This collection of 44 essays covers a wide range of World War II subjects and is written by bestselling and award-winning historians. Some highlights include Caleb Carr on Poland in 1939, the only campaign that Hitler won; Stephen E. Ambrose on a pivotal battle to take the Rhine; John Keegan on the siege of Berlin; and Victor Davis Hanson on the charismatic and controversial Gen. Curtis LeMay. Maps throughout.

Introduction / Robert Cowley I. The German Breakout: 1939-1941 Poland 1939 / Caleb Carr "Almost a Miracle" / Robert A. Doughty "Bloody Marvelous" / Anthony Bailey After Dunkirk / Bruce I. Gudmundsson "Undaunted by Odds" / William Manchester Hitler's D Day / David Shears Could Sea Lion Have Worked? / David Shears Barbarossa / Williamson Murray II. The Great East Asia War The Might-Have-Beens of Pearl Harbor / Eliot A. Cohen Tokyo, December 8, 1941 / Theodore F. Cook, Jr. The Other Pearl Harbor / D. Clayton James King of Bataan / Thaddeus Holt III. World at War: 1942-1943 The Channel Dash / Michael H. Coles Patrolling Guadalcanal / William H. Whyte The Day the Hornet Sank / Alvin Kernan The Battle That Never Happened / David M. Glantz Eighth Army Eyewitness to El Alamein / George Greenfield Stalingrad / Antony Beevor Diary of a Tail Gunner / John Gabay Churchill and His Generals / Eliot A. Cohen The Turning Points of Tarawa / Joseph H. Alexander The Kwai That Never Was / Stanley Weintraub Orde Wingate: Rebellious Misfit / Charles Berges

IV. The Secret War Gott Mit Whom? / David Balme and John McCormick Decima Mas / Paul Kemp Sabotaging Hitler's Bomb / Dan Kurzman Beachhead Labrador / W. A. B. Douglas The Deceivers / Thaddeus Holt Peppermint and Alsos / Ferenc M. Szasz V. The End in Europe: 1944-1945 The Airborne's Watery Triumph / T. Michael Booth and Duncan Spencer Rommel's Last Battle / David Fraser Falaise: The Trap Not Sprung / Carlo D'Este In Defense of Montgomery / Alistair Horne Did Strategic Bombing Work? / Williamson Murray The Black Knight / Caleb Carr The Last Barrier / Stephen E. Ambrose The Last Picture Show / George Feifer Berlin / John Keegan VI. Armageddon in the Pacific: 1944-1945 The Myth of the Saipan Suicides / Haruko Taya Cook The Uncommon Commoner / Eric Morris A Kamikaze's Story / Kanji Suzuki and Tadao Morimoto Okinawa / Bruce I. Gudmundsson The Right Man / Victor Davis Hanson Previews of Hell / Edward J. Drea The Soviet Invasion of Japan / David M. Glantz The Voice of the Crane / Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar.