A War To Be Won: Fighting the Second World War by Williamson Murray (PDF)

Description

In the course of the twentieth century, no war looms as profoundly transformative or as destructive as World War II. Its global scope and human toll reveal the true face of modern, industrialized warfare. Now, for the first time, we have a comprehensive, single-volume account of how and why this global conflict evolved as it did. A War To Be Won is a unique and powerful operational history of the Second World War that tells the full story of battle on land, on sea, and in the air.Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett analyze the operations and tactics that defined the conduct of the war in both the European and Pacific Theaters. Moving between the war room and the battlefield, we see how strategies were crafted and revised, and how the multitudes of combat troops struggled to discharge their orders. The authors present incisive portraits of the military leaders, on both sides of the struggle, demonstrating the ambiguities they faced, the opportunities they took, and those they missed. Throughout, we see the relationship between the actual operations of the war and their political and moral implications.A War To Be Won is the culmination of decades of research by two of America’s premier military historians. It avoids a celebratory view of the war but preserves a profound respect for the problems the Allies faced and overcame as well as a realistic assessment of the Axis accomplishments and failures. It is the essential military history of World War II―from the Sino–Japanese War in 1937 to the surrender of Japan in 1945―for students, scholars, and general readers alike.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “The West’s eventual triumph is the subject of A War To Be Won, a comprehensive and highly readable history by two eminent and prolific military historians. Williamson Murray and Allan Millett focus on operations but range far and wide into politics, strategy, military doctrines (why armies fight the way they do), weapons, science and tactics, from the bumbling politics of the ’30s to the Cold War… This is edgy, though expert, history. The ordeal of the Soviet war against Germany is dramatically and vividly told, as is the pillage and rape that Red Army soldiers inflicted on prisoners and civilians within reach.”―Robert Killebrew, Washington Post“World War II is fast slipping from memory. So it takes a book, such as A War To Be Won…to make one realize the horror of that conflict… In this comprehensive history of the military aspect of World War II…[the authors] provide a broad view of the two-hemisphere tragedy.”―Fred Slater, St. Joseph News-Press“Thousands of books have been published about World War II, but very few have possessed he level of scholarly perspective, encompassing scale and insightful detail to be found in this one. With its penetrating view of operational strategy on all sides during the war, it is among the finest of WWII studies and the best one-volume account of the military conflict I’ve ever read.”―William W. Starr, Columbia State“Two highly accomplished historians…collaborated to produce this magnificent one-volume history of World War II. While they do not neglect political or economic factors, what truly sets this work apart is their focus on ‘the conduct of operations by the military organizations that waged the war.’ …This is a riveting book that stimulates as much as it informs―and is a must read for any student of World War II or military professional.”―Richard B. Frank, Naval History“An outstanding single-volume history of [a] central moment… [The authors] write in a brisk, confident and knowledgeable style, often sprinkling their analyses with pithy irony, sardonic wit and sharp insights… Murray and Millett have produced a magnificent volume, one that will fascinate and enlighten both expert and layman alike. A War To Be Won now takes its place as the core volume in any library on the history of the Second World War, and it will likely remain so for years to come.”―Calvin L. Christman, Dallas Morning News“In A War To Be Won: Fighting the Second World War, Williamson Murray and Allan Millett have…eschewed grand strategy for what they describe as operational history. They have plugged a large gap… They combine firm and fresh judgments with common humanity; and they achieve balance not only between the theaters of war but also between themselves. Murray knows about Germany, Britain and air power, Millett about the United States and its armed forces. If they divided their subject matter accordingly, the seams are never evident. This is an outstanding history of the war.”―Hew Strachan, Times Literary Supplement“While…several volumes present admirably comprehensive panoramas of the second world war, the very nature of this approach precludes close operational analysis as opposed to general operational narrative. This is the gap that A War To Be Won fills―an operational history of the 1939–1945 war focusing on military operations, with dispassionate discussion of military effectiveness whether involving the Allies or the Axis… A War To Be Won, confined within a single volume, is a remarkable achievement deserving of the many plaudits it has received. It has a narrative deftness that will attract the general reader, operational analysis incisive and original enough to engage the specialist, technical evaluation and tactical appraisal of military effectiveness in abundance, though not without controversial, even acerbic comment where appropriate.”―John Erickson, Times Higher Education Supplement“Military historians Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett dissect tactics and operations of the war’s major players in A War To Be Won… Unlike other volumes on WWII, many of which examine the soldiers’ day-to-day life in the trenches, A War To Be Won focuses on the overall picture, the strategic successes and failures of the warring nations.”―Dick Kreck, Denver Post“[Murray and Millett] are military historians but take an extraordinarily broad view of the conflict [of World War II]―its political and economic origins, its diplomatic maneuvering, its strategic designs and its human toll, but above all its combat. In 600-plus pages, they zero in on the troops who did the fighting and the commanders who led―and sometimes misled―them… The writing is brisk and lively, the revelations sometimes startling, and the selection of photographs generous and revealing. This is as masterful and readable a one-volume history of the Second World War as anyone is likely to write.”―Herbert Kupferberg, Parade Magazine“The best synthesis of all of [the] new scholarship on WWII is, in my opinion, Williamson Murray and Allan Millett’s superb comprehensive history of the war… There are a number of rather surprising assessments of individual commanders in the war… Anyone interested in this deadliest of all wars should consult this marvelous book.”