Description
Book SynopsisThe battles in Russia played the decisive part in Hitler''s defeat. Gigantic, prolonged, and bloody, they contrasted with the general nature of the fighting on other fronts. The Russians fought on their own in their theater of war and with an indepedent strategy. Stalinist Russia was a country radically different from its liberal democratic allies. Hitler and the German high command, for their part, conceived and carried out the Russian campaign as a singular war of annihilation. This riveting new book is a penetrating, broad-ranging, yet concise overview of this vast conflict. It investigates the Wehrmacht and the Red Army and the command and production systems that organized and sustained them. It considers a range of further themes concerning this most political of wars. Benefiting from a post-Communist, post-Cold War perspective, the book takes advantage of a wealth of new studies and source material that have become available over the last decade. Readers from history buffs to sch
Trade ReviewThis is a substantial contribution to the literature on the Soviet-German war...Mawdsley knows the material intimately. This is a high-class offering. * Robert Service, University of Oxford *
Authoritative and judicious, innovative and challenging, accessible and evocative - this is the text for those who want to understand why Hitler lost and why Stalin won. * Geoffrey Roberts, THES *
Thunder in the East ... is now the state-of-the-art general history of the Eastern front. * James V. Koch, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA *
Here at last is a concise and clearly written account of what happened on both sides of the hill that provides excellent comparisons of equipment, leadership, doctrine, organization, and personnel. * The International History Review *
This is exceptionally precise and judicious work, now the authoritative general history... * The Atlantic *
Table of ContentsSeries Editor's Preface Preface
Part I: The Nazi Onslaught, 1941-42 1. Hitler's War 2. Preparations and Perceptions 3. Operation BARBAROSSA, June to September 1941 4. Moscow and the End of BARBAROSSA, October to December 1941 5. The First Soviet Offensive, December 1941 to May 1942 6. Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad, June 1942 to January 1943
Part II: The Soviet Victory, 1943-45 7. Total War I: Wartime Arms and Armies 8. Total War II: Occupation and Diplomacy 9. The Turning Tide, January to September 1943 10. The Ukraine and Leningrad, August 1943 to April 1944 11. To the Soviet Frontiers, June to October 1944 12. The March into Eastern Europe, July 1944 to May 1945 13. The Destruction of Nazi Germany, October 1944 to May 1945 14. Conclusion Chronology of Events, 1939-45 Glossary Bibliography Index
