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Sealing Their Fate: The Twenty-two Days That Decided World War II

By Jessica Schneider Jun 11, 2009, 12:53 GMT

As the Japanese fleet prepared to sail from Japan to Pearl Harbor, the German army was launching its final desperate assault on Moscow, while the British were planning a decisive blow against Rommel in North Africa. The British conquered the desert, the Germans succumbed to Moscow’s winter, and the Japanese awakened the sleeping giant of American might. In just three weeks, from November 17 to December 8, the course of ...more

This is the newest title by David Downing. Released May 25, the product description notes:

“As the Japanese fleet prepared to sail from Japan to Pearl Harbor, the German army was launching its final desperate assault on Moscow, while the British were planning a decisive blow against Rommel in North Africa. The British conquered the desert, the Germans succumbed to Moscow’s winter, and the Japanese awakened the sleeping giant of American might.

In just three weeks, from November 17 to December 8, the course of World War II was decided and the fate of Germany and Japan was sealed.

With new insight and a fresh perspective, David Downing tells the story of these crucial days, shifting the riveting narrative from snowbound Russian villages to the stormy northern Pacific, from the North African desert to Europe’s warring capitals, and from Tokyo to Washington.”

The AP review notes: “In author David Downing's facile reinterpretation of events, the issue was actually settled during three weeks in late 1941, just as the United States entered the conflict.

In fact he nails it down quite precisely, from Nov. 17 — the day Hitler's army began a final push against Moscow and a Japanese fleet with six aircraft carriers secretly left port — to Dec. 8, the day (Japan time) that Imperial forces attacked Pearl Harbor and other U.S. and British objectives in the Philippines and Malaya.”

The full AP review can be read here.