1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910452660203321

Autore

Stahel David <1975->

Titolo

Operation Barbarossa and Germany's defeat in the East / / David Stahel [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2009

ISBN

1-107-32343-6

1-107-19457-1

1-107-31591-3

1-107-32130-1

1-107-31784-3

1-107-31686-3

0-511-73237-6

1-299-40319-0

1-107-31493-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xvi, 483 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Cambridge military histories

Disciplina

940.54/217

Soggetti

World War, 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Eastern Front

World War, 1939-1945 - Tank warfare

Soviet Union History German occupation, 1941-1944

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 452-473) and index.

Nota di contenuto

pt. I. Strategic plans and theoretical conceptions for war against the Soviet Union -- Fighting the bear -- The gathering storm -- Barbarossa's sword--Hitler's armed forces in 1941 -- The advent of war -- pt. II. The military campaign and the July/August crisis of 1941 -- Awakening the bear -- The perilous advance to the east -- The battle of Smolensk -- The attrition of army group centre -- In search of resurgence -- Showdown.

Sommario/riassunto

Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began the largest and most costly campaign in military history. Its failure was a key turning point of the Second World War. The operation was planned as a Blitzkrieg to win Germany its Lebensraum in the east, and the summer of 1941 is well-known for the German army's



unprecedented victories and advances. Yet the German Blitzkrieg depended almost entirely upon the motorised Panzer groups, particularly those of Army Group Centre. Using archival records, in this book David Stahel presents a history of Germany's summer campaign from the perspective of the two largest and most powerful Panzer groups on the Eastern front. Stahel's research provides a fundamental reassessment of Germany's war against the Soviet Union, highlighting the prodigious internal problems of the vital Panzer forces and revealing that their demise in the earliest phase of the war undermined the whole German invasion.