War without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa 1941-1942

War without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa 1941-1942

War without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa 1941-1942

By Robert Kershaw (2008)
Buy this book
Buy this book

In the Spring of 1941, having abandoned his plans to invade Great Britain, Hitler turned the might of his military forces on to Stalin's Soviet Russia. The German army quickly advanced far into Russia as the Soviet forces suffered defeat after defeat. With brutality and savagery displayed by both sides, this was literally a campaign in which no prisoners were taken and no quarter given. As time wore on, the Eastern Front became, for the Germans, a byword for death - to be transferred to the front was a fate that was most feared by any member of the German forces.

Fact of the Day

The average height of the average male in the twelfth century was five-foot-seven.

Quote of the Day

"Nothing can be said in his vindication, but that his abolishing Religious Houses and leaving them to the ruinous depredations of time has been of infinite use to the landscape of England in general. "
~ Jane Austen on Henry VIII

On This Day

1579 Thomas Gresham, merchant, financier, and founder of the Royal Exchange, died suddenly, apparently of apoplexy. He bequeathed his estate, after the death of his wife, to the Corporation of London and the Mercers' Company to set up a college to provide free lectures to the public; Gresham College thus became London's first institution of higher education.
1916 The hospital ship Britannic, sister-ship of Titanic, hit a mine and sank, killing 30.
1918 Ten days after the Armistice, the German navy surrendered to the British in the Firth of Forth. 
1920 The assassinations of British intelligence officers ordered by Michael Collins in the Irish War of Independence led to thirty-one dead (from both sides) in what became known as 'Bloody Sunday'.
1974 21 people were killed and 182 injured when bombs exploded in two Birmingham pubs. The IRA was probably responsible, but the real culprits have never been found. The Birmingham Six, originally convicted of the bombings, were released because of dodgy police practices.
1981 The proceedings of the House of Commons were televised live for the first time.