Overy, Richard

Richard Overy has argued, victory was not pre-ordained in 1942. The Axis powers occupied most of continental Europe and much of the Far East. Unity of purpose on the part of the Allies could not be assumed. The Allies early defeats pointed to the need to improve the qualitative performance of their armed forces as well as of their equipment. Mobilisation of national economies depended upon a will to win on the part of the people. Only after Germany had surrendered on 8 May 1945 did a decisive weapon appear in the shape of the atomic bomb. ... 

Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won (London Jonathan Cape, 1995). 

Richard Overy, Air Power, Armies, and the War in the West, 1940, Harmon Memorial Lectures, no. 32, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado, 1989. 

See Richard Overy, War and economy in the Third Reich (Oxford, 1994), 183-200, 211-212 and, on the example of Karl Kimmich, Lothar Gall et al.. Die Deutsche Bank 1870-1995 (Munich, 1995), 332-333. 

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