This was a distance of roughly 1,500 miles. When the Germans launched their offensive into Soviet territory on June 22, 1941, their forces were stretched across a front which reached from the Baltic Coast to the Rumanian frontier. Although the Germans advanced at an unprecedented pace through the first three months of the war, smashing Soviet armies at a rate which would have mortally wounded any other European power, in fact the further they penetrated the Soviet land mass, the less able they were to 'cripple the Soviet colossus,' writes Newland. German Blitzkrieg depended on speed, the experience of well-equipped units and the ability of German forces to concentrate their maximum effort on a Schwerpunkt (the mailed fist of armour and firepower). Nevertheless, within such impressive successes the roots of defeat could also be found. After weeks of slaughter over 650,000 Russians were captured, together with roughly 1,000 tanks and 3,000 transport vehicles. The culmination of these staggering victories came in the period from August 28 to September 26, 1941, when General Ewald von Kleist and General Guderian’s Panzer Corps joined cast of Kiev. Not only were vast tracts of land taken, but the German army seemed to be 'tearing the vitals out of the Red Army.' In the last half of July 1941, German forces succeeded in completing the encirclement of Russian forces in Smolensk, and that resulted in the capture of 300,000 POWs.

The first three to four months of Operation BARBAROSSA saw only victories for the German army. The book is particularly focused on the Cossacks in the German army. Newland's work is a finely researched study of the Russian and Soviet people who took arms and fought alongside the invading Germans in the Second World War.

Not only were vast tracts of land taken, but the German army seemed to be 'tearing the vitals out of the Red Army.' In the last half of July 1941, German forces succeede Samuel J.

Cossacks back to war german