Amazon.com description: Product Description: "The Second World War Experience" covers the whole six-year global conflagration that shattered and then re-shaped the world. From the German blitzkrieg against Poland in September 1939, to the surrender of Japan following the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki almost exactly six years later. Written by the leading Second World War historian Richard Overy, each spread introduces another fascinating aspect of this world-encompassing conflict. We are taken to all corners of the globe, from the Battle of the River Plate in the South Atlantic Ocean, to the bloody battles fought over the Solomon Islands and New Guinea just off the northern tip of Australia, to the German occupation of Norway in the North, and the Allied invasion of Madagascar in the south Indian Ocean. It contains over 100 beautifully reproduced rare removable facsimile documents including: "Order Number 1" - the German order to invade Poland, the first of the whole war; Churchill's annotated notes for his famous June 1940 speech - 'This was their finest hour'; Stalin's handwritten notes to Khrushev on his 'scorched earth' policy of retreat; Montgomeries orders for the decisive battle of El Alamein; and, diary of a sergeant in the Royal Hampshire Regiment covering his involvement in the D-Day landings, Battle for Normandy and Operation 'Market Garden'.