The Tanks of Operation Barbarossa: Soviet versus German Armour on the Eastern Front

When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 the Red Army had four times as many tanks as the Wehrmacht and their tanks were seemingly superior, yet the Wehrmacht won the border battles with extraordinary ease the Red Armys tank force was pushed aside and for the most part annihilated. How was this victory achieved, and were the Soviet tanks really as well designed as is often believed? These are the basic questions Boris Kavalerchik answers in this absorbing study of the tanks and the tank tactics of the two armies that confronted each other at the start of the war on the Eastern Front.
Drawing on technical and operational documents from Russian archives, many of which were classified until recently and are unknown to Western readers, he compares the strengths and weakness of the tanks and the different ways in which they were used by the opposing armies. His work will be essential reading for military historians who are interested in the development of armoured warfare and in this aspect of the struggle on the Eastern Front.

• The First Day on the Eastern Front: Germany Invades the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941
• Panzers on the Vistula: Retreat and Rout in East Prussia 1945
• The German Army on the Eastern Front: An Inner View of the Ostheer's Experiences of War
• Panzer Ace: The Memoirs of an Iron Cross Panzer Commander from Barbarossa to Normandy
• Smashing Hitler's Panzers: The Defeat of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division in the Battle of the Bulge
• On a Knife's Edge: The Ukraine, November 1942-March 1943
• How Carriers Fought: Carrier Operations in WWII
• Smolensk 1943: The Red Army's Relentless Advance (Campaign)
• Soviet T-54 Main Battle Tank
• Wings of the Rising Sun: Uncovering the Secrets of Japanese Fighters and Bombers of World War II