LIFE: World War II: History’s Greatest Conflict in Pictures

Chapters and Essays 1919-1939: All Roads Led to War “Four Blunders That Doomed the World” by Robert Edwin Herzstein 1940: France Falls and Britain Teeters “Hitler’s Generals Are Astounded” by Alistair Horne 1941: Finally, America is Forced Into War “The Killing Moves Around the Planet” by Gerhard L. Weinberg 1942: Two Victories Reverse the Momentum “The Beginning Comes to an End” by Harry A. Gailey 1943: From Atoll to Air, the War Grinds on “A Deadly Game of Leapfrog” by Ronald H. Spector 1944: Tyranny on the Brink of Defeat “A Desperate Last-Ditch Resistance” by John Keegan 1945: Splitting Atoms End the War “The Invasion That Never Was” by John S.D. Eisenhower 1946-2001: The War’s Aftermath “Red Scares, Baby Harvest, Fatter Paychecks and Learning to Pull Together” by William L. O’Neill.