CATACLYSM: The War on the Eastern Front 1941-45

✍ Scribed by Keith Cumins

• Publisher: Helion and Company
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 361
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

It has been more than 60 years since the end of the Second World War, a conflict that shaped the second half of the Twentieth Century. The significance of the war, and its relevance to the lives of so many, has generated a legacy of published material on the topic sufficient to fill a library. Yet disproportionately few publications deal exclusively with the true cauldron of the conflict - the brutal and uncompromising war between Germany and the Soviet Union; and fewer still attempt to provide, in a single volume, a comprehensive overview of that war from the commencement of Operation Barbarossa to the last battle in the rubble-strewn streets of Berlin. Drawing on information from Soviet archives that have only become available since the collapse of the Soviet Union, 'Cataclysm: The War on the Eastern Front 1941-1945', is unquestionably the most successful attempt so far to achieve that goal.

As Winston Churchill acknowledged, the Red Army tore the guts out of the Wehrmacht, and the story of how that happened, a story in which the events at Stalingrad were just one part, deserves to be told with greater frequency and to be understood more widely. From the enormous amount of detailed information currently available on the military struggle on the Eastern Front, condensing the events of a war of such scale and duration into a succinct narrative in a meaningful and balanced way has long been a challenging task. Yet the mortal conflict between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia is deserving of the effort.

'Cataclysm' focuses on the ground fighting along the Eastern Front, for it was overwhelmingly the ground war that determined the outcome of the conflict. With the aid of concise supporting maps, the book provides a clear and comprehensive account of the ebb and flow of a four-year long conflict conducted across a thousand miles of frontline in the vast region between the Elbe and Volga. Describing the conflict in a predominantly chronological manner, the book's narrative nonetheless maintains an easy, flowing style, relating with clarity the sequence of events as the interwoven campaigns on different sectors of the long frontline unfolded. For anyone wishing to understand the war in on the Eastern Front, 'Cataclysm' is essential reading, and the book will prove to be an invaluable addition to any bookshelf.

✦ Table of Contents

List of Illustrations......Page 5
List of Maps......Page 7
Introduction......Page 8
1. Prelude to Disaster......Page 10
2. Barbarossa......Page 19
3. Ebb Tide......Page 47
4. Pause for Breath......Page 77
5. Stalingrad......Page 88
6. The End of the Beginning......Page 116
7. Deceptive Calm......Page 148
8. The Beginning of the End......Page 164
9. Return to teh Stalin Line......Page 204
10. Out of Russia......Page 232
11. Berlin......Page 259
12. The Butcher's Bill......Page 296
I. Place Names......Page 298
II. Abbreviations......Page 300
III. German Divisional Structure 1941......Page 302
IV. Typical Soviet Army Structure in the Initial Phase of the War......Page 303
V. Axis Order of Battle for Operation Barbarossa 1941......Page 305
VI. Red Army Order of Battle 22 June 1941......Page 308
VII: Axis Order of Battle for Operation Blue 1942......Page 311
VIII: Red Army Order of Battle at the time of Operation Blue 1942......Page 315
IX: Axis Order of Battle for Operation Citadel 1943......Page 318
X: Red Army Order of Battle at the time of Operation Citadel 1943......Page 322
XI: Axis Order of Battle at the time of Operation Bagration 1944......Page 325
XII: Red Army Order of Battle for Operation Bagration 1944......Page 329
Select Bibliography......Page 331
Index......Page 333