Why the Allies Won

Overy, R. 1995. Why the Allies Won. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

World War II is often seen as a battle between good and evil, where good naturally triumphed. The reasons for the victory of the western powers were not so simple. Richard Overy draws aside the illusions of the common view of the victory, exposing the alliance as a necessity of national self-interest. To begin with, the west allied with the Soviet Union, a dictatorship, and before 1941, the Soviet Union was harshly criticized. Between the U.S., Soviet Union, and Britain, the Allies did outnumber and out produce the Axis powers, but numbers do not indicate quality of weapons, skill of the military, or the access to and limits on resources on each side. The war did not make the world safe for democracy as much as it made it safe for communism, building on the power base of the Soviet Union, and the spread of communism in Europe and Asia. The Soviet Union was critical in securing the defeat of Germany, so for the large part, earned its freedom from interference by the west.

Overy goes on to examine the reasons for the failure of the Axis to win early in the war when they were ahead in resources and training. Contributing causes to Allied victory were numerous, and included the ability of the Soviets to output tanks with comparatively few resources; the failure of Japan to obtain oil resources; the bombing of European countries on both sides; the different levels of technology in each country as the war progressed; the damages of Great War of 1914-1918 including a depression Russia, political extremism, and the constantly changing imbalance of power between the European states. Overy’s thesis is that there were many factors that explain the Allied victory, from the psychology of anti-Hitlerism, to technology, military leadership, and morality, and that the deaths of at least 55 million people, and the prevention of the same level of slaughter recurring, require a well-defined and accurate examination and accounting of the true reasons for Allied triumph; “’why the Allies won’ is done… in the spirit of genuine inquiry, in order to be precise about the explanations that matter, and may matter once again in the century to come” (24)

The contest for control of the oceans by naval sea and air power illustrates the combination of psychology and technology that boosted the Allies’ chances of winning the war. By August 1941, the German armies had made large inroads into Russia. Japan had moved into French Indo-China, and was casting its sights on the south-east Asia and the southern Pacific. Britain had lost some 2000 ships, and the U.S. was committed to aid in the war through supply and rearmament. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, a statement of hopes, and an unbinding solidarity. At this point, the U.S. was a non-combatant, expecting to remain so. But on December 7, 1941, Japan