I don't need a single book (or series) that summarizes all of WW2. But I'm looking for any book that meaningfully weaves together the way different elements played out together in any theater in WW2.
I'm most interested in theaters where naval, air, and land forces all fought. Most books focus on a "battle narrative" that emphasizes one particular theater, but I'm looking for something that studies the interaction between the three. The glue that holds them all together is logistics, which tends to get neglected in most books despite Napoleon's maxim to the contrary.
Eric Bergerud's Fire in the Sky and Touched by Fire do a good job of weaving together the air and land wars in the South Pacific, and the former provides some interesting allusions to the naval battles (primarily in order to demonstrate the supremacy of local air power in dominating sea lanes).
I'd love a book that weaves together this narrative for North Africa. Almost all the detailed accounts I've found focus on only one aspect of the battle, or they focus only on one side's conduct of the battle.
I'm not as interested in the Eastern Front, as I just don't have any side to root for there (aside from maybe the Finns?).
I haven't read it, but The Second World War by Antony Beevor is supposed to be quite a good overview. Beevor is very much a pop historian with a focus on weaving tales out of historical events (not to the extent of being historical fiction, but still).
I have read a lot of Beevor's books and liked them all.
Not sure if this meets your requirements but if I could only have one book about WW2 this one would be that book.
https://www.amazon.com/2194-Days-War-Illustrated-Illustrations/dp/B00E0JIWYI#:~:text=2194%20Days%20of%20War%20presents,scale%20of%20events%2C%20by%20relating
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1QoR5fSwGL._SY342_.jpg)
I have it and read it from cover to cover. It's filled with entries for every single day of the war as well as mini sections covering particular aspects.
The Thousand Mile War is an excellent and award-winning account tying together all elements of the Alaskan theater: land, sea, air, logistics. Very thorough yet, due to the limited theater scope, digestable.
I also own a Rabaul trilogy which reportedly does a great job tying land/sea/air together for that location, though I haven't read it yet.
Hm, everything else I know of tying S/A/L together tends to be operational rather than theater. Even the Rabaul trilogy is operational in scope, though by timeframe seems more like a minor theater.
Will ponder.
Quote from: al_infierno on October 04, 2023, 01:43:38 PMI haven't read it, but The Second World War by Antony Beevor is supposed to be quite a good overview. Beevor is very much a pop historian with a focus on weaving tales out of historical events (not to the extent of being historical fiction, but still).
its... not the easiest book to chew through. and you do have to do a lot of chewing.
I think its gotten its praise mostly due to when it was released and the writing styles of the time.
Glantz's Kursk book is excellent on facts to the point its almost dry but a good read.
Sidenote: Having a good WW2 book at your side whilst playing your favorite WW2 video game is Nirvana!
Alan Clark's Barbarossa maybe.
Eisenhower's classic Crusade in Europe is definitely a theater-sized overview of WW2, naturally more focused on the US but he provides preliminary context of what was going on while the US prepared for entry, and how the situation got to the start of Torch operations. Then of course everything after.
Now, for a recent well-regarded tome on theater-level analyses of WW2, Victor Davis Hanson's The Second World Wars (plural) seems like it should be good. It covers all of WW2, but in theater-sized chunks. I've had it wishlisted since release, though haven't gotten around to it yet, so I can't personally recommend it (yet).
You could try checking into The Path to Victory by Douglas Porch. It's a study of the Mediterranean Theater in WW2. Been a long time since I read it so not sure I can give a decent description of it at the moment.
Edit: I guess it's telling that I popped the book open at random and ended up reading for 20 minutes. Nice description of condition of Italian armed forces just before the invasion of Greece. Mussolini was actually demobilizing at the same time he was planning to invade. Gave his commanders 2 weeks to plan it!
Thanks, all! I appreciate the recommendations. I've read The Thousand Mile War, and it did a good job, as you say.
Of course, the recurring theme was, "Men of great valor fought on both sides, and regularly died due to weather."