The Second World War in Europe
Yr Ail
Ryfel Byd yn Ewrop

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The
Second World War was the greatest military conflagration in history, killing
some sixty million people and ending with the advent of the atomic age.
Unsurprisingly, its legacy is still very much with us to this day. The
Second World War was fundamental in shaping the modern world politically, while
its murderous impact made a profound impression on the cultures of any numbers
of peoples across the globe. This module will provide the opportunity for
students of military history to make a rigorous examination of the course of
the Second World War in Europe. It will chart the course of the war and analyse
how and why the Allies eventually won after a period where the Germans had
seemed invincible. The module will introduce students on all degree
schemes not only to the history of the period but also to the evolution of war
in the twentieth century with its enormous impact on all aspects of global
society. The subject material will seek to provide an understanding of
the Second World War that will enable students to more usefully engage with
questions on the evolution of warfare to the point where it would come to
threaten life on earth.
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Course convenor
·
Dr. R. Gerald Hughes
Assessment
·
1 x 2500 word
essay (40%)
·
1 x 2hr final
examination (60%). Answer any TWO questions from a selection of TEN.
Essay
Questions
Answer
ONE of the following.
1. 1. To what degree were the
expectations of theorists and students of warfare in the period 1919-39 proved
correct by the events of the Second World War?
2. 2. What were the main strengths and
weaknesses of the German armed forces in their attempt to subjugate Europe,
1939-1941?
3. 3. What were the underlying
assumptions behind Allied strategic bombing policy? What degree of
success did the bombing of Germany and German-occupied Europe achieve?
4. 4. Assess the contribution made
by women to victory in ONE of the following states: a) Britain; b) United
States; c) Soviet Union.
5. 5. Compare and contrast the role
of Hitler and Churchill as national war leaders.
6. 6. How and why did the Allies win
the Battle of the Atlantic?
7. 7. Assess the importance of
amphibious warfare to victory in the European theatre of war, 1942-1945.
8. 8. Could a bolder strategy have
allowed the Western Allies to win the war in late 1944?
Learning Outcomes
Upon
completion of this module, students should be able to:
·
Outline the
essence of military strategies of the protagonists and the relation of these
strategies to the political aims of the warring states.
·
Discuss the
character of the war in European between 1939 and 1945.
·
Discuss the
general interpretive approaches to the military history of the Second World
War.
·
Discuss the nature
of the military course of the Second World War and its impact on the international
system.
·
Discuss the impact
of technology upon the Second World War.
·
Discuss the
utility, and accuracy, of the term ‘Total War’ as a framework for
analysis.
·
Assess the
relationship between war on land and air and sea power in the Second World War.
·
Demonstrate an
understanding of the impact of the Second World War on civilian populations.
·
Assess the role
and importance of political and military leadership in the Second World War.
·
Compare and
contrast the predictions of inter-war military thinkers (e.g. Douhet, Liddell
Hart) with the actual course of events after 1939.
·
Assess the
military lessons of the Second World War.
·
Debate the
continued significance of the Second World War.
Teaching outlines and methods
The
course consists of eighteen lectures and five one-hour seminars. The
lectures will be twice a week and the seminars will be once every two
weeks. Attendance at lectures is strongly recommended. Seminar
attendance is compulsory. Where possible, students should inform the
module convenor of any unavoidable absences prior to the seminar in
question. Excuses for non-attendance should be given in writing and
submitted to the module convenor. Students who ware absent from their
usual seminar should make every effort to attend alternative group, informing
the tutors of this arrangement. Persistent failure to attend seminars may
result in the student being deemed ‘unsatisfactory’ and, thereby, barred from
the module examination. Non-attendance, therefore, may have serious
implications. Students should refer to the Undergraduate Handbook for
further information on Departmental and UWA attendance requirements.
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Core texts
- Gordon Martel (ed.), The
World War Two Reader (Routledge, 2004)
- Williamson Murray & Alan R.
