Endgame 1944

A gripping account of the Soviet victories of 1944

The year 1944 was the turning point of World War Two, and nowhere was this more evident than on the Eastern Front. For three years, following the onslaught of the German Army during Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, the Red Army had retreated and then eventually held, fighting to a stalemate while the Germans occupied and ravaged large parts of the Soviet Union and its republics. Finally, following the breaking of the German siege of Leningrad in January 1944, Stalin and his generals were able to consider striking back. In June, they launched Operation Bagration, during which more than two million Red Army soldiers began an offensive, pushing west. The results were almost immediate and devastating. Within three weeks, Army Group Centre, the core of the German Army, had lost 28 of its 32 divisions. The ending had begun.

Drawing on new sources-some previously untranslated-including accounts from ordinary soldiers and witnesses, Jonathan Dimbleby chronicles this decisive year in what was arguably the most crucial front in the war against Nazi Germany, a front extending 1200 miles. He covers the military, political, and diplomatic aspects in his trademark accessible and evocative style, illuminating the major conflicts as well as the roles played by deception, Partisan fighting, and the war within a war in Ukraine.

Endgame 1944 reveals how the Soviet victories enabled Stalin to dictate the terms of the post-war settlement, laying the foundations for the Cold War.