Originally published in 1945, this book is a study of World War II through the phase which marked the developing power of the Allies to the threshold of their great offensive which brought the enemy to final defeat. It opens with the failure of the Germans to forestall, or check, the tremendous Russian recoil and follows this offensive across the Ukraine into pre-war Poland and Rumania. It also marches with Montgomery and Clark into the 'Festung Europa' and moves across the Pacific on the first great stage of the return journey to the Philippines. Each of these campaigns is made up of a multiplicity of enthralling detail; and [...] each of these campaigns played its part in the overture to the great offensive.