Atlas of the Second World War

by John Keegan

This Atlas plots, on the ground, at sea and in the air, the exact course of the war--including the political, economic and strategic background. The finest, specially designed cartography is combined with standard NATO military symbols to denote armies and fleets of every type and size. Every theatre of war is delineated from the cities of Europe to the vast expanses of the Pacific, from the deserts of North Africa and the steppes of Russia to the dense jungles of Burma and South-east Asia.

Edited by the leading military historian, John Keegan, with the participation of many eminent experts in their field, The Times Atlas of the Second World War provides hundreds of maps, charts and commentaries to enable the reader to trace the course of the world's greatest conflict.

Genres: History, World War II, Reference, Nonfiction, Military History, Atlases, Military Fiction

254 pages, Hardcover

First published August 31, 1989

About the author

Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan, OBE, FRSL was a British military historian, lecturer and journalist. He published many works on the nature of combat between the 14th and 21st centuries concerning land, air, maritime and intelligence warfare as well as the psychology of battle.

Reviews

[Lars Wachsmuth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sehr umfangreiche und detaillierte Darstellung in Karten, Skizzen und Diagrammen. Zusätzlich gibt es erläuternde Texte, die den jeweiligen Schauplatz bzw. Aspekt näher erläutern. Einen Punkt ziehe ich für die mitunter etwas ungewöhnliche Übersetzung, teilweise auch von Ortsnamen, ab.

[Mark Singer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and well-illustrated historical atlas on World War II by British historian John Keegan. This was required reading for a course on the war at Temple University in the Fall of 2011 and I would recommend it to anyone interested in that subject.

[John Matthew IV · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of maps about the Second World War. The text by John Keegan was illuminating.

p. 85: "The Battle of Stalingrad may have cost the Germans as many as 1.5 million men killed, wounded, missing, and prisoner, nearly a quarter of their strength on the eastern front."

p. 105: "Kursk marked the end of the major German initiatives in the east. From now on, Germany and her allies would be on the defensive here, as everywhere else. At the end of the counteroffensive on 27 August, the Soviets were poised to moved into the Ukraine."

p. 121: "Bombing did not bring the war to an end on its own as some of the bombing strategists had hoped. Yet the impact on Germany was considerable."

p. 162: Dietl: "Hitler's favorite general"

p. 173: "It was not until the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975 that frontiers in Europe were finally recognized by both factions, and accepted as inviolable."

p. 185: "The Second World War, at its apogee, was truly an American war."

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful full color maps, covers all of the major battles in the second world war.
An enjoyable read for any grognard, or world war two history buff.
Favorite quote in the book, "Its one thing to dream over a map, its another to fight the actual battle."
(Could have added an order of battle listing separately from the maps.)

[Kris McCracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-presented overview of the range of fronts across the key periods of the war. Caution for anyone looking for detail of the Japan-Chinese element, or the Winter War (and subsequent Continuation War) on the Soviet-Finnish border, you'll not find it here!

[Marduk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and detailed maps accompanied with text, giving a very good overview of the various and complex developments of wwii. Personally I'd have preferred more focus on general understanding of the strategic situations than the occasionally dry detailing of the individual movements of units, but with a few exceptions, it was possible to follow these if one paid good attention to the maps while reading.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was incredibly informative regarding just about all of the important historical points of WW2. Highly recommend for anyone with an interest in history or geography.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult to use and somewhat lacking in both context and details, with glaringly generalized portions (the Battle of Leyte Gulf comes to mind) that lead the reader to form incorrect conclusions.