Name: Why the allies won
ISBN: 9780712674539

Why the allies won

Richard Overy's bold book begins by throwing out the stock answers to this great question: Germany doomed itself to defeat by fighting a two-front war; the Allies won by "sheer weight of material strength." In fact, by 1942 Germany controlled almost the entire resources of continental Europe and was poised to move into the Middle East. The Soviet Union had lost the heart of its industry, and the United States was not yet armed. The Allied victory in 1945 was not inevitable. Overy shows us exactly how the Allies regained military superiority and why they were able to do it. He recounts the decisive campaigns: the war at sea, the crucial battles on the eastern front, the air war, and the vast amphibious assault on Europe. He then explores the deeper factors affecting military success and failure: industrial strength, fighting ability, the quality of leadership, and the moral dimensions of the war.

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atulatulDec 2017

Update: added a few lines about the books than just a name listing

From the ones I read in 2017, I would highly recommend (non-IT):

1. The hidden life of trees- Peter Wohlleben Why forest trees are different than the ones you plant, how the communicate, how they care for their friends when they are not well, how mother trees protect their young ones by not letting them grow too fast, the fungi network, etc. The book is very easy to read- there is no scientific terminology overload. Things are told very simply. Not restricted to students of the subject. Learned something interesting every couple of pages. Another aspect is that the love shows. It is very clear that the author is in love with the subject. The author manages a wild forest in Germany and talks mainly about trees in terms of beeches, firs, oaks, etc. The author is politely insistent that we should protect the natural wild forests and let them be.

2. Why the allies won- Richard Overy Probably the best book I read on WW2. So many more factors went into winning the war than actual fight. Probably appealed to my analytical mind.

3. India After Gandhi- Ramachandra Guha As the author says history ends for many Indians with freedom. Very good chronicles. Started appreciating Nehru more.

4. Re-read Gone With The Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Godfather and a few P.G Wodehouse- all of which I like.

Currently, halfway through Stephen Fry's Mythos which seems good enough to recommend. I am pretty new to the Greek Mythology and he is a good story teller. Don't have much to compare it with, though.

Also, by choice, I read quite a few books in rural Marathi(an Indian regional language) and was surprised how good the story telling was. Also noticed that I had gone quite far from my mother tongue but was happy to see how easy it was to go back.

Please answer my similar question https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15960188

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WildgooseMar 2017

I highly recommend reading "Why the Allies Won" by Dr Richard Overy.

Everybody just assumes that the Allies were bound to win, but if you look at the early period you can see that it was far from inevitable. Overy does a fantastic job of analysing WHY.

One of the issues he addresses is our bombing campaign which so many people nowadays love to denigrate. It was actually crucial to our winning.

The Nazis in charge had every reason to downplay the figures of just what it was costing, but even they admitted to something like 40% of industrial production lost or diverted to air defence. So much air defence required against bombers that they lacked air superiority in crucial battles like Kursk. So much ammunition converted to anti-aircraft production that they lacked supplies on the front line and even lacked fertiliser for producing food.

At the end of the day you can only fight if you have the weapons and ammunition to do it with, so it becomes a battle between respective economies. On the Axis side only Germany really ramped up production. Russia did an outstanding job, with her people caught between a vicious onslaught by National Socialist who called them sub-humans and their own International Socialist rulers who barely treated them much better.

And nobody could believe what the US economy proved capable of - the most accurate estimates were made by the British but even these were way off.

It might sound dry but it doesn't read that way - highly recommended.

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michaelwwwMay 2013

I recommend as well,

Why the Allies Won, by Richard Overy

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