Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War 1941-1945 (Modern Wars) - Tapa dura

'This is a substantial contribution to the literature on the Soviet-German war...Mawdsley knows the material intimately. This is a high-class offering.' Robert Service, University of Oxford 'Authoritative and judicious, innovative and challenging, accessible and evocative - this is the text for those who want to understand why Hitler lost and why Stalin won.' Geoffrey Roberts, THES 'Thunder in the East ... is now the state-of-the-art general history of the Eastern front.' James V. Koch, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA 'Here at last is a concise and clearly written account of what happened on both sides of the hill that provides excellent comparisons of equipment, leadership, doctrine, organization, and personnel.' The International History Review 'This is exceptionally precise and judicious work, now the authoritative general history...' The Atlantic

The battles in Russia played the decisive part in Hitler's defeat. Gigantic, prolonged, and bloody, they contrasted with the general nature of the fighting on other fronts. The Russians fought on their own in 'their' theater of war and with an independent strategy. Stalinist Russia was a country radically different from its liberal democratic allies. Hitler and the German high command, for their part, conceived and carried out the Russian campaign as a singular 'war of annihilation'. This riveting new book is a penetrating, broad-ranging, yet concise overview of this vast conflict. It investigates the Wehrmacht and the Red Army and the command and production systems that organized and sustained them. It considers a range of further themes concerning this most political of wars. Benefiting from a post-Communist, post-Cold War perspective, the book takes advantage of a wealth of new studies and source material that have become available over the last decade. Readers from history buffs to scholars will find something new in this exciting new book.