Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945, Overy - B, Inc.

            This book presents a less conventional approach than we are used to. The war began in 1931, and did not end in Asia, the Middle East, and Central Europe until a decade after 1945. In many ways, the war and its predecessor were a second Thirty Years War accomplishing "the reordering of the world system in a final stage of imperial crisis." 

           The last quarter of the 19th century saw the new countries of Germany, Italy, and Japan join the imperial scramble. "Over the half century that followed, these were the three major states whose wish to create major empires would result in world war in the 1940's." Germany's empire was lost in the Great War, and the British and French expanded theirs. Both Italy and Japan felt ill treated by the Big Three at Paris, and were desirous of more spoils. All three countries' animosities and resentments were further exacerbated by the Depression. 

           Japan invaded Manchuria on Sept. 18, 1931. Once the military dominated national politics "a widespread campaign to raise national awareness and enthusiasm for territorial expansion was inaugurated." Over the summer of 1936, the Japanese moved south, and China declared war. By the end of 1940, Japan occupied most of China but had suffered 180,000 dead, 324,000 wounded, and had dozens of divisions tied up in a stalemate neither side could win. Italy's expansion ambitions were less grand.  Late in 1935, Italy attacked Ethiopia from its colonies in east Africa. The ensuing victory did not come quickly but was long and draining.  April 1939 saw Italy invade and occupy Albania. 

            Hitler rearmed Germany, but had no real strategy for gaining living space.  Hitler expected Poland to be a limited engagement at best, and was surprised when the Allies declared war. "The war against Poland can better be understood as the final stage in a largely uncoordinated movement to found new territorial empires in the 1930's rather than... the opening conflict of the Second World War."

          Germany attacked to the west in the spring. Their success was total and overwhelming. They "gambled everything on a rapid breakthrough and encirclement that eluded them in 1914." France had prepared to defend against a German advance on the Flanders plains. When the Germans came through the Ardennes, they were surprised, out of position, and grossly incapable of reacting. The French were soundly defeated. As the year ended, Britain was hopelessly out matched, alone, and stubbornly holding on to its empire.

           Hitler concluded that defeating the USSR was a pre-requisite to defeating Great Britain by eliminating its "last prospect of a European Alliance." Hitler's ongoing desire for Lebensraum and Stalin's aggression in the Baltics and Romania confirmed his conclusion. Meanwhile, Mussolini, without coordinating with Germany, invaded Greece and Egypt. A vastly outnumbered UK army handily defeated the Italians in the desert, and a British colonial army captured Ethiopia. Mussolini's abysmal showing in Greece led to a request for German help leading Hitler to invade Greece and send Rommel to Africa.

          "By June 1941, the largest invasion force in history was in place." At 3:30 AM on the 22nd, Barbarossa kicked off. Army Groups North and Centre exceeded the army's wildest expectations. Only in the South did the Soviets mount an effective defense. By the end of the summer, the Soviets lost 2,000,000 men. Eventually, time, distance, weather, and Soviet bravery stopped the Germans in the 3rd week of November. Fritz 

         The war was fundamentally "transformed" on December 7th. In addition to bombing Pearl Harbor, Japan occupied the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the Dutch East Indies. "The collapse of the British Empire in Asia and the Pacific was complete." Clearly, attacking the US was a major strategic error for Japan.  Germany then declared war on the US. 

       The empires newly acquired by the Japanese and Germans were subjected to brutal occupations. In Asia, the false equality of an Asian led co-prosperity sphere was in reality regimes of torture, execution, and starvation. It is estimated that three million Indonesians starved in a country once a self-sufficient exporter of foodstuffs. For western European states, Germany's victories meant the expropriation of assets and the conversion of their economies to the support of the war effort. In the east, Hitler's goal was "to dominate, administer, and exploit." Exploitation proved unattainable as the retreating Soviets had dismantled and destroyed almost all of the industrial capacity of the conquered areas. For the civilian population, rations were just enough to keep people alive. Over half of Europe's Jews lived in the east and "Germany's most bitter anti-Semites were concentrated in the security apparatus that occupied those very same areas. However poorly co-ordinated and prone to friction the killing process in the East was, the end result for the Jews was the same - to die swiftly or slowly, but to die." In April of 1945 Hitler reveled in "having eliminated the Jew from Germany and Cental Europe."

      "Stalingrad, Guadalcanal, and El Alamein were the furthest points of advance" for the Axis powers. At Guadalcanal, Japan faced its first disastrous failure. Hirohito ordered it be abandoned at year end. In the desert, the British 8th Army defeated Rommel in the fall. Although both Stalin and Roosevelt were unhappy about Britain's focus on Africa, the fighting there was a serious drain on German resources. Both battles were important, but were dwarfed by Stalingrad. Two million men engaged in the carnage on the Volga before Germany surrendered the 6th Army in late January, 1943. After the Allies invaded Sicily (again Churchill's desire and opposed by Eisenhower and Marshall) Mussolini was deposed. The new government sought peace, and Germany occupied most of the country. A strategic stalemate ensued. In Russia, once again 2 million men engaged in midsummer in the largest tank battle ever at Kursk. The German retreat continued. As 1943 ended, it was clear that Japan and Germany were both headed to defeat. Throughout the Pacific, the US slowly advanced closer to the home islands. The Soviets pounded the Wehrmacht and pushed for a 2nd front. Late in 1943, the 8th Air Force introduced long-range fighters that were able to clear the Luftwaffe from the sky by the time of the Normandy landing. On June 6, the Allies landed 132,450 troops. However, it took until early August before they broke through the German defenses. With defeat on the horizon, the soldiers of the Empire and the Reich chose to fight to the bitter end.  Indeed the Japanese were so committed that almost none allowed themselves to be captured. Both the Red and Allied Army advances in late 1944 stalled for logistical reasons and resurgent German efforts. "The battles of the last months of conflict to subdue the crumbling enemy empires were among the bloodiest and costliest of the war." It took the Soviets three months to conquer the last 65 kilometers on the road to Berlin. The US and British did not cross the Rhine until March. The defenses of Iwo Jima and Okinowa were fanatical. Overwhelmed, the Third Reich collapsed in early May. The Japanese surrender came in late August after fire bombings and two atomic bombs. "For millions on both sides, the surrenders meant relief from the all-embracing demands of total war, but the many many arguments between the Allies...anticipated the coming Cold War, while the unresolved crises generated by imperialism...meant years of violence and political conflict still lay ahead."

         "The most significant geopolitical consequence of the war was the collapse within less than two decades of the entire European imperial project and the establishment of a world of nation states."

           This almost 900 page book has been acclaimed as a magnificent one volume history of the war.  I do not agree. I submit that No Simple Victory by Davies, Inferno by Hastings, and A World Of Arms by Weinberg are all superior. The most fascinating and compelling concept offered here is the war as an extension of imperial ambition and decline is fascinating and food for thought. I have never come across the idea and find it compelling. I am a bit surprised by the British author's disdain for Churchill and his constant attempts to take steps to preserve the empire. Clearly, the US senior warriors did not agree with Winston. That said, my observations are tempered by the fact that I skipped over 500 pages and six chapters that drilled down on specific aspects of the war that would probably have taken a month to read.