Customer Reviews

The Second World War, 1939-45: A Strategical And Tactical History

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is, as the title suggests, a Strategical and Tactical, not Political, history of the Second World War; and it accomplishes this task magnificently. Fuller analyzes both theaters of operations in terms of initiative and resources giving invaluable, and relatively unbiased, insights into successes and failures at all levels of warfare, then integrating the tactical, operational, and strategic levels, demonstating how they affected each other and how they lead to the ultimate results of the operations, campaigns, and war itself. No military studies or modern military history library is complete without this work, which contains analyses that are essential to an understanding of the Second World War from a military perspective.

JFC Fuller, the author of The Second World War: A Strategical and Tactical History, just cannot be surpassed for the ability to see the big (REALLY BIG) picture and point out the good and bad in the strategic moves of the Allies and the Axis in the Second World War.

For example, he is able to strip apart the decision by England and France to go to war over Poland, and he thinks it was a big error. Fuller calls attention to the debacle after Munich, and how the USSR was ready to intervene with the Allies to stop Hitler. But the Allies folded, and now Stalin perceived it was best for him to side with Hitler - and least for the moment. In 1939 the picture had changed, and England and France knew it. They also knew they could not significantly help Poland. Also, their decision was an abrupt change in policy which caught Hitler by surprise (so says Fuller) and he could not be expected to change his foreign policy so quickly.

I do not agree with every point Fuller makes. For instance, I think Hitler was given many diplomatic warnings after he took over Checkoslovakia so the change in Allied position could not have been unexpected. But my criticism is beside the point. What JFC Fuller makes the reader do is THINK. And that is what history is all about.

All through the book the author examines the tactics and strategy of the two sides from an expert's point of view. And he is an expert. This book was published before the secrets of Ultra and Magic were revealed, and Fuller decided not to alter his book (published in 1947) because of the new information. He decided his analysis was correct and the new information did not change his strategic thoughts. That is how broad his strategic thinking is - even something so important as Ultra did not throw off his big picture examination of the war.

A great book!

AD2

If you want to study history from a military standpoint, you cannot beat J.F.C. Fuller.

As he is fond of saying, "War is an extension of politics." In all his books he begins his discussions by describing why the two sides are at war. What is each side trying to accomplish? He then narrows his focus to the particular battle in question. What is the relevance of this battle to the two antagonists and to the war he is discussing? He introduces the leaders of the two opposing forces, and discusses each sides strengths and weaknesses. He explains the plan each leader had going into the battle, and how the leader reacted to unexpected developments. And, of course, he describes the terrain, the effects of the terrain on each sides endeavors, and describes the battle. Unlike most historians, J.F.C. Fuller tells you why the winner won and why the loser lost. He doesn't pull any punches. If somebody messed up, he lets you know. For example he appears to have no fondness for Winston Churchill even though General Fuller is British. And, finally, he describes why this battle is important in history. For example, he claims that if the Christians had lost the Battle of Lepanto, we would all be Muslims today.

I have read five of General Fuller's books, and I highly recommend him.

The word "Jews" has just three appearances in this book, "Jewish" just one.

On page 400 "... the Germans exterminated hundreds of thousands of Jews and locked up hundreds of thousands of people in concentration camps."

The other two appear along with "Jewish" on page 30, where Fuller quotes from Mein Kampf.

I thought that the book conveyed clearly the military struggle on all of the fronts in the second world war. The author was an early proponent of the mechanised warfare that characterised the second world war. He explains the tactics and strategy of the antagonists he explains well and quite even-handedly. Giving credit and blame where they are due. The book falls down on the politics. The second world war was not like the gentlemanly affairs of the eighteenth century. It was a war of peoples and ideologies. The author is clearly more in sympathy with the beaten Germans (He was after all a supporter of Mosley). He can be understood for criticising the policy of strategic bombing (a waste of military resources he thinks), but he hardly mentions the extermination of the jews, gypsies and millions of Russians and Poles by Herr Hitler's forces. The killing of so many people helped the Nazi war effort not one bit. This book was published in 1954, so the author could not plead ignorance.