On June 22nd 1941 three huge German Army Groups launched a surprise attack on Soviet Russia. The most barbaric and brutal struggle in history was about to be played out to the death. History is always written by the victors, but this is the other side of the coin. here is the German experience of the war in Russia, a powerful study of that titanic conflict as seen through the eyes of and told in the words of the men who fought and died for Hitler. Included in this volume are extensive extracts from post-war debriefings of captured German officers concerning the experience of combat on the ground. Also featured are detailed accounts of the attempts to extricate surrounded German forces from the pockets of Klin, Velikiye Luki, Cherkassy and Kamenets-Podolskiy. Richly illustrated with dozens of photographs and maps, this unique account of the war in the east produces a comprehensive picture of the most titanic campaign in military history from the tactical, operational and strategic view. Written by Emmy award winning author Bob Carruthers this is the definitive single volume history of the Wehrmacht on campaign.

"Carruthers has a masterful grasp of the realities of the conflict." Professor John Erickson, author of 'The Road to Stalingrad' This titanic and thoroughly comprehensive study of the German experience in Russia is the definitive single volume study of Hitler's war in the East. It incorporates the entire text of 'The Wehrmacht In Russia' written by Emmy Award winning author Bob Carruthers in conjunction with the late Professor John Erickson, author of 'The Road To Stalingrad' and 'The Road to Berlin'. Also featured are dozens of new interviews with the remaining survivors of the war in Russia, encompassing the last testimony of the veterans of the Wehrmacht-Heer and the Luftwaffe. These unique primary sources are complemented by dozens of rare photographs and long forgotten material, based entirely on interviews with the senior German officers who participated in the war, as originally published by the US Army Historical Records Section in the 1950's. The result is a comprehensive and masterful overview of the reality of the war in the east encompassing the weapons, tactics, battles, tanks and aircraft alongside masterful explanations of the strategic and operational aspects, all of which dovetail seamlessly with the view from the trenches in the form of the recollections of the memoirs of the front line veterans.

In this rare World War II memoir, Lothar Herrmann, a soldier from the Wehrmacht, details his unimaginable experience as a German Prisoner-of-War in the Soviet Union. Hermann grew up in Bavaria, going through the RAD (Nazi Labour Service) before being conscripted into a Wehrmacht Mountain Division (the Gebirgsdivision) in 1940\. He participated in Germany’s advance through southern Ukraine in 1941 and, in 1944, was arrested in Romania while retreating to Germany. The Romanians passed him onto the Soviets, who placed him in a forced labour camp, where he watched two-thirds of prisoners around him die. In 1949, Herrmann was finally released to Germany and returned to Bavaria. Three million German troops were taken prisoner by the Red Army and around two-thirds of them survived to return to Germany in 1949, but their stories are little known. Klaus Willmann draws on interviews he conducted with Herrmann, to recount these astonishing recollections in the first-person. Depicting the challenges of growing up in Nazi Bavaria to becoming a Soviet prisoner-of-war, this is a gripping and enlightening account from a necessary but rarely explored perspective.

After long years of studying sources and literature, Werner Haupt presents the military history of one of the larger theaters of World War II. The completion of the history of "Army Group South" is the result of the author's utilization of all available German and Russian literature, as well as those combat diaries and documents of the committed troop units that are available in German archives. In addition, the author was assisted in clearing up several questions by the advice of former members of the army group - from commanders to drivers. This third and final volume of a three volume set by Werner Haupt includes a volume each on Army Group North, Army Group Center, and now Army Group South. The author served in the German Army as a soldier and officer in the northern sector of the Eastern Front during the Second World War. He is also the author of Assault on Moscow 1941 (available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

The purpose of this study is to describe German planning and operations in the first part of the campaign against Russia. The narrative starts with Hitler's initial plans for an invasion of Russia and ends at the time of Germany's maximum territorial gains during the battle for Stalingrad.

First published in 1957 and out of print for decades, Moscow Tram Stop is a classic of World War II on the Eastern Front. Heinrich Haape was a young doctor drafted into the German Wehrmacht just before the war began. He was with the spearhead of Operation Barbarossa, tasked with taking Moscow, when it invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Mere hours into the attack, Haape and his fellow soldiers learned the hard way that the Red Army fought with otherworldly tenacity even in defeat. The rapid advance of the early days slowed during the summer, and Haape’s division did not begin the final push on Moscow until October. It was a hard slog, plagued first by rain and mud, then by cold and snow. By early December, German forces had reached the gates of the Soviet capital but could press no farther. By winter’s end, Haape’s battalion of 800 had been reduced to a mere 28 soldiers. The doctor’s account is enthrallingly vivid. The drama and excitement never slacken as Haape recounts his experiences from the unique perspective of a doctor, who often had to join in the fighting himself and witnessed the physical and psychological toll of combat.

A grounds-eye view of the Wehrmacht s titanic World War II struggle against the Soviet Union . . . Dawn on Sunday 22 June 1941 saw the opening onslaughts of Operation Barbarossa as German forces stormed forward into the Soviet Union. Few of them were to survive the five long years of bitter struggle. James Lucas concentrates on the military experiences of German soldiers and reveals just what it was like to be numbered among their ranks. For the Germans this theater of war was unlike any other. They were faced with the unremitting hostility of the climate, the Soviet people, and even, at times, their own leadership. They saw epic battles such as Stalingrad and Kursk, and yet it was the daily war of attrition that ultimately proved fatal for Hitler s ambition and the German military machine. In a vivid account of the misery of war and its power to despoil both nations and individuals, James Lucas uncovers the full range of the German experience during this long and terrible campaign."

The People's War lifts the Stalinist veil of secrecy to probe an almost untold side of World War II: the experiences of the Soviet people themselves. Going beyond dry and faceless military accounts of the eastern front of the "Great Patriotic War" and the Soviet state's one-dimensional "heroic People," this volume explores how ordinary citizens responded to the war, Stalinist leadership, and Nazi invasion. Drawing on a wealth of archival and recently published material, contributors detail the calculated destruction of a Jewish town by the Germans and present a chilling picture of life in occupied Minsk. They look at the cultural developments of the war as well as the wartime experience of intellectuals, for whom the period was a time of relative freedom. They discuss women's myriad roles in combat and other spheres of activity. They also reassess the behavior and morale of ordinary Red Army troops and offer new conclusions about early crushing defeats at the hands of the Germans--defeats that were officially explained as cowardice on the part of high officers. A frank investigation of civilian life behind the front lines, The People's War provides a detailed, balanced picture of the Stalinist USSR by describing not only the command structure and repressive power of the state but also how people reacted to them, cooperated with or opposed them, and adapted or ignored central policy in their own ways. By putting the Soviet people back in their war, this volume helps restore the range and complexity of human experience to one of history's most savage periods.