Ostfront: Hitler's War on Russia 1941-45 - Hardcover

The Eastern Front was the decisive theatre of World War 2. On a 1,200-mile front from the Arctic Circle to the Caspian Sea, in baking summer heat and winter temperatures of -40ºC, millions of men and women fought the most vital battle of the war. Had the Germans won in the East, a Nazi victory in World War 2 would have been almost inevitable. In 1941 the Germans suffered their first significant defeat at the gates of Moscow. Twelve months later their army was decisively defeated at Stalingrad. In April 1945 the Red Army stormed Berlin itself and ended the war in Europe. Hitler's flawed dream of conquest in the East brought about the end of the Thousand Year Reich, and all in little over a thousand days.

"Ostfront - the War on the Eastern Front 1941-45" details the decisive theatre of World War II. The War in the East remains the greatest land campaign in history in every sense; it was fought on a 1200 mile front from the Arctic Circle to the Caspian Sea, involved more personnel and cost more casualties than any other. Most popular books on the Russian front are based on German sources. The testimonies of de-briefed German officers together with published memoirs have dominated in the English-speaking world. Now, with the availability of hitherto secret Russian archives, a much fuller picture is emerging. Charles Winchester examines the structure, doctrine, leadership, strengths and weaknesses of the Red Army and the German armed forces in the summer of 1941. He focuses on factors such as the way in which rapid expansion of the army of 1940 had diluted the proportion of mechanized forces in the German Army; the logistics nightmare created by the acquisition of motor transport from all over western Europe; how lopsided technological progress in the Red Army sees vast numbers of tanks and aircraft but few radios; how an army built around a culture of the offensive faced a formidable upcoming defensive task. The detailed analysis of the war in the east which follows explodes a range of myths and tackles the key issues; how the Nazi system squandered huge economic advantages; correction of the commonly held myth that the Soviets enjoyed overwhelming industrial and numerical strength; how German racial policies in the east alienated largely sympathetic populations; and the importance of the Allied air campaign against Germany in diverting resources to defend the Reich.