Summary Of Why The Allies Won By Richard Overy

The Allied victory in 1945 was not a sure thing. In early 1942, Germany controlled most of continental Europe and its resources. The Third Reich was in full expansion. The Soviet Union was in vast part occupied, and was risking the annihilation. The United States were not adequately armed for war. In Why the Allies Won, Richard Overy analyzes how the Allies regained military superiority and were able to win the war. The Allies won World War II because a wiser political leadership leveraged, through an adaptive and coordinated strategy, the technological and material superiority, capitalizing on Axis miscalculations and Allied military victories. In the book, the author extensively examines the decisive campaigns: the war at sea, the Eastern

The Allied victory was far from inevitable. The author analyzes all the dynamics and all the factors that influenced the final results of the conflict. In the first chapter “Unpredictable Victory: Explaining World War II,” Overy gives an overview of the causes that brought to war. The geopolitical legacy of World War I and the economic crisis of late 1920s certainly contributed to the raise of the Nazism in Germany, and the consolidation of capitalism in the US and of communism in the Soviet Union. The clash of these ideologies quickly evolved a major confrontation in the military, industrial, and resources’ field. Germany, with its allies -Italy and Japan, rapidly started a threatening expansionistic campaign. The war was inevitable in order to avoid Hitler regime expansion over all Europe and, potentially, over the all world. The balance of power was initially (until 1942) in favor of the Axis, but the massive mobilization of the Allies succeed in turning the tide in the war. The surprising resistance of the Soviets and their ability in denying the German conquest of Russia (most important Hitler objective), was the main factor that allowed the

Political leadership, military strategy, organizational capacity, fighting skills and effectiveness, technology, mass production, resources, ideology, and morale, all were essential factors that influenced the war victory. The war at sea saw mainly the US and Japan competing in the Pacific and the US and Great Britain competing against Germany in the Atlantic. The offensiveness of the Japanese Empire could be contained and defeated by the US only after the fortunate victory of Midway in 1942 and the following buildup of an overwhelming superiority of the American forces. In the Atlantic, the German U-boats inflicted embarrassing losses to the British and American Navies. Only technological improvements and effective adaptation of the tactics (naval convoy tactics and dedicated anti-submarine airplane) allowed the Allies to recover the situation, regaining control of the sea. The victories of the Red Army at Stalingrad and Kursk were the turning points in the Eastern front. The will to fight of the Russian forces and the significant industry capabilities were able to overcome the overstretched German forces capitalizing on Nazi strategic miscalculations. The American and British strategic bombing campaign played an important