The following is a list of books that we found to be useful in the creation of Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin or that hold a great interest to students of World War II and most notably the conflict on the Eastern Front.

You may also wish to look at some titles we have for sale ourselves, online HERE.

Panzertruppen: Les Troupes Blindees Allemandes German Armored Troops 1935-1945
By: Francois De Lannoy, Josef Charita
ISBN #2840481510 (February 2002)

A huge photographic collection concentrating on Panzer troops in World War II. Most of the photographs are previously unpublished and are accomplished by detailed captions and an authoritative narrative.

Panzertruppen: The complete Guide to the Creation and Combat Employment of German Tanks, from 1943-1945/Formations Organization Tactics Combat Reports Unit Strengths Statistics.
By: Thomas L. Jentz
ISBN#: 0764300806 (January 2000)

This companion volume presents how the Panzertruppen fought with details on the units, organizations, types of Panzers, and tactics, 47 b/w photographs, maps, charts, 81/2"x11", appendices.

Red Army Handbook 1939-1945
By: Steve J. Zaloga, Lelands Ness
ISBN# 0750917407: 1st edition (February 1998)

Stalin's Red Army entered the war as a relatively untried fighting force. In 1941, with the launch of Operation "Barbarossa", it joined battle with Hitler's army --the most powerful in history-- and after a desperate war of attrition over four years it beat the Nazis into defeat on the Eastern Front. Although the Red Army won lasting fame and glory in 1945 by eclipsing the military might of the Nazis, there is currently a glaring lack of published material available about it. This book fills the gap.

The narrative opens with a review of the historical background to the Red Army leading up to the outbreak of war in 1939, followed by a review of the major themes in the development of Soviet forces during the "Great Patriotic War" that ensued in 1941. The Red Army's organizational structures, from high command down to divisional level and below are examined and the authors also discuss the higher level organizations to assist a Western reader in comprehending the differences in terminology between the Soviet and common Western (British, US, German) armies.

The chapters which follow describe infantry, armor and mechanized forces, cavalry, airborne and Special Forces and artillery, and take a detailed look at the combat arms from an organizational viewpoint. Soviet infantry weapons, Soviet armored vehicles and artillery, and support equipment are outlined, including a technical overview of the equipment, including data charts.

Zhukov's Greatest Defeat: The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942 (Modern War Studies)
By: David M. Glantz, Mary E. Glantz
ISBN#:070060944X (April 1999)

One of the least-known stories of World War II, Operation Mars was an epic military disaster. Designed to dislodge the German Army from its position west of Moscow, Mars cost the Soviets an estimated 335,000 dead, missing, and wounded men and over 1,600 tanks. But in Russian history books, it was a battle that never happened-a historical debacle sacrificed to Stalin's postwar censorship.

David Glantz now offers the first definitive account of this forgotten catastrophe, revealing the key players and detailing the major events of Operation Mars. Using neglected sources in both German and Russian archives, he reconstructs the historical context of Mars and reviews the entire operation from High Command to platoon level.

Orchestrated and led by Marshal Georgi Kostantinovich Zhukov, one of the Soviet Union's great military heroes, the twin operations Mars and Uranus formed the centerpiece of Soviet strategic efforts in the fall of 1942. Launched in tandem with Operation Uranus, the successful counteroffensive at Stalingrad, Mars proved a monumental setback. Fought in bad weather and on impossible terrain, the ambitious offensive faltered despite spectacular initial success in some sectors: Zhukov kept sending in more troops and tanks only to see them decimated by the entrenched Germans.

Illuminating the painful progress of Operation Mars with vivid battle scenes and numerous maps and illustrations, Glantz presents Mars as a major failure of Zhukov's renowned command. Yet, both during and after the war, that failure was masked from public view by the successful Stalingrad operation, thus eliminating any stain from Zhukov's public image as a hero of the Great Patriotic War.

