Thomas Broderick – författare

During the predawn hours of June 22, 1941 over 3.5 million German troops and thousands of tanks, planes, and armored vehicles slammed into the Soviet Unions Western Frontier. Hitlers Operation Barbarossa had begun and stretched on a front spanning nearly 2,000 kilometers from north to south. The opening weeks of the Great Patriotic War as it is known in Russia, were an unmitigated disaster for the Red Army. Brave soldiers like Lieutenant Alexander Semenov and General Nikolai Petrenko struggled heroically to shore up their countrys defenses and halt Germanys three-pronged advance, the center of which was aimed right at the very heart and capital of their beloved motherland, Moscow. With the entire civilian population mobilized, thousands of men, women, and children, toiled without rest digging fortifications and deep anti-tank trenches out of the rich black soil of Mother Russia. Industrial workers from across the country labored to crate every piece of equipment, not already in German hands, and shipped them east to the Urals out of harms way. Thousands of vital war industries, large and small, sprung up from the frozen earth and within weeks were producing the vital tools needed to bring the fight to the Fascists invaders. As far as the German Army was concerned, the drive east into the depths of Russia was little different from any of her previous conquests. However, true professional soldiers the likes of Colonel Wilhelm Eichorn knew better. Russia was a vast country with an unforgiving climate. If the campaign to destroy the Soviet field army and capture Moscow was not completed before the onset of the next brutal Russian winter, disaster was certain. The annals of history were littered with the wreckage of armies that learned getting into Russia was easy, getting out was not. As fall neared and the German summer successes began to fade, Hitler mustered his forces for one final decisive push to seize Moscow and end the war. Operation Typhoon had begun.

It is the summer of 1942. With the setbacks of the previous winter behind them, a reinvigorated German army is poised along a front stretching 2,100 kilometers, ready to strike the final blow to the Soviet Union. A refitted and up-armored panzer strike force with newer, more powerful 75-mm main guns and new leadership awaits along the Ukraine for the opening phase of Operation Blau (Blue). Although not as numerous as the forces that stormed their way into Russia one year before, these experienced troops are determined as ever to put an end to a conflict that has gone on too long. Even the youngest of privates understands that if the war in the east is to be won, it must be concluded with this campaign. Hitlers overambitious goal was to sweep the Soviet army off the steppes along the giant bend in the River Don straight through to the River Volga, cutting off Stalins main oil supply artery to his northern forces. Just as he did the previous year, Hitler suddenly alters his attack plans as Operation Blau unfolds. He strips much of the needed tank and motorized forces from the Sixth Army and diverts them down into the Caucasus region to seize the critical oil production facilities in places such as Maikop, Grozny, and Baku. With the defeat of Russia almost a certainty, combined with his most recent successes in North Africa, Hitler assured himself the swift collapse of the Allied armies and capitulation of the West was not long in coming. At long last, final victory was within his grasp.