This is an assessment of the intelligence and military triumphs and disasters of World War II, drawing on recently opened archives and marking the 50 year anniversary of the beginning of World War II. After a look at the events which caused the outbreak of war in 1939, Warner unfolds the day-to-day story. He aims to convey what it felt like to live through the war and what was really going on behind the scenes. Intelligence triumphs were not limited to one country, and even the ability of cryptologists to read German and Japanese codes did not mean that victory was assured. The Allied victory was the result of a combination of factors and the book shows the inside workings of the modern war machine. Philip Warner is author of Horrocks, Passchendaele and The Secret Forces of World War II.