War Without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa, 1941-1942

by Kershaw, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780711033245
• ISBN10: 0711033242
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-19
• Publisher: Ian Allan Pub

Summary

Provides an eye-witness account from soldiers on the ground of the brutal reality of warfare on the Eastern Front during World War 2

Table of Contents

Glossary, Abbreviations and Rank Comparisons	p. vii
Introduction	p. xi
'The world will hold its breath'	p. 1
Saturday, 21 June 1941	p. 1
'Forget the concept of comradeship'	p. 5
'The Fuhrer has got it all in hand'	p. 11
Tomorrow 'we are to fight against World Bolshevism'	p. 19
'Ordinary men'- the German soldier on the eve of 'Barbarossa'	p. 28
'Endless pressure to participate'	p. 28
'Order and Duty' and the Fuhrer	p. 35
'Prepared... to face what is coming!' The German Army, June 1941	p. 41
The Soviet frontier	p. 48
'There was no information...'	p. 48
'We've never had such a situation... Will there be any instructions?'	p. 57
H-hour 03.15	p. 66
The River Bug... Brest-Litovsk	p. 66
Air strike... First light	p. 73
The shortest night of the year... H-hour	p. 83
Daybreak... Berlin	p. 96
The longest day of the year	p. 100
The first Soviet pocket is formed - Brest-Litovsk	p. 100
'Only 1,000km as the crow flies to Moscow'	p. 114
Where was the Red Air Force?	p. 119
Dusk... 22 June 1941	p. 128
Waiting for news	p. 131
The home fronts... Victory will be ours! Germany	p. 131
Victory will be ours! Russia	p. 135
'Don't die without leaving a dead German behind you'... Brest-Litovsk	p. 144
Across the Dvina... Army Group North	p. 148
No news	p. 158
Brest-Litovsk... 'I wonder how it is I am still alive!'	p. 162
Blitzkrieg	p. 172
The 'smooth' period... The Panzers	p. 172
Frontier tank battles	p. 179
Panzer vanguard	p. 187
On to Smolensk	p. 200
Finale: Brest-Litovsk	p. 204
Smolensk	p. 209
The infantry	p. 209
The Smolensk pocket	p. 224
'Do not cry'... Soviet defeat in the West	p. 241
Refocusing victory conditions	p. 252
The longest campaign	p. 252
Conditions for victory	p. 258
A city 'pulsing with life'... Leningrad	p. 269
A war without garlands	p. 282
'Better three French campaigns than one Russian'	p. 282
The pressures on the German soldier	p. 289
'Kein Kindergarten Krieg'. Prisoners and partisans	p. 303
'Kesselschlacht' - victory without results	p. 321
Cannae at Kiev	p. 321
The reduction of the Kiev pocket	p. 339
'Victored' to death	p. 359
Objective Moscow	p. 359
A logistic 'trip-wire'	p. 362
'Totsiegen'... victored to death	p. 377
A dying army	p. 399
The last victory	p. 402
Double encirclement... Vyazma and Bryansk	p. 402
The great illusion	p. 423
'The eleventh hour'	p. 442
Moscow... A defence crust forms	p. 442
Dilemma at Orscha	p. 456
'The eleventh hour'	p. 464
The spires of Moscow	p. 485
'Flucht nach Vorn'	p. 485
The frozen offensive	p. 495
'The spires of the city'... Moscow	p. 505
The devil loose before Moscow	p. 524
The Soviet counter-offensive	p. 524
The German soldier does not go 'Kaputt!'...
The crisis of confidence	p. 534
The German Army in retreat	p. 538
The order of the frozen flesh	p. 555
'Not one single step back' - the Hold Order	p. 555
Frozen flesh	p. 563
Postscript - 'Barbarossa'	p. 572
Notes to the text	p. 583
Appendices	p. 613
German casualties Operation 'Barbarossa' 1941-42	p. 613
German casualties reflected in division manning equivalents	p. 613
The fighting elements within a German division	p. 614
A snapshot of Soviet battle casualties	p. 616
Sources	p. 617
Index	p. 623
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