GERMAN-RUSSIAN WAR 1941-1945

Interestingly this title, produced by the British War Office in 1956, was written by General Guillaume of the French Army. Nevertheless it is a first class overview of the whole of Operation Barbarossa, and is more than amply illustrated by a collection of 63 sketch maps detailing important battles and movements throughout the campaign. Planning is dealt with only briefly, and the book really gets going with a description of the Battle for Moscow in the winter of 1941/42. It then looks at the defence of Leningrad before racing forward to the Battle of Stalingrad. Details are then given of the fighting in the Caucasus. It is a treatment of the most important factors in the campaign from a military viewpoint, and there is no padding in this book at all.
Part Two deals with the situation in the spring of 1943 and looks then in detail at the Battle of Kursk. Following the German failure there, the Russians advanced on Orel and Kharkov, sealing the strategic fate of Germany in the war. 1944 and the German withdrawal is treated by means of descriptions of “Ten battles of destruction” ending in late 1944.
Finally the author analyses the German collapse in 1945. Throughout there are commentaries and analyses which help the reader to an understanding of not just what went on, but why things went so wrong for the Germans. This is an important text for the student of this enormous campaign, and cannot be ignored.