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  • Hitler Triumphant: Alternate Decisions of World War II
  • Michael Marino
Hitler Triumphant: Alternate Decisions of World War II. Edited by Peter G. Tsouras. St. Paul, Minn.: MBI Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-85367-699-4. Maps. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Pp. 288. $29.95.

Hitler Triumphant represents another in a long line of book-length counterfactuals relating to the Second World War and it suggests various ways that the history of that conflict could have gone differently. Generally speaking, the primary theme that runs through all the essays is that at the level of strategic decision making, certain key choices and policies ultimately directed the course of the war and these decisions, if made differently, could have altered the course and outcome of World War II as a whole. Most of the essays tread familiar ground—several look at German options in the Mediterranean and what would have happened had the Germans focused more attention on that theater. Several others focus on the Eastern Front and how the Germans could have captured Moscow in the summer of 1941 or escaped from the Stalingrad pocket in 1942. One innovative essay by Paddy Griffith posits a scenario about the possibilities that might have existed on the Eastern Front had the Germans committed more resources to their airborne forces and used them in an innovative way in that theater. The essays are generally well written (although proofreading lapses are annoying) and most of them are engaging and interesting to read. The authors clearly know enough about what did happen to accurately forecast what could have turned out differently. Each essay also makes sure to draw the demarcation points between fact and fiction and to show how each "alternate" reality is grounded in actual events.

The essays are enjoyable enough to read, and the book does provide some unique insights into the Second World War that would benefit those interested in the topic. For example, the various essays provide useful information regarding the relationship between Franco and Hitler, the strategic importance of Gibraltar and the threat posed by the Italian Navy had it been used more competently. The essays also give the sense that the Second World War consisted of a series of turning points, and had any one event gone differently, the entire history of the war would have been different. A general weakness of World War Two counterfactuals is that they tend to focus mainly on the German side and suggest that if the Germans did this or that differently, they would have won the war. This is true of Hitler Triumphant as well, and none of the essays look very closely at the Allied side. What would have happened, for example, if France had defended the Meuse River more stoutly in 1940, or if the Allies had gone to war in 1938 when [End Page 564] Germany was so much weaker? Overall, however, the book is a useful endeavor that does provide a perspective and point of view on the history of the Second World War that would be valuable to readers. The book also demonstrates that the outcome of World War Two was by no means inevitable and that if key decisions made in early 1941 had been different, the course and result of the conflict would also have been very different.

Michael Marino
Teachers College, Columbia University
New York, New York
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