Synopses & Reviews
The last place a German soldier wanted to be in 1944 was the Russian front. That summer, Stalin hurled into battle more than six million men and 9,000 tanks, supported by 16,000 fighters and bombers and more than 12,800 guns and rocket launchers. Despite this massive effort and the resulting decimation of German forces, events on the Eastern Front are largely neglected by historians who focus instead on German defeats in Normandy and the Ardennes. This account details the massive battles on the Eastern Front from the summer of 1944 until the fall of Budapest in early 1945, a period when Hitler lost the majority of his conquered Eastern territories and many of his best remaining divisions.
Review
Mitcham has provided an extremely valuable service to the general reader of military history. The magnitude of the struggle on the Eastern Front was so great that it defies any attempt to condense the action to a meaningful narration for the general reader. Through Mitcham's describing the events as the individual German commanders saw them and reacted to the Soviet attacks, the reader becomes intimately involved. Numerous charts, tables, maps, and appendices are included for those who want more detail, but the narrative flows in a smooth fashion in highly readable and dramatic prose.Walter Dunn author of Hitler's Nemesis and Kursk
Review
...examines the decline of the Third Reich with crystal clarity and perceptive analysis. It is impressively documented and authentic.January 2004
Review
Mitcham has done it again. Those who admired his earlier work on Rommel will find all the same qualities here: solid research, careful analysis, and, above all, great writing.Robert Citino, Eastern Michigan University
Synopsis
Accounts the crushing defeats suffered by the Germans on the Eastern Front in the final months of World War II.
Synopsis
Mitcham chronicles the crushing German defeats that ensued during the final months of the war.
Table of Contents
The Cannae of Army Group Center
The Loss of the Ukraine
Stabilizing the Front
Intro the Courland Pocket
Rumania
The Retreat from the Balkans
The Battle for Hungry
Bibliography
Appendices