Hitler's Great Gamble
A New Look at German Strategy, Operation Barbarossa, and the Axis Defeat in World War II
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Narrated by:
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David de Vries
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By:
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James Ellman
About this listen
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.
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World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the conflict erupted in Asia. His armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit any of the spoils of war. That central role belonged to Joseph Stalin. Drawing on ambitious new research in Soviet, European, and US archives, Stalin’s War revolutionizes our understanding of this global conflict by moving its epicenter to the east.
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Sean McMeekin Does It Again!
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Deathride
- Hitler vs. Stalin: The Eastern Front, 1941-1945
- By: John Mosier
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
John Mosier presents a revisionist retelling of the war on the Eastern Front. The conventional wisdom is that Hitler was mad to think he could defeat the USSR, because of its vast size and population, and that the Battle of Stalingrad marked the turning point of the war. Neither statement is accurate, says Mosier; Hitler came very close to winning outright.
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Speaking the un-speakable
- By Jonathan Gardner on 09-27-10
By: John Mosier
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The First World War
- By: Hew Strachan
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
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A century has passed since the outbreak of World War I, yet as military historian Hew Strachan argues in this brilliant and authoritative new book, the legacy of the "war to end all wars" is with us still. The First World War was a truly global conflict from the start, with many of the most decisive battles fought in or directly affecting the Balkans, Africa, and the Ottoman Empire. Even more than World War II, the First World War continues to shape the politics and international relations of our world.
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Outstanding narrative of the military action
- By Tad Davis on 04-30-17
By: Hew Strachan
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The Savior Generals
- How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - From Ancient Greece to Iraq
- By: Victor Davis Hanson
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
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Prominent military historian Victor Davis Hanson explores the nature of leadership with his usual depth and vivid prose in The Savior Generals, a set of brilliantly executed pocket biographies of five generals (Themistocles, Belisarius, William Tecumseh Sherman, Matthew Ridgway, and David Petraeus) who single-handedly saved their nations from defeat in war. War is rarely a predictable enterprise - it is a mess of luck, chance, and incalculable variables. Today's sure winner can easily become tomorrow's doomed loser.
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A good history book tells about human nature.
- By Doruk Denkel on 03-03-20
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Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces
- By: Steven R. Ward
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 18 hrs and 45 mins
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Immortal is the only single-volume English-language survey of Iran's military history. CIA analyst Steven R. Ward shows that Iran's soldiers, from the famed "Immortals" of ancient Persia to today's Revolutionary Guard, have demonstrated through the centuries that they should not be underestimated. This history also provides background on the nationalist, tribal, and religious heritages of the country to help listeners better understand Iran and its security outlook.
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More than a military history
- By BehA on 01-21-17
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World War Two
- A Short History
- By: Norman Stone
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
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After the unprecedented destruction of the Great War, the world longed for a lasting peace. The victors, however, valued vengeance even more than stability and demanded a massive indemnity from Germany in order to keep it from rearming. The results, as eminent historian Norman Stone describes in this authoritative history, were disastrous. In World War Two, Stone provides a remarkably concise account of the deadliest war of human history, showing how the conflict roared to life from the ashes of World War One.
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Great primer before taking on the big tomes.
- By Amazon Customer on 11-14-18
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Tower of Skulls
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- By: Richard B. Frank
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 26 hrs and 23 mins
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This story casts penetrating light on how struggles in Europe and Asia merged into a tightly entwined global war. It features not just battles, but also the sweeping political, economic, and social effects of the war, and are graced with a rich tapestry of individual characters from top-tier political and military figures down to ordinary servicemen, as well as the accounts of civilians of all races and ages.
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Outstanding
- By Patrick on 03-16-20
By: Richard B. Frank
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The Splintered Empires
- The Eastern Front 1917-21
- By: Prit Buttar
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 22 hrs and 36 mins
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Story
Concluding his acclaimed series on the Eastern Front in World War I, Prit Buttar comprehensively details not only these climactic events, but also the "successor wars" that raged long after the armistice of 1918. New states rose from the ashes of empire and war raged as German forces sought to keep them under the aegis of the Fatherland. These unresolved tensions between the former Great Powers and the new states would ultimately lead to the rise of Hitler and a new, terrible world war only two decades later.
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Explains a lot about
- By Elizabeth on 02-27-20
By: Prit Buttar
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The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
- By: John J. Mearsheimer
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
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A decade after the cold war ended, policy makers and academics foresaw a new era of peace and prosperity, an era in which democracy and open trade would herald the "end of history." The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, sadly shattered these idyllic illusions, and John Mearsheimer's masterful new book explains why these harmonious visions remain utopian.
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Exceptional
- By Logical Paradox on 08-19-14
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Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East
- By: David Stahel
- Narrated by: Stewart Crank
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Using archival records, in this book, David Stahel presents a history of Germany's summer campaign from the perspective of the two largest and most powerful Panzer groups on the Eastern front. Stahel's research provides a fundamental reassessment of Germany's war against the Soviet Union, highlighting the prodigious internal problems of the vital Panzer forces and revealing that their demise in the earliest phase of the war undermined the whole German invasion.
