Jonathan Parshall - 1942 (1939)

About this item

An engrossing and encyclopedic narrative of the year in which the outcome of World War Two hung in the balance The year opened with the Axis powers inflicting a series of disasters on the newly formed Allies: Pearl Harbor, followed by Japan's conquest of the Philippines and Southeast Asia; Rommel running unchecked in North Africa; German U-boats transforming the East Coast of the United States into a shooting gallery; the failure of Britain's strategic bombing campaign; and devastating defeats of the Red Army at Kharkov, Crimea, and southern Russia. By the summer of 1942, many of these theatres offered a grim global calculus. Any notion of decisive victory seemed far-fetched. Yet by the end of 1942 there had been a sea-change. Within just one 40-day timespan, the British had triumphed over Rommel at Alamein; British and American forces landed in North Africa to confront the Axis position there; the Americans won two naval battles at Guadalcanal, sealing the fate