For three grueling weeks, Operation Mars was one of the most tragic and agonizing episodes in Soviet military history. Glantz's reconstruction of that failed offensive fills a major gap in our knowledge of World War II, even as it raises important questions about the reputations of national military heroes.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

Commanding the Red Army's Sherman Tanks: The World War II Memoirs of Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitriy Loza
By: James F. Gebhardt (editor), Dimitry Loza
ISBN#: 0803229208 (January 1997)

Midwest Book Review
Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitriy Loza has carefully crafted his World War II experiences with American-provided Sherman tanks into a highly readable memoir.

Between the fall of 1943 and August 1945, Loza fought in the Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. He commanded a tank battalion during much of this period and had three Shermans shot out from under him. Commanding The Red Army's Sherman Tanks is the first available detailed examination of the Red Army's exploitation of American war material during World War II, and provides firsthand testimony on tactical command decisions, group objectives and how they were accomplished.

It took the fall of the Soviet Empire before first-hand information like this could become part of military studies materials here in the west. James Gebhard's translation has made Dmitriy Loza's military memoirs easily accessible to military professionals, World War II buffs, and non-specialist general readers alike.

In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front (Modern War Studies (Paper))
By: Gottlob Herbert Biderman, Derek S. Zumbro (Translator) Dennis Showalter (Introduction)
ISBN#: 0700611223 (September 2001)

In the hell that was World War II, the Eastern Front was its heart of fire and ice. Gottlob Bidermann served in that lethal theater from 1941 to 1945, and his memoir of those years vividly recaptures his grueling experiences with an army marching on the road to ruin.

A riveting and reflective account by one of the millions of anonymous soldiers who fought and died in that cruel terrain, In Deadly Combat conveys the brutality and horrors of the Eastern Front in detail never before available in English.

Wounded five times and awarded numerous decorations for valor, Bidermann saw action in the Crimea and siege of Sebastopol, participated in the vicious battles in the forests south of Leningrad, and ended the war trapped in the Courland Pocket. He shares his impressions of countless Russian POWs seen at the outset of his service, of peasants struggling to survive the hostilities while caught between two ruthless antagonists, and of corpses littering the landscape. He recalls a Christmas gift of gingerbread from home that overcame the stench of battle, an Easter celebrated with a basket of Russian hand grenades for eggs, and his miraculous survival of machine gun fire at close range. In closing he relives the humiliation of surrender to an enemy whom the Germans had once derided and offers a sobering glimpse into life in the Soviet gulags.

Bidermann's account also debunks the myth of a highly mechanized German army that rolled over weaker opponents with impunity. Despite the vast expanses of territory captured by the Germans during the early months of Operation Barbarossa, the war with Russia remained tenuous and unforgiving.

Translator Derek Zumbro has rendered Bidermann's memoir into a compelling narrative that retains the author's powerful style. This English-language edition of Bidermann's dynamic story is based upon a privately published memoir entitled Krim-Kurland Mit Der 132 Infanterie Division. Zumbro has also added important events derived from numerous interviews with Bidermann to provide additional context for American readers.

With Our Backs to Berlin
By: Tony Le Tissier
ISBN#: 0750926112 (May 2001)

The combat surrounding Berlin in 1945 was a serious one. This book recounts the battle with interviews with some of the survivors. Using information from German and Russian survivors, once soldiers and squad leaders, they share the conditions and needs of a soldier. This book describes the battle in Reichstag as the Soviet military came into the city from using radio logs and reports, told by the soldiers who were there.

Combat History of Schwere Panzerjager-Abteilung 653
By: Karlheinz Munch
ISBN#: 0921991371 (July 1997)

Hard cover, 12"x9", 600 pages, 700 photographs, 32 pages of color artwork, scale drawings. Schwere Panzerjger 653 was activated as a Sturmgeschtz unit - the 197th - then converted to the Ferdinand (later Elefant) and then to the even more massive Jagdtiger. Masses of Ferdinand photos from Russia and Italy (approximately 400) in 1943 and 1944. More than 100 photos of the rarely seen Jagdtiger. Additionally, photos of StuG's, Brummbr, T34 Flak, etc. Extremely accurate color artwork of camouflage and markings. The detailed text gives a very good coverage of the history of the unit. The author has produced an excellent unit history.

