The Second World War on the Eastern Front

✍ Scribed by Lee Baker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 180
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Russia's engagement with Germany on the Eastern Front during World War II was ferocious, unprecedented and bloody, costing millions of civilian and military lives. In this challenging new book, Lee Baker distinguishes myth from reality and deflates the idea that this war, while gargantuan in scale, was in essence a war like any other.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Introduction to the Series
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Maps
List of Plates
Chronology
Who’s Who
Glossary
Maps
Part One:
Analysis
Introduction
1.
The Background
The Origins of the War on the Eastern Front
Planning ‘Operation Barbarossa’
Soviet Preparations for War
2. 22 June 1941: The Invasion
The Border Battles
The Battle for Leningrad
The Battle for Kiev
The First Major German Defeat: Rostov
Mass Murder in the USSR
The Battle for Moscow
3.
The War Turns Against the Germans, 1942–43
‘Operation Blue’
The Battle for Stalingrad
German Efforts to Halt the Red Army
The Partisans
‘Operation Citadel’
4.
The Soviet Union on the Offensive
Battles for the Ukraine
The Relief of Leningrad
‘Operation Bagration’
The Destruction of Army Groups North and South
The Battle for Berlin
5.
Assessment
Part Two:
Documents
1
Nazi–Soviet Pact, 23 August 1939
2
Hitler letter to Mussolini, 21 June 1941
3
Directive for ‘Operation Barbarossa’
4
Directive for Special Areas during ‘Operation Barbarossa,’ 13 March 1941
5
Decree for the Conduct of Courts-Martial in the East, 13 May 1941
6
‘Commissar Decree,’ 6 June 1941
7
Stalin’s speech on 3 July 1941
8
Decree on the Treatment of Civilians, 23 July 1941
9
Halder’s Diary, 3 July 1941
10
Halder’s Diary, 11 August 1941
11
Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau’s order, 10 October 1941
12
Hitler comments on motorization, 29 October 1941
13
Order for German forces to go on the defensive, 8 December 1941
14
Hitler comments on the winter 1941–42, 12 and 17 January 1942
15
Order for ‘Operation Blue,’ 5 April 1942
16
Soviet order concerning discipline in the Red Army, 28 July 1942
17
A German witness to a mass shooting, 5–6 October 1942
18
A German soldier describes the retreat in the Ukraine, Summer 1943
19
‘Fortified Areas’ Order, 8 March 1944
20
A Soviet soldier reports on combat during ‘Operation Bagration,’ 29 June 1944
21
A German soldier reports on fighting on the Eastern Front, 14 January 1945
22
Decree for the destruction of German industry, 30 March 1945
23
Hitler’s Last Proclamation to the Eastern Front, 15 April 1945
Further Reading
References
Index