Author(s): Jonathan Dimbleby

War

June 1944- In Operation Bagration, more than two million Red Army soldiers, facing 500,000 German soldiers, finally avenged their defeat in Operation Barbarossa in 1941. In the following three weeks, Army Group Centre lost 28 of its 32 divisions.

The same month saw the Allies triumph on the beaches of Normandy, but, despite the myths that remain today, it was the events on the Eastern Front in 1944 that sealed Hitler's fate and destroyed Nazism. Sophisticated new forms of deception and ruthless Partisan warfare led to a dramatic shift in fortunes in favour of the Soviets - whilst a war within a war in Ukraine complicated the campaign on the Eastern Front.

Drawing on previously untranslated sources, bestselling historian Jonathan Dimbleby describes and analyses this momentous year, covering the military, political and diplomatic story in his usual evocative style. We see how Soviet triumphs effectively gave Stalin authority to occupy Eastern Europe, whilst the two Western leaders - often sharply disagreeing amongst themselves - lacked the military or political muscle to challenge this new arrangement.

Dimbleby's gripping, masterly narrative sets the drama of the relationships between the "big three" against the history being created on the battlefield, and shows how the Soviet victories in 1944 enabled Stalin to dictate the terms of the post-war settlement and lay the foundations for the Cold War.