Published to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (May 2020) and Victory in Japan Day (August 2020), this is an outstanding concise history of the Second World War written by one of Britain’s foremost historians.

The second in a two-part history of the World War II: The Essential History, Vol 2 (From the Invasion of Sicily to VJ Day 1943-45) examines the Allies’ long struggle for victory against Axis powers which had once seemed unbeatable. Starting with the Allied invasion of mainland Europe in the west and ending with the explosion of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the east we are taken page by page through the gripping events which eventually saw the end of six long years of war.

The concluding volume in this landmark series contains some of the most dramatic moments of the war: the use of so-called V-weapons by the Nazis to maximise civilian casualties; the unforgettable story of D-Day and the battle for Normandy; the Battle of the Bulge, which finally broke Axis power in the West; and the indescribably bloody and brutal race to Berlin that finally extinguished the Third Reich.