Operation Barbarossa 1941: Hitler against Stalin [Hardcover]

Illustrated with over 250 photos, many never previously published, this is an objective, balanced account, published in time for the 75th anniversary of the start of Operation Barbarossa on 22nd June 2016.Operation Barbarossa was the largest military campaign in history. Springing from Hitlers fanatical desire to conquer the Soviet territories, defeat Bolshevism and create Lebensraum for the German people, it pitted two diametrically opposed armed forces against one another.The invasion began with 4.5 million troops attacking 2.3 million defenders. On one side was the Wehrmacht, without any doubt the worlds most advanced military force. On the other were the Soviet armed forces, downtrodden, humiliated, decapitated and terrorized by an autocratic and crude dictator with no military education whatsoever.Based on decades of research work in both German and Russian archives, as well as interviews with a large number of key figures and veterans, Operation Barbarossa brings our knowledge on the war on the Eastern Front several big steps forward. It reveals and dispels many myths and misconceptions including: the myth of mass surrenders by Soviet soldiers; the myth about the vast differences in troop casualties between the two sides; the myth of the Soviet partisans and the myth that it was the Arctic cold that halted the German offensive. It also does not shy away from difficult truths such as the true nature of Finlands participation in Operation Barbarossa, and the massive scale of rapes committed by German troops.Christer Bergstr?m has once again produced what will be the definitive account of this monumental campaign.A major new benchmark study of Operation Barbarossa by Christer Bergstr?m, renowned WWII historian and author of the critically acclaimed The Ardennes 1944-1945: Hitlers Winter Offensive and The Battle of Britain: An Epic Conflict Revisited. ...a tour de force on operation Barbarossa and all of its facets...Where this new rendition goes beyond all l#š