Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII

Karl-Heinz Frieser (b. 1949), was a Colonel in the Bundeswehr. He studied political science and mediaeval and modern history at Würzburg. From 1985 to 2009, he was a research associate at the MGFA, becoming head of research on the world war era. His publications include Krieg hinter Stacheldraht: Die deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in der Sowjetunion und das Nationalkomitee 'Freies Deutschland' (1981); Blitzkrieg-Legende: Der Westfeldzug 1940 (3rd ed., 2005); Ardennen - Sedan: Militärhistorischer Führer durch eine europäische Schicksalslandschaft (2nd ed., 2006). His main area of research is in the operational history of the Second World War.

Each of the authors has mastered not only the vast secondary material on the subject matter, but also on the voluminous archival sources available. Indeed, it is rare that a scholarly enterprise of such vast scope makes such effective use of primary sources, and all of the authors are to be commended for their efforts. In short, like the other volumes in the series, volume 8 makes an invaluable contribution to the historiography of WW II in Europe....Essential.

• PART I: FROM STALINGRAD TO KURSK; PART II: THE BATTLE OF THE KURSK SALIENT; PART III: THE PERPLEXITIES OF WAR: THE SOVIET THEATRE IN GERMAN POLICY AND STRATEGY FROM THE SUMMER OF 1943; PART IV: THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM: THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE EASTERN FRONT FROM SUMMER 1943 TO SUMMER 1944; PART V: COLLAPSE IN THE EAST: THE WITHDRAWAL BATTLES FROM THE SUMMER OF 1944; PART VI: THE WAR ON THE NEIGHBOURING FRONTS; PART VII: GERMANY ON THE BRINK OF THE PRECIPICE; CONCLUDING SUMMARY