Why Germany Nearly Won
Why Germany Nearly Won

Author: Steven D. Mercatante

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2012-01-16

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13:

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This book offers a unique perspective for understanding how and why the Second World War in Europe ended as it did—and why Germany, in attacking the Soviet Union, came far closer to winning the war than is often perceived. Why Germany Nearly Won: A New History of the Second World War in Europe challenges this conventional wisdom in highlighting how the re-establishment of the traditional German art of war—updated to accommodate new weapons systems—paved the way for Germany to forge a considerable military edge over its much larger potential rivals by playing to its qualitative strengths as a continental power. Ironically, these methodologies also created and exacerbated internal contradictions that undermined the same war machine and left it vulnerable to enemies with the capacity to adapt and build on potent military traditions of their own. The book begins by examining topics such as the methods by which the German economy and military prepared for war, the German military establishment's formidable strengths, and its weaknesses. The book then takes an entirely new perspective on explaining the Second World War in Europe. It demonstrates how Germany, through its invasion of the Soviet Union, came within a whisker of cementing a European-based empire that would have allowed the Third Reich to challenge the Anglo-American alliance for global hegemony—an outcome that by commonly cited measures of military potential Germany never should have had even a remote chance of accomplishing. The book's last section explores the final year of the war and addresses how Germany was able to hang on against the world's most powerful nations working in concert to engineer its defeat.

British Subversive Propaganda during the Second World War
British Subversive Propaganda during the Second World War

Author: Kirk Robert Graham

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-08-11

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 3030716643

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This book offers the first in-depth intellectual and cultural history of British subversive propaganda during the Second World War. Focussing on the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), it tells the story of British efforts to undermine German morale and promote resistance against Nazi hegemony. Staffed by civil servants, journalists, academics and anti-fascist European exiles, PWE oversaw the BBC European Service alongside more than forty unique clandestine radio stations; they maintained a prolific outpouring of subversive leaflets and other printed propaganda; and they trained secret agents in psychological warfare. British policy during the occupation of Germany stemmed in part from the wartime insights and experiences of these propagandists. Rather than analyse military strategy or tactics, British Subversive Propaganda during the Second World War draws on a wealth of archival material from collections in Germany and Britain to develop a critical genealogy of British ideas about Germany and National Socialism. British propagandists invoked discourses around history, morality, psychology, sexuality and religion in order to conceive of an audience susceptible to morale subversion. Revealing much about the contours of mid-century European thought and the origins of our own heavily propagandised world, this book provides unique insights for anyone researching British history, the Second World War, or the fight against fascism.

The Germans and the Dieppe Raid
The Germans and the Dieppe Raid

Author: James Shelley

Publisher: Pen and Sword Military

Published: 2023-06-30

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 1399030612

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"...a true gem, providing Second World War history enthusiasts with a unique look at how in August of 1942 a hardly imposing German defensive grouping defeated a far better trained and equipped Allied raiding force." — Globe at War The German part in the 19 August 1942 Dieppe raid has largely been ignored. Launched by Winston Churchill to appease his Soviet counterparts, Operation JUBILEE was one of the Allies’ greatest debacles of the war. The majority of the 6,100 soldiers and marines dispatched by Lord Louis Mountbatten were captured or killed. Just 2,211 of the 4,963 Canadians involved returned to England. Two years later the Canadian Army fought from Normandy into Germany with fewer men captured than at Dieppe. By exploring the German experience, this superbly researched book provides answers to previously unasked operational questions. How well were the Nazi occupiers prepared for an attack on Dieppe? What threat did the raid pose to the Germans’ defense of mainland Europe? What lessons did the Wehrmacht learn, and did their High Command use the Dieppe experience when preparing for the inevitable Allied invasion of ‘Fortress Europe’? How did Hitler and his henchmen respond to the Western Allies' failure to break down their defenses in occupied western Europe? The book also addresses how Goebbels’ propaganda machine exploited the victory, and the reaction of the German people. Drawing on extensive German source materials, the Wehrmacht's role in defeating Operation JUBILEE is comprehensively examined in fascinating detail, adding a new dimension to the history of this poorly-planned and under-resourced adventure.

Innovating Victory
Innovating Victory

Author: Vincent O'Hara

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2022-04-15

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1682477339

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Innovating Victory: Naval Technology in Three Wars studies how the world’s navies incorporated new technologies into their ships, their practices, and their doctrine. It does this by examining six core technologies fundamental to twentieth-century naval warfare including new platforms (submarines and aircraft), new weapons (torpedoes and mines), and new tools (radar and radio). Each chapter considers the state of a subject technology when it was first used in war and what navies expected of it. It then looks at the way navies discovered and developed the technology’s best use, in many cases overcoming disappointed expectations. It considers how a new technology threatened its opponents, not to mention its users, and how those threats were managed. Innovating Victory shows that the use of technology is more than introducing and mastering a new weapon or system. Differences in national resources, force mixtures, priorities, perceptions, and missions forced nations to approach the problems presented by new technologies in different ways. Navies that specialized in specific technologies often held advantages over enemies in some areas but found themselves disadvantaged in others. Vincent P. O'Hara and Leonard R. Heinz present new perspectives and explore the process of technological introduction and innovation in a way that is relevant to today’s navies, which face challenges and questions even greater than those of 1904, 1914, and 1939.