Praised as “the best military historian of our generation” by Tom Clancy, John Keegan here reconsiders his masterful study of World War II, The Second World War, with a new foreword. Keegan examines each theater of the war, focusing on five crucial battles and offering new insights into the distinctive methods and motivations of modern warfare. In eloquent, perceptive analyses of the airborne battle of Crete, the carrier battle of Midway, the tank battle of Falaise, the city battle of Berlin, and the amphibious battle of Okinawa, Keegan illuminates the strategic dilemmas faced by the leaders and the consequences of their decisions on the fighting men and the course of the war as a whole.
Chapter 1. Every Man a Soldier
Chapter 2. Fomenting World War
Chapter 3. The Triumph of Blitzkrieg
Chapter 4. Air Battle: The Battle of Britain
Chapter 5. War Supply and the Battle of the Atlantic
Chapter 6. Hitler’s Strategic Dilemma
Chapter 7. Securing the Eastern Springboard
Chapter 8. Airborne Battle: Crete
Chapter 11. Crimean Summer, Stalingrad Winter
Chapter 12. Tojo’s Strategic Dilemma
Chapter 13. From Pearl Harbor to Midway
Chapter 14. Carrier Battle: Midway
Chapter 15. Occupation and Repression
Chapter 16. The War for the Islands
Chapter 17. Churchill’s Strategic Dilemma
Chapter 18. Three Wars in Africa
Chapter 19. Italy and the Balkans
Chapter 21. Tank Battle: Falaise
Chapter 23. The Ardennes and the Rhine
Chapter 24. Stalin’s Strategic Dilemma
Chapter 25. Kursk and the Recapture of Western Russia
Chapter 26. Resistance and Espionage
Chapter 27. The Vistula and the Danube
Chapter 28. City Battle: The Siege of Berlin
Chapter 29. Roosevelt’s Strategic Dilemma
Chapter 30. Japan’s Defeat in the South
Chapter 31. Amphibious Battle: Okinawa
Chapter 32. Super-weapons and the Defeat of Japan
Chapter 33. The Legacy of the Second World War
Bibliography: Fifty Books on the Second World War