Originally published in 1941, this book represents the third volume in a series on the course of World War II, by a well-informed author who chose to remain anonymous during the time of first publication. The period covered in this volume is roughly from February to August 1941. It is the sequel to The War for World Power and From Dunkirk to Benghazi and, according the author's Preface, "has been written upon the same broad lines as an attempt to disentangle from the amazing confusion of events those which are the most significant and, while there has been some endeavour to admit the jurisdiction of chronology, events have been grouped as far as possible in episodes that have a certain unity. "It differs from the preceding volumes in showing the decisive character of the operations. From more concentrated though skilful operations it developed into movements which for mass and momentum have no parallel in history. It has the sort of discontinuity that exists between the art of the miniaturist and that of the scene painter; and yet it is evident that the attitudes and outlooks that conditioned earlier military operations dominated these. It can hardly fail to be realized that the attitude towards defence that caused the fall of France would have led to defeat throughout this period and that the Russians escaped defeat and inflicted damage on their opponents in the measure that they attacked and in so far as they failed it was due to their acting upon the defensive."
