The French Defeat of 1940

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Author :
Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 0857457179
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (574 download)

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Book Synopsis The French Defeat of 1940 by : Joel Blatt

Download or read book The French Defeat of 1940 written by Joel Blatt and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 1997-08-01 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why France, the major European continental victor in 1918, suffered total defeat in six weeks at the hands of the vanquished power of 1918 only two decades later remains moot. Why the stunning reversal of fortunes? In this volume thirteen prominent scholars reexamine the French debacle of 1940 in interwar perspectives, utilizing fresh analysis, original approaches, and new sources. Although the tenor of the volume is critical, the contributors also suggest that French preparations for war knew successes as well as failures, that French defeat was not inevitable, and that the Battle of France might have turned out differently if different choices had been made and other paths been followed.

Victory in World War II

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Publisher : Arcturus Publishing
ISBN 13 : 178828643X
Total Pages : 490 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (882 download)

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Book Synopsis Victory in World War II by : Nigel Cawthorne

Download or read book Victory in World War II written by Nigel Cawthorne and published by Arcturus Publishing. This book was released on 2017-07-31 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Before Alamein we never won a battle, after Alamein we never lost one." Winston Churchill Although this is an exaggeration, it is perhaps a pardonable one. The second battle of El Alamein in November 1942 was followed in April 1943 by the complete withdrawal of German troops from North Africa. Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the Red Army had entered the hell of Stalingrad and emerged victorious. In the Pacific, American troops had captured and held the strategically vital island of Guadalcanal, in the teeth of frantic Japanese counter-attacks. In Burma, the Chindits were continuing to harass the enemy while British forces regrouped in preparation for the recapture of the country. The tide of the war had begun inexorably to turn in favour of the Allies. Victory covers all fronts in detail as it charts the progress of the final years of World War II.

Defeat and Division

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1009293532
Total Pages : 745 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Defeat and Division by : Douglas Porch

Download or read book Defeat and Division written by Douglas Porch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-25 with total page 745 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Defeat and Division launches a definitive new account of France in the Second World War. In this first volume, Douglas Porch dissects France's 1940 collapse, the dynamics of occupation, and the rise of Charles de Gaulle's Free France crusade, culminating in the November 1942 Allied invasion of French North Africa. He captures the full sweep of France's wartime experience in Europe, Africa, and beyond, from soldiers and POWs to civilians-in-arms, colonial subjects, and foreign refugees. He recounts France's struggles to reconstruct military power within the context of a global conflict, with its armed forces shattered into warring factions and the country under Axis occupation. Disagreements over the causes of the 1940 debacle and the subsequent requirement for the armistice mirrored long-standing fractures in politics, society, and the French military itself, as efforts to reconstitute French military power crumbled into Vichy collaboration, De Gaulle's exile resistance, Alsace-Moselle occupation struggles, and a scuffle for imperial supremacy.

Fated to Defeat

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781912866175
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (661 download)

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Book Synopsis Fated to Defeat by : Lukasz Gladysiak

Download or read book Fated to Defeat written by Lukasz Gladysiak and published by . This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 33. Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS was one of a number of divisions in the Third Reich's armed forces composed of foreign soldiers. The majority that formed this unit were French: volunteers or men who, because of collaboration, had been forced to help the German's on the eve of the Allied invasion in Western Europe. During February-March 1945 the French division took part in the struggle for Pomerania, facing overwhelming Soviet and Polish Forces. The unit fought in a constant retreat and met its fate during the few days of battle in Białogard (former Belgard an der Persante) and Karlino (Koerlin) region. From that point, after the Division's reorganisation from the German to the French pattern, the retreat transformed into a chaotic escape, which for many ended tragically in Polish or Soviet captivity, or in mass graves which are still waiting to be discovered. Only a handful of the 4,500 Frenchmen who started the battle near Czarne (Hammerstein) and Człuchów (Schlochau) managed to survive and after a few weeks reached the new meeting point in Neustrelitz, Germany. After that, some of them prepared for struggle for Berlin and went to battle once more in April 1945.Łukasz Gładysiak's book is the first attempt by a Polish author to accurately recreate these episodes of the last stages of 33. Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS's history. Collecting historical sources from all over Europe, including German Army Group Vistula's documents, and memories of veterans of both sides of the frontline largely unpublished so far, the author takes us to the fields, towns and villages of Pomerania during the tragic days of the beginning of 1945, and follows the battle through the towns of Czarne (Hammerstein)-Człuchów (Schlochau), Szczecinek (Neustettin), Białogard (Belgardan der Persante), Karlino (Koerlin) iKołobrzeg (Kolberg). While the chronological description of the combat forms the backbone of this book, the individual soldiers' stories, including biographies of key figures, as well as a number of previously unsolved mysteries are also covered, such as the fate of General Edgar Puaud. This is the first book that refers extensively to the French SS-men's battles in Pomerania in the last stages of the Third Reich.

