The history of the true war to end all wars: Paul Dowswell’s The Story Of The Second World War, Reviewed

 Sebastian Reyes, Y11

Before i started reading the book i saw in various videos how politicians during the first world war called this conflict “the war to end all wars”.However, 21 years after the end of world war 1, world war 2 began and by reading this book i learned that world war 2 was almost 5 times as deadly as the first world war

Just before I started reading the books, its title, the story of the second world war and its front page showing a German bombardment of what appears to be London caught my attention. I had some vague expectations of what the book would show me. like for example: how world war 2 started, every major event of the war, how and why Germany lost the war, important battles like Stalingrad and Kursk and a book which would emphasize the importance of the USA and UK in the war. something that i really don't like since countries like the USSR sacrificed and lost much more to defeat the germans. But, I still understanded since the book was written by a British writer.

What does the story of the second world war want to show us?

The book The story of the second world war wants to teach us in a brief way every important aspect of the most devastating war in human history. by showing us important historical numbers, dates,  facts, figures, battles, etc.

the book is divided in 5 chapters namely “Building bonfire”, “Outbreak”, “The world upside down”, “Axis in retreat”, and “The end”

“Building bonfire” is the part of the book which shows us the situation after WW1 which made Germany lose the danzig corridor and other german territories,face a severe economic crisis and finally the ascent to power of Adolf Hitler.

“Outbreak” as the name suggests is the part of the book which covers the beginning of world war 2 until the attack on pearl harbor.in this part we can see important events such as the invasion of Poland, the invasion of the nordic countries, the invasion of france, battle of britain, operation barbarossa(the biggest land invasion in history), pearl harbor,  etc.

“The world upside down” is a part of the book which does not focus on the battles of the war but instead focuses on the effects the war had on the world covering topics like the holocaust.

“Axis in retreat” is ,personally, my favorite part of the book since it covers all the turning points and most of the most important battles and operations in the war in the war such as the battle of midway, the battle of el-alamein,operation “fall blau”, the battle of stalingrad, the battle of kursk, D-Day, and others. So if you want to review the most important parts of the war specifically, this is the best chapter for you.

“The end”. This part of the book covers the final 2 years of the war 1944 and 1945. during this years many important operations, battles and events happen like operation bagration which completely the german army group center and expulse the german menace from the USSR, the liberation of france, the warsaw uprising, the liberation of poland, the battle of the bulge, the battle of berlin and hitler´s suicide, the nuclear strikes in hiroshima and nagasaki, and finally the end of world war 2.