Kharkov 1942: Anatomy of a Military Disaster
By: David M. Glantz
ISBN#: 1885119542 (June 1998)

Examines the huge Russian offensive in May 1942 in which Stalin hoped to split and destroy the German Army. The Germans, however, had planned to launch an offensive of their own and attacked at the root of the Soviet penetration, cutting it off and inflicting over 270,000 casualties on the Red Army. This is the most detailed work on the subject yet published.

The Battle of Kursk (Modern War Studies)
By: David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House
ISBN#: 0700609784 (October 1999)

Immense in scope, ferocious in nature, and epic in consequence, the Battle of Kursk witnessed (at Prokhorovka) one of the largest tank engagements in world history and led to staggering losses--including nearly 200,000 Soviet and 50,000 German casualties within the first ten days of fighting. Going well beyond all previous accounts, David Glantz and Jonathan House now offer the definitive work on arguably the greatest battle of World War II.
Drawing on both German and Soviet sources, Glantz and House separate myth from fact to show what really happened at Kursk and how it affected the outcome of the war. Their access to newly released Soviet archival material adds unprecedented detail to what is known about this legendary conflict, enabling them to reconstruct events from both perspectives and describe combat down to the tactical level.

The Battle of Kursk takes readers behind Soviet lines for the first time to reveal what the Red Army knew about the plans for Hitler's offensive (Operation Citadel), relive tank warfare and hand-to-hand combat, and tell how the tide of battle turned. Its vivid portrayals of fighting in all critical sectors places the famous tank battle in its proper context. Prokhorovka here is not a well-organized set piece battle, but a confused series of engagements and hasty attacks, with each side committing its forces piecemeal.

Glantz and House's fresh interpretations demolish many of the myths that suggest Hitler might have triumphed if Operation Citadel had been conducted differently. Theirs is the first account to provide accurate figures of combat strengths and losses, and it includes 32 maps that clarify troop and tank movements.

Shrouded in obscurity and speculation for more than half a century, the Battle of Kursk finally gets its due in this dramatic retelling of the confrontation that marked the turning point of the war on the Eastern front and brought Hitler's blitzkrieg to a crashing halt.

Using newly released and formerly classified Soviet archival sources and German sources not previously seen in the West, Glantz provides a comprehensive, detailed account of the performance of Soviet airborne forces in peace and war. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

The Siege of Leningrad 1941-1944: 900 Days of Terror
By: David M. Glantz
ISBN#: 0760309418 (March 2001)

Germany's siege of Leningrad is one of world history's epic chapters. For nearly three years, the people of this industrial port city withstood everything the surrounding German Army could throw at them-and their resistance sounded a crucial death knell for Hitler's ambitions to rule Europe. This compelling narrative explains the increasingly drastic methods employed by the Wehrmacht to reduce the city's defenses and break the morale of its citizens, while also examining Leningrad's political symbolism, the Red Army's frantic counteroffensives, and the hardships faced by Leningraders --for example, 4,000 citizens starved to death on Christmas Day 1941 alone. Previously unpublished photographs, detailed maps, and firsthand accounts are supplemented by an overview of the roles played by Soviet leaders and the heroism of the city as a whole.

Grenadiers
By: Kurt Meyer
ISBN# 0921991592: 1 edition (April 2001)

Small format (6 x 9), hard cover, English text, 412 pages with 60+ pages of illustrations and maps. Kurt Meyer's autobiography offers a fascinating insight into the mind of some of Germany's most highly decorated and successful WW2 soldiers. If you love small-unit actions, this is the book for you. You will follow Meyer with the 1. SS-Panzer-Division "Leibstandarte" and the 12. SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend" from the first day of the war through his capture in Normandy in 1944 and then to his subsequent trials and tribulations after the war.

