Endgame 1944

In the summer of 1944, the Red Army launched Operation Bagration against German Army Group Centre, destroying much of the force that had held the central Eastern Front and carrying Soviet armies west across Belarus. Jonathan Dimbleby places this vast offensive beside the Allied landings in Normandy, showing how Germany was being broken simultaneously from east and west while resistance movements and civilians endured the violence of retreat, occupation and renewed conquest.

Beyond the battlefield, the book follows the political contest shaping the peace to come. Stalin’s military position strengthened his hand with Churchill and Roosevelt as Soviet armies moved into Eastern Europe, raising questions about Poland, borders and the post-war balance of power. By concentrating on 1944, Dimbleby presents the year as both the beginning of Nazi Germany’s final military collapse and a decisive stage in the creation of the Cold War order.