Millett, A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War (Harvard
University Press, 2001)
- Richard Overy, Why the
Allies Won (Pimlico, 1996/ 2006)
- R.A.C. Parker, Struggle for
Survival: the History of the Second World War (Oxford University
Press, 1989)
- Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World
at Arms: A Global History of World War II (Cambridge University Press,
1995/ 2005)
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Lectures
- Introduction
- Germany triumphant
- The German failure to subjugate Britain and the
widening war, 1940-1
- ‘The world will hold its breath’: Operation
Barbarossa
- The ‘soft underbelly’? North Africa and Italy,
1941-1944
- ‘The Cauldron’: Stalingrad
- ‘The Mother of all battles’: Kursk
- The War at Sea
- Britain and America at War
- Germany and German Occupied Europe, 1939-1944
- Russia at war, 1941-1945
- Resistance, partisan warfare and racial extermination
- The Air War
- Men and Machines: strategy, leadership and industrial
war
- To the heart of the Reich: invasion from the East;
D-Day to the crossing of the Rhine
- Endgame: the end of Nazi Germany and the new Europe
Seminars
- Allied failure and Germany triumphant
- The Clash of Titans: the
German-Soviet War
- Air and Sea Warfare
- The ultimate fighting
machine? The Soviet People and the Red Army
- Inevitable victory?
Leadership, economies, mobilisation and technology
Group one · Group two · Group three · Group four
_____________________________________________________________________
Seminars: details
1. Allied
failure and Germany triumphant.
The
First World War is conventionally seen as a static war of attrition whilst the
Second World War is seen as a war of manoeuvre. German generals are
usually credited with bringing movement back to the battlefield in the
‘Blitzkrieg’ campaigns. This
seminar will examine how the German Wehrmacht built on the tradition of German
war making and successfully exploited the lessons of the First World War and
the teachings of the inter-war theorists to achieve spectacular successes in
the initial phase of the war. The seminar will also examine the first
cracks in the German forces and the roots of the later disasters that were to
overtake German arms.
Additional Reading
- Alexander,
Martin S., ‘The History and Historiography of the Battle of France and
Flanders: The French View’, in Brian Bond and Michael Taylor (eds.), The
Battle for France and Flanders. Sixty Years On (Barnsley: Leo
Cooper/Pen & Sword Books, 2001), pp. 181-205.
- Alexander,
Martin S., ‘”Fighting to the Last Frenchman”? Reflections on the BEF
deployment to France and the strains in the Anglo-French Alliance, 1939-40’,
in Joel Blatt (ed.), The French Defeat of 1940. Reassessments (New
York: Berghahn, 1998), pp. 296-326.
- Alexander,
Martin S., ‘”No Taste for the Fight?” French combat performance in 1940
and the politics of the Fall of France’, in Paul Addison & Angus Calder
(eds.), Time to Kill. The Soldier’s Experience of War in the West,
1939-1945 (London: Pimlico Books, 1997), pp. 161-76.
- Alexander,
Martin S., ‘The Fall of France, 1940’, Journal of Strategic Studies
13 (1) March 1990, pp. 10-44.
- Blatt, Joel (ed), The French defeat of 1940:
reassessments (Oxford, Berghahn Books, 1998).
- Citino,
Robert M. The German Way of War: From the Thirty Years’ War to the
Third Reich. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005.
- Frieser,
Karl-Heinz. The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West
(Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005).
- Garliński,
Józef, Poland in the Second World War, 1939-1945 (London 1985).
- Guderian,
Heinz. Panzer Leader (London: Da Capo, 2001 edn. [1952]).
- House,
Jonathan M. Combined Arms Warfare in the Twentieth Century
(University Press of Kansas, 2001), Ch 4, 'The Axis Advance, 1939-42'.
- Jackson,
Julian, The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940 (oxford
University Press, 2003).
- Jackson, Peter,
'Recent Journeys along the Road back to France, 1940', Historical
Journal, Vol. 39, No. 2, (1996), pp. 497-510.
