How the War Was Won

Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II

Phillips Payson O'Brien

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781108716895
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316235959
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

World War II is usually seen as a titanic land battle, decided by mass armies, most importantly those on the Eastern Front. Phillips Payson O'Brien shows us the war in a completely different light. In this compelling new history of the Allied path to victory, he argues that in terms of production, technology and economic power, the war was far more a contest of air and sea than of land supremacy. He shows how the Allies developed a predominance of air and sea power which put unbearable pressure on Germany and Japan's entire war-fighting machine from Europe and the Mediterranean to the Pacific. Air and sea power dramatically expanded the area of battle and allowed the Allies to destroy over half of the Axis' equipment before it had even reached the traditional 'battlefield'. Battles such as El Alamein, Stalingrad and Kursk did not win World War II; air and sea power did.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Table of contents
• List of figures
• List of maps
• List of tables
• Acknowledgments
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 The dominance of air and sea production
• 2 The air and sea war and the phases of equipment destruction
• 3 The air and sea war to November 1940
• 4 Grand strategists and the air and sea war
• 5 Understanding the air and sea war from December 1940 to March 1942
• 6 Grand strategy in action: prioritizing the air and sea war
• 7 Winning the shipping war
• 8 The war in Europe in 1943: strategic bombing and the land war
• 9 The war in Europe in 1944
• 10 The air and sea war against Japan, 1942-4
• 11 The end of the war
• Conclusion: the supremacy of air and sea power and the control of mobility
• Notes
• Select bibliography
• Index