The German Defeat in the East, 1944-45

The last place a German soldier wanted to be in 1944 was the Russian front. That summer, Stalin hurled more than 6 million men, 9,000 tanks, 16,000 aircraft, and 12,800 guns and rocket launchers against German forces. Despite this gigantic effort and the resulting decimation of German forces, events on the Eastern Front are largely neglected by historians who focus instead on German defeats in Normandy and the Ardennes. This account details the massive battles on the Eastern Front from the summer of 1944 until the fall of Budapest in early 1945, a period when Hitler lost the majority of his conquered eastern territories and many of his best remaining divisions.