Volume V Part II of the comprehensive and authoritative Germany and the Second World War series spans the years 1942 to 1945, and looks in closely researched detail, and against a background of growing military setbacks and disasters leading to final defeat, at the administration and ruthless exploitation of the occupied countries and of Germany's own allies, and the effect on their populations (in particular their Jews, Roma, and Sinti) and national economies. This comprehensive study of the meteoric rise to prominence of Hitler's crown prince Albert Speer, and his struggle to implement a 'total war' armaments policy in the face of opposition from the Party's Gauleiters and political rivals in the Nazi leadership, documents with a wealth of maps, diagrams, and tables the achievements of the arms drive he masterminded; a large part of this success is shown to have relied on the forced or slave labour of those under German domination. The conflicting claims of industry and the Wehrmacht for dwindling manpower resources are also considered.

Volume VI of the 'Germany and the Second World War' series deals with the extension of a European war into a global one in the period from 1941 to 1943. It focuses on the politics, strategy, and operations of the belligerent powers as Germany lost the initiative to the Allies, and it represents, both in content and in composition, the climax and turning points of the war. An account is given of the development of the war at sea in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean until the spring of 1943, of the changeable course of events in the North African theatre of war until the establishment of the bridgehead in Tunisia, and finally of Hitler's 'second campaign' against the Soviet Union until the stabilization of the front following the catastrophe at Stalingrad. Moreover, the United States' transition to open belligerence, after Pearl Harbor, calls for an account of the political developments leading up to that point on the Japanese and the American sides. The opening of new theatres of operations in the Pacific and over Germany, owing to the intensified strategic aerial warfare of the Allies, along with the organization of the Reich's air defences are also treated.

The Second World War affected the lives and shaped the experience of millions of individuals in Germany - soldiers at the front, women, children and the elderly sheltering in cellars, slave labourers toiling in factories, and concentration-camp prisoners and POWs clearing rubble in the Reich's devastated cities. Taking a 'history from below' approach, the volume examines how the minds and behaviour of individuals were moulded by the Party as the Reich took the road to Total War. The ever-increasing numbers of German workers conscripted into the Wehrmacht were replaced with forced foreign workers and slave labourers and concentration camp prisoners. The interaction in everyday life between German civilian society and these coerced groups is explored, as is that society's relationship to the Holocaust. From early 1943, the war on the home front was increasingly dominated by attack from the air. The role of the Party, administration, police, and courts in providing for the vast numbers of those rendered homeless, in bolstering civilian morale with 'miracle revenge weapons' propaganda, and in maintaining order in a society in disintegration is reviewed in detail. For society in uniform, the war in the east was one of ideology and annihilation, with intensified indoctrination of the troops after Stalingrad. The social profile of this army is analysed through study of a typical infantry division. The volume concludes with an account of the various forms of resistance to Hitler's regime, in society and the military, culminating in the failed attempt on his life in July 1944.

The Second World War affected the lives and shaped the experience of millions of individuals in Germany--soldiers at the front, women, children and the elderly sheltering in cellars, slave laborers toiling in factories, and concentration-camp prisoners and POWs clearing rubble in the Reich's devastated cities.
Taking a "history from below" approach, the volume examines how the minds and behaviour of individuals were moulded by the Party as the Reich took the road to Total War. The ever-increasing numbers of German workers conscripted into the Wehrmacht were replaced with forced foreign workers and slave labourers and concentration camp prisoners. The interaction in everyday life between German civilian society and these coerced groups is explored, as is that society's relationship to the Holocaust.
From early 1943, the war on the home front was increasingly dominated by attack from the air. The role of the Party, administration, police, and courts in providing for the vast numbers of those rendered homeless, in bolstering civilian morale with "miracle revenge weapons" propaganda, and in maintaining order in a society in disintegration is reviewed in detail.
For society in uniform, the war in the east was one of ideology and annihilation, with intensified indoctrination of the troops after Stalingrad. The social profile of this army is analysed through study of a typical infantry division. The volume concludes with an account of the various forms of resistance to Hitler's regime, in society and the military, culminating in the failed attempt on his life in July 1944.

By the spring of 1943, after the defeat at Stalingrad, the writing was on the wall. But while commanders close to the troops on Germany's various fronts were beginning to read it, those at the top were resolutely looking the other way.
This seventh volume in the magisterial 10-volume series from the Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt [Research Institute for Military History] shows both Germany and her Japanese ally on the defensive, from 1943 into early 1945. It looks in depth at the strategic air war over the Reich and the mounting toll taken in the Battles of the Ruhr, Hamburg, and Berlin, and at the "Battle of the Radar Sets" so central to them all. The collapse of the Luftwaffe in its retaliatory role led to hopes being pinned on the revolutionary V-weapons, whose dramatic but ultimately fruitless achievements are chronicled.
The Luftwaffe's weakness in defence is seen during the Normandy invasion, Operation overlord, an account of the planning, preparation and execution of which form the central part of this volume together with the landings in the south of France, the setback suffered at Arnhem, and the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes.
The final part follows the fortunes of Germany's ally fighting in the Pacific, Burma, Thailand, and China, with American forces capturing islands ever closer to Japan's homeland, and culminates in her capitulation and the creation of a new postwar order in the Far East. The struggle between internal factions in the Japanese high command and imperial court is studied in detail, and highlights an interesting contrast with the intolerance of all dissent that typified the Nazi power structure.
Based on meticulous research byMGFA's team of historians at Potsdam, this analysis of events is illustrated by a wealth of tables and maps covering aspects ranging from Germany's radar defence system and the targets of RAF Bomber Command and the US 8th Air Force, through the break-out from the Normandy beachhead, to the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Volume V Part II of the comprehensive and authoritative Germany and the Second World War series completes the analysis (begun in Volume V/I) of the administration and exploitation of the German sphere of power and of the German war economy. The authors show how, despite military success and increasingly desperate efforts at mobilizing every resource for the war effort, it was becoming apparent that the Reich's strength was spent. The consequence was ever more ruthless oppression of the population and a frenzied elimination of 'ideological' and 'racial' opponents.