ANDREW ROBERTS The Storm of War A New History of the Second World War ALLEN LANE an imprint of PENGUIN BOOKS ALLEN LANE Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England www.penguin.com First published 2009 1 Copyright © Andrew Roberts, 2009 The moral right of the author has been asserted All rights reserved Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book ISBN: 978-0-14-193886-8 To the memory of Frank Johnson (1943–2006) I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 4 June 1940 Contents List of Illustrations List of Maps Preface Prelude: The Pact PART I Onslaught 1 Four Invasions: September 1939–April 1940 2 Führer Imperator: May–June 1940 3 Last Hope Island: June 1940–June 1941 4 Contesting the Littoral: September 1939–June 1942 5 Kicking in the Door: June–December 1941 6 Tokyo Typhoon: December 1941–May 1942 PART II Climacteric 7 The Everlasting Shame of Mankind: 1939–1945 8 Five Minutes at Midway: June 1942–October 1944 9 Midnight in the Devil’s Gardens: July 1942–May 1943 10 The Motherland Overwhelms the Fatherland: January 1942–February 1943 11 The Waves of Air and Sea: 1939–1945 12 Up the Wasp-Waist Peninsula: July 1943–May 1945 PART III Retribution 13 A Salient Reversal: March–August 1943 14 The Cruel Reality: 1939–1945 15 Norman Conquest: June–August 1944 16 Western Approaches: August 1944–March 1945 17 Eastern Approaches: August 1943–May 1945 18 Land of the Setting Sun: October 1944–September 1945 Conclusion: Why Did the Axis Lose the Second World War? Notes Bibliography Index List of Illustrations 1 General Werner von Blomberg and Adolf Hitler at Ulm in September 1933 (Getty Images) 2 The signing of the Nazi–Soviet Pact, 24 August 1939 (Topfoto) 3 Benito Mussolini, Hitler, Major-General Alfred Jodl and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, 25 August 1941 (akg-images/ullstein bild) 4 Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, Keitel and SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler confering with Hitler, 10 April 1942 (akg-images) 5 Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt inspecting the Atlantic Wall, 18 April 1944 (akg-images) 6 Field Marshal Erich von Manstein (Bettmann/Corbis) 7 General Heinz Guderian (Topfoto) 8 Field Marshal Walter (Austrian Archives/Corbis) 9 Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive-bomber, 1940 (The Art Archive) 10 Refugees fleeing Paris, June 1940 (Getty Images) 11 Operation Dynamo, Dunkirk, May 1940 (Imperial War Museum, NYP – 68075) 12 Allied vehicles, arms, stores and ammunition disabled and left behind in France, 27 May 1940 (akg-images) 13 RAF and Luftwaffe planes battling over Kent, 3 September 1940 (AP/PA Photos) 14 Pilots of 87 Squadron scrambling to their Hurricanes (The Art Archive/Imperial War Museum Photo Archive IWM) 15 Hitler and Goebbels at the Berghof, 1940 (Mary Evans Picture Library) 16 Operation Barbarossa, summer 1941 (ullstein bild/Topfoto) 17 Operation Typhoon stuck in atrocious mud, October 1941 (Robert Hunt Picture Library) 18 German soldiers surrendering to Russians, late 1941 (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images) 19 US Navy Douglas Dauntless dive-bombers at the battle of Midway, early 6 June 1942 (National Archives/courtesy Armchair General ®) 20 USS Yorktown at the battle of Midway, 4 June 1942 (National Archives/courtesy Armchair General ®) 21 Generals Sir Claude Auchinleck and Sir Archibald Wavell in the Western Desert, 1941 (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images) 22 General Harold Alexander in Tunisia, early 1943 (Popperfoto/Getty Images) 23 General Erwin Rommel at Tobruk, June 1942 (Popperfoto/Getty Images) 24 Soldiers of the 9th Australian Division at the battle of El Alamein (Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria) 25 Jews undergoing ‘selection’ for work details at Auschwitz-Birkenau, late May 1944 (USHMM, courtesy of Yad Vashem – Public Domain. The views or opinions expressed in this book and the context in which the images are used, do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of, nor imply approval or endorsement by, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) 26 Corpses at the Dachau concentration camp, 29 April 1945 (Getty Images) 27 Destruction in Stalingrad, late 1942 (Getty Images) 28 Russian artillery in Stalingrad, early 1943 (RIA Novosti/Topfoto) 29 President Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and others at the Casablanca Conference, January (Getty Images) 30 General Charles de Gaulle and General Henri Giraud in Algiers, 30 May 1943 (Bettmann/Corbis) 31 A convoy of merchantmen crossing the Atlantic, June 1943 (The Mariners’ Museum/Corbis) 32 The captain of a U-boat at his periscope (Cody Images) 33 The battle of Kursk, July 1943 (Cody Images) 34 Russian soldiers pass a burning Soviet tank at Kursk (Getty Images) 35 General Sir William Slim in Burma, 1944 (Getty Images) 36 Major General Orde Wingate (Bettmann/Corbis) 37 General Tomoyuki Yamashita (Getty Images) 38 General George S. Patton Jr (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images) 39 General Mark Clark in Rome, 5 June 1944 (Getty Images) 40 D-Day, 08.40 hours, 6 June (Imperial War Museum, B 5103) 41 American troops behind anti-tank obstacles on Omaha Beach (Topfoto) 42 Mussolini, Hitler, Göring and Ribbentrop two days after the 20 July 1944 Bomb (AP/PA Photos) 43 General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Montgomery, June 1944. (Bettmann/Corbis) 44 Russian infantry in Belorussia during Operation Bagration, June 1944