Why Germany Nearly Won: A New History of the Second World War in Europe(War, Technology, and History)

This book offers a unique perspective for understanding how and why the Second World War in Europe ended as it did—and why Germany, in attacking the Soviet Union, came far closer to winning the war than is often perceived. Why Germany Nearly Won: A New History of the Second World War in Europe challenges this conventional wisdom in highlighting how the re-establishment of the traditional German art of war—updated to accommodate new weapons systems—paved the way for Germany to forge a considerable military edge over its much larger potential rivals by playing to its qualitative strengths as a continental power. Ironically, these methodologies also created and exacerbated internal contradictions that undermined the same war machine and left it vulnerable to enemies with the capacity to adapt and build on potent military traditions of their own. The book begins by examining topics such as the methods by which the German economy and military prepared for war, the German military establishment's formidable strengths, and its weaknesses. The book then takes an entirely new perspective on explaining the Second World War in Europe. It demonstrates how Germany, through its invasion of the Soviet Union, came within a whisker of cementing a European-based empire that would have allowed the Third Reich to challenge the Anglo-American alliance for global hegemony—an outcome that by commonly cited measures of military potential Germany never should have had even a remote chance of accomplishing. The book's last section explores the final year of the war and addresses how Germany was able to hang on against the world's most powerful nations working in concert to engineer its defeat.

Table of Contents:
Maps Tables Series Foreword Preface Key to Military Symbols Part I 1. The German War Machine on the Eve of War: Myth versus Reality 2. The Third Reich Ascendant: The Reasons Why Part II 3. Comparing the World's First Military Superpowers on the Eve of War 4. History's Bloodiest Conflict Begins 5. An Inconvenient Decision Confronts Germany's Masters of War 6. Another Roll of the Dice 7. Stalingrad in Context 8. The European War's Periphery 9. Seizing the Initiative: The Sword versus the Shield Part III 10. A New Perspective for Explaining D-Day's Outcome 11. Hitler's Greatest Defeat 12. How the Third Reich Staved Off Total Defeat during the Summer of 1944 13. End Game Notes Selected Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Steven D. Mercatante is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Globe at War, a website focused on exploring World War II.

Review :
This is an intriguing book that will surely be of great interest to students of World War II. It offers a fresh analysis of why Germany was beaten and poses reasons why it should have won. Offers a fresh perspective on key events like the D-Day landings . . . Mercatante's scholarship is undoubtedly on solid ground, which makes this book a welcome addition to Second World War bibliography. Mercatante (independent scholar) challenges conventional wisdom about Allied success in Europe through an impressive operational overview of Operation Barbarossa and various battles on the Eastern Front, D-Day, and the final drive into Germany. . . . Recommended. A thought-provoking book. . . . Mercatante's main purpose is to counter widespread arguments that brute force was the main reason for success in World War II. . . . The Germans, he argues, repeatedly demonstrated that qualitative advantages could be more important than quantitative superiority in men and materiel, and that the Allied armies eventually won because they became better at mobile and combined arms warfare than their enemies. . . . [Mercatante's] case deserves to be heard. Even those familiar with World War II scholarship will find here analyses of economic and technological matters that historians have often glossed over or mentioned only in passing. . . .There is . . . much sound analysis scattered through this book.