Competing for Europe

Author: (Australia) Wilmort / Wenlixin / Hu Daqing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: During the writing process, the authors, including documents, operational orders, and diplomatic memoranda from the Allied and Axis powers; records of conversations, telegrams, and letters between political leaders and military commanders; private diaries and memoirs; interviews with clerks, and interrogation records of prisoners of war and war criminals. The historical materials are abundant and well-organized. The scope of the air campaign described in the book is limited to the Western Front from 16940 to 1945, and the content is rich in both temporal and spatial sense. The authors detail the operations of the highest command agencies of the Allied and Axis powers, the decision-making process of operational plans, the fierce scenes of battlefield confrontation, the meticulous arrangements for supply lines, and the organizational support of wartime economies of the warring nations. The authors also describe the secret political maneuvering under the ideological shadow during World War II, the in diplomatic negotiations, the shrewd actions of government envoys; the conflicts and disputes between the UK, the US, and the Soviet Union over opening a "second front"; the disagreements and conflicts in operational objectives between Germany, Italy, and Japan; the division of the "hot zone" in post-war Europe and political compromises by the anti-fascist Allied powers, as well as the dirty deals among the "big three" at the Yalta Conference. Additionally, the authors recount many stories beyond the battlefield, such as the Soviet Union's self-inflicted disaster by signing a treaty with the "Third Reich," Germany's baffling military command system, the political motives behind the UK's Mediterranean strategy, the debate in the US over "Europe" and "Japan," the debates and disputes between the UK and the US on strategic objectives, the proposal of the "unconditional surrender" principle, and the attempt by the German military's internal resistance group to assassinate Hitler.