SECOND WORLD WAR ILLUSTRATED: The Second Year

Mussolini invades Egypt and targets Greece, Hitler targets Yugoslavia, Greece and Egypt, and suffers annoying minor setbacks and targets Britain's cities and Soviet Russia, Britain's Atlantic supplies and by chapter eight we see the Axis target Malta, Churchill setting Europe ablaze and joining hands with Stalin in Iran. These are the ten chapters in this superb collection of archive and colour photographs of World War Two covering the second year of global combat. It begins with the account of Mussolini attempting to mirror Hitler in acts of aggression by thrusting towards Egypt and capturing the important artery of the British Empire, the Suez Canal. The Italian initiative failed and when its army was driven back with heavy losses, Mussolini asked for help and Hitler sent Rommel. Beginning in the spring of 1941, Axis forces under a dynamic General Rommel pushed the British back to Egypt. Hitler came to the aid of his Axis ally Mussolini and Churchill sent the British to help Greece, but on doing so depleted his forces in North Africa. Greek and British forces in the north of the country were overwhelmed by a rapid German advance. The British embarked for Crete and the Germans promptly captured the island with their much-vaunted Fallschirmjager. The situation was disheartening for the British, however morale was boosted with the sinking of the Bismarck and the defection of Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, in an amazing flight to Scotland. Then it came in June, the German Führer took on his greatest military challenge - the invasion of Soviet Russia. By the end of the second year of war, the Axis forces were deep into Stalin's territory. Britain now had a major ally at last. These stories are told through very rare photographs, images of rifles and other weaponry, tanks and troops, Operation battle maps, horses and donkeys assisting troops, refugee women and children in Yugoslavia, an upturned tram in a Belgrade street, parachutists, aeroplanes in flight, Cretan civilians bearing arms against the invaders, John Bright Street Birmingham flattened after the Luftwaffe attack and a dramatic photograph illustrating the grave dangers faced by firemen during the Blitz as the front of a building tumbles down in flames towards them. Dockside warehouses blaze in Hull after attacks resulted in some 200 deaths in 1941 and further attacks in May resulted in 400 deaths. Intriguingly there is a superb section illustrated in colour, hand coloured archive photographs making the image more poignant and modern and effective, including horse drawn transport crossing a river by ford in Russia. 280 page large paperback, hundreds of photos, colour.