A World at Arms (179 page)

Many of the books dealing with German-occupied Europe are listed in the two volumes of Rich listed above. Two very significant works which must be added to his bibliography on Poland are Gerhard Eisenblatter, “Grundlinien der Politik des Reiches gegenüber dem Generalgouvernement 1939–1945” (Frankfurt/M, Phil. diss, 1969), and Czeslaw Madajzyk,
Die Okkupationspolitik des deutschen Imperialismus in Polen 1939–1945
(Berlin-East: Akademie Verlag, 1987), a revised version of the same author’s 1970 book with extensive material from Polish as well as German archives.

On Britain in the war, the justly famous memoir-history of Winston Churchill has already been mentioned, though it is also necessary to recall that its composition was affected not only by Churchill’s desire for self-justification but also by what he saw as the needs of partisan politics and possible future office holding at the time. The authorized biography by Martin Gilbert, volumes 6–8 (London: Heinemann; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983–88), contains much supplementary material. All of Churchill’s wartime speeches, including those in secret sessions of Parliament, may be found in Robert Rhodes James (ed.),
Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897–1963
(New York: Bowker, 1974), vols. 6–7. Tuvia Ben-Moshe’s article, “Winston Churchill and the ‘Second Front’: A Reappraisal,”
JMH
62 (1990), 503–38,
is a fine discussion of a major controversy. Of great importance is David Dilks’s edition of
The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, O.M.,1938–1945
(New York: Putnam’s, 1972), which provides the insider’s view of the permanent head of Britain’s Foreign Office. The diaries of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff for most of the war, have been edited with extensive commentary by Sir Arthur Bryant as
The Turn of the Tide, and Triumph in the West
(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1957–59). The text has, however, been seriously tampered with, and until a reliable edition is published, one must consult the original at the Liddell Hart Centre in London (see below). I must record my strong belief that one of the outstanding soldiers of this century and one of the architects of Allied victory has been badly served by an adoring editor’s ill-advised “prettifying” of the record which has the long-term effect of calling attention to the very wrinkles and misjudgements concealed in that process. David Fraser’s solid biography,
Alanbrooke
(New York: Atheneum, 1982), unfortunately follows too closely in Bryant’s footsteps to make up for this.

The three volumes of Nigel Hamilton’s authorized biography
Monty
contain very extensive extracts from the papers of Britain’s best known general; General Lord Ismay’s
The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay
(New York: Viking, 1960) may serve as an example of a large number of such works, in this case from the very center of the direction of war. The controversies of the British strategic bombing offensive may be approached through Max Hastings,
Bomber Command
(London: Pan Books, 1981); Norman Longmore,
The Bombers: The RAF Offensive against Germany 1939–1945
(London: Hutchinson, 1983); John Terraine,
A Time for Courage: The Royal Air Force in World War II
(New York: Macmillan, 1985); the spirited defense in the authorized biography, Dudley Saward,
“Bomber” Harris: The Story of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Harris
(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1985); and the 4-volume set in the official British history. Much insight into the workings of the British government and its direction of the war may be found in Brian L. Villa,
Unauthorized Action: Mountbatten and the Dieppe Raid
(Toronto: Oxford Univ. Press, 1989); the relations of London with various resistance forces are surveyed in David Stafford,
Britain and European Resistance: A Survey of the Special Operations Executive
(Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1980).

France and the German victory in the West are covered by Brian Bond,
France and Belgium, 1939–1940
(London: Davis-Poynter, 1975), and the key works of Hans-Adolf Jacobsen,
Fall Gelb: Der Kampf um den deutschen Operationsplan zur Westoffensive 1940
(Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1956),
Dokumente zur Vorgeschichte des Westfeldzuges 1939–1940
and
Dokumente zum Westfeldzug 1940
(Gottingen: Musterschmidt, 1956). Jeffrey A. Gunsberg,
Divided and Conquered: The French High Command and the Defeat of the West, 1940
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979), tries to defend French strategy; Don W. Alexander, “Repercussions of the Breda Variant,”
French Historical Studies
8 (1974), 459–88, demolishes it rather effectively. Bertram M. Gordon,
Collaborationism in France during the Second World War
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1980); Robert O. Paxton,
Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944
(New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1972, 1982); and Eberhard Jäckel,
Frankreich in Hitlers Europa
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1966), seem to me to be the best introductions to the still troubled subject of occupation and collaboration. Eleanor M. Gates,
End of the Affair: The Collapse of the Anglo-French Alliance, 1939–1940
(Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press, 1981), offers a reasoned defense of French policy in 1940; R.T. Thomas provides an introduction to a complicated subject in
Britain and Vichy: The Dilemma of Anglo-French Relations 1940–42
(New York: St. Martin’s, 1979).