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Best book on Operation Barbarossa so far
- By Amazon Customer on 09-14-21
By: David Stahel
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The Napoleonic Wars
- By: Alexander Mikaberidze
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins
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Story
The Napoleonic Wars saw fighting on an unprecedented scale in Europe and the Americas. It took the wealth of the British Empire, combined with the might of the continental armies, almost two decades to bring down one of the world's greatest military leaders and the empire that he had created. Napoleon's ultimate defeat was to determine the history of Europe for almost 100 years. From the frozen wastelands of Russia, through the brutal fighting in the Peninsula to the blood-soaked battlefield of Waterloo, this book tells the story of the dramatic rise and fall of the Napoleonic Empire.
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No description of battles
- By John Gaston on 01-15-21
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What listeners say about Hitler's Great Gamble
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nik Dagostino
- 09-28-23
Very Fascinating Book
This book certainly gives you a lot to think about and puts into perspective How consequential some of the high command war decisions were.
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- Norm the Nonfiction Reader
- 07-23-21
An interesting view of Hitler v. Stalin
The author combines history and "what might have been" potentials for a very interesting narrative. He never gives into the attraction of "counterfactuals" as he tells the tale of what happened verses what could have happened. This indepth look at Hitler's decision to open a second front is well worth your time and energy.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-03-23
Germany
Great book I would have to check something’s out I never knew Stalin seemed a peace treaty with Germany after the start of hostilities with Russia. But great book overall makes you wonder what if
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- TSD
- 02-20-24
True enlightened analysis of Hitler and his options
I enjoyed the detailed explanation based on facts and not some biography or rumor.
True enlightened analysis of Hitler and his options
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- History Buff
- 11-04-24
Brilliant Theoretical War Gaming at Its Finest
Innovative, fresh thinking to disprove stale cliches concerning what was assumed an inevitable outcome of WWII, on the Eastern Front and beyond!
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- Heath Anderson
- 11-09-21
Intriguing tho disappointing at times
I’m impressed for the most part for this book. The subject material is very interesting and although there is research and creativity I must sadly point out that the author doesn’t think his theory’s completely through.
He makes both simple and complex mistakes in his facts (at one point he states “no army enjoyed a complete mechanized advantage”) not thinking of the American forces who didn’t take a single horse with them to Europe or Asia, they in fact DID go to war with mechanized forces.
The author states that the Nazis could have won if only they’d sharpened their negotiating skills in having Imperial Japan attack into Siberia and Finland take Leningrad.
I must disagree. His book goes into the realms of pure fantasy.
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- S. H. Moore
- 11-28-20
Full of good information and a pretty well established thesis
I don’t agree with the other reviewer. This book is trending right along the line of Enduring the Whirlwind. Enduring focused half a chapter on why invading Russia when it happened was a pretty decent play and why Germany felt it pretty much had to else compromise their position. Half a chapter is not much but that books aim is to update our thinking on the causes of the 3rd Reichs defeat on the ground in the East. This reasoning is sound and this book and Enduring provide support for this. This books focus is also a bit wider in view. Enduring focused on replacements and losses on the eastern front, this book is much larger in scope but also focused in on the Eastern front. They both buck the trend.
There isn’t much in between heavy academic works about the war, ones that actually stand to change our perceptions of what happened and why, and popular tales such as memoirs which CAN perpetuate falsehood (some purposeful like German staff studies post war, or innocently by a front line soldier 40 years post war). This book tries to bridge this gap some by offering the casual reader some information that is controversial, as it goes against what people have been told all their lives about WW2, and making it a little more accessible.
I found this work to be pretty well supported. The reasoning for attacking Soviet Russia is now really being fleshed out and appears true. They did negotiate with Russia but the Caucuses were needed by Germany and they couldn’t go without them. Thus, they had to invade Russia to support their Eastern allies. The parts that are less well fleshed out are when he begins talking about Japan. I found it all very interesting. Logical as well. It will be interesting to see if more evidence can be found on those interactions to help this narrative of events become more mainstream.
It’s a good book. If you love reading or listening to history, this book is different and interestingness I think you will enjoy it. If you like it, check out Enduring the Whirlwind, that book along with David Glantz’s books are reshaping the narrative of the Eastern front.
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- wally
- 11-29-20
Good solid speculation well documented
A WWII Biggs “good read.” Well to recommend to historians and alt-historians. Worth the price.
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- IC
- 06-22-22
excellent perspective
interesting perspective. Always wondered why Japan did not attack Russia from East and what would have happened. This book addresses that in detail.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-21-24
The Rest of the Story
I always wondered what was behind among other things the decision to declare war on the United States, I had thought it was Hitler trying to go Japan into helping him out which would have taken Zukov's forces away from defending Moscow.
But what I learned about the fight over the Balkans and its impact was so insightful and the Finnish contribution were worth the time to explore this title.
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