A World at Arms (178 page)

Extensive documentation from German and Japanese archives is in the sets on the great international post-war trials:
Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal
(Nürnberg) and
Proceedings of the International Military Tribunalfor the Far East
(Tokyo). There is extensive coverage of German diplomacy, especially for the first years of the war, in the originally Allied, subsequently joint, and eventually German publication of documents primarily from the German Foreign Ministry archives. The English language edition,
Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945
, goes up only to December 1941; the German edition,
Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik
1918–1945, covers the rest of the war and is the version cited in this book.

On the German side, there are also the published diaries of Franz Halder, the Chief of Staff of the army from 1938 to 1942, edited by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen,
Generaloberst Halder, Kriegstagebuch,
3 vols. (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1962–64), and several translations into English, as well as of the high command of the armed forces, the
Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht, 1940–1945
, 4 vols. in 7 parts and 2 supplements (Frankfurt/M: Bernard & Graefe, 1961–65); and the surviving portions of the texts of Hitler’s situation conferences edited by Helmut Heiber,
Hitlers Lagebesprechungen: Die Protokollfragmente seiner militärischen Konferenzen 1942–1945
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1962), of which portions have been published in English by Felix Gilbert,
Hitler Directs His War
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1950). The war diary of the high command of the German navy, the Kriegstagebuch der Seekriegsleitung, Teil A, is currently being published (Herford: Mittler, 1988-), but the volumes are cited in this book from the originals. There is a useful collection of Hitler’s speeches in Max Domarus (ed.),
Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen, 1932–1945
, 2 vols. (Neustadt a.d. Aisch: Verlagsdruckerei Schmidt, 1962) of which an English translation is to appear shortly.

A collection of translated intercepts of Japanese diplomatic documents from 1941 was issued in 1977 by the U.S. Department of Defense:
The “Magic” Background of Pearl Harbor,
5 vols. in 8 parts, but there is no such publication for the period from December 1941 to the end of the war (see the discussion below for the U.S. National Archives). The Italian government has published a large collection of its diplomatic documents from September 1939 to July 1943, and the Portuguese collection also covers the war years; though of great interest, these are not likely to be used by many. The major publication of French documents is that pertaining to the armistice negotiations with the Germans:
La Délégation française auprès de la Commission allemande d’armistice: Recueil de Documents.
The large and excellent edition of Hungarian documents for the war years is fortunately provided with German language summaries of each document:
Diplomáciai iratok külpolitikájáhaz 1939–1945
. The two major series of documents from and relating to the Vatican are described very well in Victor Conzemius, “Le Saint-Siège et la deuxième guerre mondiale: deux éditions de sources,”
Revue d’histoire de la deuxième guerre mondiale,
No. 128 (1982), 71–94.

One of the very best, but unfortunately least used, forms of coverage of the war is the large number of official histories. Written in many cases by highly trained scholars with early and almost unlimited access to the archives, these are frequently of extremely high quality. The opportunity their authors had to consult individuals who had held key positions no doubt at times led to the smoothing over of criticisms, but it also helped illuminate issues and events which might otherwise have remained obscure. This is particularly true of the British and American series.

The British official history is divided into several series:
Grand Strategy, The Mediterranean and Middle East, The War Against Japan, Victory in the West, The War at Sea, The Strategic Air Offensive, Civil Affairs and Military Government,
individual volumes on the campaigns in Norway, in the West in 1940, and on the defense of the United Kingdom; there is a series covering the civilian side including such important topics as the blockade, supplies from North America, and the food, manpower, and financial situation; and a medical series as well. Of special interest is a 5–volume set on
British Foreign Policy in the Second World War
by Sir Llewellyn Woodward. Extraordinarily useful in spite of some limitations is the recently completed series of Francis H. Hinsley,
British Intelligence in the Second World War,
5 vols. in 6 parts (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1979–90). Early volumes of the British official history were not provided with footnotes to the records–a fraud on libraries and scholars if there ever was one because they must now purchase reprint volumes which include the notes!

