The Storm of War A New History of the Second World War by Andrew Roberts

This turned out to actually be a fresh way of looking at a topic that, while fascinating, has been written about more than any other event since, well, the invention of sex.  Roberts starts basically at the beginning of Hitler's rise to power and gives a relatively thorough overview of the war on both fronts, ending roughly at the Nuremberg Trials.  Considering the amount of information being covered, he manages to do a good job while keeping his work to only 600 pages.  Pretty impressive, really, considering he could have doubled that number and still left some stuff out.

There were two unique parts of this book that I especially liked.  First, he filled it with trivia (and, as Nats' wife always says, Nats is the King of Useless Information).  Por ejemplo, did you know that prior to World War II the United States provided 85% of the world's oil?  Let that sink in for a minute.  Not 85% of their own oil, 85% of the world's!  How different would things look if that was still true today?  How about this little fact: more Frenchmen fought for the Axis than against it.  What the f#ck?!?!?  Of course, the truly shocking part of that statement is that the French fought anybody at all (but I digress).  There are many more gems like these that you can find for yourself.  Second, he dedicated an entire chapter at the end of the book to exactly how the Germans Nazis lost the war, and what they could/should have done differently.  This part is particularly spooky as it shows that the German Wehrmacht, without the hindrance of National Socialism, could very well have won the war in Europe.

All in all, one of my favorite works on World War II.  I highly recommend it.  Now, for those of you who are history buffs, Roberts did get one of his D-Day facts wrong.  See if you can find it.  Enjoy!

Nats