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World War II : won by American planes and ships, or by the poor bloody Russian infantry?
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Harrison, Mark (2016) World War II : won by American planes and ships, or by the poor bloody Russian infantry? Journal of Strategic Studies, 39 (4). pp. 592-598. doi:10.1080/01402390.2016.1144460 ISSN 0140-2390.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2016.1144460
Abstract
This short paper reviews a new book about World War II. In most such books, what is new is not usually important, and what is important is not new. This one is an exception. How the War Was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II, by Phillips Payson O'Brien, sets out a new perspective on the war. An established view is that World War II was decided on the Eastern front, where multi-million armies struggled for supremacy on land and millions died. According to O’Brien, this neglects the fact that the preponderance of the Allied productive effort was devoted to building ships and planes for an air-sea battle that was fought to a limited extent in the East and with much higher intensity across the Western and Pacific theatres. The Allies’ air-sea power framed the outcomes of the great land campaigns by preventing Germany and Japan from fully realizing their economic potentials for war. Finding much to be said for this reinterpretation, I reconsider the true significance of the Eastern front.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | U Military Science > U Military Science (General) | ||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Attrition (Military science), Airplanes, Military -- Attrition, Sea-power, Air power | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Strategic Studies | ||||||
Publisher: | Routledge | ||||||
ISSN: | 0140-2390 | ||||||
Official Date: | 15 February 2016 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 39 | ||||||
Number: | 4 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 7 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 592-598 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1080/01402390.2016.1144460 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 12 October 2016 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 15 August 2017 |
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