Disaster At Moscow: Von Bock's Campaigns 1941-1942

The battle for Moscow was a major turning point in World War 2. How did it happen that the German forces so nearly succeeded, then failed? There is surprisingly little literature in the Western world about this gigantic struggle, and almost none about Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, the individual who aside from Adolf Hitler played the most decisive role in it. Using von Bock's war diary as a major source, Dr Turney offers a fascinating study in command problems, a vivid description of the 1941-42 campaigns in Russia, and a biography of one of Germanys most vaunted military commanders. In 1940-41 Germany gathered on her eastern borders the most powerful force ever assembled in history. In command of Army Group Centre, with the mission of invading Russia and Moscow, was von Bock. In six months, despite inadequate roads and supplies, conflicts with Hitler and Army High Command, fierce weather and dogged Russian resistance, von Bock was within sight of Moscow. There he was literally frozen to a standstill. Germany suffered it's first and most serious setback of the entire war, with disastrous results at the front and at home. Most significantly, Dr Turney points out, it resulted in Hitler's assuming operational control of the German Army, which sounded the death knell for German professional militarism.