Thunder on the Dnepr: Zhukov-Stalin and the Defeat of Hitler's Blitzkrieg

The popular imagination has tended to assume that Hitler's invasion of Russia was defeated by the Russian winter and by German blunders. This superb campaign history shatters that long-held myth and proves that it was the Red Army that turned the tide not at Stalingrad but much earlier - at Yelnia. It was at Yelina that the Red Army first slowed the German drive east, ambushing Army Group Centre, taking Guderian and Halder by surprise and announcing the start of the Soviet defence in depth which culminated in the battle for Moscow. The mastermind behind this key operation was none other than General Zhukov and it was during the crucial fighting around Yelnia that Zhukov and the Russians first dulled the cutting edge of German blitzkrieg and smashed the myth of invincibility of the vaunted panzers. Fugate and Dvoretsky's work is well-researched and draws on both German and Russian sources. It stresses not only the careful preparations of Russian commanders but also the importance of this long-neglected episode and its impact on the defeat of Hitler's Germany.