The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War
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Review
Roberts's populist approach makes for a rollicking good read and never comes at the expense of accuracy. His mastery of the huge variety of subjects is truly impressive and his ability to marshal these subjects into a single compelling narrative stunning (Keith Lowe Daily Telegraph )
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On 2 August 1944 Winston Churchill mocked Adolf Hitler in the House of Commons by the rank he had reached in the First World War. 'Russian success has been somewhat aided by the strategy of Herr Hitler, of Corporal Hitler,' Churchill jibed. 'Even military idiots find it difficult not to see some faults in his actions.'
Andrew Roberts's previous book Masters and Commanders studied the creation of Allied grand strategy; The Storm of War now analyses how Axis strategy evolved. Examining the Second World War on every front, Roberts asks whether, with a different decision-making process and a different strategy, the Axis might even have won. Were those German generals who blamed everything on Hitler after the war correct, or were they merely scapegoating their former Führer once he was safely beyond defending himself? The book is full of illuminating sidelights on the principle actors that bring their characters and the ways in which they reached decisions into fresh focus.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A storming read!,
By
This review is from: The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War (Hardcover)
I'm not a great fan of the author's political views, and I approached this with a degree of scepticism, but I was quickly won over by an engaging writing style allied to a keen eye for detail.It is a great 'refresher' book, reminding me of details once read but then forgotten, and is a festschrift in combining information from a number of reputable source authors. Where it scores is in producing the occasional juicy nuggets that are new to me and which have habitually slipped under the radar, such as the response of the French to German occupation, the levels of accomodation with and opposition to the invader, and the paying of rescuing mariners for their services at Dunkirk. He comments wryly on the absence of the great bulk of the Rye fishing fleet during the Dunkirk evacuation, for example. He also shoots down some old canards, such as the supposed attack of Polish lancers against German tanks, as the product of propaganda. While much is familiar (inevitably, given the existing volume of writing on the subject) there is sufficient new material to justify the title of the book as being a new history, and not simply a rehash.As a work it earns its place on the shelf amongst the better accounts of this terrible period.
The book would appeal to more general readers with an interest in the period, as his style is to approach the unravelling tale of the war in the manner of a thriller writer; he returns regularly to the unpredictability of some of the outcomes at given points of the conflict, and raises some interesting 'what if' scenarios that help to keep it fresh. While I would still take issue with his take on certain events and key players in the war, I would have no hesitation in recommending this book. It is a rattling good read!
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent, balanced, highly readable history of the Second World War,
By Photo enthusiast "Camerabuff" (Essex, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War (Hardcover)
An excellent, well balanced history of the Second World War. Roberts writes extremely well and has a gift for expressing himself concisely, which is just as well considering the scale of his subject. It's not a `new' history in the sense of making any fresh revelations, the few paragraphs drawn from previously unpublished material are interesting but mostly not of great significance, confirming what has been appearing in other recent work. The book is, rather, a welcome new history of the war written in light of the excellent scholarship that has been carried out in recent years. Roberts is much more comfortable with the major issues than with the minor details of how the war was fought, and it is a pity that the publishers did not include a military specialist amongst those checking the drafts. That would have saved Roberts from some pretty basic errors. `Hull-down' does not mean that a tank has its hull pointing down (why would you do that??) it means that the hull is hidden by the terrain or by some other protection while the turret is exposed. The western allies were not so much short of the small landing craft that Roberts describes but of the larger craft - Landing Ship Tanks (LSTs) particularly. The Panzerfaust was not "an anti-tank gun very accurate at short range" but an early RPG.
Does this sort of thing matter? Well, yes, in that if you don't know what you're talking about it is better to either write nothing or to check, which in these instances could easily have been done without going further than Wikipedia. The Panzerfaust was so devastating precisely because it was not a `gun' - that's why it could be mass-produced cheaply and in vast quantities to be effectively used by personnel with little training. It wasn't accurate at all - but at the range at which it was effective the target would have loomed so large that accuracy was not needed. Correctness in detail of this kind matters too in that if you know a little bit about the subject and discover obvious errors as you read, you naturally wonder about the reliability of research that has led to conclusions in the wider, more important areas that you perhaps do not know about. You lose some trust in the writer. I feel mean in citing these small errors in what overall is a fine book, but there were other mistakes indicating a less than full mastery of his subject at this level of detail. It's worth noting that Max Hastings and Antony Beevor don't make mistakes like this. I would therefore argue with The Economist's view that Roberts is 'Britain's finest military historian', but not with the fact that he's damned good.
58 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
an excellent new history,
By
This review is from: The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War (Hardcover)
As we reach the 70th anniversary of World War Two's beginning, this is a first-class new general history of the conflict. Roberts writes with clarity and enthusiasm: his survey is wide-ranging and thoughtful and full of fascinating insights. The focus is on Axis war strategy, and using fresh archive material, Hitler's blunders are put under the spotlight - particularly his invasion of the Soviet Union, and - once the tide of war had turned - his dogmatic orders to hold every scrap of occupied territory, denying the German Wehrmacht all tactical flexibility. At the heart of the book is the simple yet powerful truth that the hateful race prejudices of the Nazis ultimately undermined their military efforts - but Roberts also pays proper and moving tribute to the courage of those who stood fast against them.
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