On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the surprise invasion of the Soviet Union that opened the Eastern Front in World War II. With lightning speed and devastating success, the German army tore through Soviet territory and rolled over the Red Army, scoring some of the most dramatic victories in military history--until the blitzkrieg bogged down during the approach on Moscow. At the spearhead of the attack was General Heinz Guderian, one of the most celebrated and controversial commanders of the war, who commanded a tank group in the center of the German front that stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Guderian's Panzers reconstructs Barbarossa from the perspective of Guderian and his 2nd Panzer Group. The initial phases witnessed the German war machine at the height of its battlefield prowess. Guderian's group of 250,000 men and 1,000 tanks broke through the Soviet frontier and scarcely let up in the weeks that followed as Guderian pushed his men to the limits of endurance and plunged hundreds of miles into the Soviet Union. By early July 1941, Guderian helped seal the Minsk pocket, inflicting more than 400,000 casualties. At Smolensk, Guderian's panzer group joined the German onslaught that destroyed three Soviet armies and killed, wounded, or captured 750,000 men. In September, they participated in the Battle of Kiev, the largest battle of encirclement in history and perhaps Germany's greatest victory of World War II. But the tide was already beginning to turn. The Germans were battered, exhausted, and stretched thin. The weather was shifting, first to rain and mud, then to snow and bitter cold. And the Red Army was rebounding and resisting more and more tenaciously as the Germans approached Moscow, locking Guderian and his panzers into a war of attrition for which they were not prepared. In early December, the Soviets broke the back of the supposedly invincible German Army and won the battle for Moscow. Guderian was relieved on Christmas Day, 1941. Military historian Craig Luther draws on new material, from letters to diaries, to tell the story of Guderian's armored force during Operation Barbarossa and fleshes out the story with vivid firsthand accounts from the soldiers who slugged it out with the Red Army on the Eastern Front. The book traces the ups and downs of Guderian and his panzer group during six pivotal months of World War II and explains why and how the Germans, especially its panzers, achieved such impressive successes, only to be defeated on Moscow's doorstep.
Craig W. H. Luther is a former Fulbright Scholar and a retired U.S. Air Force historian. He is author of Barbarossa Unleashed: The German Blitzkrieg through Central Russia to the Gates of Moscow (Schiffer, 2014), The First Day on the Eastern Front: German Invades the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941 (Stackpole, 2018), and, with acclaimed historian David Stahel, Soldiers of Barbarossa: Combat, Genocide, and Everyday Experiences on the Eastern Front, June-December 1941 (Stackpole, 2020). He lives in Tehachapi, California.
"In his new book Craig Luther offers a gripping read with a refreshingly critical view of Guderian, whose memoirs are far too often taken at face value."--Roman Toeppel, author of Kursk 1943: The Greatest Battle of the Second World War Praise for Soldiers of Barbarossa (2020) "This splendid volume complements the authors' previous work on Operation Barbarossa by providing unique glimpses of this uncommonly brutal warfare through the soldiers' eyes. It not only captures the ferocity of the fighting but it also exposes the wildly swinging emotional reactions of the soldiers to it, as well as to the political context in which it took place. It is a must-read for those interested in World War II, in general, and the Soviet-German War, in particular." --David M. Glantz, (Col., U.S. Army, ret.) and author of Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941 Praise for The First Day on the Eastern Front (2018) "Certainly the most complete, balanced, and, without question, the most thoroughly researched treatment of the first twenty-one hours of Operation Barbarossa. Luther has captured the drama, shock, and devastation of those fateful hours like no one else. It is a powerful and enthralling read. Highly recommended." --David Stahel, author of Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East "A formidable, balanced, and successful effort to capture the immense complexity and overpowering emotional impact of the first day of Adolf Hitler's Operation Barbarossa, characterized by impressive and carefully documented detail." --David M. Glantz, author of The Battle of Kursk and When Titans Clashed "David Stahel and Craig Luther, among the foremost experts on the German invasion of the Soviet Union, have assembled a dramatic, insightful, often shocking collection of accounts from more than two-hundred German soldiers who took part in the invasion. Soldiers of Barbarossa conveys the ferocity of the fighting, the harshness of the environment, the brutality of the Third Reich's ideological 'crusade' in the East, and the calamity that befell the Wehrmacht as the Blitzkrieg failed for the first time. Students, experts, and laypeople alike will find Soldiers of Barbarossa compelling reading." --Ben Shepherd, author of Hitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich "Exhaustively researched and well written, Luther has produced a work with a very unique approach to a well-covered topic. This book is a must-read for students of the Eastern Front in World War II." --Richard L. DiNardo, author of Germany and the Axis Powers
