jjares reviewed on 6/21/2020 + 3299 more book reviews

Captivating History set-up the conditions in Germany and the Soviet Union between World War I and II before showing how Germany invaded Russia. Stalin, worried that his tight control of the country wasn't tight enough, purged the military. Meanwhile, Germany after WWI did not have the right to rearm itself. Therefore, they did their rearmament work in Russia, while the Allies blithely believed that the Germans were following the rules, as outlined in the Treaty of Versailles. It was interesting to learn that the tanks of both nations were generally obsolete before the fighting started.

Although Germany and the USSR signed a treaty in 1939, neither Hitler nor Stalin trusted the other. When Russia received the news that Japan was not interested in attacking Stalin, he was able to free up troops to head west, to face Hitler. Although Hitler did not appreciate the horror of war in Russia during the winter, he was delayed from attacking Russia because he had to rescue his ally, Mussolini and Italy. They started a fight with Greece and Hitler had to go rescue his troops. That delayed his assault on Stalin.

Hitler's attack on the USSR was not as quick as he'de planned and the Russians fought harder than he expected. Thus, German troops wound up fighting Russians during horrible winter conditions. The shocking thing I learned was that the first people killed at Auschwitz were Soviet soldiers. The Germans were not interested in taking care of POWs; they
murdered captured soldiers.

Captivating History let slip that they will be releasing the story of Leningrad soon. Since I thoroughly enjoyed both THE WINTER WAR and OPERATION BARBAROSSA, I can hardly wait for the next installment.

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