Author: Geoff Hewitt Publisher: Casemate Publishers ISBN: 184468959X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
“Any historian or general lover of history in Hitler, or the importance of the Germany Navy in WWII, will find this book immensely informative.” —Nautical Research Journal Hitler's Armada examines the aborted German invasion of 1940 in a fresh and original manner by looking past the myths and legends which have subsequently surrounded it, in order to arrive at significant new conclusions. Presenting fascinating detail of Hitler's Operation SEALION, author and historian Geoff Hewitt analyzes the German campaign’s weaknesses, demonstrating that control of the sea, not the air, was the critical factor in the operation’s failure. Hewitt questions the traditional British view that the Battle of Britain was the key factor in the prevention of Nazi invasion. Presenting the often overlooked importance of the Royal Navy during this period, Hewitt brings into sharp focus, possibly for the first time, the strategic dispositions of the Royal Navy anti-invasion forces. By focusing on the conflict between air and sea power in the months leading up to the summer of 1940, Hewitt challenges the supremacy of air power during this stage of the war. Thought-provoking and controversial, Hitler’s Armada presents a compelling investigation of this historic turning point in the Second World War.
Author: Adrian Stewart Publisher: Casemate Publishers ISBN: 1526710595 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 270
Book Description
As this well researched work reveals, Hitlers handling the German Navy during the Second World War was full of contradictions.The seriousness of the U-boat threat was never in doubt and in the dark days of 1940 1942, the Donitzs daring strategy coupled with the courage and determined actions of the captains and crews became perilously close to starving Britain into submission.But, despite having built and nurtured a surface fleet with capital ships of formidable power, Hitler was uncharacteristically cautious of employing them aggressively. Examination of the reasons for this make for fascinating reading, possibly stemming from the early loss of the Graf Spee and the fact that, whenever possible, the Royal Navy threw all its weight regardless of cost at the Nazi threat; the loss of the Hood in the pursuit of the Bismarck being one example. Even Goebbels could not spin the loss of a battleship.The War against Hitlers Navy describes in fascinating detail the many fronts on which the adversaries faced each other and analyzes the reasons for the ultimate outcome.
Author: Clay Blair Publisher: Modern Library ISBN: 0307874370 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 865
Book Description
Clay Blair's best-selling naval classic Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan, is regarded as the definitive account of that decisive phase of the war in the Pacific. Nine years in the making, Hitler's U-boat War is destined to become the definitive account of the German submarine war against the Allies, or "The Battle of the Atlantic." It is an epic sea story, the most arduous and prolonged naval battle in all history. For a period of nearly six years, the German U-boat force attempted to blockade and isolate the British Isles, in hopes of forcing the British out of the war, thereby thwarting the Allied strategic air assault on German cities as well as Overlord, the Allied invasion of Occupied France. Fortunately for the Allies, the U-boat force failed to achieve either of these objectives, but in the attempt they sank 2,800 Allied merchant ships, while the Allies sank nearly 800 U-boats. On both sides, tens of thousands of sailors perished. The top secret Allied penetration of German naval codes, and, conversely, the top secret German penetration of Allied naval codes played important roles in the Atlantic naval battle. In order to safeguard the secrets of codebreaking in the postwar years, London and Washington agreed to withhold all official codebreaking and U-boat records. Thus for decade upon decade an authoritative and definitive history of the Battle of the Atlantic could not be attempted. The accounts that did appear were incomplete and full of errors of fact and false interpretations and conclusions, often leaving the entirely wrong impression that the German U-boats came within a whisker of defeating the Allies, a myth that persists. When London and Washington finally began to release the official records in the 1980s, Clay Blair and his wife, Joan, commenced work on this history in Washington, London, and Germany. They relied on the official records as well as the work of German, British, American, and Canadian naval scholars who published studies of bits and pieces of the story. The end result is this magnificent and monumental work, crammed with vivid and dramatic scenes of naval actions and dispassionate but startling new revelations and interpretations and conclusions about all aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic. The Blair history will be published in two volumes. This first volume, The Hunters, covers the first three years of the war, August 1939 to August 1942. Told chronologically, it is subdivided into two major sections, the War Against the British Empire, and the War Against the Americas. Volume II, The Hunted, to follow a year later, will cover the last years of the naval war in Europe, August 1942 to May 1945, when the Allies finally overcame the U-boat threat. Never before has Hitler's U-boat war been chronicled with such authority, fidelity, objectivity, and detail. Nothing is omitted. Even those who fought the Battle of the Atlantic will find no end of surprises. Later generations will benefit by having at hand an account of this important phase of World War II, free of bias and mythology.
Author: Garry Campion Publisher: Springer Nature ISBN: 3030261107 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 384
Book Description
The Battle of Britain has held an enchanted place in British popular history and memory throughout the modern era. Its transition from history to heritage since 1965 confirms that the 1940 narrative shaped by the State has been sustained by historians, the media, popular culture, and through non-governmental heritage sites, often with financing from the National Lottery Heritage Lottery Fund. Garry Campion evaluates the Battle’s revered place in British society and its influence on national identity, considering its historiography and revisionism; the postwar lives of the Few, their leaders and memorialization; its depictions on screen and in commercial products; the RAF Museum’s Battle of Britain Hall; third-sector heritage attractions; and finally, fighter airfields, including RAF Hawkinge as a case study. A follow-up to Campion’s The Battle of Britain, 1945–1965 (Palgrave, 2015), this book offers an engaging, accessible study of the Battle’s afterlives in scholarship, memorialization, and popular culture.
