Roberts - The storm of war: a new history of the Second World War

THE STORM OF WAR

A NEW HISTORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Andrew Roberts

To the memory of Frank Johnson

(19432006)

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 4 June 1940

Contents

General Werner von Blomberg and Adolf Hitler at Ulm in September 1933 (Getty Images)

The signing of the NaziSoviet Pact, 24 August 1939 (Topfoto)

Benito Mussolini, Hitler, Major-General Alfred Jodl and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, 25 August 1941 (akg-images/ullstein bild)

Reichsmarschall Hermann Gring, Keitel and SS-Reichsfhrer Heinrich Himmler confering with Hitler, 10 April 1942 (akg-images)

Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt inspecting the Atlantic Wall, 18 April 1944 (akg-images)

Field Marshal Erich von Manstein (Bettmann/Corbis)

General Heinz Guderian (Topfoto)

Field Marshal Walter Model (Austrian Archives/Corbis)

Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive-bomber, 1940 (The Art Archive)

Refugees fleeing Paris, June 1940 (Getty Images)

Operation Dynamo, Dunkirk, May 1940 (Imperial War Museum, NYP 68075)

Allied vehicles, arms, stores and ammunition disabled and left behind in France, 27 May 1940 (akg-images)

RAF and Luftwaffe planes battling over Kent, 3 September 1940 (AP/PA Photos)

Pilots of 87 Squadron scrambling to their Hurricanes (The Art Archive/Imperial War Museum Photo Archive IWM)

Hitler and Goebbels at the Berghof, 1940 (Mary Evans Picture Library)

Operation Barbarossa, summer 1941 (ullstein bild/Topfoto)

Operation Typhoon stuck in atrocious mud, October 1941 (Robert Hunt Picture Library)

German soldiers surrendering to Russians, late 1941 (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

US Navy Douglas Dauntless dive-bombers at the battle of Midway, early 6 June 1942 (National Archives/courtesy Armchair General )

USS Yorktown at the battle of Midway, 4 June 1942 (National Archives/courtesy Armchair General )

Generals Sir Claude Auchinleck and Sir Archibald Wavell in the Western Desert, 1941 (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

General Harold Alexander in Tunisia, early 1943 (Popperfoto/Getty Images)

General Erwin Rommel at Tobruk, June 1942 (Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Soldiers of the 9th Australian Division at the battle of El Alamein (Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria)

Jews undergoing selection for work details at Auschwitz-Birkenau, late May 1944 (USHMM, courtesy of Yad Vashem Public Domain. The views or opinionns expressed in this book and the context in which the images are used, do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of, nor imply approval or endorsement by, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Corpses at the Dachau concentration camp, May 1945 (Getty Images)

Destruction in Stalingrad, late 1942 (Getty Images)

Russian artillery in Stalingrad, early 1943 (RIA Novosti/ Topfoto)

President Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and others at the Casablanca Conference, January 1943 (Getty Images)

General Charles de Gaulle and General Henri Giraud in Algiers, 30 May 1943 (Bettmann/Corbis)

A convoy of merchantmen crossing the Atlantic, June 1943 (The Mariners Museum/Corbis)

The captain of a U-boat at his periscope (Cody Images)

The battle of Kursk, July 1943 (Cody Images)

German soldiers pass a burning Soviet tank at Kursk (Getty Images)

General Sir William Slim in Burma, 1944 (Getty Images)

Major General Orde Wingate (Bettmann/Corbis)

General Tomoyuki Yamashita (Getty Images)

General George S. Patton Jr (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

General Mark Clark in Rome, 5 June 1944 (Getty Images)

D-Day, 08.40 hours, 6 June (Imperial War Museum, B 5103)

American troops behind anti-tank obstacles on Omaha Beach (Topfoto)

Mussolini, Hitler, Gring and Ribbentrop two days after the 20 July 1944 Bomb (AP/PA Photos)

General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Montgomery, June 1944. (Bettmann/Corbis)

Russian infantry in Belorussia during Operation Bagration, June 1944 (ullstein bild/Topfoto)

The Ardennes Offensive, December 1944 (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

The aftermath of the Allied bombing of Dresden, February 1945 (akg-images/ullstein bild)

Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke and Churchill crossing the Rhine, 25 March 1945 (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Red Army troops heading for Berlin, April 1945 (Cody Images)

Marshal Georgi Zhukov entering Berlin, May 1945 (RIA Novosti)

Marshal Ivan Konev ( Sovfoto)

Nagasaki after the dropping of the atomic bomb, 9 August 1945 (Getty Images)

Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu surrendering aboard the USS Missouri, 2 September 1945 (Time-Life Pictures/ Getty Images)

Poland, 1939

Finland, 19391940

Norway, 1940

France and the Low Countries, 1940

The Battle of Britain, 1940

The Battle of the Atlantic, 19391943

Russia and the Eastern Front, 19411943

Stalingrad, 19421943

The Holocaust

The Far East, 19411945

The Far East: Burma, 19411945

The Far East: Pacific, 19411945

The Far East: The Philippines, 19411945

North Africa and the Mediterranean, 19391943

El Alamein

Sicily and Italy, 19431945

Monte Cassino and Anzio, 19431944

The Battle of Kursk

The Allied Combined Bombing Offensive

The Normandy Landings, 1944

France and Germany, 19441945

The Eastern Front, 19431945