Defeat and Division

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107047463
Total Pages : 745 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Defeat and Division by : Douglas Porch

Download or read book Defeat and Division written by Douglas Porch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-25 with total page 745 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A definitive new history of the France at war from the war's outbreak to the invasion of North Africa in late 1942.

Strange Victory

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Publisher : Hill and Wang
ISBN 13 : 1466894288
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis Strange Victory by : Ernest R. May

Download or read book Strange Victory written by Ernest R. May and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dramatic narrative-and reinterpretation-of Germany's six-week campaign that swept the Wehrmacht to Paris in spring 1940. Before the Nazis killed him for his work in the French Resistance, the great historian Marc Bloch wrote a famous short book, Strange Defeat, about the treatment of his nation at the hands of an enemy the French had believed they could easily dispose of. In Strange Victory, the distinguished American historian Ernest R. May asks the opposite question: How was it that Hitler and his generals managed this swift conquest, considering that France and its allies were superior in every measurable dimension and considering the Germans' own skepticism about their chances? Strange Victory is a riveting narrative of those six crucial weeks in the spring of 1940, weaving together the decisions made by the high commands with the welter of confused responses from exhausted and ill-informed, or ill-advised, officers in the field. Why did Hitler want to turn against France at just this moment, and why were his poor judgment and inadequate intelligence about the Allies nonetheless correct? Why didn't France take the offensive when it might have led to victory? What explains France's failure to detect and respond to Germany's attack plan? It is May's contention that in the future, nations might suffer strange defeats of their own if they do not learn from their predecessors' mistakes in judgment.

Why France Fell

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Why France Fell by : Guy Chapman

Download or read book Why France Fell written by Guy Chapman and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Allure of Battle

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199874654
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (998 download)

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Book Synopsis The Allure of Battle by : Cathal Nolan

Download or read book The Allure of Battle written by Cathal Nolan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History has tended to measure war's winners and losers in terms of its major engagements, battles in which the result was so clear-cut that they could be considered "decisive." Cannae, Konigsberg, Austerlitz, Midway, Agincourt-all resonate in the literature of war and in our imaginations as tide-turning. But these legendary battles may or may not have determined the final outcome of the wars in which they were fought. Nor has the "genius" of the so-called Great Captains - from Alexander the Great to Frederick the Great and Napoleon - play a major role. Wars are decided in other ways. Cathal J. Nolan's The Allure of Battle systematically and engrossingly examines the great battles, tracing what he calls "short-war thinking," the hope that victory might be swift and wars brief. As he proves persuasively, however, such has almost never been the case. Even the major engagements have mainly contributed to victory or defeat by accelerating the erosion of the other side's defences. Massive conflicts, the so-called "people's wars," beginning with Napoleon and continuing until 1945, have consisted of and been determined by prolonged stalemate and attrition, industrial wars in which the determining factor has been not military but matériel. Nolan's masterful book places battles squarely and mercilessly within the context of the wider conflict in which they took place. In the process it help corrects a distorted view of battle's role in war, replacing popular images of the "battles of annihilation" with somber appreciation of the commitments and human sacrifices made throughout centuries of war particularly among the Great Powers. Accessible, provocative, exhaustive, and illuminating, The Allure of Battle will spark fresh debate about the history and conduct of warfare.

Battle for the Ruhr

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Battle for the Ruhr by : Derek S. Zumbro

Download or read book Battle for the Ruhr written by Derek S. Zumbro and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Derek Zumbro chronicles this key military campaign from a unique and fresh perspective - that of the defeated German soldiers and civilians caught in the final maelstrom of the war's western front." "Zumbro chronicles the relentless assault on the Ruhr Pocket through German eyes, as the Allied juggernaut battered the region's cities, villages, and homes into submission. He tells of children pressed into service by a desperate Nazi regime - and of even more desperate parents trying to save their sons from sacrifice at the eleventh hour. He also tells of unspeakable conditions suffered by foreign laborers, POWs, and political opponents in the Ruhr Valley and of the mass graves that gave Allied soldiers a grisly new understanding of their enemy." "Zumbro also recounts the story of Field Marshal Walter Model's final hours. His eventual suicide effectively ended the existence of the Wehrmacht's once-formidable Army Group B after being pursued, methodically encircled, and finally destroyed by U.S. and British forces. Through interviews with surviving members of Model's former staff, Zumbro has uncovered the attitudes of beleaguered officers that official records could never convey." "Other interviews with former soldiers reveal the extent to which Allied bombing contributed to the rapid deterioration of German combat effectiveness and tell of civilians begging soldiers to abandon the war. Zumbro's research reveals the identities of specific characters discussed in previous works but never identified, describes the final hours of German officers executed for the loss of the bridge at Remagen, and offers new insight into Model's acquiescence to Hitler in military affairs."--BOOK JACKET.

