Description
Book SynopsisThe first in a three-book series examining the Stalingrad campaign, one of the most decisive military operations in World War II that set the stage for the ultimate defeat of the Third Reich.
After failing to defeat the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Adolf Hitler planned a new campaign for the summer of 1942 that was intended to achieve a decisive victory: Operation Blue (Case Blau). In this new campaign, Hitler directed that one army group (Heeresgruppe A) would advance to seize the Soviet oilfields in the Caucasus, while the other (Heeresgruppe B) pushed on to the Volga River.
The expectation was for a rapid victory instead, German forces had to fight hard just to reach the outskirts of Stalingrad, and then found themselves embroiled in a protracted urban battle amid the ruins of a devastated city on the Volga.
The Soviet Red Army was hit hard by the initial German offensive but held onto the city and then launched Opera
Table of Contents
Origins of the Campaign Chronology Opposing Commanders Opposing Forces plus Order of Battle, 28 June 1942 Opposing Plans The Campaign Analysis The Battlefield Today Further Reading Index
