The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won Hardcover – October 17, 2017 by Victor Davis Hanson (Basic Books)

According to Hansen,WW2 was a moral crusade to defeat an evil enemy with the Allies overwhelming material resources, which enemy was still able to kill more of us than we killed of them. This paradox is fully explored in this magnificent work, beautifully written and massively researched, it is bound to be a standard in the field of strategic studies of the war. Read it.

Just single out two issues:
1)Hansen correctly emphasizes throughout the book the central role of Britain. The standard approach to this in most cases to to say well, yes, the British fought on alone for a year but with the entry of America and Russia Britain became a junior partner. In 1938 Britain was the only super power with the world's largest navy. Six years later she had the world's second largest navy as well as the largest mercantile marine. In the air British planes were preeminent throughout the war, particularly the Lancaster bomber and the Supermarine Spitfire and its engine installed in the P51.
As Hansen makes clear in depth, the war as won largely as a result of allied dominance on the seas and in the air. In this sense Britain was at the forefront as the only Allied power who fought the entire war from 1939 to 1945. Also, the British Empire was essential in defeating the Axis by giving the Allies a global reach. For example, without the bases in Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, and Alexandria, North Africa and Italy would have been failed campaigns. The British army was smaller than Russia or the USA but that was not the deciding factor in the importance of Britain to the war effort. Britain's role in the Pacific is often slighted yet Britain had one million troops in Burma under General Bill Slim.

2) Another now standard ploy says that Russia won the war by breaking the back of the German army. And yet that would have been impossible without the many "second fronts" such as North Africa, Italy, the strategic bombing campaign, Normandy as well as massive material aid. The simple fact is that it took three superpowers six years to defeat the Axis, something which no two of them alone could have done.