75 years since the end of WW2, top military historians explore the major land battles that shaped 1939-1945
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WWII Great Land Battles
WELCOME
THE SOUND AND THE FURY • The Second World War would be a new kind of fight, defined by tanks, heavy artillery, aircraft and communications. Since 1918, warfare had changed — and the victors would be those who best harnessed the brutal power of technology
PART ONE 1939-1942
GOING FOR BROKE • Many cite Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union as the prime example of his hubris — but to his peers, the German drive into France in 1940 was overconfident in the extreme. Laurence Rees considers why the Nazis’ surprise advance paid off — and why they stopped short of finishing off the Allies at Dunkirk
TOBRUK SURVIVING THE SIEGE • When a motley garrison of Allied troops was penned in by Rommel’s undefeated Deutsches Afrika Korps, the result should have been a foregone conclusion, reveals Robert Lyman
TIMELINE • How Rommel was outfoxed at Tobruk
MOSCOW OR BUST • The Germans predicted a swift victory, but as their troops got stuck in the Russian mud, Red Army recruits were massing in the east. Evan Mawdsley tells the story of the battle of Moscow
BRITAIN’S GREATEST HUMILIATION • In 1942, Japan launched an all-out driving assault on ‘Fortress Singapore’, Britain’s impregnable jewel in the far east. Inside a week, the city had fallen. Churchill called It “the worst disaster in British history” — and it was all down to Japanese ferocity and one general’s daring, writes Robert Lyman
Down to the wire
A LINE IN THE SAND • No more reverses. That was the message that the British 8th Army carried into the second battle of El Alamein in October 1942. What happened next transformed British fortunes in the desert war. But, asks James Holland, did victory come at too high a price?
The war in the sun • 10 MILESTONES ON THE ROAD TO EL ALAMEIN
PART TWO 1942-1944
THE REICH’S FATAL MISTAKE • It was supposed to demonstrate Nazi supremacy — but Hitler’s bid Stalingrad went horribly wrong. Peter Caddick-Adams explains how the Soviet Union managed to inflict a decisive defeat
THE MILITARY LEGACY • How Stalingrad changed the face of war for ever
THE BIGGEST BATTLE IN HISTORY? • Julian Humphrys tells the story behind the battle of Kursk, an epic clash of men and tanks in which the Germans sought to recoup their losses on the eastern front
KEY PLAYERS • Between them, these four men commanded around 2.8 million troops, 8,000 tanks and 4,200 aircraft
MEN, MACHINES AND MANOEUVRES • German plans and forces were no match for the Soviets’ overwhelming numbers at Kursk
TRY 3 ISSUES FOR JUST £5!
HELL IN THIS HILLS • After landing on the Italian peninsula, thousands of Allied troops made the advance north towards Rome. But, as Matthew Parker explains, their path to the capital would be blocked at Monte Cassino by dogged German resistance and unforgiving terrai
TIMELINE • The Italian campaign, 1943-45
BACKGROUND TO THE BATTLE • Before Monte Cassino, there was deadlock: the British wanted to fight in the Mediterranean but the US was eager to get started on the cross-Channel assault
Eastern rising
WAR IN THE JUNGLE • In March 1944, the Japanese struck north-east India, convinced the Raj] would crumble. But the Allies’ defence, built on the valour of British and Indian ground troops, would prove sterner than anticipated, writes Robert Lyman
KEY COMMANDERS • The struggle for supremacy during the 1944 conflict saw some Charismatic characters go head-to-head
THE GREAT INVASION • Despite the wily misdirection and stacked-up firepower of the...