Why the Allies Won

"Why the Allies Won" is an overview of the major forces in the war instead of a recitation of the tactics. It is a great book about WWII that is engrossing to a person who is interested in history, but not in the details of the battles. A well written text, it is a very easy read, engrossing.

As we look back on World War II, I think we all take for granted the Allied victory of 1945.
What Mr. Overy maintains is that the balance between victory and defeat was very fragile indeed. In the beginning of this great global conflict, all these later victories and accolades were not set in cement. One can still hear the trepidation and quiet courage of Winston Churchill in his speeches given to his British constituency in 1941, when Great Britain was all alone in its struggle with the Nazi menace.
Recent theories and analysis have many historians writing of the great efforts and sacrifices of the USSR. In restating this history, these rewriters have a tendency in giving far too much credit to the Soviet war effort. While it is quite true that without the Soviet effort the results of the conflict would have indeed been different, one must realize that if it were not for Great Britain's persistence, the Soviet Union would have been crushed with Germany fighting a one front war. If Great Britain had not provided that second front along with the economic stimulus from the Lend Lease Act providing shipments of food and supplies at Archangel, the Soviet Union would have been doomed to defeat.
The best trained Army belonged to Germany. It is in fact that this superior fighting force was bogged down by the second rate strategies of Adolph Hitler. If these strategies were played out with more foresight and intelligence, the results could have been a Nazi victory.
Richard Overy has written a wonderful recap of this great world conflict. His take on the Russian front and the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk are well researched and written.
Also Overy's take on Allied bombing is non-traditional. Allied bombing was always considered a major disappointment in Europe. Ironically Churchill never thought it a disappointment. It is Overy's take that the bombings performed a major assistance to the war effort in that it depleted the Luftwaffe and established later air superiority. Indeed the use of these bombing campaigns led to the attrition of the Luftwaffe capabilities.
Overy's thesis on the battle of the Atlantic states his key take on the turning of the tide of the world conflict in 1943.
The Author goes into the war in the Pacific and states the turning point as the Battle of Midway. This is the rather traditional theory. He also points to America's technical and strategic superiority in the Pacific Theater.
It is the Author's thesis that Germany and Japan held formidable advantages in 1941 and 1942. What happened? Overy argues that the Allies learned to correct their mistakes and weaknesses. Japan and Germany, who were elated by early success continued in their hubris and eventually became legends in their own minds.
Good read, which gives a different slant of World War II.

Others have offered good reviews of content here, and I'm not up to date on my sources and numbers so I can't critique the book on that front as many of the negative reviews do, so I will limit my review to my experience of it:

It's a great read and I didn't want to put it down. It is a great source for either the question in its title, or simply as a history of WWII, or even just as engaging reading.

It might have more easily come out and given its answer right up front - even now, several weeks later, I'm challenged to repeat it exactly, but perhaps that's because he offers a complex explanation which takes into account not only technological factors, but the interplay between the relative strengths of the Axis and Allies (Axis starting to lose by late 1942 and Allies starting to get going by then), as well as the moral dimension.

Perhaps the best compliment I could give it, is that it is just good reading: for a great and engaging story, for a history of WWII, or to assess why the allies won.

O livro do historiador inglês Richard Overy trabalha com as principais razões pelas quais os aliados (ingleses, russos e americanos principalmente) conseguiram derrotar os países do Eixo durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial.


Embora seja uma publicação relativamente recente (1995) ela permite obter uma visão geral do que foi o conflito e, mais ainda, enumerar de uma forma complexa as razões pelas quais os aliados conseguiram, após um início vacilante, tomar a iniciativa e combater com eficácia.


Embora o livro se perca um pouco no início quando o autor retoma as prinicpais campanhas durante o conflito, a partir do capítulo 6 (A Genius for Mass Production: Economies at War) o desenvolvimento do pensamento do autor fica mais interessante, trabalhando em pontos principais dos aliados em comparação aos dos alemães, japoneses e italianos.


É interessante notar também que o autor trabalha com a perspectiva de explicar a vitória aliada pelos aspectos econômicos, políticos e morais, mostrando que essa aliança, se por um lado apresentava conceitos dúbios (que mais tarde iriam se tornar explícitos durante a Guerra Fria), por outro mostrava a racionalização do poder de produção na construção de um arsenal bélico que os tornava praticamente indestrutíveis. E é interessante perceber, principalmente pelo lado americano, como o gerenciamento das Forças Armadas passava por uma série de soldados e oficiais os quais tinham na vida civil (e não na militar) a sua formação original.


O pesar fica para o final. Se o autor consegue mostrar um texto de fácil compreensão, infelizmente ele poderia ter aprofundado um pouco mais na análise final, que culmina com todo o levantamento de informações cobrindo seis anos de conflito. Acredito que, com uma análise mais profunda, o livro poderia trazer à luz mais questões importantes que, de uma maneira ou de outra, tem seus reflexos ainda no dia-a-dia mundial.


Afora isso, recomendo o livro principalmente no capítulo que trata sobre o bombardeamento estratégico aliado, o qual ainda levanta muitas controvérsias sobre a sua real eficácia durante a guerra.

As a WWII veteran so many of the WWII histories I have read were written within 10 or 20 years of the war. "Why The Allies Won" offered more insight and was more thoroughly researched than any I have read. Yet it was very readable and contained many facts and explanations I had not thought about before.