War Without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa 1941-1942

In the spring of 1941, having abandoned his plans to invade Great Britain, Adolf Hitler turned the might of his military forces on to Stalin's Soviet Union. The German army quickly advanced far into Russia, as the Soviet forces suffered defeat after defeat. With barbaric savagery displayed on both sides, the Eastern Front was a campaign in which no prisoners were taken and no quarter given. Although Hitler's decision to launch 'Barbarossa' was one of the crucial turning points of the war, at first the early successes of the German army pointed to the continuing triumph of the Nazi state. As time wore on, however, the Eastern Front became a byword for death, and transferral to the front was the fate feared most by Germany's foot soldiers.\nRobert Kershaw examines the campaign through the eyes of the German forces who were sent to fight and die for Hitler's grandiose plans. Drawing on German war diaries, post-combat reports and secret SS files, he provides an enthralling account of the campaign from the perspective of the ordinary soldier. The Eastern Front remains a subject of continuing interest and speculation among historians, and this seminal account of the battle will be fascinating reading, adding much to our depth of knowledge about this brutal period of World War 2 history.