To the Gates of Moscow with the 3rd Panzer Division

Description

To the Gates of Moscow with the 3rd Panzer Division
How did the soldiers of the Wehrmacht really experience the attack on the Soviet Union and the battles that followed? Few of the books on the subject of the war in Russia provide an honest answer. This book delivers a real view of events. Assistenzsarzt Dr. Türk’s unabbreviated diary entries from the year 1941, supplemented by documentary supporting text, 40 color maps, and a large number of his color slides represent a unique documentation. It provides an exemplary and genuine view, unaffected by postwar influences or a selective choice of materials, of how many soldiers of the Wehrmacht perceived the first half year of the campaign in the east. Take part in the attack near Brest-Litovsk, experience the fierce fighting at the Beresina and the Dniepr, march south with the division to close the Kiev pocket, and prepare for the assault on Moscow. Then follows the advance on Orel, and the arrival of the snow and cold. You stand with the soldiers in the icy trenches in front of Tula and witness the house-to-house fighting in the mining town of Bolokhovka. One cannot escape Dr. Türk’s haunting diary entries. They do not spare the reader, instead they provide extraordinary insights and allow the reader to feel the events as they were. Here one can read what father and grandfather experienced in the Russian campaign but never spoke of at home. This book will hopefully spur those born later, those who were spared this inferno, to reflect, for the majority of the frontline soldiers in Russia did not go voluntarily into this struggle.