Product Description

This chronological account of the campaigns on the Eastern Front, following the German advance from the Soviet frontier, details each combat sector in isolation, while also assessing the impact upon the wider campaign.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #647905 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-20
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 310 pages

From the Author
Between June 1941 and May 1945 the largest conflict the world had ever seen was fought across Eastern Europe, culminating in the absolute defeat not only of a new ideology, but an entire nation.
The first book in this series, The Long Road East, takes a chronological look at the German advance from the Soviet frontier, their crushing victories at Minsk, Smolensk and Kiev, and subsequent drive for Moscow. However, in the depths of the Russian winter, the Soviet commanders marshalled their meagre reserve before their capital and inflicted a crippling counter blow on the Ostheer, pushing it back hundreds of miles. With the onset of the campaigning weather of spring 1942, the Stavka planned to finish the Germans off, launching a crushing blow in the Ukraine. Devastatingly, the Soviet offensive upon Kharkov ended in complete and total failure and heralded the next German drive east, the long march to the Volga, and a new kind of warfare. In the ruins of Stalingrad the Ostheer was bled white, Paulus’ 6th Army battling to overcome Chuikov’s redoubtable 62nd Army. Amid the carnage though, the emerging Marshals of the Soviet Union had developed a plan to destroy the Germans and once again begin their drive west, a drive that would ultimately force the Germans out of Russia and into absolute defeat.
Writing in a clear chronological style, the book covers the main areas of activity on the extensive combat front. Details of the armies involved, their strengths, orders of battle and combat casualties, serve to give a complete picture of the scale of the conflict. Studying each of the combatants and their allies in equal detail, the Barbarossa to Berlin series gives the reader a unique insight into the sheer scale of this titanic struggle.

About the Author
(Location: Stockton on Tees) has always had a keen interest in military history and in particular the campaigns of the Second World War.

Customer Reviews

Gold standard chronology
Given that the Eastern Front was an operation of such scale and diversity, it is easy to see why a volume of this type has not been researched before - summarising the manoeuvres of a pan-European front into daily granularity is no small task. Equally, now the book has been published, it is difficult to underestimate its value.

The end product in this case provides detailed and clear chronology of the campaigns in the East and in the process challenges a couple of preconceptions: firstly that a tome of such a format be arid and lifeless and secondly that a first book is of limited academic or reference value. Barbarossa to Berlin reflects the considerable enthusiasm of the author in a package that not only provides a text of entertaining fluency but also serves as a gold standard for military historians, tying up hugely disparate and detailed source material into a neat, highly digestible and well-researched package.

Academics and enthusiasts take note - this really should be required reading and I look forward greatly to the subsequent volume.