Why The Allies Won By Richard Overy

1. Why The Allies WonBy Richard Overy Michael Rhine Period 11 March 25, 2012

2. My Interest In This Book: • I like reading WWI and WWII books. • I have a grandfather who flew a B-17 in WWII. • This seemed like it would be a good book.

3. Facts I Knew About WWII: • WWII was fought between 1939 and 1945 between the Allies and the Axis Powers. • The three major Allies were the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union. • The Axis States were Germany, Italy, and Japan. • WWII was fought in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and the Atlantic.

4. Facts That I Learned From This Book: Italy played both sides during the war. Italy was originally an Axis State, but later broke from the Axis in 1943, but Italians continued to fight for both sides. After that, Italy officially joined the allies

5. Facts That I Learned From This Book: Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan were communist dictatorships during the war, which was part of the problem of the war. All three Axis States had actually been democratic states before the war. Hitler took over Germany before the war. Mussolini took over Italy before the war, and the Japanese Imperial Army took over Japan before the war.

6. Facts That I Learned From This Book: Britain probably would have lost the war if it had not been for the help and support of the United States. half of it’s food, and two thirds of it’s raw materials from abroad. Much of this was the oil vital for warfare. The German submarines ‘U-boats,’ were strangling Britain’s imports, and the country was soon not getting all of it’s needed materials. Much of Britain’s imports already came the U.S., and after France was defeated, Britain was fighting all by itself. The U.S. getting involved in the war practically saved Britain, though the British still fought their own way through the war admirably,

7. Facts That I Learned From This Book: Throughout WWII, there was a constant ‘tug-of-war’ between the Axis and the Allies over technology. Constant advances in technology and tactics made enemy technology useless. For example, German U-boats made Allied shipping nearly impossible. After this, the Allies began to use radar for their aircraft to be able to detect the U-boats to destroy them and for their ships to be able to avoid them. The Germans then used radar jammers to counter this and used radar on their U-boats. With the introduction of radar jammers, the Allies used radar with shorter length waves, not jammed by German technology and produced and produced their own radar jammers. After that, the Germans produced short wave radar. The technology ‘battle’ was like this throughout the war.

8. Facts That I Learned From This Book: I learned from this book that the Soviet Union’s legendary defeat of the German invaders at Stalingrad was very nearly an Axis victory. The Soviet Union was warned about the German invasion of Stalingrad by the British, but Stalin regarded this as misinformation. This was a huge mistake, as Germany did, in fact invade Stalingrad shortly afterward- and Stalingrad was the weakest point of the entire Soviet front. Taken by complete surprise Stalingrad was almost defeated. Soviet forces were scattered and confronted by German tanks. After the Soviets had given up hope, the Soviet Union managed to build a force of over a million men under the cover of darkness and poor weather, including almost 1000 tanks and 1350 aircraft. It was this force that won the battle of Stalingrad, virtually turning around the war.

9. Most Interesting Information Something that I found very interesting was that Hitler did not want anything to do with the military earlier on in life shortly before WWI. The one thing he did want to do was become a painter. He became a draft dodger, escaping the Austrian authorities who wanted him to do military service. Once he was caught, a doctor found him unfit for service. Shortly later, he listened to a speech that made him want to join the military. This was the start of his military career.

10. Critique I personally think that this is a good book. I believe Richard Overy chose an excellent way to write this book. There have been many WWII books centered around the history of the war, but Overy actually did explain why the Allies won. This was surely a difficult task to tackle, as there are so many things that affected the outcome of the war. This was easily the hardest book I have ever read, and for that reason, I would only recommend this book to someone who, like me, likes WWII books.

11. WWII Significance WWII helped lead to women’s rights movements. WWII solidified Democracy in the United States and Britain. The war pulled the U.S. closer together, and led to the forming of the United Nations. It is now actually in Japanese law that The country does not get involved in outside conflicts. WWII continues to have significance even today.