―Louis Ray Sadler, Albuquerque Journal“A magisterial, hypnotically detailed tactical narrative of WWII, with competing military, political, and social histories of the maelstrom writ large―yet comprehensibly presented… Coauthors Murray and Millett spent decades on their research, and the result is an essential plurality of understanding that allows them to consider the military strategies (and underlying realities) of the various Allied and Axis nations. Intentionally or otherwise, this book covers ground distinct from Stephen Ambrose’s popular books, in that they focus much less on the personalized experiences of the soldier and more on the significant strategies, decisions, and movements of governments and generals (and the corresponding actions of the many individual naval, combat, and bomber units, and sundry partisan and espionage triumphs) that taken together, form the artificial patchwork of industrialized devastation we think of as the war. Surprisingly, this ‘globalized’ perspective does produce abstract or diffuse results, but allows the authors to present a nuanced panorama of scarce information and unique interpretation… Strongly written with the stern clarity of senior historians, this is a spellbinding history: the reader will hear the whine of the bombers and see the guttering lights of Europe, and find this rich assemblage of horror and destiny hard to set down.”―Kirkus Reviews“Scholarship and insight place this book in the front rank of military history written in the 20th century’s final decade. The authors…make no secret of their convictions on personal, institutional and operational issues, but are nevertheless remarkably successful at avoiding the armchair debunking that mars so many histories of the period.”―Publishers Weekly“Without question A War To Be Won is the most compelling single-volume history of the Second World War ever written. Murray and Millett are superb historians imbued with a trenchant gift for analysis, detachment, and synthesis. A noble, grand, and sweeping achievement.”―Douglas Brinkley, Director, The Eisenhower Center, University of New Orleans“An excellent history of the Second World War, which offers a new and deeply illuminating view of why the major operations were launched and of the effectiveness with which they were conducted. The story is enriched by an original analysis of the ideas, ideological aims, technology, social consequences and international impact of the most intense conflict that the world has seen. A comprehensive, well-founded and enlightening single volume history.”―Robert O’Neill, Chichele Professor of the History of War, All Souls College, Oxford“Murray and Millett have done an enormous service by providing a wonderful, one-volume history of the fighting of World War II. Those of us who fought the war must applaud them. It is a book for everyone, not just for the military history buff. I plan to tell my grandchildren that to understand World War II, the defining event of the twentieth century, and the generation that fought it, they must read this book.”―John W. Vessey, General, United States Army (ret.), and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff“Amid the immense literature on the Second World War, it is remarkable that one niche has not hitherto been filled: a one-volume history focusing on military operations. This book remedies that omission and does so superbly, with accuracy and interpretive flair. There is nothing else quite like it.”―Russell F. Weigley, author of The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy“Most recent single-volume histories of the Second World War have been disappointing. It is a Herculean task to cover such a vast canvas of time and space. Authors wilt visibly under the strain. Here, however, is a work of exceptional quality from two distinguished American military historians… This book makes an important contribution to understanding both the military context and the nature of this vast global conflict.”―Max Hastings, Evening Standard“It is the most complete, balanced, and well-informed history of military operations now available.”―James J. Sheehan, Political Science Quarterly About the Author Williamson Murray is Senior Fellow at the Institute for Defense Analysis, Washington, D.C.Allan R. Millett is Raymond E. Mason Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at Ohio State University.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐One aspect of this work that is not covered very much by other reviews is the moral tone that shines through it. As other reviewers have noted Murray and Millett have no room for moral relativism regarding the Nazi party and it’s program or the complicity of the Wehrmacht in German war crimes. However, they do not gloss over the total human cost of the war both in specific battles between soldiers and the devastating impact of the war on the unarmed populations. The last couple of chapters covering the end of the war in Europe and the aftermath of the war depict a continent hollowed out by internal blood letting of unimaginable scope. They make clear both the brutal behavior of Soviet armies in Eastern Europe and the destructive effects of Allied firepower in Western Europe and combine them with the Nazi exterminations of whole classes of people to reveal in clear and precise detail the truly awful fate of an entire continent. The consideration of these topics is in some ways all the more powerful for not being much reinforced with the actual voices of such experience but being stated baldly as the facts.By comparison, M and M seem to view the violence in the Asian war between the Allies and the Japanese Empire as being somewhat more within historical precedent even if the most extreme forms of Japanese militarism were right on the edge.Most reviewers seem to focus on what they perceive to be the judgment and conclusions of M and M on specific military commanders and activities but no authors being anything other than anodyne can please everyone with such opinions no matter what level of scholarship they have brought to the party. I have a few quibbles of my own but they aren’t worth sharing considering how difficult the task at hand was for the authors. I did not find the maps the most helpful I have seen. On the eastern front there seemed to be too many movements around cities which could not be found on the applicable maps. Reference to a good military atlas would be a reasonable supplement to this book. The photographs are numerous and of good quality. in keeping with the moral tone mentioned 13 of the illustrations show pictures of dead human bodies. The bibliographical section focuses on professional and archival sources and is not really a guide to reading material for the general layperson interested in the subject.One failing of this book as with most comprehensive WW2 histories is treating the war as being between two sides when there were actually four sides, the Anglo American Alliance, the Third Reich, the Japanese Empire, and the Soviet Union, with four different agendas and four largely independent prosecutions of the war.