- May,
Ernest R. Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France. (London I B
Tauris, 2000).
- Newland,
Samuel J., Review Essay: ‘The Germans and the Exercise of Military
Power’, Parameters, Autumn 2006, pp. 120-23. http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/06autumn/newland.htm
- Rossion,
Alexander B., Hitler Strikes Poland. Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity
(Kansas 2003).
- Schreiber,
Gerhard et al (eds.), Germany and the Second World War:
Volume 3: The Mediterranean, South-East Europe, and North Africa
1939-1941 (Oxford University Press, 1995).
- Steiger,
R., Armour Tactics in the Second World War: Panzer Army Campaigns of
1939-41 in German War Diaries (Oxford: Berg, 1992).
- Wette,
Wolfram et al (eds.), Germany and the Second World War: Volume 1: The
Build-up of German Aggression (Oxford University Press,
1991).
2. The
Clash of Titans: the German-Soviet War.
This
seminar will examine how the German war machine approached the colossal task of
the conquest of the USSR. What lessons had been learned from the first
two years of war? Was Barbarossa ever likely to succeed or did it
simply expose the gaping holes in German strategy and in Hitler’s
leadership? The seminar will address wider questions arising from this –
in particular, those questions relating to Blitzkrieg and the concept of ‘Total
War’.
Additional Reading
- Bartov, O., Eastern Front,
1941-1945. German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare (Houndmills:
Palgrave in association with St. Antony's College, Oxford, 2001 edn)
- Bartov, O., Hitler’s Army.
Soldiers, Nazis and War in the Third Reich (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1991)
- Clark, C., ‘The Wars of
Liberation in Prussian Memory. Reflections on the Memorialization of War
in Early Nineteenth Century Germany’, Journal of Modern History,
68, (1996), pp. 550-76.
- Erickson, John. The Road to
Stalingrad. London: Cassell, 2003.
- Erickson, John. The Road to
Berlin. London: Cassell, 2003.
- Gellately, R., Backing
Hitler. Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2001).
- Geyer, M., ‘Insurrectionary
Warfare: the German Debate about a Levée en Masse in October 1918’, Journal
of Modern History, 73 (2001), pp. 459-527.
- Glantz, David M., ‘The Failures
of Historiography: Forgotten Battles of the German-Soviet War
(1941-1945)’, Journal
of Slavic Military Studies, 8 (1995).
- Glantz, David M., Zhukov's
Greatest Defeat: The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942
(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999).
- Gregor, N., ‘A Schicksalgemeinschaft?
Allied Bombing, Civilian Morale, and Social Dissolution in Nuremberg,
1942-45’, Historical Journal, 43 (2000), pp. 1051-70.
- Jersak, T., ‘Blitzkrieg Revisited.
A New Look at Nazi War and Extermination Planning’, Historical Journal,
43 (2000), pp. 565-83.
- Kershaw, I., Hitler, 2
vols (London: Allen Lane, 2000).
- Kershaw, I., and M. Lewin,
eds., Stalinism and Nazism. Dictatorships in Comparison (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997).
- Kirwin, G., ‘Waiting for
Retaliation. A Study in Nazi Propaganda Behaviour and German Civilian
Morale’, Journal of Contemporary History, 16 (1981), pp. 565-83.
- Knox, M., Common Destiny.
Dictatorship, Foreign Policy and War in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
- Manstein, Erich von, Lost
Victories: War Memoirs of Hitler's Most Brilliant General (London:
TBS, 2003 edn.).
- Müller, R.-D., and Ueberschär,
G., Hitler’s War in the East, 1941-1945 (Oxford: Berghahn Books,
1997).
- Müller, K.-J., ed., The
Military in Politics and Society in France and Germany in the Twentieth
Century (Oxford: Berg, 1995).
