Stewart Binns began his professional life as an academic, before becoming a teacher and a soldier. Later in life, he trained at the BBC and began a successful career in television, during which he won many awards, especially for his 'in-colour' documentary series, including a BAFTA for Britain at War'. Stewart has since published several fiction and non-fiction books, including Barbarossa, the story of the battle for the Eastern Front during the Second World War. Japan's War is his fourteenth book and seventh work of non-fiction.
This is a truly astounding book, packed with searing
hitherto-unpublished testimony about what it was like to endure,
and ultimately defeat, the most formidable invasion in the history
of Mankind. The sheer endurance of the Russian people between 1941
and 1945 will leave readers utterly staggered. It is a debt that we
in the West should do more to acknowledge.
*Andrew Roberts, author of CHURCHILL: WALKING WITH DESTINY*
A masterful narrative, deeply enriched by extraordinary research
and a profound analysis of the soul of Russia.
*Nick Hewer*
Barbarossa reads wonderfully well
*Spectator*
This compact and well-written account clearly demonstrates the
close links between the military events at the front, the suffering
of the civilian population and the genocide of the Jews.
*TLS*
His subject is dramatic, of course, but nonetheless his writing is
vivid, personal and adds to the impact of the narrative.
*Scotsman*
This is an admirable book. How can anyone write an all-encompassing
narrative of these times in a mere 305-pages? Binns has managed to
do it beautifully, capturing the story, the rationale for the
response by the Soviet people in general to mobilise willingly
against the invader, whatever their view of their own dictator and
his murderous cronies, and the sheer military, industrial and human
enormity of the subject. That he's also done so through the lens of
a wide range of voices of those who experienced the war adds to the
scale of his achievement.
*Aspects of History*
Barbarossa contains an even wide fund of harrowing testimonies,
drawn from diaries and letters in Russian archives, and sources
such as Svetlana Alexievich's superlative oral history The
Unwomanly Face of War. We are always the richer for hearing
ordinary voices at war, reclaiming the human from the military, the
barbaric, the statistics.
*Saturday Telegraph*
There is very little that happened in Operation Barbarossa that
does not still have an effect on our lives today. . . A sobering
but vital read
*The Scotsman*
This compact and well-written account clearly demonstrates the
close links between the military events at the front, the suffering
of the civilian population and the genocide of the Jews. This is
important because accessible English-language books on the war in
the East, written in an engaging style and directed to a wider
public, still rarely point out these crucial connections
*TLS*
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