Introduction
The following introduction is provided by Pen and Sword:
This third volume sees Hitler experiencing problems reminiscent of a previous invader of Russia, Napoleon Bonaparte: extreme winter conditions that first drenched then froze the vast Nazi war machine, immobilizing tanks, guns, support vehicles and grounding the Luftwaffe. Unlike Napoleon, Hitler failed to capture Moscow.
In North Africa, the British were sent reeling back towards Egypt when Rommel launched an attack at the end of January. Much to the amazement of all and the disappointment of Churchill – the Axis troops took Tobruk in a single day. Churchill dismissed the commander and appointed Montgomery, who made a stand at El Alamein.
Great Britain’s stand-alone position ended abruptly on when Tojo launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Both Hitler and Mussolini declared war on the United States and the war became global. With the attack on Pearl Harbor the Japanese flooded through the South Pacific, the Philippines, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Burma all fell to the Japanese. Once more Great Britain was humiliated when Singapore surrendered and thousands of Allied troops went into captivity.
An attempt by the Japanese to deliver a knock-out blow to the Americans by an attack on Midway failed catastrophically and the Americans scored a momentous victory in the Pacific.
Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris became leader of the RAF and the thousand bomber raids and carpet bombing of German cities began.
The third year of the war ended with the disastrous Dieppe Raid, carried out by Canadians, in August 1942.
Review
This offering from Pen and Sword titled “The Second World War - The Third Year” is authored by Jack Holroyd. This is a soft backed book of 280 pages of a semi gloss paper. The contents of this release are set out as follows:
Chapter 1 Hitler’s First Russian Winter
Chapter 2 Rommel and the Fall of Tobruk
Chapter 3 Tojo Attacks Pearl Harbour
Chapter 4 Jap Onslaught in South East Asia
Chapter 5 Toyko Attacked - The Dolittle Revenge Raid
Chapter 6 Battle of the Coral Sea, and the Battle of Midway
Chapter 7 British Target Saint Nazaire Dry Dock
Chapter 8 Operation Biting - The Bruneval Raid
Chapter 9 RAF starts Ariel Bombing: Target Civilians
Chapter 10 Hitler battles for the Casus Oil Fields
Chapter 11 The Canadians Land at Dieppe
This offering from Pen and Sword covers the events as listed above in pictorial format. You are presented with black and white period photographs, plus a smattering of coloured images showing different aspects of these events. As such you get a visual record of events at sea, on the land and in the air. You are also presented with photographs of the people at the top. Each of the photographs is accompanied by a caption, which do a good job of giving the photographs some context. The images contained in some cases, clearly show the human cost of war from the death of a ship, through to the death of a soldier. All aspects of war can be found between the card cover of this release.
Conclusion
This release brings together an interesting collection of photographs, which due to covering the full range of war should provide something of interest to everyone. The photographs chosen are all of a good quality and some pictures that stick in my mind are a horse on the Eastern Front that has sunk in mud halfway up it’s torso, a dead British Marine on a raid, and something that if of particular interest to me the Dieppe Raid - which while a failure, provided a lot of information that was put to good use on D-Day. So in short, you are provided with a pictorial history of events that occurred in the third year of World War II.