WHY BARBAROSSA FAILED: Germany and Russia in the Second World War

1-252970

Offers a bold, deeply researched re-examination of the most consequential campaign of the Second World War. Going beyond the cliches of General Winter and German hubris, places the story in a much longer arc: the evolution of military thought from the age of Napoleon through the catastrophe of 1914-18 and into the highly mechanized, maneuver-driven doctrines championed by both Germany and the Soviet Union in the interwar period. Demonstrates that both armies entered the war expecting a rapid, decisive campaign, but the Wehrmacht's apparent mastery of mobile warfare concealed profound flaws in decision-making, command structure, and operational logic. Argues that Barbarossa did not collapse under the weight of numbers alone: German generalship and operational misjudgment played a far larger part than most accounts allow, while Soviet resilience and strategic learning proved decisive long before Stalingrad. Contains 29 black and white maps, 16 color maps, 5 figures, and 10 tables.