There is now a series of outstandingly helpful biographies of French leaders: Marc Ferro,
Pétain
(Paris: Fayard, 1987); Hervé Coutau-Bégarie and Claude Huan,
Darlan
(Paris: Fayard, 1989); and Bernard Pujo,
Juin: Maréchal de France
(Paris: Albin Michel, 1988). On Charles de Gaulle, his own memoirs in their various editions (an English language one,
The War Memoirs
[New York: Viking, 1955]), seem to me still the best introduction.

The military operations in Scandinavia are well introduced by Earl F. Ziemke,
The German Northern Theater of Operations, 1940–1945
(Washington: GPO, 1960). The political side is covered in Hans-Dietrich Loock,
Quisling, Rosenberg und Terhoven: Zur Vorgeschichte und Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Revolution in Norwegen
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1970). A major work on German-Finnish relations is Gerd R. Ueberschar,
Hitler und Finnland
1939–1941:
Die deutsch-finnischen Beziehungen während des Hitler-Stalin Paktes
(Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1978).

On Italy’s role in the war and relations with its Axis partners by far the most helpful book is MacGregor Knox,
Mussolini Unleashed 1939–1941: Politics and Strategy in Fascist Italy’s Last War
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1982). The materials of Mussolini’s Foreign Minister in Hugh Gibson (ed.),
The Ciano Diaries 1939–1943
(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1946), and Malcolm Muggeridge (ed.),
Ciano’s Diplomatic Papers
(London: Odhams, 1948), are both of great importance and make for fascinating reading; the challenges once made to the authenticity and contemporaneity of the diary have been largely refuted. Important for its discussion of key sources is A. Repagi, “Le Procès Graziani,”
Revue d’histoire de la deuxième guerre mondiale,
No.9 (Jan. 1953), 30–37. Two most interesting articles by James J. Sadkovich present a rather favorable view of Italy’s military effort and attempt to correct distortions due to excessive reliance on materials from the German side: “Understanding Defeat: Reappraising Italy’s Role in World War II,”
JCH
24 (1989), 2761, and “Of Myths and Men: Rommel and the Italians in North Africa, 1940–1942 ,”
International History Review
13 (1991), 284–313.

Frederick W. Deakin,
The Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler, and the Fall of Italian Fascism
(New York: Harper & Row, 1962); Conrad F. Latour,
Südtirol und die Achse Berlin-Rom 1938–1945
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1962); and two major studies by Gerhard Schreiber,
Revisionismus und Weltmachtstrehen: Marineführung und deutsch–italienische Beziehungen 1919–1945
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1978) and
Die italienischen Militürinternierten im deutschen Machtbereich 1943–1945
(Munich: Oldenbourg, 1990) are the most important works on Italy’s relations with Germany. The country’s dispute with the Germans over the enthusiasm of the latter for killing Jews is covered by Jonathan Steinberg,
All or Nothing: The Axis and the Holocaust 1941–1943
(London: Routledge, 1990), while Italy’s exit from the war is covered by Josef Schroder,
Italiens Kriegsaustritt 1943
(Göttingen: Musterschmidt, 1969).

The fighting in the Italian peninsula remains covered best in the British and American official histories; there is a most helpful survey in Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell,
Tug of War: The Battle for Italy, 1943–1945
(New York: St. Martin’s, 1986); and there is an especially fine description of the fighting as seen from
the perspective of the New Zealand division in Geoffrey Cox,
The Race for Trieste
(London: Kimber, 1977). A good introduction to the Vatican’s role may be found in Owen Chadwick,
Britain and the Vatican during the Second World War
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1986).

On Spain’s role in the war, Charles B. Burdick,
Germany’s Military Strategy and Spain in World War II
(Syracuse: Univ. of Syracuse Press, 1968); Donald S. Detwiler,
Hitler, Franco und Gibraltar: Die Frage des spanischen Eintritts in den Zweiten “Weltkrieg
(Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1962); Denis Smyth,
Diplomacy and Strategy of Survival: British Policy and Franco’s Spain, 1940–1941
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1986); and David W. Pike, “Franco and the Axis Stigma,”
JCB
17 (1982), 369–407, are particularly good. Important for its use of Spanish and Italian archives is Javier Tusell,
Franco y Mussolini: La política española durante la segunda guerre mundiale
(Barcelona: Planeta, 1985). Very new and different perspectives, drawn from German and Spanish archives, are in the 1991 North Carolina PhD dissertation of Norman J.W. Goda, “Germany and Northwest Africa in the Second World War: Politics and Strategy of Global Hegemony.”

