By Christopher Miskimon
It took an ideologically and politically divided coalition to defeat the global threat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin disagreed on strategy, imperialism, and the future of a free Europe.
With a population of about 830 million in 1940, the combined financial, industrial, and material resources of the Allies dwarfed those of the Axis countries, whose total population was less than 260 million. Bouverie points out that the Allies produced 2,891 naval vessels, 60,720 tanks, and 147,161 aircraft in 1943 alone. The Axis managed 540 naval vessels, 12,825 tanks, and 43,524 aircraft.
But numbers don’t tell the whole story of the most chronicled war in history. This well-researched narrative uses firsthand accounts and unpublished diaries to explore the politics and diplomacy, the human drama behind the military events.
Allies at War: How the Struggles Between the Allied Powers Shaped the War and the World (Tim Bouverie, Crown, New York, NY, 2025, 672pp., $38, HC)
Join The Conversation
Comments
View All Comments