The Unknown Eastern Front: The Wehrmacht and Hitler's Foreign Soldiers - Softcover

M�ller, Rolf-Dieter

3.71

70 ratings by Goodreads

9781780768908: The Unknown Eastern Front: The Wehrmacht and Hitler's Foreign Soldiers

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1780768907 ISBN 13: 9781780768908

Publisher: I.B. Tauris, 2014

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When Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa with his attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Wehrmacht deployed 600,000 troops to the Eastern Front. Their numbers were later swelled by a range of foreign volunteers so that, at the height of World War II, astonishingly one in three men fighting for the Germans in the East was not a native German. Hitler's declaration of the 'struggle against Bolshevism' reverberated throughout all of Europe - among convinced fascists as well as among non-Russian eastern Europeans seeking to regain their independence from the USSR. Many of these volunteers subsequently became involved in the atrocities of the Wehrmacht and the SS. Vilified by Hitler for their supposed failures, condemned and forgotten by their homelands for treason and collaboration, their involvement in the war has been largely ignored or swept aside by historians. Rolf-Dieter M�ller here offers a fascinating new perspective on a little-known aspect of World War II.

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About the Author:

Rolf-Dieter M�ller is Professor of Military History at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany; Scientific Director of the German Armed Forces Military History Research Institute in Potsdam; and Co-ordinator of the 'The German Reich and the Second World War' project. He is the author of numerous publications on World War II.

Review:

""In lifting the veil with which history has shrouded these men, Muller...has opened up a new vista on a largely forgotten, and sometimes deliberately neglected, but crucial aspect of recent history."" – Nigel Jones, Spectator Online, November 2012

""This is an important subject...[M�ller] supplies full and useful detail on the contribution of all the different peoples who participated, with information on the numbers of soldiers and the tasks they were expected to fulfill."" – Richard Overy, History Today, March 2013

""Disturbing and fascinating and should be on the bookshelves of students trying to understand...how Hitler managed to survive for so long after suffering not one but several devastating defeats following his invasion of the USSR...Muller's excellent work goes a long way to explain how Hitler fell from power."" – Trevor Grundy, Cold Type (Canada), May 2013

""I enjoyed this book...it gave another view on how the Wehrmacht fought it's ultimately futile war against the Soviets..."" – Army Rumour Service Blog, October 2012

""A concise yet comprehensive treatment of the military operations of Hitler's foreign helpers in the war against the Soviet Union...A very readable account that effectively dismantles myths and legends that have grown up around an important and neglected subject."" - Jeff Rutherford, H-German – 'Definitive' Die Welt

""Persuasive and readable."" – Westdeutsche Zeitung

""Rarely is so much historical knowledge presented in such little space."" – Deutschlandfunk

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