Cover of The Second World War

The Second World War

Antony Beevor

September 2023
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History

A comprehensive historical account of World War II covering major events, military campaigns, and political developments across all theaters of the war.

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Hitler also underestimated Chamberlain’s anger at having been so comprehensively deceived at Munich. Duff Cooper, who had resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty over the betrayal of the Czechs, wrote that Chamberlain ‘had never met anyone in Birmingham who in the least resembled Adolf Hitler . . . Nobody in Birmingham had ever broken his promise to the mayor.’

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Hitler also underestimated Chamberlain’s anger at having been so comprehensively deceived at Munich. Duff Cooper, who had resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty over the betrayal of the Czechs, wrote that Chamberlain ‘had never met anyone in Birmingham who in the least resembled Adolf Hitler … Nobody in Birmingham had ever broken his promise to the mayor.’

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The 30th Division was hit hard when it reached Malmedy. This was the thirteenth time since landing in Normandy that it had been attacked by its own aircraft, and GIs even started to refer to the Ninth as ‘the American Luftwaffe’. This rather underlined the German army joke since Normandy that ‘if it’s British, we duck; if it’s American everybody ducks; and if it’s the Luftwaffe nobody ducks’.