- Mulligan, W., ‘The Reichswehr,
the Republic and the Primacy of Foreign Policy, 1918-1923’, German
History, 21 (2003), pp. 347-68.
- Paret, P., Clausewitz and
the State (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976).
- Paret, P., Yorck and the Era
of Prussian Reform (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966).
- Weinberg, G., A World at
Arms. A Global History of World War II (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005).
- Weinberg, G., Germany,
Hitler and World War II: Essays in Modern German and World History (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1996).
- Weinberg, G., ‘Germany’s War
for World Conquest and the Extermination of the Jews’, Holocaust and
Genocide Studies, 10 (1996), pp. 119-33.
- Weinberg, G., ‘German Plans for
Victory, 1944-5’, Central European History, 26, (1993), 215-228.
Also
- David
M. Glantz, 'The Red Army at War, 1941-1945: Sources and Interpretations',
The Journal of Military History, Vol. 62, No. 3 (Jul., 1998), pp.
595-617
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0899-3718%28199807%2962%3A3%3C595%3ATRAAW1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M
James R. Millar & Susan J. Linz, 'The Cost of World War II to the
Soviet People: A Research Note', The Journal of Economic History,
Vol. 38, No. 4 (Dec., 1978), pp. 959-962
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0507%28197812%2938%3A4%3C959%3ATCOWWI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P
Cynthia A. Roberts, 'Planning for War: The Red Army and the Catastrophe of
1941', Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 47, No. 8 (Dec., 1995), pp.
1293-1326
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0966-8136%28199512%2947%3A8%3C1293%3APFWTRA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R
Amnon Sella, 'Red Army Doctrine and Training on the Eve of the Second
World War' , Soviet Studies, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Apr., 1975), pp.
245-264
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-5859%28197504%2927%3A2%3C245%3ARADATO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S
A. M. Nikolaieff, 'The Red Army in the Second World War', Russian
Review, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Autumn, 1947), pp. 49-60
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-0341%28194723%297%3A1%3C49%3ATRAITS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23
3.
Anglo-American Power: Air and Sea Warfare
While
the destruction of the bulk of German land forces was achieved on the Russian
Front, the Western Allies made a significant contribution to this by virtue of
their triumph at sea and in the air. This seminar will examine the use of
air power at the tactical and the strategic level – in both the German
successes of 1939-42 and in the subsequent bomber offensive and Anglo-American
drive through Italy and France. At sea, the seminar will examine the
Battle of the Atlantic and the allied use of their control of the sea to
achieve ultimate victory. Special attention will be paid to the influence
of pre-war theorists on sea and air power - from Mahan to Douhet.
Additional Reading
- G.W. Baer,
‘US Naval strategy, 1890-1945’, Naval War College Review, (1991)
vol. 44 no. 1 pp.6-33
Christopher Bell, The Royal Navy, Seapower and
Strategy between the Wars (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press,
2000).
- Cajus Bekker, The Luftwaffe War Diaries
(NY: Ballentine, 1972).
- Tami Davis
Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British
and American Ideas About Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945 (Princeton
University Press, 2004).
- Clay
Blair, Hitler's U-boat War: vol. 1: The Hunters, 1939-42,
1 & Hitler's U-boat War: vol. 2, The
Hunted, 1942-45, (London: Weidenfeld, 2000).
- Horst Boog,
Gerhard Krebs and Detlef Vogel (eds.), Germany
and the Second World War: Volume VII: The Strategic Air War
in Europe and the War in the West and East Asia, 1943-1944/5 (Oxford
University Press, 2006).
- H.H.
Herwig, ‘The failure of German sea power 1914-45’, International
History Review, 10/ 1 (1988), pp.68-105.
- D. Clayton
James, 'American and Japanese Strategies in the Pacific', in Paret ed. Makers
of Modern Strategy.
- M. Milner,
’Anglo-American naval co-operation in the Second World War’ in J.B. Hattendorf
and R. S. Jordan, Maritime strategy and the balance of power: Britain
and America in the twentieth century, pp.243-270.
