Most of us rally around the glory of the Allies' victory over the Nazis
in World War II. The story is often told of how the good fight was won
by an astonishing array of manpower and stunning tactics. However, what
is often overlooked is how the intersection between Adolf Hitler's
influential personality and his military strategy was critical in
causing Germany to lose the war.
With an acute eye for detail and
his use of clear prose, acclaimed military historian Bevin Alexander
goes beyond counterfactual "What if?" history and explores for the first
time just how close the Allies were to losing the war. Using
beautifully detailed, newly designed maps, How Hitler Could Have Won World War II
exquisitely illustrates the important battles and how certain key
movements and mistakes by Germany were crucial in determining the war's
outcome. Alexander's harrowing study shows how only minor tactical
changes in Hitler's military approach could have changed the world we
live in today.
How Hitler Could Have Won World War II untangles some of the war's most confounding strategic questions, such as:
Why
didn't the Nazis concentrate their enormous military power on the only
three beaches upon which the Allies could launch their attack into
Europe?
Why did the terrifying German panzers, on the brink of
driving the British army into the sea in May 1940, halt their advance
and allow the British to regroup and evacuate at Dunkirk?
With the
chance to cut off the Soviet lifeline of oil, and therefore any hope of
Allied victory from the east, why did Hitler insist on dividing and
weakening his army, which ultimately led to the horrible battle of
Stalingrad?
Ultimately, Alexander probes deeply into the crucial
intersection between Hitler's psyche and military strategy and how his
paranoia fatally overwhelmed his acute political shrewdness to answer
the most terrifying question: Just how close were the Nazis to victory?
Why
did Hitler insist on terror bombing London in the late summer of 1940,
when the German air force was on the verge of destroying all of the RAF
sector stations, England's last defense?
With the opportunity to
drive the British out of Egypt and the Suez Canal and occupy all of the
Middle East, therefore opening a Nazi door to the vast oil resources of
the region, why did Hitler fail to move in just a few panzer divisions
to handle such an easy but crucial maneuver?
On the verge of a
last monumental effort and concentration of German power to seize Moscow
and end Stalin's grip over the Eastern front, why did the Nazis divert
their strength to bring about the far less important surrender of Kiev,
thereby destroying any chance of ever conquering the Soviets?
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