Panzer Aces
By: Franz Kurowski
ISBN# 0345448847: (January 2002)

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and ignited World War II with a revolutionary fighting force that would forever change the face of war. The key to blitzkrieg was the large scale deployment of Panzers. Aided by the tremendous air power of deadly screaming Stukas, Panzer battalions attacked swiftly, violently, smashing through enemy lines, destroying supplies and artillery positions, and shattering the enemy's will to resist. The sheer scale of rapid-fire victories amazed the world and elevated the tank soldiers to an almost mythical status.

Panzer Aces chronicles the battles of six decorated officers who helped create the legend. Based on extensive research, these gripping narratives of Normandy, the bloody campaigns in Italy, the ferocious combat at Kursk --the greatest armored battle in the history of war-- and many others, offer resounding evidence of how the armored tank, in German hands, became the twentieth century's single most important development in land fighting.

German Battle Tactics on the Russian Front, 1941-1945
By: Steven Newton
ISBN#: 0887405827 (June 1994)

The amazing tenacity and cohesion of the German Army in Russia from 1941-1945, fighting against overwhelming odds but refusing to disintegrate, has fascinated readers for decades. But most of the available sources concentrate on the maneuvers of armies and Panzer corps, leaving the divisions, regiments, and individual soldiers in the background. This fact has obscured the skillful use of tactics employed by the German soldiers at the divisional level and below. Until now, this information has been sequestered in manuscript reports in various archives. In German Battle Tactics on the Eastern Front, 1941-1945, Professor Steven H. Newton has retrieved, retranslated, and annotated the detailed tactical accounts of combat in Russia that German officers provided their American captors after the war. In this collection of ten essays, the Chief of Staff of the XXXXI Panzer Corps describes the final furious dash toward Moscow.

One of the commanders of the relief force narrates the rescue of the troops trapped in the Demyansk pocket. A corps commander on Manstein's right flank at Kursk analyzes the tactical failures of the battle. And, in one of the more controversial documents in the early cold war, the last commander of Army Group South recalls his futile attempt to interest General Patton in assisting in the war against the Soviets. A wide variety of tactical situations--from winter warfare to desperate infantry defenses, and unit types--from Panzer divisions to cavalry brigades--are covered in this collection.

The Last Battle
By: Cornelius Ryan
ISBN#: 0684803291 (May 1995)

The Last Battle is the compelling account of this final battle, a story of brutal extremes, of stunning military triumph alongside the stark conditions that the civilians of Berlin experienced in the face of the Allied assault. As always, Ryan delves beneath the military and political forces that were dictating events to explore the more immediate questions of survival, where, as the author describes it, "to eat had become more important than to love, to burrow more dignified than to fight, to exist more militarily correct than to win."

The Last Battle is the story of ordinary people, both soldiers and civilians, caught up in the despair, frustration, and terror of defeat. It is history at its best, a masterful illumination of the effects of war on the lives of individuals, and one of the enduring works on World War II.

Infanterie Aces
By: Franz Kurowski
ISBN Number: 0921991223 (June 1994)

Hard cover, 9"x6", 525 pages, 130 photographs, 16 maps. Details the combat experiences of 8 German infantry soldiers: 2 Waffen SS; 1 paratrooper; and, 5 regular army. Each soldier receives a separate chapter with an additional chapter on infantry tactics. It was the hard-fighting infantry that was the backbone of the German armed forces. This book features lots of exciting accounts of small-unit actions.

Scorched Earth: The Russian-German War 1943-1944
By: Paul Carrell
ISBN Number: 0887405983 (February 1994)

The classic! This new edition of Paul Carrell's Eastern Front study picks up where Hitler Moves East left off. Beginning with the battle of Kursk in July 1943, Carrell traverses the vast expanse of the Russian War, from the siege of Leningrad and the fierce battles of the northern front, to the fourth battle of Kharkov, and the evacuation of the Crimea, a withdrawal forbidden by Hitler. The book ends in June of 1944 when the Soviet Armies reach the East Prussian frontier. Hundreds of photographs, situation and campaign maps, complete index, and comprehensive bibliography, add to this impressive account.

Stalingrad: The Defeat of the German 6th Army
By: Paul Carrell
ISBN Number: 0887404693 (March 1993)

With the 50th Anniversary of the battle of Stalingrad approaching, we present Paul Carrell's first eastern front work in over twenty-five years on this legendary battle, considered by many to be the turning point of the Second World War. His previous works Hitler Moves East and Scorched Earth are considered the definitive works on the war in Russia. In this brand new book, Carrell sets his talents to discussing the operations of the 6th Army from the 1942 German summer offensive, through the fighting in the streets of Stalingrad, to the final defeat in January 1943. Paul Carrell is also the author of Operation Barbarossa in Photographs-The War in Russia as Photographed by the Soldiers, available from Schiffer Military/Aviation History.

199 Days- The Battle for Stalingrad
By: Edwin P. Hoyt
ISBN Number: 0812536002 (February 1994)

In 199 Days, acclaimed historian Edwin P. Hoyt depicts the epic battle for Stalingrad in all its electrifying excitement and savage horror. Relying on newly released documents form the Russian and American archives--as well as first-person testimonies from Stalingrad's survivors--he writes with an authenticity shaped by his own experience as a news correspondent on the front lines.

Had the Red Army fallen, the Nazi juggernaut would have rolled over Russia. Had the Germans not held out during those last few months, Stalin would have painted Europe red. Now, over fifty years after the most extraordinary battle of the second millennium, the truth about this decisive moment is finally revealed.

Panzer Leader
By: Heinz Guderian
ISBN Number: 0306811014 (December 2001)

The 50th-anniversary edition of the German general's legendary memoir. When published in 1952, Panzer Leader quickly became a best seller, but over the half-decade that followed, it also established itself as a classic, lauded by Stephen Ambrose as "a mesmerizing read." A dramatic first-person account by the father of modern tank warfare, it is also a searing group portrait of the Third Reich's leading personalities as they turned imminent victory into agonizing defeat.

Panzer Commander
By: Hans Von Luck
ISBN Number: 0440208025 (February 1991)

A stunning look at World War II from the other side...
From the turret of a German tank, Colonel Hans von Luck commanded Rommel's 7th and then 21st Panzer Division. El Alamein, Kasserine Pass, Poland, Belgium, Normandy on D-Day, the disastrous Russian front--von Luck fought in all those places with some of the best soldiers in the world --German soldiers. Awarded the German Cross in Gold and the Knight's Cross, von Luck writes as an officer and a gentleman. Told with the vivid detail of an impassioned eyewitness, his rare and moving memoir has become a classic in the literature of World War II, a first-person chronicle of the glory--and the inevitable tragedy--of a superb soldier fighting Hitler's war.

Panzer Battles: A Study of the Employment of Armor in the Second World War
By: F.W. Von Mellinthin
ISBN Number: 0345321588 (July 1985)

When Sam Donaldson interviewed General Norman Schwarzkopf in his quarters in the Gulf, PANZER BATTLES was one of the books on his desk. A model military history, this is one of the few close looks we will ever have of the tactics, the planning, and the operations of tank warfare from a participant.

It was the decisive victories of the German Panzer divisions in North Africa in World War II that taught the Allies the importance of an integrated combat team consisting of tanks, infantry, and artillery. PANZER BATTLES is a vivid account of the major campaigns of that war, especially the legendary desert battles fought by Rommel, who found the desert to be the perfect terrain in which to wage almost purely theoretical armored warfare with large-scale tank formations.

Here is an unparalleled look at what the American military learned from the experience of fighting in WWII -- experience that was put to use in the Gulf War.

Red Army Tank Commanders
By: Richard N. Armstrong
ISBN Number: 0887405819 (March 1994)

Tank and mechanized forces spearhead Red Army operations from the gates of Stalingrad to the center of Berlin. This new book profiles Six Soviet commanders who rose to lead tank armies created by the Red Army on the eastern front during the Second World War: Mikhail Efimov Katukov, Semen Ill'ich Bogdanov, Pavel Semenovich Rybalko, Dmitri Danilovich Lelyushenko, Pavel Alekseevich Rotmistrov, and Andrei Grigorevich Kravchenko. Each tank commanders' combat career is examined, as is the rise of Red Army forces, and reveals these lesser known leaders and their operations to western military history readers. Richard N. Armstrong, a colonel in the United States Army, has served in military intelligence since 1969, and holds a military historian specialty. He has published historical and professional articles on Red Army operations and Soviet military affairs. He wrote the Combat Studies Institute monograph, Soviet Operational Deception: The Red Cloak, and edited Red Armor Combat Orders; Combat Regulations for Tank and Mechanized Forces 1944.

Fighting in Hell
By: Peter G. Tsouras
ISBN Number: 0804116989 (January 1998)

Based on the recollections of four veteran German commanders, FIGHTING IN HELL describes what happened when the world's "supermen" met the world's most brutal fighting. It is not a tale for the squeamish.

The Volga Rises in Europe
By: Curzio Malaparte, David Moore
ISBN Number: 1841580961 (November 2001)

Although Italy was allied with Germany in World War II, the Italian viewpoint on the war often differed sharply from that of the Germans. Afraid of alienating Mussolini, the Germans were forced to allow journalist and novelist Curzio Malaparte to tour the Eastern Front.

Malaparte was an eyewitness to the campaigns in Finland, the Ukraine, and Leningrad, and has left behind a moving account of many small incidents in the day-to-day conduct of the war.

A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War 1939-40
By: William R. Trotter
ISBN Number: 1565122496 (January 2000)

In 1939, tiny Finland waged a war --the kind of war that spawns legends--against the mighty Soviet Union, and yet their epic struggle has been largely ignored. Guerrillas on skis, heroic single-handed attacks on tanks, unfathomable endurance, and the charismatic leadership of one of this century's true military geniuses --these are the elements of both the Finnish victory and a gripping tale of war.

Ostfront, 1944 - The German Defensive Battles on the Russian Front 1944
By: Alex Buchner
ISBN Number: 0887402828 (September 1991)

OSTFRONT 1944: The German Defensive Battles on the Russian Front in 1944. When the entire Russo-German front was "ablaze" under continual Soviet attacks, wrong estimations by the highest German command led to critical decisions with grave consequences. The Red Army was growing increasingly stronger, and launched a major offensive. They engaged the Germans in a series of battles: Cherkassy, Tarnopol, Crimea, Vetebsk, Brody, Jassy --that ended in the collapse of Army Group Center, and catastrophic German losses. These battles cost the German army in the east well over a half-million casualties. The entire story is set forth in this new book by Alex Buchner. This in-depth study uses presently available sources and the reports of still-living participants, to document the events on the Eastern Front of 1944. It tells the story from the German point of view, reflecting on what is considered the most barbarous fighting of World War II. Alex Buchner is the author of several World War II studies, including The German Infantry Handbook 1939-1945, available from Schiffer Military History.

Retreat from Leningrad: Army Group North 1944-1945
By: Steve H. Newton
ISBN Number: 0887408060 (September 1995)

This untold story is recounted in great detail, primarily as told by the German officers who served as commanders and chiefs of staff for Army Group North and its constituent armies. Their accounts were drafted soon after the war ended, but have languished in poorly translated manuscripts until Professor Steven H. Newton re-translated, corrected, and annotated them. The result is the most comprehensive and detailed operational study of sustained combat in the northern sector of the Russian front ever published in English.

