Description
Book SynopsisIn a book arranged in chapters which deal separately with the Home Fronts of each country, Beck is able to provide a comprehensive picture of the effects of the world''s only ''total war'' upon the civilians who often faced bewilderment, fear, death, and destruction all around them. Beck considers the effects of bombing and sometimes actual fighting in the streets and towns in which people lived, and the policies of individual governments that attempted to encourage and retain support for the war effort in varying ways.
Table of ContentsForeword vii
Introduction xi
1. Great Britain: The Islands Fortress 1
The Appeasement Era 1
Churchill Becomes Britain’s War Leader 6
The Battle of Britain 9
Other British Cities Attacked 12
The First American Moves Toward Alliance 13
The Days of Austerity 14
American Troops in Britain 17
Preparations for the Invasion of the Continent 19
2. The Soviet Union 23
Rapidity of German Conquests 26
Stalin’s “Patriotic War” 28
The Years of Defeat: 1941-1942 29
The Role of Allied Aid 34
Fall 1942: The Tide Begins to Turn 35
3. France: Under The German Heel 40
Political and Economic Chaos 41
Military Incompetence and Disastrous Defeat 43
The Nature of the Vichy Regime 47
The German Occupation 49
Hostages and Forced Labor 51
The Great Misery of Paris 53
The Resistance 54
De Gaulle’s Move to Leadership 57
The Reminder of France Occupied 59
The Fighting French 60
4. The Axis Powers: Germany and Italy 65
German Military Spirit 65
Did the German Public Want War? 67
Problems with the Churches 69
The Invasion of Russia 70
Domestic Shortages 73
Bad News from the Battle Fronts 74
Firestorms in Hamburg 75
The Final Solution 77
Horrors of the Last Days 78
The Italians at War 79
Declining Popular Support for Mussolini 81
Military Blunders and Defeats 82
The Fall of Mussolini 84
The Neo-Fascist Regime 86
The Allied Campaign in Italy 88
5. Poland and the Holocaust 93
The Destruction of Poland 94
Governments in Exile 97
The Final Solution in Poland 99
The Warsaw Uprising 102
6. Other Home Fronts 105
Presumed Aryan States: The Low Countries and Scandinavia 105
The Fate of Czechoslovakia 116
Fire in the Balkans 122
Postscript 133
Bibliographical Essay 137
Index 151