The fighting in the Mediterranean is excellently covered by the British and American official histories; in addition, there is an important book by Michael Howard,
The Mediterranean Strategy in the Second World War
(London: Weidenfeid & Nicolson, 1968). Essential for the central role of the question of Malta is Mariano Gabriele,
Operazione C 3: Malta
(Rome: Ufficio Storico Marina Militare, 1965), in the Italian official history; significant for an understanding of the role of signals intelligence is Alberto Santoni,
Ultra siegt im Mittelmeer
(Koblenz: Bernard & Graefe, 1985). Arthur L. Funk,
The Politics of Torch: The Allied Landings and the Algiers Putsch
1942 (Lawrence, Kans.: Univ. Press of Kansas, 1974), remains helpful; David Killingray and Richard Rathbone (eds.),
Africa and the Second World War
(New York: St. Martin’s, 1986), provides a good introduction to the changes on the continent during the war; Douglas A. Farnie,
East and West of Suez: The Suez Canal in History, 1854–1956
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), is a most important book on a frequently ignored subject; and A.B. Gaunson,
The Anglo-French Collision in Lebanon and Syria, 1940–45
(London: Macmillan, 1986), supplements the official accounts of the fighting in Syria as well as covering the subsequent political problems.

It is astonishing that the fighting in Poland has not received the attention one might have expected. The second volume of the official German work deals with it, and there is a very extensive literature in Polish, but the best English language accounts remain Robert M. Kennedy’s study for the U.S. army,
The German Campaign in Poland (1939)
(Washington: GPO, 1956), and Nicholas Bethell,
The War Hitler Won: The Fall of Poland, September 1939
(New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1972).

Southeast Europe has been the subject of a vast literature. Broader issues are treated in Martin van Creveld,
Hitler’s Strategy 1940–1941: The Balkan Clue
(London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1973); Phyllis Auty and Richard Clogg (eds.),
British Policy towards Wartime Resistance in Yugoslavia and Greece
(London: Macmillan, 1975); Elizabeth Barker,
British Policy in Southeast Europe in the Second World War
(London: Macmillan, 1976); George Ranki, “Hitlers Verhandlungen mit osteuropaischen Staatsmannern, 1939–1944,” in Klaus Hildebrand and Reiner Pommerin
(eds.),
Deutsche Frage und europäisches Gleichgewicht: Festschrift für Andreas Hillgruber
(Cologne: Bohlau, 1985), pp. 195–228; and Jürgen Forster,
Stalingrad: Risse im Bündnis 1942/43
(Freiburg: Rombach, 1975).

In terms of individual countries, Hungary is still introduced most effectively by the two volumes of Carlile A. Macartney,
October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary 1929–1945
(Edinburgh: Univ. Press, 1956). Important other works include the studies collected by Nandor F. Dreisziger for the special volume
Hungary and the Second World War
issued as
Hungarian Studies Review
10, Nos. 1–2 (1983), and Margit Szöllösi-Janze,
Die Pfeilkreuzlerbewegung in Ungarn: Historischer Kontext, Entwicklung und Herrschaft
(Munich: Oldenbourg, 1989). On Romania, Andreas Hillgruber,
Hitler, König Carol, und Marschall Antonescu: Die deutsch–rumänischen Beziehungen 1938–1944
(Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1954) remains important in spite of its deficiencies. Philip Marguerat,
Le Ille Reich et Ie pitrole roumain, 1938–1940
(Geneva: A.W. Sijthoff, 1977); Jürgen Forster, “Rumaniens Weg in die deutsche Abhangigkeit: Zur Rolle der deutschen Militarmission 1940/41,”
MGM
25 (1979), 44–77; and Armin Heinen,
Die Legion “Erzengel Michael” in Rumänien: Sociale Bewegung und politische Organisation
(Munich: Oldenbourg, 1986), represent more recent scholarship. On Bulgaria, the most helpful books are Marshall Lee Miller,
Bulgaria during the Second World War
(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1975), and Hans-Joachim Hoppe,
Bulgarien–Hitlers eigenwilliger Verbundete
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1979). On Greece, there is a chronological account of the fighting in Robin Higham,
Diary of a Disaster: British Aid to Greece 1940–1941
(Lexington, Ky.: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1986). There is a general survey in John L. Hondros,
Occupation and Resistance: The Greek Agony, 1941–44
(New York: Pella, 1983). A thoughtful introduction to a difficult subject is Peter J. Stavrakis,
Moscow and Greek Communism,
1944–1949 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1989). By far the best book on Turkey is Zehra Onder,
Die türkische Aussenpolitik im Zweiten Weltkrieg
(Munich: Oldenbourg, 1976).