In February 1943, German forces surrendered to the Red Army at Stalingrad and the tide of war turned. By May 1945 Soviet soldiers had stormed Berlin and brought down Hitler's regime. Total War follows the fortunes of these fighters as they liberated Russia and the Ukraine from the Nazi invader and fought their way into the heart of the Reich. It reveals the horrors they experienced - the Holocaust, genocide and the mass murder of Soviet POWs - and shows the Red Army, brutalized by war, taking its terrible revenge on the German civilian population. For the first time Russian veterans are candid about the terrible atrocities their own army committed. But they also describe their struggle to raise themselves from the abyss of hatred. Their war against the Nazis - which in large part brought the Second World War in Europe to an end - is a tarnished but deeply moving story of sacrifice and redemption.

The perfect introduction to the Second World War, this book breaks down six years of conflict into 50 manageable facts. Each year of the war is introduced with a timeline featuring the key events and a map showing where the fighting took place and which countries were involved. All the major events and battles are covered as well as entries on the home front, weapons and the cost of war giving a comprehensive and international introduction.

All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-1945 is a 2011 book by historian Max Hastings, covering the history of World War II and complementing Hastings' earlier works Overlord, Armageddon and Nemesis. In the United States, it was published under the title Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945.

On 17 September 1944, General Kurt Student, the founder of Nazi Germany's parachute forces, heard the growing roar of aeroplane engines. He went out on to his balcony above the flat landscape of southern Holland to watch the air armada of Dakotas and gliders carrying the British 1st Airborne and the American 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions. He gazed up in envy at this massive demonstration of paratroop power. Operation Market Garden, the plan to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine and beyond, was a bold concept: the Americans thought it unusually bold for Field Marshal Montgomery. But could it ever have worked? The cost of failure was horrendous, above all for the Dutch, who risked everything to help. German reprisals were pitiless and cruel, and lasted until the end of the war. The British fascination with heroic failure has clouded the story of Arnhem in myths. Antony Beevor, using often overlooked sources from Dutch, British, American, Polish and German archives, has reconstructed the terrible reality of the fighting, which General Student himself called 'The Last German Victory'. Yet this book, written in Beevor's inimitable and gripping narrative style, is about much more than a single, dramatic battle.

The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Reich in January 1945. Political instructors rammed home the message of Wehrmacht and SS brutality. The result was the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known, with tanks crushing refugee columns under their tracks, mass rape, pillage and destruction. Hundreds of thousands of women and children froze to death or were massacred because Nazi Party chiefs, refusing to face defeat, had forbidden the evacuation of civilians. Over seven million fled westwards from the terror of the Red Army. Antony Beevor reconstructs the experiences of those millions caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich's final collapse, telling a terrible story of pride, stupidity, fanatacism, revenge and savagery, but also one of astonishing endurance, self-sacrifice and survival against all odds.

Follow the D-Day landings through a unique collection of historical maps, expert commentary and dramatic photographs. This is a unique insight into the D-Day landings 70 years on. Over 90 maps demonstrate how the D-Day landings unfolded, and are accompanied by detailed descriptions of what happened on that momentous day. The Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944 were the greatest amphibious assault in history, requiring almost two years of meticulous planning and the largest co-ordinated mapping effort the world has ever seen.

The definitive history of MI9's emergency escape and evasion mapping programme and the contribution the maps made to victory in 1945. Fascinating stories of secret maps used by prisoners of World War II.The creation of MI9 in December 1939, the rationale for the new military intelligence branch and the context of the history of military mapping on silk is outlined. The map production programme is described, together with its progress and the challenges faced

When Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, he intended to capture Leningrad before turning on Moscow. Soviet resistance forced him to change tactics: with his forward troops only thirty kilometres from the city's historic centre, he decided instead to starve it out. Using newly available diaries and government records, Anna Reid describes a city's descent into hell - the breakdown of electricity and water supply; subzero temperatures; the consumption of pets, joiner's glue and face cream; the dead left unburied where they fell - but also the extraordinary endurance, bravery and self-sacrifice, despite the cruelty and indifference of the Kremlin.

Follow the conflict of the Second World War from 1939 to 1945 in this unique volume, published in association with Imperial War Museums, London, featuring historical maps and photographs from their archives, and fascinating commentary from an expert historian.Over 150 maps tell the story of how this global war was fought.

The battle for Stalingrad became the focus of Hitler and Stalin's determination to win the gruesome, vicious war on the eastern front. The citizens of Stalingrad endured unimaginable hardship; the battle, with fierce hand-to-hand fighting in each room of each building, was brutally destructive to both armies. But the eventual victory of the Red Army, and the failure of Hitler's Operation Barbarossa, was the first defeat of Hitler's territorial ambitions in Europe, and the start of his decline. An extraordinary story of tactical genius, civilian bravery, obsession, carnage and the nature of war itself, Stalingrad will act as a testament to the vital role of the soviet war effort.

The Second World War began in August 1939 on the edge of Manchuria and ended there exactly six years later with the Soviet invasion of northern China. The war in Europe appeared completely divorced from the war in the Pacific and China, and yet events on opposite sides of the world had profound effects. Using the most up-to-date scholarship and research, Beevor assembles the whole picture in a gripping narrative that extends from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific and from the snowbound steppe to the North African Desert. Although filling the broadest canvas on a heroic scale, Beevor's THE SECOND WORLD WAR never loses sight of the fate of the ordinary soldiers and civilians whose lives were crushed by the titanic forces unleashed in this, the most terrible war in history.

The Allied victory in 1945 – though comprehensive – was far from inevitable. By 1942 almost the entire resources of continental Europe were in German hands and Japan had wiped out the western colonial presence in Asia. Democracy appeared to have had its day. In this remarkable study, Richard Overy provides a reinterpretation of the war through an account of the decisive military campaigns that created the astonishing revival in Allied fortunes. He also explores the deeper factors that determined success and failure: industrial stength, fighting ability, the skills of leaders and the moral contrasts between the two sides. Today the modern world is once more in the throes of painful transformation. It is essential to establish why and how the last great war was won. Richard Overy casts a brilliant light on the most important turning-point of the modern age.

In this stunning visual history book, purpose-made maps reveal the full story of the Second World War. From the rise of the Axis powers to the aftermath of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima, this book shows how each step of the action took place. Each map is full of detail, charting the progress of the key events of World War II on land, sea, and air, including the Dunkirk evacuation, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the D-Day landings, the siege of Stalingrad, and the war in the Pacific. As well as purpose-made maps, historical maps from both Allied and Axis countries give compelling insights into the course of the war. There are also timelines summarizing each stage of the conflict as it unfolded, while fascinating, large-scale photographs offer a closer look at life both on and off the battlefield, introducing topics such as blitzkrieg tactics, civilian life in wartime, code-breaking, and more.

Evoking the epic scale of combat and its appalling impact across the globe, World War II is a unique telling of the Second World War. Digital maps and timelines cover every major campaign and phase of the war highlighting the strategic problems, critical moments, decisions and military actions that decided its outcome. Eyewitness accounts from civilians and soldiers paint a vivid picture of wartime life, covering both crucial battles and daily life under siege or aerial bombardment. Plus a visitor's guide to the hundreds of battlefields, war cemeteries, museums and memorials to the fallen in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.