ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy
I am currently reading Operation Barbarossa. One thing I am not clear on is why Hitler attacked Russia in the first place. If anyone can enlighten me I'd be grateful.
The book is detailed but seems a little biased. It makes the Germans seem like a bunch of infighting buffoons and I know that even though they had their issues they were not as incompetent as the book makes them out to be.
The Stalin purges of 37. Dang, that was brutal! [X(]
you might try "Ostkrieg. Hitler's War of Extermination in the East" for a serious fleshing out of the reasons why.
An interesting aspect of this work is that while many other histories tend to paint Barbarossa as a blunder and/or an unnecessary gamble, this book argues the case that Hitler was compelled to attack eastward for economic and geopolitical reasons. Way too much in the book to adequately summarize, but several key points discussed were the German economic picture which was stunted and arguably further burdened by the very lands it occupied (particularily Northern France), Ideological drives....the Lebansraum expansion that would make Germany a global power. A third factor was geopolitical. Hitler was well aware that eventually the US would come into the picture and if it joined with England and other powers before Germany could increase it's power base they would be at a disadvantage.
It certainly made me think and question some "givens" i had held true for decades...the hallmark of a good book. It also confirmed in my mind the basic premise of the war itself.
A depressing read, but worth it if you can get through it.
