History of World War II. The campaigns, battles and weapons from 1939 to 1945 — Chris McNab

The events of 1939-1945 had such a dramatic impact on the world that it is easy to forget that Allied victory was far from certain, especially in the early part of the war when both the Nazis in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific were sweeping all before them.

The History of World War II chronicles the war as it happened, focusing on key battles and events that act as signposts in the slow change of fortunes of either side. Divided into two sections, one on each major theatre, the book describes such famous events as the attack on Pearl Harbor, the battle of Stalingrad, the Normandy landings, the fall of Berlin, and the struggle for Iwo Jima. Linking each famous event is an in-depth chronology detailing other events happening elsewhere, building into a snapshot of the war at that point. In each section are spreads comparing and contrasting the strengths of essential weapons in that battle: fighter aircraft in the Battle of Britain, tanks at Kursk, landing aircraft at D- Day and in the Pacific.

Each of these spreads is packed with colourful diagrams, graphs and charts to help you grasp the relative strengths of, for example, different aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway, US versus Japanese small arms at Okinawa and anti-tank guns in the Normandy campaign, among many other engagements. The final part of the book provides a chronology of the war. Highly illustrated with colour maps and both colour and black-and-white photographs and colour artworks, the History of World War II is a both a handy reference volume on the progress of the conflict and the weapons used to fight it.