James Holland’s The Rise of Germany: 1939-1941, the first volume in his War in the West trilogy, painted a captivating portrait of the western theatre of World War II, calling on new research to reframe our understanding of this momentous conflict. As The Rise of Germany ended, the Nazi war machine appeared to be unstoppable. Germany had taken Poland and France with shocking speed. The Luftwaffe had dramatically bombed London. But Germany hadn’t actually won either the Battle of Britain or the Battle of the Atlantic, and was not producing airplanes or submarines fast enough. And what looked like victory in Greece and Crete had expended crucial resources that would be vital in Operation Barbarossa, the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union that could determine the fate of the Reich.
In The Fall of the Axis, while Barbarossa unfolds on the eastern front, in the west, the Americans formally enter the war. In North Africa, the Allies storm to victory, setting the stage for the invasion of Sicily and Italy. Meanwhile, the bombing of Germany escalates, aiming to destroy the Nazi system and crush civilian morale. The Fall of the Axis is another captivating entry in this accomplished series.
