Hitler's Greatest Defeat: The Collapse of Army Group Centre, June 1944

Mr Adair has written a capable story of how the Soviets out blitz the Germans and practically destroyed the entire AGC in such a short period of time. For me, the speed and scale of the Soviet victory is astounding. The Soviets had all the advantages: Superiority in men, tanks, guns and leadership. The Germans were hampered by Hitler's fanatical fortress doctrine, insufficient panzers and a puppet commander, FM Busch. ( Model would replace him.) The first nine chapters, small chapters, is an introduction to German history, Hitler, Stalin, Communist Civil War, commanders of both sides and much more. The author describes the improvements that were insituted in 1942-43 by the Soviets to improve their war doctrine. Special interest to Stavka was mechanized mobility; the improvement of tank armies and mechanized infantry to speed the penetration of the front lines and to drive deep and encircle the enemy. Additional improvements dealt with elaborate deception techniques which were especially effective in this campaign. One of the biggest chapters in the book covered the effectiveness of partisan participation in disrupting German communications. The next chapters covered German disposition and Soviet preparations which were massive. The Soviets used 75,000 train car loads to bring supplies to the front as well as thousands of trucks These first ten chapters were good and I couldn't find anything to argue about but the discussions didn't go deep enough or wide enough. There is certainly more that could be said. I direct you to Walter Dunn's "Soviet Blitzkrieg" which could add further information on these topics. The author begins coverage of the campaign in chronological order by city Fortress: Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev and Bobruisk. The coverage of these major cities, which started at Vitebsk which was defended by 3rd PzA and worked its way south to Bobruisk, was good. The author would try to include after action reports, diary entries and other primary sources to make it as accurate as possible but the author covered only the major engagements and bypassed the smaller skirmishes. He probably did this to avoid confusion and to highlight the big stuff. I would have liked it all, the big and small. Maps are included with each spearhead sector; they're good and helpful in understanding the narrative. When a city, town or one of the many rivers are mentioned, you'll be able to find it on the map. Most of the attention evolves around the penetration of the front line, crossing the Dniepr, Berezina and Dvina Rivers. To the west of these landmarks the coverage thins out but the author extends coverage to the capture of Vilinus and the defeat of 4th Army. The black and white maps were helpful as was the Appendix which included an Order of Battle and other interesting info. There were also many photos of German and Soviet commanders and a few battlefield shots. The book ends with a worthy Bibliography and Index. This book is good enough that if you didn't read

I learned of this book after taking part in a few Net debates over WW2. It was suggested to me by the grandson of a Russian commander. Operation Bagration is often overlooked in the US courses of WW2. The destruction of Army Group Centre was accomplished during and after the D-Day landings. This campaign led to the destruction of 28-30 divisions and caused the war to end sooner. It is a short book of only 200 pages but it gives a good coverage of events that led up to and after the battle. The book also gives insight to the Soviet action of "Maskirovka." The actions to mislead and hide the movement and buildup of troops for the battle. It worked with great success as 2.3 million men and equipment were readied with the Germans having little idea of what was about to happen. The author also gave insight as to how Hitlers unwaivering stances led to the destruction. Especially not allowing units to retreat from overwhelming forces (Fester Platz). The book goes into to simple details as to the order of battle and with these types of campaigns shows of great sacrifice and cowardice. Such as the coward General Bamler who openly worked with the Soviets after capture and did anything they told him to do. The sacrifices of men trying to help and or escape. I found it interesting to read about the 5th Panzer division who with such tenacity managed to destory 486 tanks, 11 assault guns, 119 anti-tank guns, and 100 trucks with the loss of 58 Panthers, 49 Panzer IVs, and an unknown amount of Tigers out of 20. The greatest compliment they recieved was heard over the Soviet radio net: "If you meet 5th Panzer, try to around them!" As mentioned, there is not much detail. For example 2 generals were executed by the Soviets for warcrimes. What did they do? Part of this is the fact that the Soviet records only opened up so many years ago and there isn't much for German records since so many men were lost. Hopefully, someday an effort for greator detail will come out in a book. This is a worth while book for anyone interested in the Eastern Front. As the Russian commented, it is probably the best presentation of the battle as of today.

This short analyical book (less then 200 pages) by Paul Adair covered the total defeat of the German Army Group Center during the last part of June 1944 into most of July 1944. Over 25 veteran German divisions were wiped out in the massive Soviet summer offensive which was totally overshadowed by the Allied efforts in the west. Thus, this campaign was largely ignored and forgotten by most western historians who remains infatuated with the the Longest Day and ensuing Normandy campaign. The book proves to be well written, clearly presented and considering the shortness in length - there are a lot of information presented in this book. The reader will learned quite a lot about this campaign and probably like me, hope there will be a bigger and more detail book on this campaign someday. (Hint to David Glantz?) There is a nice simplistic order of the battle for both sides and few operation orders given out by both sides. The book gives some background to the campaign as well as the aftermath. Destruction of the German Army Group Center remains Third Reich's greatest military defeat of the war but yet, ironically, its not well known in the United States. The Germans lost over 350,000 men during this one month period while the Russian losses numbered over 750,000 men. But the campaign ensured that the German military have forever lost any chances of victory and the forward advances of the Soviet forces all the way to Berlin have been assured. Second half of 1944 was a bad year for the German military! This book was published 11 years ago and it should be a considered as a mandoratory reading material for anyone interested in World War II history in Europe. The scale and scrope of this campaign would be enough to surprised any American reader.