The Moscow Option: An Alternative Second World War by David Downing

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The author presents an alternate scenario to WWII.  The main differences are the German decision to attack Moscow directly and the Japanese discovery that the United States had broken their military code.  The German aspect seems more believable than the Japanese account.  I felt that the book sometimes got bogged down as too many pages were given to minute moves of army units.  I was more interested in seeing the bigger picture and understanding the political, economic and industrial reasons why certain campaigns succeeded while others did not. Contrary to the advertising script, this is not about a world where Hitler reigned supreme.  I wish the author had expanded his epilogue to describe the circumstances of the retreat of Nazi Germany and Japan.  It would be interesting to see his speculation as to how the alternate post-war world would have looked.



View all my reviews