The Allied victory in 1945 was not a sure thing. In early 1942, Germany controlled most of continental Europe and its resources. The Third Reich was in full expansion. The Soviet Union was in vast part occupied, and was risking the annihilation. The United States were not adequately armed for war. In Why the Allies Won, Richard Overy analyzes how the Allies regained military superiority and were able to win the war. The Allies won World War II because a wiser political leadership leveraged, through an adaptive and coordinated strategy, the technological and material superiority, capitalizing on Axis miscalculations and Allied military victories. In the book, the author extensively examines the decisive campaigns: the war at sea, the Eastern …show more content…
The Allied victory was far from inevitable. The author analyzes all the dynamics and all the factors that influenced the final results of the conflict. In the first chapter “Unpredictable Victory: Explaining World War II,” Overy gives an overview of the causes that brought to war. The geopolitical legacy of World War I and the economic crisis of late 1920s certainly contributed to the raise of the Nazism in Germany, and the consolidation of capitalism in the US and of communism in the Soviet Union. The clash of these ideologies quickly evolved a major confrontation in the military, industrial, and resources’ field. Germany, with its allies -Italy and Japan, rapidly started a threatening expansionistic campaign. The war was inevitable in order to avoid Hitler regime expansion over all Europe and, potentially, over the all world. The balance of power was initially (until 1942) in favor of the Axis, but the massive mobilization of the Allies succeed in turning the tide in the war. The surprising resistance of the Soviets and their ability in denying the German conquest of Russia (most important Hitler objective), was the main factor that allowed the …show more content…
Political leadership, military strategy, organizational capacity, fighting skills and effectiveness, technology, mass production, resources, ideology, and morale, all were essential factors that influenced the war victory. The war at sea saw mainly the US and Japan competing in the Pacific and the US and Great Britain competing against Germany in the Atlantic. The offensiveness of the Japanese Empire could be contained and defeated by the US only after the fortunate victory of Midway in 1942 and the following buildup of an overwhelming superiority of the American forces. In the Atlantic, the German U-boats inflicted embarrassing losses to the British and American Navies. Only technological improvements and effective adaptation of the tactics (naval convoy tactics and dedicated anti-submarine airplane) allowed the Allies to recover the situation, regaining control of the sea. The victories of the Red Army at Stalingrad and Kursk were the turning points in the Eastern front. The will to fight of the Russian forces and the significant industry capabilities were able to overcome the overstretched German forces capitalizing on Nazi strategic miscalculations. The American and British strategic bombing campaign played an important
“Military is a policy of glorifying military power and keeping a standing army, always prepared for war” (Chapter 13 Section 1). Soon almost all of Europe had joined the largest, most catastrophic war in the world. The underlying cause of World War
Still today, the allies decision to not bomb the Nazi death camp Auschwitz is discussed and questioned. One side claims that it was a huge failure, as well as a show of how much the allies actually cared for the jews, while the other argues that it was a much more complex decision; and that ultimately, the war effort had to be diverted elsewhere in order to defeat the nazis. The many different arguments and pieces of evidence on both sides make one wonder exactly how such a difficult decision should be made, especially under such pressure, and what should be prioritised in war. In this circumstance, the allies chose to put their efforts elsewhere; which one side claims ended the war quicker, rather than committing the symbolic act of attacking
Even though we weren’t officially in the war until Pearl Harbor in 1942, a lot still happened. America’s first significant gains came in this same year against Japan. These were the Coral Sea in May and the Midway Island in June. This halted the Japanese advance. In the North Atlantic, British and American ships used superior technology to lower the effectiveness of the German Subs.
but they wanted the oil fields in russia. Germany in a dictatorship there is only one leader that was Adolf Hitler. We the allies won the war the british beat the german. The U.S dropped two atomic bombs on Japan because they bombed pearl harbor.
