps back and forth throughout the different theaters of war. He begins by detailing Germany's invasion of Poland, Germany's alliance with the Soviet Union, and the invasion of France. [4] [5] Interspersed are chapters focusing on the Second Sino-Japanese War along with others building up a description of global events. [1] [6]
The perspective then expands to include the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre, the Battle of the Atlantic, the Battle of Britain, and the Balkans Campaign. [7]
Following which, there is a major shift in focus onto the Eastern Front, detailing Operation Barbarossa, the Battle of Moscow, Operation Blau, and the epic Battle of Stalingrad, a conflict which Beevor had previously written about. [8] [9] [10] [11] Simultaneously, he also depicts the events of Pearl Harbor, the ensuing events in Asia, the Pacific, North Africa, as well the Holocaust. [12] [13] [14]
As the Allies began to turn the war decisively in their favour. Alternating between the major events, Beevor details Operation Torch, American victories in the Pacific, and the Soviet counterattacks on the Eastern Front, the invasion of Sicily and Italy. [15] [16] In what Beevor terms the "Spring of Expectations", [17] the Allies launch major offensives against Axis forces on all fronts: The Soviets push westwards successfully, while the Western Allies launch Operation Overlord, and numerous defeats are inflicted upon the Japanese. [18]
As the war enters its final days, Beevor recounts the frantic race to Berlin between the Western Allies and the Soviets along with the downfall of the Nazi regime. [19] After the fall of Berlin, another topic Beevor has previously written about, Beevor turns to the dropping of the atomic bombs and the surrender of Japan. He concludes with a recount of the devastation caused by the war. [20]
Multiple important figures in the war are covered in detail, not only including the important national leaders (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Hideki Tojo, Chiang Kai-shek), but also individual generals (von Manstein, Rommel, Yamamoto, Zhukov, Montgomery, Eisenhower, MacArthur, and others) and lesser-known political figures. [21]
Beevor devotes entire chapters to particularly important battles or operations, including Operation Barbarossa, the Battle of Moscow, Pearl Harbor, Operation Blau, the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk, and the Battle of Berlin. [22]
As one of Beevor's culminating works, The Second World War received mostly positive reviews. The Guardian praised his account of the Eastern Front, but criticised his depiction of the Second Sino-Japanese War and its rapid pace. [23] Other reviews lauded the global scale of the book and its gripping narrative, and the attention it gives to lesser-known areas of the war. [24] [25]
Beevor's central theme in The Second World War is the ongoing conflict between the left and the right. Nazi Germany and its allies represent the far right, while the Soviet Union and Communist China represent the far left. [25] Beevor does not take a side in this conflict; he views both sides as having committed serious war crimes against their opponents. [25] In some ways, the war transcended political and ideological boundaries, such as the Soviets' early alliance with Nazi Germany; although in other ways, ideological differences became a major motivation for the war. [25]
Beevor takes a highly critical view of Communist China and Mao Zedong. He believes that Nationalist China, under Chiang Kai-shek, undertook most of the effort in fighting the Japanese despite being seriously undersupplied, while the Communists participated little in the fighting. Instead, their real goal was to save up their strength for the coming civil war against the Nationalists. [23] In fact, Beevor goes so far as to say that the Communists actually signed secret agreements with the Japanese to ignore each other. [23]
Beevor also disagrees with some long-held views about certain generals in the war; in particular, he writes that the reputations of Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel are far overblown. [23] [25]
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia. The battle was marked by fierce close-quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians in air raids, with the battle epitomizing urban warfare. The Battle of Stalingrad was the deadliest battle to take place during the Second World War. Today, the Battle of Stalingrad is universally regarded as the turning point in the European theatre of war, as it forced the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht to withdraw considerable military forces from other areas in occupied Europe to replace German losses on the Eastern Front, ending with the rout of the six field armies of Army Group B, including the destruction of Nazi Germany's 6th Army and an entire corps of its 4th Panzer Army. The victory at Stalingrad energized the Red Army and shifted the balance of power in the favour of the Soviets.
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, fought as part of two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. Many participants threw their economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind this total war, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and the delivery of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in an estimated 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides, starvation, massacres, and disease. In the wake of the Axis defeat, Germany and Japan were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders.
