A World at Arms

WORLDWIDE PRAISE for
A World at Arms

“... the prose is clear, the detail arresting and the arguments carefully deployed ... This is a tour de force, classical diplomatic history at its best. Mr. Weinberg’s global view of the war pays dividends again and again.”

– David Reynolds,
The New York Times Book Review
“Mr. Weinberg has provided a masterful study that captures the global sweep, carnage and ultimate triumph of this war. It is a book to read, ponder and then reread. Quite simply,
A World at Arms
had now taken its place as the one–volume history of the Second World War.”

– Calvin L. Christman,
Dallas Morning News

“This brilliant and exhaustively researched masterwork is simply the best book to date on World War II.”

– Detroit Free Press

“Splendid and truly encyclopedic ... A vast public of many nationalities needs to know what happened to the world between 1939 and 1945. Intelligent, learned, methodical, patient and lucid, Mr. Weinberg’s book may well stand for the next twenty years as the most important instrument available to serve this need.”

– The Economist

“There can be no better book to turn to than this for an explanation of the whole war ... there seems to be nothing about which Gerhard Weinberg is not an expert ... the text is a masterpiece of clear, level-headed explanation, remarkably free of the sound of any axe-grinding.”

– The Sunday Telegraph

“This is a monumental work incorporating the major secondary literature, of which there is now a huge amount, as well as original research. No doubt it will remain one of the standard reference works on the Second World War, a tribute to Gerhard Weinberg’s industry and perseverance.”

– John A. S. Grenville,
The Times Higher Education Supplement

“This work by a German refugee of the time is a refreshing and stimulating perspective from which to review the war as a whole.”

– Eoghan Corry,
Irish Press

Germany

“Fifty years after World War II, which decisively marked the face of this century, there is now a marvelous, all–embracing complete account of it from a global perspective, which is without parallel. Weinberg always tries to grasp all aspects of the global conflict and to fit them into a comprehensive treatment. Whether dealing with the fighting on land, sea, or in the air, espionage or reconnaissance, psychological warfare or weapons systems–with each new invention often leading to a counter-weapon–nothing is left out. Furthermore, he tries to assign the individual aspects their proper weight, an especially difficult undertaking. He has been successful in this over and over again.”

– Hans-Adolf Jacobsen,
Das Parlament

“... a global history of the war deserving the attention of serious scholars and amateur historians alike ... a well-researched clearly written book that will provide new insights to most readers.”

– Ken Belson,
The Daily Yomiuri

“Let it be said loud and clear. Any reader with the remotest interest in modern history needs to be alerted to the existence of this book. Weinberg’s
A World at Arms
... is an extraordinary achievement.”

– Trevor Wilson,
The Sydney Review

“Professor Weinberg has achieved probably the most succinct, yet all-embracing, account of World War II ... Not only has he achieved what he set out to accomplish, but he has done it in a manner both absorbing and eminently readable. It is one of the great war histories of the century.”

– Frank Cranson,
Canberra Times

“This is a huge and highly educated history of World War II on all of its fronts.”

– Jan Sandstrom,
Arvika

GERHARD L. WEINBERG

A WORLD AT ARMS

A GLOBAL HISTORY OF

WORLD WAR II

Second Edition

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press

32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA
www.cambridge.org

Information on this title:
www.cambridge.org/9780521618267

© Cambridge University Press 1994, 2005

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 1994
Second edition first published 2005

Reprinted 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010

Printed in the United States of America
A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A world at arms : a global history of World War II 2nd ed. / Gerhard L. Weinberg.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-521-85316-8–ISBN 0-521-61826-6 (pb.) 1. World War, 1939–1945. I. Weinberg, Gerhard L.

D743 .W424 2005

ISBN 978-0-521-85316-3 Hardback

ISBN 978-0-52161826-7 Paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third–party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

FOR JANET

CONTENTS

List of maps

Preface to the new edition

Preface to the first edition

List of abbreviations

Introduction

1 From one war to another

2 From the German and Soviet invasions of Poland to the German attack in the West, September 1, 1939 to May 10, 1940

3 The world turned upside down

4 The expanding conflict, 1940–1941

5 The Eastern Front and a changing war, June to December, 1941

6 Halting the Japanese advance, halting the German advance; keeping them apart and shifting the balance: December 1941 to November 1942

7 The war at sea, 1942–1944, and the blockade

8 The war in Europe and North Africa 1942–1943: to and from Stalingrad; to and from Tunis

9 The home front

10 Means of warfare: old and new

11 From the spring of 1943 to summer 1944

12 The assault on Germany from all sides

13 Tensions in both alliances

14 The halt on the European fronts

15 The final assault on Germany

16 The war in the Pacific: from Leyte to the
Missouri

Conclusions: the cost and impact of war

Bibliographic essay

Notes

Index

MAPS

1 The invasion and partition of Poland, 1939

2 The German invasion of Denmark and Norway, 1940

3 The German campaign in the West, 1940

4 The campaigns in East and North Africa, 1940–1941

5 The campaigns in the Balkans, 1940–1941

6 The Finnish portion of the Eastern Front, 1941–1945

7 The German invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941–1942

8 The Eastern Front, 1943–1944

9 The campaigns in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1945

10 The campaigns in North Africa, 1942–1943

11 The campaigns in the West, 1944–1945

12 The Eastern Front, 1944–1945

13 The Japanese attack, 1941–1942

14 The campaigns in New Guinea, 1942–1945

15 The campaigns in the Solomons, 1942–1945

16 The Central Pacific campaign, 1943–1945

17 The campaigns in the Philippines, 1944–1945

18 The campaign in Malaya, 1941–1942

19 The campaigns in Burma and India, 1942–1945

20 The war in China, 1941–1945

21 The war in the Indian Ocean

22 The campaign on Okinawa

23 The campaign in Manchuria and the invasion of Japan

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION

In the decade since this book was published, kind readers have followed the request in the original Preface to send me corrections. I am most grateful to those who have taken the trouble to call to my attention errors that it has been possible to correct in subsequent printings. Reviewers of the book have been very kind to it. In the intervening decade, there have been important new materials made accessible to scholars and there has, in addition, been a continuous outpouring of scholarly works dealing with the greatest war of which we know. While there may be an opportunity to revise the book as a whole, in the meantime this is a good interval at which to point to some areas where either changes will be needed or new studies have reinforced the interpretation previously offered.