edited by the Research Institute for Military History. Vol. II. Germany's initial Conquests in Europe; Clarendon Press: Oxford 1991.

This work can best be described as the German Official History of World War II, which is being translated into English by the Oxford University Press. This second volume covers 1939 to 1940, including the Polish, Norwegian, and French campaigns, and the air and sea assault on Britain. The first volume dealt with the prewar situation and contains some useful new information on the strengths and weaknesses of the German war economy.

Like all Official Histories, it is useful reading, but an Europe player should note that it does not attempt to provide any detailed orders of battle. This is no particular loss, since these are readily available elsewhere. Also, the maps, while adequate, are not particularly informative.

Those in the German version are multi-coloured and somewhat more useful. The third volume, covering 1941, is already in print in German, and has a good supplementary map volume. Mind you, I am being lazy and making no attempt to read it until the translation turns up! The strength of the various volumes lies in the evenhanded way in which the talented team of German experts evaluate the strategic plans and aims of the German Reich, and the extent to which they were realistic.

There is nothing particularly remarkable or new to be found in this volume--after all, the 1939-1940 period must be the most heavily researched period of the entire war, as entire generations of experts attempt to explain the incredible success of the German war machine. However, the writers, unencumbered by the need to pay lip service to the tales of General Staff efficiency, or Hitler's idiocy, and detached from the self-serving memoirs of a Guderian or Manstein, do a workmanlike job of stating how decisions were made and success achieved.

This is not a book to buy (I have no idea how much it costs, but products of the Oxford University Press are notoriously expensive), but the series promises to provide a dispassionate, if passionless, account of the Europa war, and at last, from the German point of view.