War Without Garlands. Operation Barbarossa, 1941- 42

WORLD HISTORY: SECOND WORLD WAR. In the spring of 1941, having abandoned his plans to invade Great Britain, Hitler turned the might of his military forces on to Stalin's soviet Russia. The German army quickly advanced far into Russia as the Soviet forces suffered defeat after defeat. With brutality and savagery displayed on both sides, the Eastern front was literally a campaign in which no prisoners were taken and no quarter was given.Although Hitler's decision to launch 'Barbarossa' was one of the crucial turning points of the war, at first the early successes of the German army pointed to the continuing triumph of the Nazi state. As time wore on, however, the Eastern front became a byword for death for the Germans - to be transferred to the front was the fate feared most by any member of Germany's armed forces.In "War without Garlands", Robert Kershaw examines the campaign largely through the eyes of the German forces who were sent to fight and die for Hitler's grandiose plans.