Foreword

The Center of Military History is pleased to offer Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East in a first paperback edition. The maps and text are unchanged from previous printings. This major study of the Soviet-German conflict in World War II has enjoyed an outstanding reputation among those interested in military history and in such areas as the development of Soviet command skills and the exigencies of total land war across a huge front. The publication of this softback edition recognizes the volume's continuing appeal and relevance to both the military and academic communities.

Washington, D.C. 15 December 1983

DOUGLAS KINNARD Brigadier General, USA (Ret.) Chief of Military History

The Author

Earl F. Ziemke is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, where he received a Ph. D. degree in history. In World War II he served with the U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific theater. In 1951 he joined the staff of the Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University, and in 1955 he moved to the Office of the Chief of Military History. Since 1967 he has been a member of the history faculty at the University of Georgia.

Dr. Ziemke is author of The German Northern Theater of Operations, 1940-1945 (Washington, 1959), and of chapters in Command Decisions (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1959), A Concise History of World War II (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1964), and Soviet Partisans in World War II (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965). His other publications include The Battle for Berlin: End of the Third Reich (New York: Ballantine, 1968), The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1975), and The Soviet Juggernaut (Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1981).

Preface

Save for the introduction of nuclear weapons, the Soviet victory over Germany was the most fateful development of World War II. Both wrought changes and raised problems that have constantly preoccupied the world in the more than twenty years since the war ended. The purpose of this volume is to investigate one aspect of the Soviet victory--how the war was won on the battlefield. The author sought, in following the march of the Soviet and German armies from Stalingrad to Berlin, to depict the war as it was and to describe the manner in which the Soviet Union emerged as the predominant military power in Europe.

The author is grateful to Mr. Hanson W. Baldwin, military editor of the New York Times, and to Dr. Stetson Conn, Col. Albert W. Jones, and Mr. Charles B. MacDonald of the Office of the Chief of Military History, for reading the manuscript and for their many valuable suggestions, to which he hopes he has done justice in the final version. He is indebted to Generaloberst a. D. Franz Halder for assistance in securing source materials and for encouragement in the early stages of the writing. In his struggles with the vast German documents collections and the numerous details of German tactics and organization, the author received valuable advice from his colleagues in the former Foreign Branch, OCMH, Mrs. Magna E. Bauer, Mr. Detmar H. Finke, and Mr. Charles V. P. von Luttichau. The writing of the volume would not have been possible without the help of Mr. Sherrod East and the other members of the World War II Reference Branch, National Archives and Records Service. They granted the author unrestricted access to their German collections and gave generously of their own time and effort.

Most of the burden of converting the manuscript into a book was borne by other members of the OCMH staff. Mr. David Jaffé, editor, accomplished a thoroughgoing job, aided by Mrs. Marion P. Grimes, assistant editor, and saw the book through to publication. Mr. Elliot Dunay compiled and supervised production of the maps. Miss Ruth A. Phillips selected the photographs. The index was prepared by Mrs. Gay Morenus Hammerman.

Possible errors and omissions can only be attributed to the author's failure to profit from the assistance available to him.

Washington, D.C. 1 September 1966

EARL F. ZIEMKE

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