Military historian David Stahel draws several conclusions from his massive study of what happened after Germany’s failure to take Moscow in December 1941. He concludes that Germany was already defeated that summer when it failed to quickly knock the Soviet Union out of the war—this because the Nazis lacked the resources to win a war of attrition. All the Soviets had to do was survive. However, what followed in the winter of 1941-1942 was a Pyrrhic victory for the Soviets who endured horrifying casualties compared to their enemy. More than his predecessors, Stahel explores the subterfuges of German frontline commanders to evade Hitler’s ideologically driven orders. Their Soviet counterparts were probably too frightened of Stalin to display similar stealth in the name of military professionalism.