The American series are separated by service. The distinguished historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote in large part and coordinated the balance of the 15-volume
History of United States Naval Operations in World War II
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1947–62). This most important–andmost readable–setincludes extensive coverage of Marine Corps operations, but these are also covered by a preliminary set, of which some volumes are cited in the body of this book, and a more detailed one:
History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II.
The best introduction, however, remains Jeter A. Iseley and Philip A. Crowl,
The U.S. Marines and Amphibious War: Its Theory and Practice in the Pacific
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1951). The American air force had its 7–volume official history prepared under the supervision of Wesley F. Craven and James L. Cate,
The Army Air Forces in
World War II
(Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1948–58; reprinted by the Office of Air Force History in 1983). The numerous reports of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey added enormous quantities of information on both the European and Pacific theaters, and some of them are cited in the text. These reports are also a mine of statistical and descriptive material on the economies of Germany and Japan.

The American army’s
U.S. Army in World War II
set is made up of several series. That on
The War Department
includes essential works on planning, logistics, and the relationship with America’s allies. There are series on each of the theaters as well as on each of the services; in addition, there are special studies on such subjects as women and Blacks in the army and rearming the French. The volumes, written with great care by very capable historians, are based not only on access to American archives but systematic even if preliminary work in German and Japanese records, and were provided with citations to the documents and bibliographic essays which are of enormous value to anyone wishing to pursue a specific topic further. Many of these books are cited in the text; the more I have worked with them myself, the more favorably I have been impressed by their quality.

The Soviet Union has published two sets of official history, and its successors are in the process of issuing a third. The problems of utilizing this material are best described in the works of Erickson and Ziemke, listed below, and it should be noted that the first two are available in German translation. Only the earlier of the Soviet sets has been translated into English and is available on film from Scholarly Resources; the volumes as a group are primarily of interest to the specialist. The sets published by the Canadian, Indian, Australian, New Zealand, and South African governments are helpful on specific campaigns, while those of Italy, China, Holland, Norway, and some others are not likely to be of interest or easy access to American and British readers. There is a most helpful introduction to the whole subject, with details on each program, in the important volume edited by Robin Higham,
Official Histories: Essays and Bibliographies from around the World
(Manhattan, Kans.: Kansas State Univ. Library, 1970).

The most significant recent development in this field has been the appearance of the first volumes of the series
Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg
being prepared by the Military History Research Office of the German Federal Republic. Five volumes and the first part of a sixth have appeared to date, and the rest may be expected during the next few years. These massive works have been written with great care and are based not only on available German records of the war but considerable utilization of the literature of the last half century; they are also being published in English translation by Oxford University Press under the title
Germany and the Second World War.

On Germany’s role in the war, by far the best work in English is Norman Rich’s two volumes on
Hitler’s War Aims
(New York: Norton, 1973–74). An especially careful analysis in German is Andreas Hillgruber,
Hitler Strategie: Politik und Kriegführung, 1940–1941
(Frankfurt/M: Bernard & Graefe, 1965 and later eds.). Briefer yet more comprehensive, but unfortunately not translated, is Jochen Thies’s book on Hitler’s objectives,
Architekt der Weltherrschaft: Die “Endziele” Hitlers
(Dusseldorf: Droste, 1976). Important source publications include the Goebbels diaries edited by Elke Fröhlich,
Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Sämtliche Fragmente,
of which
the part for 1924–41 has been published in four volumes and an index (Munich: Saur, 1987), and the rest is yet to appear; the conferences of Hitler with Armaments Minister Speer edited by Willi A. Boelcke,
Deutschlands Rüstung im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Hitlers Konferenzen mit Albert Speer 1942–1945
(Frankfurt/M: Athenaion, 1969), and the same editor’s
Kriegspropaganda 1939–1941: Ministerkonferenzen im Reichspropagandaministerium
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1966); and the conferences of Hitler with his naval chief edited by Gerhard Wagner,
Lagevorträge des Oberbefehlshabers der Kriegsmarine vor Hitler 1939–1945
(Munich: Lehmanns, 1972), of which there are several English language editions, none of them entirely satisfactory. Also of major importance for an understanding of the German navy are the three volumes of Michael Salewski,
Die deutsche Seekriegsleitung, 1935–1945
(Frankfurt/M: Bernard & Graefe, 1970–75); Eberhard Rossler,
The U-Boat: The Evolution and Technical History of German Submarines,
trans. by Harold Erenberg (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1981); and Günter Hessler,
The U-Boat War in the Atlantic, 1939–1945
, 3 vols. (London: HMSO, 1989 [but written right after the war]).