The Retreat

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Publisher : John Murray
ISBN 13 : 1848543549
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (485 download)

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Book Synopsis The Retreat by : Michael Jones

Download or read book The Retreat written by Michael Jones and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2009-11-12 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the moment of crisis in 1941 on the Eastern front, with the forces of Hitler massing on the outskirts of Moscow, the miraculous occurred: Moscow was saved. Yet this turning point was followed by a long retreat, in which Russian forces, inspired by old beliefs in the sacred motherland, pushed back German forces steeled by the vision of the ubermensch, the iron-willed fighter. Many of Russia's 27 million military and civilian deaths occurred in this desperate struggle. In THE RETREAT, Michael Jones, acclaimed author of LENINGRAD, draws upon a mass of new eye-witness testimony from both sides of the conflict to tell, with matchless vividness and comprehensiveness, of the crucial turning point of the Second World War - the moment when the armies of Hitler could go no further - and of the titanic and cruel struggle of two mighty empires.

When France Fell

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674258568
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis When France Fell by : Michael S. Neiberg

Download or read book When France Fell written by Michael S. Neiberg and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shocked by the fall of France in 1940, panicked US leaders rushed to back the Vichy governmentÑa fateful decision that nearly destroyed the AngloÐAmerican alliance. According to US Secretary of War Henry Stimson, the Òmost shocking single eventÓ of World War II was not the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but rather the fall of France in spring 1940. Michael Neiberg offers a dramatic history of the American responseÑa policy marked by panic and moral ineptitude, which placed the United States in league with fascism and nearly ruined the alliance with Britain. The successful Nazi invasion of France destabilized American plannersÕ strategic assumptions. At home, the result was huge increases in defense spending, the advent of peacetime military conscription, and domestic spying to weed out potential fifth columnists. Abroad, the United States decided to work with Vichy France despite its pro-Nazi tendencies. The USÐVichy partnership, intended to buy time and temper the flames of war in Europe, severely strained AngloÐAmerican relations. American leaders naively believed that they could woo men like Philippe PŽtain, preventing France from becoming a formal German ally. The British, however, understood that Vichy was subservient to Nazi Germany and instead supported resistance figures such as Charles de Gaulle. After the war, the choice to back Vichy tainted USÐFrench relations for decades. Our collective memory of World War II as a period of American strength overlooks the desperation and faulty decision making that drove US policy from 1940 to 1943. Tracing the key diplomatic and strategic moves of these formative years, When France Fell gives us a more nuanced and complete understanding of the war and of the global position the United States would occupy afterward.

Taking Paris

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0593183096
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (931 download)

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Book Synopsis Taking Paris by : Martin Dugard

Download or read book Taking Paris written by Martin Dugard and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-09-06 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From Martin Dugard, the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of the Killing series with Bill O’Reilly, comes the spellbinding story of the Allied liberation of Paris from the grip of the Nazis during World War II “Taking Paris does for Paris during World War II what The Splendid and the Vile did for London.”—James Patterson • “Heroes and villains abound. You’ll enjoy this fast-paced book immensely.”—Bill O’Reilly • “Succeeds triumphantly.”—The Washington Post May 1940: The world is stunned as Hitler's forces invade France with a devastating blitzkrieg aimed at Paris. Within weeks, the French government has collapsed, and the City of Lights, revered for its carefree lifestyle, intellectual freedom, and love of liberty, has fallen under Nazi control—perhaps forever. As the Germans ruthlessly crush all opposition, a patriotic band of Parisians known as the Resistance secretly rise up to fight back. But these young men and women cannot do it alone. Over 120,000 Parisians die under German occupation. Countless more are tortured in the city's Gestapo prisons and sent to death camps. The longer the Nazis hold the city, the greater the danger its citizens face. As the armies of America and Great Britain prepare to launch the greatest invasion in history, the spies of the Resistance risk all to ensure the Germans are defeated and Paris is once again free. The players holding the fate of Paris in their hands are some of the biggest historical figures of the era: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, General George S. Patton, and the exiled French general Charles de Gaulle, headquartered in London's Connaught Hotel. From the fall of Paris in 1940 to the race for Paris in 1944, this riveting, page-turning drama unfolds through their decisions—for better and worse. Taking Paris is history told at a breathtaking pace, a sprawling yet intimate saga of heroism, desire, and personal sacrifice for all that is right.