Hermann Hoth was a German army commander, war criminal, and author. He served as a high-ranking panzer commander in the Wehrmacht during World War II, playing a prominent role in the Battle of France and on the Eastern Front. Contemporaries and later historians consider Hoth one of the most talented armoured warfare commanders of the war. He was a strong believer in Nazism, and units under his command committed several war crimes including the murder of prisoners of war and civilians.
The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II. It saw heavy fighting across Europe for almost six years, starting with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ending with the Western Allies conquering most of Western Europe, the Soviet Union conquering most of Eastern Europe and Germany's unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 although fighting continued elsewhere in Europe until 25 May. On 5 June 1945, the Berlin Declaration proclaiming the unconditional surrender of Germany to the four victorious powers was signed. The Allied powers fought the Axis powers on two major fronts as well as in a strategic bombing offensive and in the adjoining Mediterranean and Middle East theatre.
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. He is best known for commanding the 62nd Army which saw heavy combat during the Battle of Stalingrad in the Second World War.
Hiwi, the German abbreviation of the word Hilfswilliger or, in English, auxiliary volunteer, designated, during World War II, a member of different kinds of voluntary auxiliary forces made up of recruits indigenous to the territories of Eastern Europe occupied by Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler reluctantly agreed to allow recruitment of Soviet citizens in the Rear Areas during Operation Barbarossa. In a short period of time, many of them were moved to combat units.
The 6th Army was a field army unit of the German Wehrmacht during World War II (1939–1945). It was widely remembered for being the most highly decorated German army unit until its defeat by the Red Army at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942–1943. It also acquired a reputation for the war crimes that it committed under the command of Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau during Operation Barbarossa.
The German invasion of Greece, also known as the Battle of Greece or Operation Marita, was the attacks on Greece by Italy and Germany during World War II. The Italian invasion in October 1940, which is usually known as the Greco-Italian War, was followed by the German invasion in April 1941. German landings on the island of Crete came after Allied forces had been defeated in mainland Greece. These battles were part of the greater Balkans Campaign of the Axis powers and their associates.
The Reichskommissariat Kaukasus, also spelled as Kaukasien, was the theoretical political division and planned civilian occupation regime of Germany in the occupied territories of the Russian Caucasus region during World War II. Unlike the other four planned Reichskommissariats, within the borders of the proposed Caucasus Reichskommissariat experiments were to be conducted for various forms of autonomy for "indigenous groups".
The 4th Mechanized Corps was a formation in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War.
Stalingrad is a narrative history written by Antony Beevor of the battle fought in and around the city of Stalingrad during World War II, as well as the events leading up to it. It was first published by Viking Press in 1998. The book won the first Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson History Prize and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature in 1999.
Georg Stumme was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during the Second World War who briefly commanded the Axis forces at the beginning of the Second Battle of El Alamein, and died during the Defence of Outpost Snipe. He had taken part in the Battle of France, the invasion of Yugoslavia and Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during the war.
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Normandy landings. A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, and more than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August.
The 11th Army was a World War II field army.
This is a timeline of events that occurred during World War II in 1943.
The 14th Panzer Division was an armoured division in the German Army during World War II. It was created in 1940 by the conversion of the 4th Infantry Division.
After the Munich Agreement, the Soviet Union pursued a rapprochement with Nazi Germany. On 23 August 1939 the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany which included a secret protocol that divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet "spheres of influence", anticipating potential "territorial and political rearrangements" of these countries. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, starting World War II. The Soviets invaded eastern Poland on 17 September. Following the Winter War with Finland, the Soviets were ceded territories by Finland. This was followed by annexations of the Baltic states and parts of Romania.
Walter Heitz was a German general (Generaloberst) in the Wehrmacht during World War II who served as President of the Reich Military Court and commanded part of the 6th Army in the Battle of Stalingrad.
Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean soldier who, according to some, fought in the Imperial Japanese Army, the Soviet Red Army, and later the German Wehrmacht during World War II.
This is a Bibliography of World War II battles and campaigns in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It aims to include the major theaters, campaigns and battles of the European theater of World War II. It is part of Wikipedia's larger effort to document the Bibliography of World War II. Its counterpart for the Asia-Pacific theater is the Bibliography of World War II battles and campaigns in East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific.