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War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin

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This book is a valuable addition to the eastern front bibliography and, on account of it's readability and fluency, it may even be the choice of preference for quite a few readers. Indeed, after the excellently presented introductory chapter which provides readers with a penetrating view into the reasoning for Germany's willingnes for and confidence into waging this war, there follows a spellbinding narative from the mouths of dozens of first hand witnesses to the struggle, interviewed

by the author in his quest for this documentary. German and Russian officers and soldiers, peasants, civilians, NKVD and SMERSH operatives, men and women who lived through the horror, confusion, glory and brutality of this war help in bringing it to live together with the author's lucid and informative presentation. No other book on the subject comes close to giving readers the true feelings of horror, desperation, cold-bloodedness, hatred, sacrifice and defiance that uniquelly characterized this most brutal of conflicts. War of the Century succeeds in this superbly.

And yet, this is a book that actually has some difficulty in qualifying as an eastern front war history altogether. An eastern front book that devotes to the Kursk battle, possibly the biggest land battle in all history, the whole of one and a half lines ? Lend-lease not even mentioned ? The siege and holding out of Leningrad covered in three lines, the Crimean campaign, Budapest and Warsaw batlles towards the end of the war not even to be found as index entries ? Barely the names of a dozen commanding generals make it into this book and certainly the group of readers that is in for the greatest dissapointment is the military buffs. Campaign planning - for the few campaigns discussed - is rather cursory, discussion of equipment is exhausted in the comment that the T34 was the superior tank and one may actually go through the book without ever knowing that there were also Italians, Hungarians, Romanians, Slovaks and other people involved in the fighting, voluntarily or not.

These are too glaring ommisions to have gone by unintentionally or unknowingly, and clearly the author's purpose is not to present the readers with a comprehensive history of the eastern conflict. What separated this conflict from all others in the second world war, or in any other war for that matter, was it's indescribably brutal nature, carried on by a nation waging a war of conquest of space and of annihilation of another nation, which it considered both as inferior and also as politically dangerous, and this nation's struggle for survival, based to a considerable extent upon conditions created by the most brutal application of terror and annihilation by the regime against those it considered as a potential hindrance to it's total war effort. This point, though mentioned and discussed in all books covering the subject, is nowhere to be made as clearly and vividly as in this book, and one cannot even begin to learn and study the eastern front war without having fully understand what the character of this conflict was.

Considering comprehensive histories of the eastern front war one is constantly being reminded that we're still a long way from what might be considered a "definite" study of this conflict. The reason is clearly the lack of existing or declassified material from the Soviet era, that would shed light on the events leading to the Soviet military decisions that are mostly being speculated of. Also, perhaps the most interesting topic of all, the organizing of the Soviet war economy is almost nowhere to be found discussed at length. The transformation of a nation considered at the eve of war as a technological nonentity incapable of withstanding Germany's onslaught for more than two months, into a production machine that outperformed Germany's production from 1943 onwards ( with the Germans having increased their production too, despite the bombing ), is clearly worth studying.

Having concluded this review, I would like to append a brief comment on the editorial found at the top of this page.

By the time of the Allied landings in Sicily, in July 1943, the first military action resulting in a diversion of forces by the Germans from the eastern front to the west ( actually the diversion of home reserves there ), the death count on the eastern front had already equalled the total death count of the first world war. By that time also, the German offensive had been exhausted and the war had entered the phase of continuous Russian advancements which, by the time of Normandy, had already bring the Soviets close to the Polish borders. And though of course no one is to disregard the effects of lend lease and the allied bombing, it is clear that "discontextualizing" this conflict from the Nazis vs Allies "big picture" is not as farfetched as some would like to suggest. Describing the eastern front as merely another war theater like North Africa or Burma, does both injustice to the effort involved and to the study of the character of the conflict.

In the last decade or so there have been a number of excellent works emanating from historians regarding the nature of the conflict between the German and Soviet forces during Operation Barbarossa. This provocative, entertaining, and very well written history based on the popular BBC series and written by by Laurence Rees of the German assault into the Soviet Union and the ensuing war along the Eastern front employs a wealth of information released from Soviet archives in the last ten years and emphasizes the enormous struggle in terms of the fate of the Nazi state as well as the enormous contribution of the Russians to the Allied effort. Like a number of other recent works such as Richard Overy's "Russia's War", Glantz and Houses' "When Titans Clashed", and Alan Clark's classic "Barbarossa" it emphasizes Soviet strengths and attributes as central to the eventual result. Unlike earlier efforts that argued that blame for losing the war belonged to the Germans, all of these books argued that one must recognize the massive strengths and military cunning of the Russians in winning this campaign, which he terms to be the "battle of the century".

Like the TV series it is based on, this book is a spellbinding read! All the basics found in the other recent works is here in spades; a tragic misinterpretation of Soviet strength by the German high command, especially of the Russian troop reserves and manpower resources, which were a whopping three times as large as believed, the curious notion that by simply crushing the troops massed between the border and the Leningrad-Moscow-Crimea salient the German forces would thereby crush the communist government and send the country into anarchy, chaos, and ruin, and the profound German arrogance in believing they could master and quickly dominate this gargantuan nation of several hundred million in a short savage campaign lasting only a single season. Hitler and the German General Staff were consistently shocked and amazed by the continuing tenacity, resourcefulness, and endurance of an army they had presumed to have already beaten in the opening weeks of the campaign. As in the other tomes, he marvels as to how the Russians, after losing two million men in a single two-month period could rally itself, reorganized, re-outfit, and send another two million into combat so quickly. In so doing, he treads on well-covered ground.

Yet he also broaches other aspects of the war between the Soviet forces and the Wehrmacht not so well covered in the other books, and this adds immeasurably to the value and entertaining qualities of the book. For example, he makes the curious argument that it was the defeat of the German forces at the hands of the Russians that led to the Holocaust. The argument is curious given the fact that the systematic murder of both the indigenous and German Jewish populations in both Poland and elsewhere (including within Germany itself) had already begun in earnest before the turn in fortunes along the Eastern front. Of course, it appears to be true that the particular manner in which the Nazis approached the issue of the extermination of the Jews and others was profoundly influenced by the exigent circumstances caused by the disastrous campaign along the Eastern front, it seems specious to argue that it would not have happened had the Germans been victorious.

In matter of fact, it was a central canon of Nazi ideology that the Jews were central to the Aryan struggle, and it was this rabid belief in the reputed world-wide Jewish conspiracy against the Aryan race that was motivating them to exterminate the Jewish population, not the Wehrmacht's impending defeat at the hands of the Soviets. The primary reason for proceeding with Operation Barbarossa in the first place was to systematically exterminate the indigenous population through a three-pronged operation involving murder, slavery and starvation and subsequent use of the conquered land for future German settlement. Therefore, although one must admit the particular character of the Holocaust was influenced by what was happening along the eastern front, one wonders as to the reasons for this misguided and wrong-headed line of argument.

Rees is absolutely correct, however, in arguing that the nature of the conflict was biblical in its magnitude, ferocity, and endurance. The climatic conditions, including the most severe winter fighting ever recorded, were unprecedented. The lack of supplies and the consequent hunger, hand to hand fighting, in which the Germans soldiers were aghast at the willingness of the Russians to fight with almost bestial ferocity, and the intense continuing artillery barrage used by both sides all support Rees contention that this was the battle of the century. My recommendation is that your read this along with the books mentioned above. Doing so will leave you with a much better understanding of the war along the Eastern front and better appreciated how the Russians did so much to help win the European theater of the Second World War. Enjoy!

At some 256 pages this is a slim volume for a subject that could very well fill a small library. Rees presents a view shared by myself that the war between Stalin and Hitler was the single greatest war this world has seen. Although others may argue against this fact the sheer numbers involved greatly outweigh any actions in the Western Front.Not only in terms of death and casualties but every other figure involved. Rees presents a picture of a ruthless Stalin which after the fall of communism is fully backed up by the release of many political and historical documents. Was he more ruthless than Hitler ? I would say yes his brutality extended to all ethnic races and was much vaster in scale than the Holocaust and lasted longer. Tens of millions died in purges and Gulags, systematic removal of ethnic groups, mass murder , induced famine and any other number of crimes against humanity. A Controversial view but it is closer to the truth than has been previously documented.

I borrowed this book for a report and expected to only use the index and read as little as possible. I couldn't put it down. The pictures on almost every page are relevant and very moving. The maps of Operation Bagration, Operation Blue, and Operation Barbarossa are full color, clear, detailed, and very easy to understand. The full color map of Europe displaying the extent of Hitler's allies, and land is also very informative. I have a limited knowledge of history, but even to me this book does seem a little biased. I would read several other books before making an opinion on mistakes made in this war. For a report, this book is great. It is easy to understand, and the index makes it very easy to find information. If you want an entertaining read, and not just a book to acquire knowledge, this is the book for you. Buy this book, it is worth the money.

The main contention of Rees is that there was little difference between Stalin and Hitler. He is at least partially right. I believe Stalin was more irrational and murderous than Hilter, and the numbers support Stalin as being worse than Hitler. Mao was the worst. Anyway Rees contention is that Hitler waged war against the rest of the world while Stalin waged war against his own countrymen. The result was millions killed and rivers of blood. Along with this review of the two dictators, is the war that was waged on the Eastern Front for close to four years. It was waged against soldiers and civilians on both sides. The review has a good summary of the war with many great pictures.
This is a good summary history and picture book. For those who are looking at a review of the war on the Eastern Front, this is a nice starting point.

The author clearly says that his book is based on a BBC television series. This is not an exhaustive history text and should not be faulted for giving an overview only instead of minutia. The treatment is astonishingly evenhanded, with little rancor to either side.

On the other hand, the author often injects opinions without giving enough background or follow-up material. As an example: When Hitler and Stalin split Poland at the end of 1939, all inhabitants of the Western (German) half were transported to the Eastern (Russian) half. The now empty Western half was resettled, within weeks, with German farmers from Germany's Eastern provinces. Another example: When the Germans rounded up the Jews in Hungary, they offered them to the western Allies in exchange for hard currency. The Allies declined, and the Jews went to the gas chambers.

What can we learn from this book? In conduct and atrocity, Germany and Russia were mirror images. Germany fought this war against Russia, just as the US fought its war against Japan. Everything else is just so many footnotes to World War II. We also learn that Russia won this war - almost single-handedly - because their soldiers sloshed through mud and snow, against cold and hunger, long before anybody else appeared.

Buy this DVD if you want to understand the resaons why the war on the Eastern Front between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union became the most destructive military campaign of the 20th century. Everything about this DVD is top-notch and top-quality--content, World War II film footage, interviews and background music (Mozart's Requiem).

It has been a while since I read this book, but I only remember having read it with complete interest. The story is lively, with personal accounts and some interesting facts I never had heard before about operation Barbarossa and its turnaround. Together with the excellent pictures this book contains, it's perfectly worth to buy.

Before reading this sly piece of revisionist propaganda the reader would do well to re-acquaint him or herself with the FACTS of WW2 on the Eastern Front. Remember: the Germans marched into the USSR intending eventually to exterminate 30 million Soviet citizens for "lebensraum"; the German occupation succeeded in fact in killing 10 million Soviet civilians; the Germans killed at least 2 million of these people in anti-partisan operations; Soviet partisans killed maybe 50,000 German soldiers and far less civilians; and finally that some Kalmyks, Chechens, Tatars, and Ukranians willfully collaborated with the Germans. Reading this book and especially watching the companion TV series one is left with the impression that the Germans and Soviets were morally equivalent. With a tricky editorial slight of hand the author/s make it seem that civilians in occupied territories suffered as much from partisans as Germans (based on anecdotal testimonials); that the Ukranian nationalists and others fighting the Soviets weren't collaborators (again based on anecdotal testimonials from those selfsame nationalist/collaborators) and that the deportations of Kalmyks and Chechens and other ethnic groups with a history of collaboration was equivalent to the Holocaust (when in fact the US did the same thing to Japanese-Americans with NO history of collaboration). The impression is given that the ruthless Soviet fight to liberate their own country was as evil as the German invasion and occupation. Remember when you read this book that 95% of the civilian victims in the USSR were killed one way or another by Germans and that the Soviets were not the Nazis.

Even with fore-warning J Stalin failed to take action,but weather was worst ever recorded.IF not for time lost, divergent encirclement battles, Moscow may have fallen. The T-34 tank came as a surprise...