Dr Steven H. Newton is Associate Professor of History and Political Science at Delaware State University. Trained as a military historian, he received his Ph.D. from The College of William and Mary. His specialties include the German Army, World War II's Eastern Front, and the American Civil War. Retreat from Leningrad is his third book; he is also the author of German Battle Tactics on the Russian Front, 1941-1945(also available from Schiffer Publishing). Dr Newton is an active lecturer on Military topics, who has appeared in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. He also serves as a platoon sergeant in Army National Guard's "Stonewall Brigade"(1st Brigade, 29th Infantry Division [Light]).

The Combat History of Sturmgeschütz - Brigade 276
By: Heinz Fleischer - Allen Brandt
ISBN Number: 0921991541 (October 2000)

Hard cover, small format (6x9), English text, 306 pages, 145 period photographs and approximately 10 maps and diagrams. This is the dramatic story of the unsung heroes of the Eastern Front of World War 2, the assault gun soldiers of the Sturmartillerie. Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 276 was one of many assault guns battalions formed to fight the onslaught of the numerically vastly superior Soviet Forces. They provided armored protection to the largely foot-bound infantry of the German Army. Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 276 was formed in the summer of 1943 and fought exclusively in the East until it was virtually wiped out in 1945 in northern Prussia.

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942-1943
By: Antony Beevor
ISBN Number: 0140284583 (May 1999)

Antony Beevor's thoughtfully researched compendium recalls this epic struggle for Stalingrad. No one, least of all the Germans, could foretell the deep well of Soviet resolve that would become the foundation of the Red Army; Russia, the Germans believed, would fall as swiftly as France and Poland. The ill-prepared Nazi forces were trapped in a bloody war of attrition against the Russian behemoth, which held them in the pit of Stalingrad for nearly two years. Beevor points out that the Russians were by no means ready for the war either, making their stand even more remarkable; Soviet intelligence spent as much time spying on its own forces--in fear of desertion, treachery, and incompetence--as they did on the Nazi's. Due attention is also given to the points of view of the soldiers and generals of both forces, from the sickening battles to life in the gulags.

Many believe Stalingrad to be the turning point of the war. The Nazi war machine proved to be fallible as it spread itself too thin for a cause that was born more from arrogance than practicality. The Germans never recovered, and its weakened defenses were no match for the Allied invasion of 1944. We know little of what took place in Stalingrad or its overall significance, leading Beevor to humbly admit that "[t]he Battle of Stalingrad remains such an ideologically charged and symbolically important subject that the last word will not be heard for many years." This is true. But this gripping account will become the standard work against which all others should measure themselves.

Fighting for the Soviet Motherland
By: Dmitriy Loza
ISBN Number: 0803229291 (October 1998)

The collapse of the Soviet Union has opened the history of the Red Army to the West, providing a more complex picture of World War II than was previously available. Details of the struggle between the Soviet forces and the Axis powers can now be seen through the efforts of veterans such as Colonel Dmitriy Loza. Loza draws on his own experiences and those of acquaintances to illustrate problems, combat situations, and the functioning of the Soviet army in its struggle with the German and Japanese armies.

Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War II
By: Peter Chamberlain
ISBN Number: 1854095188 (October 1999)

1,000 b/w illustrations! A complete illustrated directory is finally available that shows and describes nearly 300 types of German battle tanks, armored cars, self-propelled guns, and semi-tracked vehicles manufactured and put into service from 1933 to 1945. Only recently have the records of the manufacturers been made public, so never before could you know just how many of each model were available, along with accurate dates of their production and mobilization.

Historic photos identify features of each vehicle type, including uncommon variants. Captions are packed with accurate details on designations given by the German Army General Staff: alternative designations, manufacturing and development history, chassis numbers, engine capacity, fuel, coolants, gearbox performance, speed and range, armament, armor material and thickness, and service record.
Trim size: 8 3/4 x 11.