1941: The Year Germany Lost the War

The Year Germany Lost the War

Andrew Nagorski

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781501181122
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

Bestselling historian Andrew Nagorski “brings keen psychological insights into the world leaders involved” (Booklist) during 1941, the critical year in World War II when Hitler’s miscalculations and policy of terror propelled Churchill, FDR, and Stalin into a powerful new alliance that defeated Nazi Germany.

In early 1941, Hitler’s armies ruled most of Europe. Churchill’s Britain was an isolated holdout against the Nazi tide, but German bombers were attacking its cities and German U-boats were attacking its ships. Stalin was observing the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, and Roosevelt was vowing to keep the United States out of the war. Hitler was confident that his aim of total victory was within reach.

But by the end of 1941, all that changed. Hitler had repeatedly gambled on escalation and lost: by invading the Soviet Union and committing a series of disastrous military blunders; by making mass murder and terror his weapons of choice, and by rushing to declare war on the United States after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Britain emerged with two powerful new allies—Russia and the United States. By then, Germany was doomed to defeat.

Nagorski illuminates the actions of the major characters of this pivotal year as never before. 1941: The Year Germany Lost the War is a stunning and “entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) examination of unbridled megalomania versus determined leadership. It also reveals how 1941 set the Holocaust in motion, and presaged the postwar division of Europe, triggering the Cold War. 1941 was “the year that shaped not only the conflict of the hour but the course of our lives—even now” (New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham).

INDEX

A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.

ABC-1 Conference, 100

Abwehr (German military intelligence), 32–33

Afrika Korps, 98

Air Force, Soviet:

gradual recovery of, 231

Luftwaffe destruction of, 121, 125

Aktion T4, 193

Alexander I, tsar of Russia, 89

Allan, James, 224

Allies, economic and physical advantages over Axis of, 303

Alliluyeva, Svetlana, 274

Alsop, Joseph, 94

America First Committee, 7, 46, 109, 116, 152, 252, 257–58, 280

Anders, Władysław, in meeting with Stalin, 297

Anfuso, Filippo, 291

Ansat, John, 180

anti-Semitism:

of Hitler, 18, 19, 53–54

Lindbergh and, 252–53

Anufriyev, Yevgeny, 249

Araki, Sadao, 260

Ariets (Soviet spy), 32, 68

Army Air Corps, US, 102

Army Group Center, German, 35, 119, 126–27, 138–39, 141, 232–35, 284, 286

Arnold, Henry “Hap,” 102

Aron, Raymond, 58

Artemyev, Pavel, 264

Athlone, Earl of, 212–13

Atlantic Charter, 170–71, 298

Atlantic Conference, 156, 158, 170–72

Augusta, USS, 170

Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, 175, 183–85, 295

Axis powers, Allies’ economic and physical advantage over, 303

Babi Yar, massacre of Jews at, 189, 269

Baldwin, Hanson W., 200–201

Balkans, 38

Baltic states, Soviet mass deportations in, 175–76

Barbarossa, Operation, see Soviet Union, German invasion of

Barbarossa Decree, 80

Battle of Britain,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Cast of Character
• Introduction
• One: “Mad Logic”
• Two: “Two Prima Donnas”
• Three: “Wholly Misguided”
• Four: “Our Plymouth Brethren”
• Five: “What Shall We Do?”
• Six: “Step on It!”
• Seven: “Simultaneous Wars”
• Eight: “The Kindly Italian Gardener”
• Nine: “We Will Break Them Soon”
• Ten: “No More Tricks Left”
• Eleven: “The Fifth Act”
• Photographs
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Photo Credits
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright