Audiobook8 hours
Hitler's Great Gamble: A New Look at German Strategy, Operation Barbarossa, and the Axis Defeat in World War II
Written by James Ellman
Narrated by David de Vries
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, one of the turning points of World War II. Within six months, the invasion bogged down on the outskirts of Moscow, and the Eastern Front proved to be the decisive theater in the defeat of the Third Reich. Ever since, most historians have agreed that this was Hitler's gravest mistake. In Hitler's Great Gamble, James Ellman argues that while Barbarossa was a gamble and perverted by genocidal Nazi ideology, it was not doomed from the start. Rather it represented Hitler's best chance to achieve his war aims for Germany which were remarkably similar to those of the Kaiser's government in 1914. Other options, such as an invasion of England, or an offensive to seize the oil fields of the Middle East were considered and discarded as unlikely to lead to Axis victory.
In Ellman's recounting, Barbarossa did not fail because of flaws in the Axis invasion strategy, the size of the USSR, or the brutal cold of the Russian winter. Instead, German defeat was due to errors of Nazi diplomacy. Hitler chose not to coordinate his plans with his most militarily powerful allies, Finland and Japan, and ensure the seizure of the ports of Murmansk and Vladivostok. Had he done so, Germany might well have succeeded in defeating the Soviet Union and, perhaps, winning World War II.
In Ellman's recounting, Barbarossa did not fail because of flaws in the Axis invasion strategy, the size of the USSR, or the brutal cold of the Russian winter. Instead, German defeat was due to errors of Nazi diplomacy. Hitler chose not to coordinate his plans with his most militarily powerful allies, Finland and Japan, and ensure the seizure of the ports of Murmansk and Vladivostok. Had he done so, Germany might well have succeeded in defeating the Soviet Union and, perhaps, winning World War II.
Related to Hitler's Great Gamble
Related audiobooks
The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact With Stalin, 1939-1941 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eight Days in May: The Final Collapse of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Reich in History and Memory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deathride: Hitler vs. Stalin---the Eastern Front, 1941-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At the Heart of the Reich: The Secret Diary of Hitler’s Army Adjutant Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51939: Countdown to War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler: Downfall: 1939-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5After Hitler: The Last Ten Days of World War II in Europe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Hitler: The Plots, the Assassins, and the Dictator Who Cheated Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Origins of The Second World War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzkrieg: From the Ground Up Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Compromises: Coercion and Consensus in Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzkrieg: Myth, Reality, and Hitler's Lightning War: France 1940 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Soldier: Hitler as Military Leader Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Instrument of War: The German Army 1914–18 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin from the Interrogations of Hitler's Personal Aides Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Case White: The Invasion of Poland 1939 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's True Believers: How Ordinary People Became Nazis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First World War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Battleground Prussia: The Assault on Germany's Eastern Front 1944-45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Case Red: The Collapse of France Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Young Hitler: The Making of the Führer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prevail until the Bitter End: Germans in the Waning Years of World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5France 1940: Defending the Republic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
European History For You
The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War on the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of American Cemeteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Templars: The History and the Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reformation: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: with Pearl and Sir Orfeo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Teutonic Knights: A Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Whose Middle Ages?: Teachable Moments for an Ill-Used Past Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Goodbye Christopher Robin: A. A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Hitler's Great Gamble
Rating: 4.666666666666667 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
3 ratings0 reviews