On the German air force, the best books are Williamson Murray,
Luftwaffe
(Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation Publishing Co. of America, 1985), and Horst Boog,
Die deutsche Luftwaffenführung 1935–1945: Führungsprobleme, Spitzengliederung, Generalstabsausbildung
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1982). The German army is dealt with in this essay in terms of the various campaigns; on the armed units of the SS the most recent comprehensive treatment is Bernd Wegner’s
Hitlers politische Soldaten: Die Waffen-SS, 1933–1945
(Paderborn: Schoningh, 1982), recently translated as
The Waffen SS: Ideology, Organization and Function
(New York: Blackwell, 1990). Providing more insight into the German military than the endless and generally unreliable memoirs of German generals who claim credit for any battles won, blame Hitler for all battles lost, and display an astonishing degree of ignorance, actual or pretended, of much of what they were doing, is the very revealing study of Nazi terror within the military’s own ranks: Manfred Messerschmidt and Fritz Wüllner,
Die Wehrmacht Justiz im Dritten Reich: Zerstörung einer Legende
(Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1987). Very important for Germany’s gas warfare preparations is Rolf-Dieter Müller, “Die deutschen Gaskriegsvorbereitungen 1919–1945: Mit Giftgas zur Weltmacht?”
MGM
21, No. 1 (1980), 25–54. On German propaganda and home front attitudes, excellent works are Robert E. Herzstein,
The War that Hitler Won: Goebbels and the Nazi Media Campaign
(New York: Paragon House, 1987), and Marlis Steinert,
Hitler’s War and the Germans,
ed. and trans. by Thomas E.J. de Witt (Athens, Ohio: Ohio Univ. Press, 1977).

The ideological side of Germany’s conduct of the war, other than the Holocaust and special aspects of the Eastern Front (both covered subsequently), are handled very well in Helmut Krausnick and Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm,
Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges: Die Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, 1938–1942
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1981), and Ernst Klee,
“Euthanasie” im NS-Staat: Die “Vernichtung unwertes Lebens”
(Frankfurt/M: S. Fischer, 1983). A most thoughtful discussion of the role of the German Foreign Ministry is by Hans-Jürgen Doscher,
Das Auswärtige Amt im Dritten Reich: Diplomatie im Schatten der “Endlösung”
(Berlin: Siedler, 1987). The other side is well represented by David H. Kitterman, “Those Who Said ‘No!’: Germans Who Refused to Execute Civilians during World War II,”
German Studies Review
11 (1988), 241–54; but the most comprehensive
treatment of this subject is Peter Hoffmann,
The History of the German Resistance 1933–1945
(London: Macdonald & Jane’s, 1977).

Helpful for an understanding of the German economy during the war are Edward L. Homze,
Foreign Labor in Nazi Germany
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1967); Ulrich Herbert,
Fremdarbeiter: Politik und Praxis des “Ausländer-Einsatzes” in der Kriegswirtschaft des Dritten Reiches
(Berlin: Dietz, 1985); Ludolf Herbst,
Der Totale Krieg und die Ordnung der Wirtschaft
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1982); and Alfred C. Mierzejewski’s superb study,
The Collapse of the German War Economy, 1944–1945: Allied Air Power and the German National Railway
(Chapel Hill, N.C.: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1988).

The best introduction to the literature and issues of the Holocaust is Michael R. Marrus,
The Holocaust in History
(Hanover: N.H.: Univ. Press of New England, 1987). Excellent treatments of most major aspects and controversies may be found in the published papers of three sets of conferences: Henry Friedlander and Sybil Milton (eds.),
The Holocaust: Ideology, Bureaucracy, and Genocide
(Millwood, N.J.: Kraus, 1980); Peter Hayes (ed.),
Lessons and Legacies: The Meaning of the Holocaust in a Changing World
(Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern Univ. Press, 1991); and Jürgen Rohwer and Eberhard Jäckel (eds.),
Der Mord an den Juden im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Entschlussbildung und Verwirklichung
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1985). The very fine work of Raul Hilberg,
The Destruction of the European Jews
(Chicago: Quadrangle, 1961), has been revised, but one of the revisions is an abbreviated students’ edition and the other one has been spread over three volumes, making it impossibly expensive. Very important are Richard Breitman,
The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution
(New York: Knopf, 1991), and the books and articles of Christopher Browning cited in the text. A disturbing but significant book is Ernst Klee et al.(eds.),
“Schöne Zeiten”: Judenmord aus der Sicht der Tater und Gaffer
(Frankfurt/M: Fischer, 1988), now translated by Hugh R. Trevor-Roper as
“The Good Old Days”: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders
(New York: Free Press, 1991).