Allied strategic bombing of Germany during the Second World War was in the main significant. The key themes to be looked at in this essay are the effects that allied strategic bombing had on the dislocation and demoralisation of German civilians; Germany’s economic ability to produce and transport goods for the war effort; other key aspects of the German war effort and, finally, other theatres of the War. The evidence of the effectiveness of allied strategic bombing of Germany strongly suggests that it became more significant throughout the war, especially after the first one thousand bomber raid on Cologne in May 1942, and although not decisive on its own, was significant in the final outcome of the Second World War. One element of the allied
By the autumn of 1944, German resistance in the West was quickly crumbling as the British and Americans approached the German border 233 days ahead of schedule. Two army groups, the 21st, commanded by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, and the 12th, under the command of General Omar Nelson Bradley, had galloped across France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Holland at an unexpected pace, overcoming whatever sporadic opposition the retreating German forces could throw in their paths. By September 11, the Americans had reached positions on the German frontier that pre-invasion planners had not expected to reach before May 1945.
World War Two was a war very different from World War One; new technology developed during World War Two made the previous world war look ancient and primitive. With the start of World War Two, man-on-man combat was a thing of the past, as advanced technology such as airplanes became necessarily dominant. Countries were fighting to get ahead of each other in technology, as the more technologically advanced the opponent was, the greater the advantage they had. The development of technology grew exponentially, as any affluent country that even began to lag behind industrially was utterly demolished. Therefore, because the war was dependent on the use of highly-advanced machinery and devastating weapons, the development of technology was exceedingly
Name: Course Instructor: Class: Date: Critical Book Review: Prompt and Utter Destruction Introduction Within weeks, word on the US dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki began to spread that the main reason behind the bombs was to save the lives of Americans (Bernard). It was put that hundreds of thousands of American military causalities were saved through the bombings.
Now that Russia dropped out, all the German troops moved toward the Western front. This was a big blow to the Allies. If it weren 't for the U.S, the Allies would 've probably lost the war. We gained a lot of technical knowledge and income from our participation.
The European and Pacific Theatre There were many battles in World War II, all of them being important and having different outcomes. Two main theaters we are focusing on are going to be the European Theatre where the Invasion of Normandy took place, along with the Pacific Theatre where the Attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. Both events had major impacts on the outcome of World War II, along with all the other battles we encountered. If ether of these battles turned out differently, America may not have become the amazing beautiful place it is today. The battle of Pearl Harbor occurred early morning in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
A major contributor to World War II was the extreme aggression of Germany and other Axis powers. This happened with Germany’s ally first, “Italy
Clearly, the Allied troops knowledge, planning and deception all played a major role in helping to defeat the German
Why the Allies Won, Critical Book Review In Richard Overy’s, Why the Allies Won, Overy portrays his thoughts regarding the Second World War. He does so not telling the history of the war, stating “there are plenty of those already” (preface), but rather by explaining the outcome of it. He makes sure to focus on key points throughout the war that have caused great controversies over the years; specifically, Overy says that he focused first on combat, then on production, technology, politics, and morale. Chapter by chapter, Overy hits these key points by providing new logic and ideas to the reader. He gives a new outlook that expands further than just the fighting aspect that most rely on for an explanation.
The alternative for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisors was doing nothing and letting Nazi Germany develop atomic power and going on to use it to conquer the world. The United States of America wanted to end World War II on both the Atlantic and Pacific fronts and needed the quickest possible method to do so. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s advisors concluded that hundreds of thousands of American lives would be lost on an assault on the island of Japan. The U.S. Armed Forces was over 16,000,000 strong and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s main motive for dropping the atom bombs was to save American lives.5
Theoretically of course, what if a country was to develop a weapon strong enough to completely disintegrate cities and all the people living in it? Coincidently, the United states discovered a bomb that did exactly that and ended up thrusting the world into a new era of weaponized technology towards the end of World War II. Countries from this point on became wary of opposing the United States, aware of the power they possessed, especially since the US had already used this weapon on Japan to end the war.