European Home Fronts 1939 - 1945

Earl R. Beck is the author of European Home Fronts 1939 - 1945, published by Wiley.

• Foreword viiIntroduction xi1. Great Britain: The Islands Fortress 1The Appeasement Era 1Churchill Becomes Britain’s War Leader 6The Battle of Britain 9Other British Cities Attacked 12The First American Moves Toward Alliance 13The Days of Austerity 14American Troops in Britain 17Preparations for the Invasion of the Continent 192. The Soviet Union 23Rapidity of German Conquests 26Stalin’s “Patriotic War” 28The Years of Defeat: 1941-1942 29The Role of Allied Aid 34Fall 1942: The Tide Begins to Turn 353. France: Under The German Heel 40Political and Economic Chaos 41Military Incompetence and Disastrous Defeat 43The Nature of the Vichy Regime 47The German Occupation 49Hostages and Forced Labor 51The Great Misery of Paris 53The Resistance 54De Gaulle’s Move to Leadership 57The Reminder of France Occupied 59The Fighting French 604. The Axis Powers: Germany and Italy 65German Military Spirit 65Did the German Public Want War? 67Problems with the Churches 69The Invasion of Russia 70Domestic Shortages 73Bad News from the Battle Fronts 74Firestorms in Hamburg 75The Final Solution 77Horrors of the Last Days 78The Italians at War 79Declining Popular Support for Mussolini 81Military Blunders and Defeats 82The Fall of Mussolini 84The Neo-Fascist Regime 86The Allied Campaign in Italy 885. Poland and the Holocaust 93The Destruction of Poland 94Governments in Exile 97The Final Solution in Poland 99The Warsaw Uprising 1026. Other Home Fronts 105Presumed Aryan States: The Low Countries and Scandinavia 105The Fate of Czechoslovakia 116Fire in the Balkans 122Postscript 133Bibliographical Essay 137Index 151