- Williamson
Murray, Strategy for Defeat: The Luftwaffe 1933–1945 (Pacific
University, 2002).
- Robin
Neillands, The Bomber War: The Allied Air Offensive Against Nazi
Germany (London: The Overlook Press, 2001).
- R.J.
Overy, The Air War, 1939-1945 (London: Stein & Day, 1981).
- R.J.
Overy, The Battle
(London: Penguin Books, 2001).
- S.W.
Roskill, The Strategy of Sea Power: Its Development and Application
(London: Collins, 1962).
- S.W.
Roskill, 'Some Strategic Lessons to be Drawn from the Second World War', Naval
Review, 1952.
- David
Fairbank White, Bitter Ocean: The Dramatic Story of the Battle of the
Atlantic (London: Headline, 2006).
- Andrew
Williams, The Battle of the Atlantic (London: BBC books, 2003).
Volume
18(1), March 1995, of The Journal of Strategic Studies is devoted to the
theory and practice of air power.
On
air power generally:
- John Ellis, Brute Force,
ch.4
- B. Brodie, Strategy in the
Missile Age, ch4
- ‘US Strategic Bombing Survey:
Summary Report’, in P. Bobbitt et al US Nuclear Strategy
- C. Webster and N. Frankland, History
of the Second World War: The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany
- M.E. Smith, ‘The Strategic Bombing
Debate’, Journal of Contemporary History Jan 1977
- Richard Ellis, ‘Strategic Air
Power’ Journal of RUSI March 1980
- John Terraine, The Right of
the Line
- Max Hastings, Bomber Command
- Basil Collier, A History of
Air Power
- John Ellis, Brute Force,
ch4
4. The
ultimate fighting machine? The Soviet People and the Red Army
Following
the disasters of 1941, the Soviet people and the Red Army survived to destroy
the bulk of the German army and, at enormous cost, crush Nazi Germany.
This seminar will examine the magnificent achievements of the Soviet people
whilst, additionally, examining the emergence of Soviet strategic and tactical
thinking. It is often forgotten that, in the late 1920s and early 1930s,
Red Army leaders, such as Tukhachevsky, developed ideas similar to those then
current in Germany (often drawing on the writings of the British General J.F.C.
Fuller). Examining notions such as ‘deep battle’, this seminar will seek
to understand the initial resilience and eventual war-winning ability of the Soviet
Union.
Additional Reading
Key text:
R.J. Overy, Russia's War (London: Penguin Books, 1998).
- Alexander,
Martin S., ‘Liddell Hart and De Gaulle: Prophets of Limited Liability and
Mobile defense’, in Peter Paret (ed.), Makers of Modern Strategy. From
Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age (Princeton University Press, 1986), pp.
597-623.
- John
Barber and Mark Harrison, The
Soviet Home Front, 1941-1945: A Social and Economic History of the USSR in
World War II (London: Longman, 1991).
- John
Barber and Andrei Dzeniskevich, eds, Life
and Death in Besieged Leningrad, 1941-1944 (London, 2005).
- Erickson,
John. The Road to Stalingrad (London: Cassell, 2003).
- Erickson,
John. The Road to Berlin (London: Cassell, 2003).
- Fuller,
J.F.C., Machine Warfare: An Enquiry into the Influences of Mechanics on
the Art of War (London: Hutchinson & Co, 1942).
- Glantz,
D.M., Soviet Military Operational Art: In Pursuit of Deep Battle (London:
Frank Cass, 1991). @Sov Stud
D9500/1991-G2
- David M.
Glantz and Jonathan House, When
Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (Lawrence,
Kansas, 1995).
- Habeck, M.
R., Storm of Steel: The Development of Armored Doctrine in Germany and
the Soviet Union, 1919-1939 (Ithaca, N.Y. / London: Cornell University
Press, 2003).
