Hitler's War on Russia: The Story of the German Defeat in the East

London: George G. Harrap & Co., Ltd, 1964. Hardcover. Very Good. Launched with an immense invasion force of three million men, Germany's surprise attack against Russia in 1941 was planned by Hitler to crush the Soviets within eight weeks. Instead, hampered by major strategic errors, fanatical Soviet resistance, and the severity of Russian winters, "Operation Barbarossa" lingered on until, in 1943, The German fighting machine finally broke down at Stalingrad in one of the most shattering defeats of the century. Rarely has this war of attrition be reconstructed in such authentic detail and with such starkly dramatic effects as it is in this account. Paul Carell, basing his story on official military records, the memoirs of commanders in both German and Russian armies, and extensive conversations with survivors of all ranks, has drawn an objective, extraordinary vivid pictures of a struggle which, in the size of the forces involved and the ferocity of the fighting, was unparalleled in the history of the war." Octavo, 640 pp. + fold-out map of Barbarosa in the back of the book. From private collection. Text remains clean and unmarked. Lacks dust jacket and cover is now protected in archival mylar cover.