Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East

By: David Stahel

Narrated by: Stewart Crank

Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began the largest and most costly campaign in military history. Its failure was a key turning point of the Second World War. The operation was planned as a Blitzkrieg to win Germany its Lebensraum in the east, and the summer of 1941 is well-known for the German army's unprecedented victories and advances. Yet the German Blitzkrieg depended almost entirely upon the motorised Panzer groups, particularly those of Army Group Centre. 

Using archival records, in this book, David Stahel presents a history of Germany's summer campaign from the perspective of the two largest and most powerful Panzer groups on the Eastern front. Stahel's research provides a fundamental reassessment of Germany's war against the Soviet Union, highlighting the prodigious internal problems of the vital Panzer forces and revealing that their demise in the earliest phase of the war undermined the whole German invasion.

©2009 David Stahel (P)2021 Upfront Books

Full of details, for advanced listeners only

This is a very fine-grained view. The author is perhaps the top expert on this, and makes his case well that Barbarossa was doomed from an early stage. It really fleshes out the story. I can imagine the disquiet and sinking feelings of the generals as this unfolded.

Great story

A good world war two history story about Russia and Germany and how Germany lost

Interesting and thorough

I enjoyed listening and learning a new perspective of the failures of the German generals. Their ego led them to overestimate their ability. At the same time they had no problem aiding and committing genocide without protest or hesitation.

Very detailed and specific

This book goes into details I was never aware of. Shows a totally different view that I never heard before

Great book

Good book. Is definitely for people into military history. It does a good job of erasing the good general narrative

Critical analysis of Germany's 1941 campaign

Stahel demonstrates the devastating effects of primitive infrastructure, inadequate logistics, and flawed assumptions of Soviet strength on Germany's June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. Makes a very good case both for the operation's failure within two month's of its commencement for also for it as a root cause of Germany's eventual defeat in WWII. Stahel draws in significant part from the diaries of the commanding generals of the Northern, Center, and Southern fronts, and shows how Hitler's strategic vision drove the army's tactical plans into a muddled and often contradictory battle plan on the Eastern Front in 1941. Provocative conclusions about the Wehrmacht's complicity in those decisions as well as in Hitler's goal of eradicating the Soviet, and especially the Soviet Jewish, population. Recommended.

Nothing the Germans could have done on the field would have mattered

The war was lost for Germany when they began Barbarossa- not when they were halted at Moscow, not at Stalingrad, definitely not on D-Day.

Great listen.

Best book on Operation Barbarossa so far

I have read a number of books on the Eastern Front during World War Two. It was without a doubt much more brutal than the Western Front. This is the first book I have read that provides details on the planning and preparation for Operation Barbarossa. It is quite obvious that Hitler and the German High Command thought too much of themselves and little of the Soviets and knew too little of the conditions where the operation would take place.
Too many books gloss over the planning and preparation phase. A lesson we all should remember is too many efforts fail from a lack of proper planning or no planning at all. Operation Barbarossa was domed to fail from the beginning.

A brilliant book for study of military operations

A excellent book to understand the way of thinking in all spheres of World War

Very solid content o. Operation Barbarossa

I thought the content of this book was e cells r and it certainly provided a powerful perspective of how badly the German General Staff organization took into consideration the impact of supply planning and organization. I also thought narration was fine and had no issue with the narration, but I also tend to focus on the content.