- Mark
Harrison, ‘The Soviet Union: The Defeated Victor’ in Harrison, ed., The Economics of World War II:
Six Great Powers in International Comparison (Cambridge,
1996), 268-301.
- Isserson,
G., ‘The Development of the Theory of Soviet Operational Art in the 1930s’
[1965] in The Evolution of Soviet Operational Art, 1927-1991: The
Documentary Basis, ed. by D.M. Glantz (London: Frank
Cass, 1995), vol. 2, pp. 25-52.
- Catherine
Merridale, Ivan's War:
The Red Army, 1939-1945 (London, 2005).
- Steven
Merritt Miner, Stalin's Holy War: Religion, Nationalism, and Alliance
Politics, 1941–1945 (University of North Carolina, 2003).
- Pavlovskiy,
I., ‘Soviet Operational Art in the Great Patriotic War’ [1968] in The
Evolution of Soviet Operational Art, 1927-1991: The Documentary Basis,
ed. by D. M. Glantz (London. Frank Cass, 1995), vol. 2, pp.
91-107.
- Roberts,
C., 'Planning for War: The Red Army and the Catastrophe of 1941', Europe-Asia
Studies, vol. 47 (1995), no. 8, pp. 1293-1326.
- Simpkin,
R. E., Race to
the Swift: Thoughts on Twenty-first Century Warfare (London:
Brassey’s,
1985/1994)Mil
Sci/A280/SIM.
See especially Chapter 3, ‘Deep Operational Theory’, pp. 37-53.
- Triandafillov,
V. K., The Nature of the Operation of Modern Armies (London: Frank
Cass, 1929/1994).
5. Inevitable
victory? Leadership, economies, mobilisation and technology
This
seminar will focus on the reasons most commonly cited for the allied victory in
the Second World War – leadership and resources. The inter-action between
these two will be examined. For instance, why was it that Britain was
able to mobilise so much more effectively early in the war than was
Germany? Thus, while Britain supposedly ‘Stood alone’ in 1940, it was
out-building Germany in terms of aircraft. The manner by which the United
States was able to build a phenomenal capacity for fighting modern war will be
examined and the seminar will attempt to place the Second World War in the
context of the progressive industrialisation of conflict over the past few
centuries.
Additional
Reading
- Michael
Beschloss, The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and
the Destruction of Hitler's Germany (London: Simon and Schuster,
2003).
- Bessel,
R., eds, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Comparisons and Contrasts (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1996).
- R.J.B.
Bosworth, Mussolini (London: Hodder Arnold, 2002).
- Angus
Calder, The Myth of the Blitz (London: Pimlico, 1992).
- Winston
S. Churchill, The Second World War, six volumes (London:
Cassell, 1948-53).
- Stuart
Hylton, Their Darkest Hour: The Hidden History of the Home Front
1939-1945 (London: Sutton, 2003).
- Roy
Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography (London: Pan, 2002).
- Ian
Kershaw, Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris (London: Allen Lane, 1998).
- Ian
Kershaw, Hitler, 1936-45: Nemesis (London: Allen Lane, 2000).
- Bernhard
R. Kroener et al, ed., Germany and the Second World War,
Volume V: Organization and Mobilization of the German Sphere of Power.
Part I: Wartime Administration, Economy, and Manpower Resources,
1939-1941 (Oxford
University Press, 2000) & Part II: Organization and Mobilization in
the German Sphere of Power: Wartime Administration, Economy, and Manpower
Resources 1942-1944/ 5 (Oxford University Press, 2003).
- F.C. Lane, ‘Economic Consequences of Organized
Violence’, The Journal of Economic History Vol. 18, No. 4.
(December, 1958), pp. 401-417.
- William H. McNeill, The Pursuit of Power:
Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000 (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press. 1982).
- J.
Noakes, ed. Nazism 1919-1945: The German Home Front in World War II: A
Documentary Reader. Nazism Series, Volume 4 (Exeter:
University of Exeter Press, 1998).