⭐I enjoyed reading this book, which is a bit off-putting due to its size and breadth. As long as one has a bit of time on his or her hands, this is a useful and entertaining way to spend some quality time with yourself in the company of two excellent history writers. The book has an amazing scope, and like Gerhard Weinberg’s “A World At Arms” has a mammoth and daunting job at hand to describe the total scope and kaleidoscope of activities contained under the rubric of the second world war.The authors here are much more forthcoming than was Weinhard in discussing specific battlefield details of particular engagements, and this adds to the book’s considerable value and readability to history buffs like myself. I enjoy their liberal employment of relevant economic, technological, geographical and other factors in describing the whos, hows, whens, wheres and whys of specific struggles as well as in describing the nature of the overall socio-political aspects of the war. So, when they subsequently launch into discussing their uniquely constructed “standards of military effectiveness”, they add to its value by buttressing their findings with a wealth of different kinds of supporting data, information, and background that makes the total overview of the war much more understandable than it would be otherwise.The book does suffer from some minor drawbacks, such as the authors’ obvious quarrel with the contributions and strategies of Douglas MacArthur, yet they are also suitably fastidious in pointing out his many contributions and effective tactics as well. This drawback is counterbalanced by an outstanding treatment covering the Nazi campaign against Russia, and the day to day details crammed into describing the ill-fated and terribly over-extended German occupation and troubles in Operation Barbarossa and in the subsequent crushing defeats at the hands of the Russian armies is worth the price of the book alone.In summary, I also believe their well-argued and documented take on the importance and lasting influence of the second world war is crucial in understanding all that followed in the balance of the 20th century to be well taken, and to be beyond reasonable dispute. In some respects (Such as level of detail regarding specific engagements) this is a better book than Weinberg’s, and on other levels it falls short of his monumental work. Combined, the two books offer one an astounding and quite rich look at a war that we are just starting to appreciate in all of its amazing scope, ferocity, and consequence. This book should be required reading for anyone considering a career in 20th century history, or for all of us history nuts who just can’t get enough of a great thing. Enjoy!

⭐Too much concentration on the War in the Pacific. Nothing in the book that hasn’t been written before. I was disappointed in this book. At best it is a student guide.

⭐A really good book about WW2. Its in chronological order from Imperial japan invasion in 1937 to post WW2 in 1949. The authors mentions is opinion and insight on many aspect of the war as Mac Arthur was way overrated, Yamashita was the best Japaneese commander and the U boat war was a waste of material and men.

⭐本書は、第2次世界大戦の通史である。マーレーとミレットは、今までにも、『Military Innvation in the Interwar Period』等を執筆し高い評価を得ている。本書は、それらの研究を踏まえ、ＲＭＡや戦間期の軍の変革等の最新の研究の成果を取り入れたものになっている。内容的に見ても、本文中には脚注が少なく、読みやすいものになっている。しかも、巻末に、第2次世界大戦の軍隊の編成、用兵理論、使用された兵器等に関する説明を設けており、読者の理解を助けている。このように書くと、初心者向きの概説書という感じを与えるが、参考文献欄は充実しており、この分野を深く研究しようとする人にとっても参考になる。第2次世界大戦に興味のある方に一読をお勧めする。

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