The Stuggle For Europe
Uploaded by Admin on Jan 22, 1999
Though this student looked in Who's Who and Contemporary Authors, no information on Chester Wilmot could be found. One considered searching the Directory of American Scholars, but that would not be helpful since he is from Australia.
In The Struggle for Europe, Wilmot seeks to explain several points. First, he explores and explains how the western allies succeeded militarily but failed politically during World War II. He then elaborates on how and why the western allies crushed the Nazi regime; yet, they allowed the Soviet Union to overtake Eastern Europe and block the Atlantic Charter from taking effect in those nations. Third, the author discusses Hitler's defeat and Stalin's victory. Fourthly, he endeavors on a mission to explain how the Soviet Union replaced Germany as the dominant European power.
Beginning with the Battle of Britain, the book takes the reader through the war up to the surrender of Germany. In this process Wilmot touches on Hitler's alliance with Mussolini, Hitler's conquest of France, the Lowlands, and the Balkans, and the Nazi dictator's collapse in the expansion of the Soviet Union. The author strategically builds the Allied alliance, through the book's course, and he uses the Normandy invasion to illustrate its full effectiveness. Also included are discussions on the concessions granted to Stalin by the Allies in general, and Franklin D. Roosevelt in particular. President Roosevelt believed that Stalin wanted security for his country with no territorial acquisitions in mind. In order to give the Soviet leader his second front in Europe, FDR also put the Japanese problem in the Pacific aside.
By providing the reader with first-hand quotes and writings from the Nazi war machine's hierarchy, Wilmot looks at the external and internal workings of the German Wehrmacht in meticulous detail. The U-boat campaign, the inadequacies of the Luftwaffe, and the shortcomings of the Panzer divisions are discussed. The war, from April 1940 to May 1945, is expertly covered. He details various meetings of Allied and Axis partners, various battles, and various strategies. In this study, the author used very readable and easily accessible language. Events are described in good detail and his ideas are well related. The emphasis of The Struggle for Europe seems to be on two major topics that are stated in the preface. The first topic deals exclusively with the defeat of Germany. The second topic deals with the alliance between the United States and Great Britain. By covering...