Author: Garry Campion Publisher: Springer ISBN: 1137316268 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 259
Book Description
Seventy-five years after the Battle of Britain, the Few's role in preventing invasion continues to enjoy a revered place in popular memory. The Air Ministry were central to the Battle's valorisation. This book explores both this, and also the now forgotten 1940 Battle of the Barges mounted by RAF bombers.
Author: James Ellman Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 0811768481 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 273
Book Description
On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, one of the turning points of World War II. Within six months, the invasion bogged down on the outskirts of Moscow, and the Eastern Front proved to be the decisive theater in the defeat of the Third Reich. Ever since, most historians have agreed that this was Hitler’s gravest mistake. In Hitler’s Great Gamble, James Ellman argues that while Barbarossa was a gamble and perverted by genocidal Nazi ideology, it was not doomed from the start. Rather it represented Hitler’s best chance to achieve his war aims for Germany which were remarkably similar to those of the Kaiser’s government in 1914. Other options, such as an invasion of England, or an offensive to seize the oil fields of the Middle East were considered and discarded as unlikely to lead to Axis victory. In Ellman’s recounting, Barbarossa did not fail because of flaws in the Axis invasion strategy, the size of the USSR, or the brutal cold of the Russian winter. Instead, German defeat was due to errors of Nazi diplomacy. Hitler chose not to coordinate his plans with his most militarily powerful allies, Finland and Japan, and ensure the seizure of the ports of Murmansk and Vladivostok. Had he done so, Germany might well have succeeded in defeating the Soviet Union and, perhaps, winning World War II. Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources (including many recently released), Hitler’s Great Gamble is a provocative work that will appeal to a wide cross-section of World War II buffs, enthusiasts, and historians.
Author: Rex Bashford Publisher: Pen and Sword Military ISBN: 1399070398 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 266
Book Description
The third in a three-part in depth study and deals with Hitlers influence on the Wehrmacht and how his decisions influenced the advancement of weapons technology in this pivotal era of the Second World War. Hitler arrogated to himself the power to make all critical decisions relating to the strategic and operational deployment of the entire Wehrmacht, and this volume analyzes the effect of his decisions on the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. How did his decisions affect the development of German Jet aircraft? And the types of U-Boats used? How did he decide what priority to assign to key weapons in the overall German war effort? What determined how programs such as the V1, V2 and the potential German Atomic bomb were integrated into the German war effort? All these matters were critical to the actual operational power of the Wehrmacht as opposed to its theoretical potential. Similarly, what was the effect of the allied strategic bombing campaign on Germanys war potential and how effective were the steps Hitler ordered against it? Finally, what did the leading military figures of the Third Reich such as Field Marshals von Rundstedt, Rommel, Kluge, Bock, Model and Kleist think of Hitlers command? Did the Chiefs of the General Staff during the war Halder, Zeitzler and Guderian state their views? And what was the effect of the attempt on Hitlers life through Operation Valkyrie on military operations? Hitler's Command is the third in a three part in depth study and deals with Hitlers influence on the Wehrmacht and how his decisions influenced the advancement of weapons technology in this pivotal era of the Second World War.
Author: Norman Ferguson Publisher: Summersdale ISBN: 1783726172 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 108
Book Description
Have you ever wondered... • How fast a Spitfire could travel? • Which pilot won Fighter Command’s only Victoria Cross? • What a ‘Stuka Party’ was? Telling the stories of the commanders, the air raids, the pilots, the aircraft and the vital use of the world’s first radar air defence system, this comprehensive miscellany is a compelling guide to this most crucial of Second World War battles – the first to be fought solely in the air.
Author: Sönke Neitzel Publisher: Pen and Sword ISBN: 1783830557 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 863
Book Description
These transcripts of wiretapped conversations between Nazi officers reveal “a fascinating—and chilling—insight into the German view of the war” (Financial Times). Between 1939 and 1942, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence created a number of POW interrogation camps in and around London where they secretly recorded private conversations between senior German staff officers. In this extraordinary work, historian Sonke Neitzel examines these transcripts in depth and presents the private thoughts, opinions, and secrets of Nazi officers during the Second World War. These transcripts address important questions regarding the officers’ attitudes towards the German leadership and Nazi policies: How did the German generals judge the overall war situation? From what date did they consider it lost? How did they react to the attempt on Hitler’s life in July 1944? What knowledge did they have of the atrocities? By turns insightful and horrifying, this unprecedented research is a must for any serious scholar of the period. “A goldmine of information about what the German High Command privately thought of the war, Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and each other.” —Daily Mail
Author: Geoff Hewitt
Author: Adrian Stewart
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Author: Clay Blair
Author: Garry Campion
Author: Garry Campion
Author: James Ellman
Author: Rex Bashford
Author: Norman Ferguson
Author: Sönke Neitzel