Retreat from Moscow

A New History of Germany’s Winter Campaign, 1941-1942

By: David Stahel

Narrated by: Matthew Waterson

Germany's winter campaign of 1941-1942 has commonly been seen as its "first defeat". In Retreat from Moscow, David Stahel argues that, in fact, it was its first strategic success in the east. Though the Red Army managed to push the Wehrmacht back from Moscow, the Germans lost far fewer men (one to six), frustrated their enemy's strategic plan, and emerged in the spring unbroken and poised to recapture the initiative.

Hitler's new strategic plan called for holding important Russian industrial cities, which the German army would do. And the Soviet plan as of January 1942 aimed for nothing less than the destruction of Army Group Centre, but in fact, not a single German army, corps, or division was ever successfully destroyed. Lacking the professionalism, training, and experience of the Wehrmacht, the Red Army mounted an offensive that attempted to break German lines in countless head-on assaults, which led to far more tactical defeats than victories.

Through journals, memoirs, and wartime correspondence, Stahel takes us into the Wolf's Lair and reveals a German command at war with itself. And through soldiers' diaries and letters home, he paints a rich portrait of life and death on the front, where the men of the Ostheer fight against frostbite as much as they do Soviet artillery.

©2019 David Stahel (P)2019 Tantor

Amazing Parallel of Two Flailing Armies

David Stahel has outdone himself with this book. His take on Germany's Winter Campaign of 1941-42 and it NOT being the end of Germany's dominance is more than interesting. However using his examination, he's absolutely right. Germany's collapse started earlier than this, and in fact the German army accomplished its key objectives. The deceptive part of this puzzle is that though the Red Army did not make that many strategic triumphs, the German army had much less to work with and more to lose. More than anything, this is the ultimate chilling tale of two armies from totalitarian states. Men were treated like cattle, and supplies were virtually nonexistent. People don't matter in totalitarian states. This book is haunting in how close history is repeating itself as we speak. Matthew Waterson's narration is the perfect compliment to this material. One can't forget the mental images delivered here. BRAVO!!

How German army survived after Moscow attack

This volume in David Stahel's examination of the war in the east focuses on the German army's recovery following Operation Barbarossa's failure to achieve its strategic goals. Importantly, the work explores the German army's tenuous situation between November 1941 and March 1942, during which its survival turned on the Soviet's hapless tactics and German generals' willingness to make tactical decisions that contradicted Hitler's explicit orders, including his "stand fast" directive that prohibited any further withdrawals for any reason. Detailed accounts of the various generals' views and efforts, interspersed with accounts of front-line soldiers and commanders who describe the fighting, the hardships, and the psychological toll of this period on the Eastern Front. Also provides important and revealing logistical facts analysis that underscore the critical importance of supply and organization in sustaining a fighting army's efforts to prevail.

In-depth analytics and detailed

Exacting and detailed. A fitting story to the largest land and bloodiest battle in history. How these 2 countries co-exist today?

Highly recommended for historical purposes

Simply put I love this book

Great insight to the 1941-42 winter campaign and great narrator to listen and fall asleep to.

david stahel perfection

always a good pick discoverd him on youtube lecture ...him and nigel askey best there is on ost front war in the east a brutal war ...biggest tank battles ever and will never see again ... supply issues ect.

Excellent Book

I really enjoyed this book. Most enjoyable to me where the accounts of everyday life for the German soldiers. The book really brings to life what must have been an absolutely terrible and terrifying existence. As with any military audiobook, i think having access to maps would have been helpful in understanding the military technicalities of this book. Maybe there is a way to access them, but i have not found it. Nonetheless, great book, highly recommend.

Winter Sucks Or How I Learned to Love the Ostfront

I've been on the fence about getting yet another title on the Eastern Front. David Stahel is just one of the latest authors in a parade of writers to take advantage of available Russian archival material to present up to date portraits of the most important theater of war in WW2. He is a solid step above the crowds, in my estimation. Great introduction, complete mastery of the material, the men, the statistics, the postwar apologists, the generations of historical viewings of the campaign, the mythology of Hitler, the various Ostfront memoirs,,. he can blend it all together into a vodka martini shaken not stirred, that is enthralling. From the map room to the foxholes, the peasant huts and the frozen wasteland of ice, snow and corpses, he serves it up to you, course after course.

It can be overwhelming at times. The story, though detailed in December to nearly day by day events, moves along at a furious clip and yet he never slides downhill into the land of Glantz or Forcyzk so you don't have to wade through ration returns or number of artillery rounds of each caliber fired by a certain anti tank unit. What keeps it going is the excellent narrator. Matthew Waterson is masterful in accent, tone, irony, humor and earnestness.

For the most part he steers clear of the muck and filth of the individual soldier but not entirely and that nitty gritty element mixed with the high strategy is what keeps the book so well above the average coverage of a WW2 campaign study.

If you're choosing between Michael Jones and David Stahel... choose Stahel!

the struggle to survive

an excellent work. easy to follow. exhausted research. the author and editor should be proud.

Must-read for the WW II guy

Densely written but readable, with a reasoned, fresh look at the first “Winter War”.
Well worth the effort; highly recommend Ed.

Absolutely Eyeopening History of the Retreat from Moscow.

Stahel’s books are amazing and a pleasure to read. I WISH AUDIBLE WOULD ADD THE TWO PRECEDING VOLUMES!!!

This book absolutely stands what I thought I knew about this campaign on its head. Amazing research and research that led to the development of a new understanding of this campaign. I highly recommend this book and all of Stahel’s titles. He writes so well.