Barbarossa Derailed

The Battle for Smolensk 10 July–10 September 1941

David Glantz

• Publisher: Helion & Company
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781915070982
• eBook ISBN: 9781912174300
• Subtopic: German History

The supplemental companion to a two-part study on Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's plan to invade Soviet Russia during World War II.
Volume three, the Documentary Companion to Barbarossa Derailed, contains the documentary evidence for the two volumes of narrative. In addition to key Führer Directives issued by Adolf Hitler to provide direction to his forces during the Barbarossa Campaign, as well as vital orders issued by German Army Group Center, this book includes the daily operational summaries of the participating Soviet fronts, armies, and some divisions and many if not most of the orders and reports issued by the struggling Soviet armies. Precise translations illustrate not only the capabilities and states-of-mind of key Soviet commanders as they dealt with crisis after crisis but also the characteristics (such as aggressiveness, passivity, brutality, and despair) of their varied styles of command. They also demonstrate how an army, which lost the bulk of its experienced troops during the first several months of the campaign, attempted to use its operational directives and tactical orders to educate its soldiers and officers in the basics of waging war in the midst of active and bloody operations.
Praise for Barbarossa Derailed
"A meticulous operational narrative covering a key Eastern Front campaign . . . Glantz certainly succeeds in providing the best account of Smolensk to date." — Parameters - The US Army War College Quarterly 
 
"Both author and publisher are to be congratulated for producing such a detailed and comprehensive study of what could turn out to be one of the seminal battles of the Soviet-German War. Given the amount of Russian material in this volume and, presumably, in the volumes still be published, taking all four volumes collectively, this will hopefully mean a more objective and factually accurate description of the roles of both major combatants in the early opening phase of the war on the Eastern Front  and may well cause others to re-examine the Battle and assess its overall importance to the eventual victory of the USSR." —Dr. Steven J Main, DefAc UK, British Army Review  
 
"With Barbarossa Derailed, Glantz has provided the specialist on the Soviet-German War with an excellent study of this early conflict that served as an incubator for Soviet victory." —Canadian Slavonic Papers
 
"A necessary and valuable addition to the English-language literature on the Great Patriotic War. It includes a wealth of documents never before available in English, and it substantially revises earlier accounts of the Battle of Smolensk." — Journal of Military History

Table of contents

• Cover
• About the author
• Title
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Archival Maps
• List of Tables
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Corrections to Volume Two
• A The Composition, Dispositions, Command Cadre, and Armored Strength of Mechanized Corps Supporting the Western Front in July 1941
• B The Western Front’s Lepel’ Counterstroke, 6-9 July 1941
• C Army Group Center’s Advance on Smolensk and the Timoshenko “Counteroffensive,” 10-15 July 1941
• D The Composition and Command Cadre of the Front. of Reserve Armies, 14 July 1941
• E The Composition and Command Cadre of the Front. of the Mozhaisk Defense Line, 18 July 1941
• F Army Group Center’s Encirclement Battle at Smolensk, 16-23 July 1941
• G The First Soviet Counteroffensive, 23-31 July 1941
• H The Struggle for the Smolensk Pocket, 23-31 July 1941
• I The Northern Flank: Nevel’ and Velikie Luki, 16-31 July 1941
• J The Southern Flank, the Fall of Mogilev and the Problem of 21st Army (Guderian’s Advance to the Sozh River), 16-31 July 1941
• K Armeegruppe. Guderian’s Destruction of Group Kachalov, 31 July-6 August 1941
• L The Reduction of the Smolensk Pocket, 1-6 August 1941
• M The Stavka. Regroups its Forces, 30 July-11 August 1941
• N Armeegruppe Guderian’s and Second Army’s Southward March and the Fall of Gomel’, 8-21 August 1941
• O The Second Soviet Counteroffensive: The Western Front’s Dukhovshchina Offensive, 6-24 August 1941
• P The Second Soviet Counteroffensive: The Reserve Front’s El’nia Offensive, 8-24 August 1941
• Q The Northern Flank: Group Stumme’s Advance to Velikie Luki and Toropets, 21-28 August 1941
• R The Northern Flank: Group Stumme’s Advance to Zapadnaia Dvina, 29 August-9 September
• S The Third Soviet Counteroffensive: The Western Front’s Dukhovshchina Offensive, 25 August-10 September 1941
• T The Third Soviet Counteroffensive: The Reserve Front’s El’nia Offensive, 30 August-10 September 1941
• U (Part 1) Armeegruppe Guderian’s Jockeying for Position along the Desna River, 22-25 August 1941
• U (Part 2) Armeegruppe Guderian’s Advance across the Desna River, 25-28 August 1941
• U (Part 3) The Third Soviet Counteroffensive: The Briansk Front’s Roslavl’-Novozybkov Offensive, 29 August-14 September 1941
• V The Roslavl’-Novozybkov Offensive: The Records of 108th Tank Division and 40th Army’s 10th Tank Division, 28 August-14 September 1941
• W Excerpts from the Southwestern Front’s Daily Operational Directives and Summaries about 40th Army’s Positions and Situation, 28 August-10 September 1941 [not in the narrative]
• Index to Documents and Tables