Victories of WWII rested on more than blitzkrieg

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THE BLITZKRIEG MYTH: HOW HITLER AND THE ALLIES MISREAD THE STRATEGIC REALITIES OF WORLD WAR II

By John Mosier

Harper Collins, $27.50, 338 pages, illus.

REVIEWED BY MARTIN SIEFF

In "The Myth of the Great War" John Mosier recently produced one of the best books on the combat tactics of World War I ever published in the English language. Here he aspires to set conventional wisdom on its head for World War II the same way -- but fails to do so.

"The Blitzkrieg Myth" is a curious book, full of first-class insights and riveting nuggets of research but ultimately far less than the sum of its parts. Yet just in the questions he raises, and the conventional wisdom and sacred cows he challenges, Mr. Mosier makes it well worth the ride.

Mr. Mosier tries to argue that the idea of blitzkrieg -- of masses of armor backed by air power punching through the enemy lines and bringing the enemy to defeat -- was a chimera through all of World War II and that all the great victories of either side in the West were due to other causes.