- R.J. Overy, War and economy in the Third Reich
(Oxford University Press, 1994).
- Robert
Service, Stalin: A Biography
(Macmillan, 2004).
- Albert
Speer, Inside the Third Reich (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson,
2003).
- Albert Speer, The
Slave State: Heinrich Himmler's Masterplan for SS Supremacy
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981).
- Adam
Tooze, The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi
Economy (London: Allen Lane, 2006).
- Martin
van Creveld, Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton
(Cambridge University Press, 1979).
- Dmitri
Volkogov, Stalin:
Triumph and Tragedy (London: Grove, 1991).
______________________________________________________
General
course bibliography 
The
number of journal articles on this subject defies belief so students should
make use of the following search aids:
URL:http://www.jstor.org
URL:http://www.ingentaconnect.com
Reference:
Ian Dear and M.R.D. Foot (eds.), The Oxford Companion
to World War II (Oxford university Press, 2005).
- Adams,
Michael C.C. The Best War Ever: America and World War II. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
- Addison,
Paul & Angus Calder (eds.), Time to Kill. The Soldier’s Experience
of War in the West, 1939-1945. London: Pimlico Books, 1997.
- Adelman,
Jonathan R., Prelude to
the Cold War: The Tsarist, Soviet, and U.S. Armies in the Two World Wars
(Boulder, Colorado, 1988).
- Alexander,
Martin S., The Republic in Danger. General Maurice Gamelin and the
politics of French defence, 1933-39. Cambridge University Press,
1993.
- Alvarez,
David J. Secret Messages: Codebreaking and American Diplomacy,
1930-1945. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2000.
- Ambrose,
Stephen E. Citizen Soldiers: the U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to
the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944-May 7, 1945. New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
- Ambrose,
Stephen E. The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over
Germany. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.
- Ambrose,
Stephen E. Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne
from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 2001. Ambrose, Stephen E. D-Day, June 6, 1944 the Climactic
Battle of World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
- Ambrose,
Stephen E. Eisenhower and Berlin, 1945; the Decision to Halt at the
Elbe. New York, W. W. Norton 1967.
- Ambrose,
Stephen E. Ike: Abilene to Berlin; the Life of Dwight D. Eisenhower
from his Childhood in Abilene, Kansas, through his Command of the Allied
Forces in Europe in World War II. New York, Harper & Row 1973.
- Ambrose,
Stephen E. Pegasus Bridge, 6 June 1944. London: Allen & Unwin,
1984.
- Ambrose,
Stephen E. The Supreme Commander; the War Years of General Dwight D.
Eisenhower. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1970.
- Ambrose,
Stephen E. The Victors: Eisenhower and his Boys, the Men of World War
II. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
- Ambrose,
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Some
useful additional general texts:
- Hew
Strachan, European Armies and the Conduct of War
- Richard
Simpkin, Tank Warfare
- F.W. von
Mellenthin, Panzer Battles 1939-45
- Bryan E.
Fugate, Operation Barbarossa
- Charles
Messenger, The Art of Blitzkrieg;
- Nigel
Hamilton, Monty (3 vols)
- Gerd
Niebold, Battle for White Russia
- R.J.
Kershaw, 'Lessons to be Derived from the Wehrmacht's Experience in the
East 1943-5', Journal of RUSI, September 1987
- P.H.
Vigor, Soviet Blitzkrieg Theory
- Larry
Addington, The Blitzkrieg Era and the German General Staff 1865-1941
- Martin van
Creveld, Supplying War
- Martin van
Creveld, Command in War
- Brian Bond,
'Battlefield C3I Throughout History', review of van Creveld 'Command in
War', International Security, Spring 1987
- J.
Wheldon, Machine Age Armies
- B. Bond, War
and Society in Europe 1870-1970
- J.F.C
Fuller, The Conduct of War 1789-1961
- T. Ropp,
War in the Modern World
- John
Gooch, Armies in Europe
RGH 2008
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