Brutal Operation Barbarossa signalled Hitler's end

Hitler's First Defeat

By Michael Jones

John Murray, 328 pages, $25

WAR, infamously, is hell. The 1941 German invasion of Russia ran into an opponent that was cold as hell.

In this wrenching military history, British academic Michael Jones chronicles the brutal campaign that led to the first defeat of the "unstoppable" German blitzkrieg. Many historians see Hitler's Operation Barbarossa -- the Russian campaign -- as the beginning of the end of the Third Reich.

Jones has written books on the battles of Bosworth and Agincourt. In 2007, Stalingrad described the decisive battle of the Russian Front; 2008's Leningrad covers the siege that was a key part of Hitler's foolish determination to conquer Russia. New in Canada, The Retreat was published in the U.K. last year.

Jones makes expert and effective use of eyewitness accounts in letters, diaries and military communications. It provides a painfully close view of the increasingly desperate circumstances of the German armies, which were turned back by stiffening Russian resistance and the weather.

The German lack of preparation for a winter campaign becomes horrifyingly evident, evoking sympathy for the depredations suffered by individuals. Hitler hoped to inspire troops with nationalism and racism, in spite of their lack of winter clothing, food or shelter.

While The Retreat focuses more on the Nazis, both sides' hate-filled ideologies have vicious consequences even for soldiers who recognize the inhumanity of the conflict.

The German campaign was part of Hitler's plans for lebensraum -- living space -- for his "Thousand Year Reich." Eliminating "subhuman beings" motivated some, but not all, of the German fighters.

"It is difficult to describe precisely the attitude of German soldiers to their Russian enemies," Jones writes. "Some were clearly upon a journey from humanitarian values to callous indifference or worse. Others, faced with the suffering of the prisoners of war, were travelling in the opposite direction.... Testimonies conflict, and the picture is confused and changeable."

Millions of Soviet prisoners died of brutality and neglect. "A ferocious hatred of the enemy overrode all fear and reason," one Russian platoon commander fumed. "We did not take prisoners."

From this ice fog of war, Jones draws both personal and overarching perspectives.

German and Russian reactions provide a pitiable picture of individual and patriotic conflicts. The Retreat is accessible for non-historians.

Jones emphasizes the influence of some particular incidents. Stalin's decision in October 1941 not to abandon Moscow, with invaders only 35 kilometres away, helped stem panic among Soviet citizens and troops.

Walter Model, chosen to take command of the German forces in January 1942, managed to inspire armies demoralised by the Fuehrer's desperately misguided "stand fast" order a month before.

Operation Barbarossa was haunted by the spectres of Napoleon's expedition, which had been defeated over a century before by Tsarist troops, and of the Russian winter.

The comparisons are stark and startling. Early German triumphalism compared Hitler to Napoleon. Ironically, the German war machine, like Napoleon's, was completely unprepared to withstand the cold.

Indeed, as early victories gave way to a Napoleonic rout, staff officers questioning Hitler's leadership show hints of turning against his vicious ideology.

Events outside Russia, like the Japanese and U.S. entry into the war in December 1941, seem to have had little impact on the individuals whose memories Jones reports.

Jones does not mention that Hitler and Stalin had signed a non-aggression pact in 1939, or how surprised the Soviets were that the Nazis broke it first.

The Retreat focuses on the winter fighting, ending in the spring of 1942, with both armies in a stalemate. It wasn't over. Jones' preface promises a companion volume about the next stage, called Total War.

Bill Rambo teaches English at Niverville Collegiate.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 20, 2010 H9