Operation Barbarossa

""When complete, this series on Operation Barbarossa will be without peer."" David. M. Glantz, Editor-in Chief, Journal of Slavic Military Studies. As a professional military historian with a special interest in the Eastern Front in WW2, I have spent decades researching and writing about Adolf Hitler's surprise attack on the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941. In all these years, however, I have never found a published source on the topic more unique, provocative and insightful than Nigel Askey's series of books entitled: Operation Barbarossa: The Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation. These books represent the culmination of the author's many years of intense and comprehensive research into published and unpublished source materials (German, Soviet, and Russian) addressing the Barbarossa campaign (June-December 1941) in virtually all its aspects. Only in these books will one find the most exquisitely detailed orders of battle hitherto published, as well as voluminous data on topics ranging from war production, mobilization, and logistics to the effectiveness of land, air, and sea weaponry of both belligerents. Just as significant, Askey's ground-breaking work formalizes perhaps the most sophisticated military simulation methodology yet conceived, embracing a full range of tactical, operational, and strategic simulations. These volumes are so valuable at so many levels: the war gamer, serious military historian, and military history ""buff"" will discover in them, time and again, data and insights pertaining to Operation Barbarossa that won't be found in toto in any other single published source material. I could not recommend them more highly. (Dr. Craig W.H. Luther, author of Barbarossa Unleased and The First Day on the Eastern Front). ""Askey's book is totally unique. It provides the reader with a most valuable key to the understanding of the huge war on the Eastern Front during World War II. It is a goldmine of information that answers the many, many questions that rise from reading other Eastern Front books. Nigel Askey also deserves praise for the very detailed source references, and the high quality of sources that he has used. When the whole series is completed, it is bound to become the major reference work on the Eastern Front on the same level as John Erickson and David Glantz. Without doubt, Askey's work is a milestone, and an indispensable reference work on Operation Barbarossa for probably decades to come"". Christer Bergström, forum.axishistory.com. Author of Operation Barbarossa 1941: Hitler against Stalin (2016), Black Cross/Red Star: Air War over the Eastern Front (2000-2006), Kursk: The Air Battle (2008), Bagration to Berlin (2008), and other books on the Eastern Front. ""An extremely useful resource to military historians seeking detailed assessments of the armed forces on the Russian Front in 1941. They are based on extensive archival research, and provide a level of detail far beyond that found in conventional military histories. Even for Russian Front specialists, they provide a valuable synthesis of data that is otherwise scattered through specialist studies and archival resources, and they offer an unprecedented data-base for military historians studying the 1941 Barbarossa campaign"". Steven Zaloga, Journal of Slavic Military Studies.