: Attacking equipment while it was in transit to the front lines. Reception and Perspectives
You can find further analysis of his arguments in discussions at the U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons or via expert lectures on YouTube .
In , Phillips Payson O'Brien presents a revisionist history that challenges the idea that massive land battles like Stalingrad or Kursk were the primary drivers of Allied victory. How the War was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied V...
: The book highlights that the vast majority of military production for all major belligerents—including Germany—was devoted to air and sea warfare rather than land forces. For instance, air and sea weapons accounted for at least two-thirds of German weapons production.
O'Brien categorizes the destruction of Axis fighting power into three distinct phases: : Blocking or destroying raw materials. Production : Strategic bombing of manufacturing facilities. : Attacking equipment while it was in transit
Instead, O'Brien argues that the war was a global struggle for air and sea supremacy, won through production, technology, and the systematic destruction of Axis equipment before it ever reached the "battlefield". Core Arguments
: He argues that land battles were relatively minor in terms of equipment losses and that the Red Army primarily engaged in a war of personnel, while the Anglo-Americans conducted the decisive high-tech material war. Phases of Attrition In , Phillips Payson O'Brien presents a revisionist
: Reviewers from The University of Chicago Press and Cambridge University Press describe the work as "compelling" and "cliché-busting" for its data-driven approach to economic and industrial warfare.