O'Brien categorizes the destruction of Axis fighting power into three distinct phases: : Blocking or destroying raw materials. Production : Strategic bombing of manufacturing facilities.
: Some historians, such as those on WW2Talk , argue that O'Brien underestimates the psychological and physical necessity of land armies to actually "kill the will" of the enemy and occupy territory.
: O'Brien defines the true conflict as a thousand-mile-long air-sea "super-battlefield" where the Allies used their industrial might to inhibit Axis movement.