This second volume begins with the account of Mussolini attempting to mirror Hitler in acts of aggression by thrusting towards Egypt and capturing the important artery of the British Empire; the Suez Canal. The Italian initiative failed and when its army was driven back with heavy losses, Mussolini asked for help and Hitler sent Rommel. Beginning in the spring of 1941, Axis forces, under a dynamic General Rommel, pushed the British back to Egypt. In the meantime, Mussolini decided on another easy target to spread his new 'Roman Empire' and invaded Greece. Once again, his superior numbers were repelled and the Greeks sent his army back to its starting point in Albania. Hitler came to the aid of his Axis ally and Churchill sent the British to help Greece, but in doing so, depleted his forces in North Africa. During the Battle of Greece, Greek and British forces in the north of the country were overwhelmed by a rapid German advance. The British embarked for Crete and the Germans promptly captured the island with their much-vaunted Fallschirmjager. Matters were disheartening for the British people following these defeats in North Africa and Greece. However, a morale boost came with the sinking of the Bismarck and the defection of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, in an amazing flight to Scotland. Then it came: in June, the German Führer took on his greatest military challenge; the invasion of Soviet Russia. By the end of the second year of the war, the Axis forces were deep into Stalin’s territory. Britain now had a major ally at last.

World War Two was the most devastating conflict in recorded human history. It was both global in extent and total in character. It has understandably left a long and dark shadow across the decades. Yet it is three generations since hostilities formally ended in 1945 and the conflict is now a lived memory for only a few. And this growing distance in time has allowed historians to think differently about how to describe it, how to explain its course, and what subjects to focus on when considering the wartime experience. For instance, as World War Two recedes ever further into the past, even a question as apparently basic as when it began and ended becomes less certain. Was it 1939, when the war in Europe began? Or the summer of 1941, with the beginning of Hitler's war against the Soviet Union? Or did it become truly global only when the Japanese brought the USA into the war at the end of 1941? And what of the long conflict in East Asia, beginning with the Japanese aggression in China in the early 1930s and only ending with the triumph of the Chinese Communists in 1949? In The Oxford Illustrated History of World War Two a team of leading historians re-assesses the conflict for a new generation, exploring the course of the war not just in terms of the Allied response but also from the viewpoint of the Axis aggressor states. Under Richard Overy's expert editorial guidance, the contributions take us from the genesis of war, through the action in the major theatres of conflict by land, sea, and air, to assessments of fighting power and military and technical innovation, the economics of total war, the culture and propaganda of war, and the experience of war (and genocide) for both combatants and civilians, concluding with an account of the transition from World War to Cold War in the late 1940s. Together, they provide a stimulating and thought-provoking new interpretation of one of the most terrible and fascinating episodes in world history.

THE FOURTH YEAR began with intensified fighting on Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands in September 1942. The United States had launched their fight back in the Pacific when they landed there the previous month. In the Western hemisphere the USA threw its almighty weight into the fight against Hitler’s Germany with the ‘Operation Torch’ landings in North Africa. The Americans had boots on the ground. Hitherto in the war the Axis had largely been the controllers of events; now as often as not, they had to react to occurrences under a continuous rain of blows. Montgomery had masterminded a tactical success at El Alamein in November 1942; Rommel had retreated to face an Allied invasion of Tunisia and defeat of all Axis forces on that continent. This was followed in Russia by Hitler losing an entire army at Stalingrad when the starving survivors surrendered in January 1943. Then the Allies invaded Sicily triggering the ousting of Italy’s dictator, Mussolini, from power. Further concern for the German Führer came with the first daylight bombing raid by the USAAF at the end of January 1943. It was followed by the RAF successfully breaching two dams in the Ruhr valley in a precision night raid. Those events heralded round the clock bombing of Germany by day and night. On the Eastern Front in the summer Hitler gambled one final strategic offensive at Kursk and suffered a decisive defeat, never again to regain the initiative or launch a major offensive in Russia. By the end of the fourth year of the war the Allies dominated the vital Atlantic seaways upon which future Allied strategy was entirely dependent – although the German submarine menace still existed.

Provides an overview of World War II from the invasion of Poland to V-J day, and covers major campaigns and battles.

This fully illustrated history chronicles the road to WWII and the first year of combat through archival and color photographs accompanied by text. The first volume in this series depicts the contributing factors that led to the outbreak of hostilities, including the rise of fascist dictators across Europe and in Japan. It also details the Blitzkrieg invasions that rocked the world as two superpowers, France and Great Britain, were soundly thrashed on the battlefield of Europe. Overwhelmed by the Nazi onslaught, British Expeditionary Force fled across the Channel from Dunkirk, leaving most of their equipment behind. A possible invasion of Kent in the south of England by a triumphant enemy presented a spine-tingling threat to the British people. But Winston Churchill disparaged peace treaties with the Nazi regime, and the fight back began. A few thousand fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force defeated the Luftwaffe by a very narrow margin, and Hitler changed his focus, looking to the east. The first year of the war ended, in September 1940, with Mussolini threatening Egypt and the Suez Canal. Rare wartime photographs capture the drama and humanity of this dark time in Europe.

A comprehensively illustrated account of the six-year-global conflict that transformed world politics and shaped the course of modern history.