How Hitler Could Have Won World War II

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Author :
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0307420930
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis How Hitler Could Have Won World War II by : Bevin Alexander

Download or read book How Hitler Could Have Won World War II written by Bevin Alexander and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From an acclaimed military historian, a fascinating account of just how close the Allies were to losing World War II. Most of us rally around the glory of the Allies' victory over the Nazis in World War II. The story is often told of how the good fight was won by an astonishing array of manpower and stunning tactics. However, what is often overlooked is how the intersection between Adolf Hitler's influential personality and his military strategy was critical in causing Germany to lose the war. With an acute eye for detail and his use of clear prose, Bevin Alexander goes beyond counterfactual "What if?" history and explores for the first time just how close the Allies were to losing the war. Using beautifully detailed, newly designed maps, How Hitler Could Have Won World War II exquisitely illustrates the important battles and how certain key movements and mistakes by Germany were crucial in determining the war's outcome. Alexander's harrowing study shows how only minor tactical changes in Hitler's military approach could have changed the world we live in today. Alexander probes deeply into the crucial intersection between Hitler's psyche and military strategy and how his paranoia fatally overwhelmed his acute political shrewdness to answer the most terrifying question: Just how close were the Nazis to victory?

Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

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Author :
Publisher : Picador
ISBN 13 : 1250119049
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare written by Giles Milton and published by Picador. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Six gentlemen, one goal: the destruction of Hitler's war machine In the spring of 1939, a top-secret organization was founded in London: its purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler's war machine through spectacular acts of sabotage. The guerrilla campaign that followed was every bit as extraordinary as the six men who directed it. One of them, Cecil Clarke, was a maverick engineer who had spent the 1930s inventing futuristic caravans. Now, his talents were put to more devious use: he built the dirty bomb used to assassinate Hitler's favorite, Reinhard Heydrich. Another, William Fairbairn, was a portly pensioner with an unusual passion: he was the world's leading expert in silent killing, hired to train the guerrillas being parachuted behind enemy lines. Led by dapper Scotsman Colin Gubbins, these men—along with three others—formed a secret inner circle that, aided by a group of formidable ladies, single-handedly changed the course Second World War: a cohort hand-picked by Winston Churchill, whom he called his Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Giles Milton's Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a gripping and vivid narrative of adventure and derring-do that is also, perhaps, the last great untold story of the Second World War.

Oil & War

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Author :
Publisher : William Morrow
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 392 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Oil & War by : Robert Goralski

Download or read book Oil & War written by Robert Goralski and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 1987 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The full story of the role that oil played in the origins and outcome of World War II.

To Lose a Battle

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Author :
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141937726
Total Pages : 736 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (419 download)

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Book Synopsis To Lose a Battle by : Alistair Horne

Download or read book To Lose a Battle written by Alistair Horne and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2007-06-28 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1940, the German army fought and won an extraordinary battle with France in six weeks of lightning warfare. With the subtlety and compulsion of a novel, Horne’s narrative shifts from minor battlefield incidents to high military and political decisions, stepping far beyond the confines of military history to form a major contribution to our understanding of the crises of the Franco-German rivalry. To Lose a Battle is the third part of the trilogy beginning with The Fall of Paris and continuing with The Price of Glory (already available in Penguin).

Stopped at Stalingrad

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Publisher : University Press of Kansas
ISBN 13 : 0700611460
Total Pages : 449 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (6 download)

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Book Synopsis Stopped at Stalingrad by : Joel S. A. Hayward

Download or read book Stopped at Stalingrad written by Joel S. A. Hayward and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 1998-04-01 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the time Hitler declared war on the Soviet Union in 1941, he knew that his military machine was running out of fuel. In response, he launched Operation Blau, a campaign designed to protect Nazi oilfields in Rumania while securing new ones in the Caucasus. All that stood in the way was Stalingrad. Most accounts of the Battle of Stalingrad have focused on the dismal fate of the German Army. Joel Hayward now chronicles Luftwaffe operations during that campaign, focusing on Hitler's use of the air force as a tactical rather than strategic weapon in close support of ground forces. He vividly details the Luftwaffe's key role as "flying artillery," showing that the army relied on Luftwaffe support to a far greater degree than has been previously revealed and that its successes in the East occurred largely because of the effectiveness of that support. Hayward analyzes this major German offensive from the standpoint of cooperation between ground and air forces to attain mutually agreed objectives. He draws on diaries of both key commanders and regular airmen to recreate crucial battles and convey the drama of Hitler's frustrations and reckless leadership. Ultimately, Hayward shows, the poorly conceived strategies of Hitler, Goering, and others in Berlin doomed the efforts of air commander Wolfram von Richthofen, a courageous and resolute leader attempting to come to grips with an increasingly impossible situation. Stopped at Stalingrad is a dynamic case study in combined arms warfare that fills in many of the gaps left by other studies of the eastern war. By reconsidering the campaign in the light of a wider body of documentary sources and analyzing many previously ignored events, Hayward provides military historians and general readers a much deeper and more complete understanding of the Battle of Stalingrad and its impact on World War II.