The Destruction of Hitler's Army Group Center

Stalin’s Revenge is a reprint of one of the many books Anthony Tucker-Jones has written on World War II (most recent is a book on Operation Anvil Dragoon). In addition to the Operation Bagration referred to in the book’s subtitle, it also covers the later Lvov-Sandomierz and Vistula operations. Essentially, we have here the final offensives of the Red Army before the Last Days of the Third Reich and the Battle of Berlin. In a book of under 200 pages, Tucker-Jones does a reputable job of sketching out these offensives based on the sources available in the West on these operations. It should be noted that there has been a considerable number of secondary sources that have been published in Russian on the subjects since 2000 that he does not use, and that have yet to be translated into English.

Within those limitations, the work gives an overview of these offensives, with the occasional deeper dive into a particular battle and quotes from first-hand accounts of the officers and soldiers that fought these battles. All three offensives were incredibly successful, and brought the Red Army within striking distance of Berlin and the end of the Third Reich. There were limited German counterattacks in between that slowed down the Red Army, but by this point in the war, victory for the Allies was inevitable.

The content of the book is typical of Pen & Sword. Brief biographies of the important Generals on both sides. Discussion of the planning and logistics of Bagration and subsequent operations, Russian Maskirovka, Orders of Battle, and the bulk of the work, the description of flow of operations and the battles fought up to the Oder River. There is particular attention paid to the tanks that fought these battles and the air forces involved. A good book, though this reviewer prefers C.J. Dick’s From Defeat to Victory for a more complete narrative of Operation Bagration.

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Our Reviewer: Dr. Stavropoulos received his Ph.D. in History from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2013. Currently an Adjunct Professor at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, his previous reviews include Prelude to Waterloo: Quatre Bras: The French Perspective, Braddock's Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution, Italy 1636: Cemetery of Armies, In the Name of Lykourgos, The Other Face of Battle, The Bulgarian Contract, Napoleon’s Stolen Army, In the Words of Wellington’s Fighting Cocks, Chasing the Great Retreat, Athens, City of Wisdom: A History, Commanding Petty Despots, Writing Battles: New Perspectives on Warfare and Memory in Medieval Europe, SOG Kontum, Simply Murder, Soldiers from Experience, July 22: The Civil War Battle of Atlanta, New York’s War of 1812, The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777, The Spear, the Scroll, and the Pebble, The Killing Ground, The Hill: The Brutal Fight for Hill 107 in the Battle of Crete, and The Lion at Dawn: Forging British Strategy in the Age of the French Revolution.

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Note: Stalin's Revenge: Operation Bagration is also available in hardcover & e-editions.

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