The Reconnaissance of the Threat from the East: Volumes 1 & 2. 1939 to 22 June 1941

A masterful achievement after 6 years of research by former NVA Major General Dr. Bernd Schwipper, featuring 1118 pages and 558 color illustrations. Many original documents are being made accessible to the public for the first time.

The fact that the Red Army was prepared by Stalin for an offensive against Germany in 1940/1941 and that the Wehrmacht's attack was a preemptive strike has been convincingly demonstrated by a multitude of historians, including the author of the study "Germany in Stalin's Crosshairs." Representatives of established historiography, who have little factual counterarguments left, claim that it could not have been a preemptive strike since the German side had no knowledge of the Red Army's preparations. However, the two volumes presented here create a completely different factual basis and clarity.

The first part of the study analyzes the military-political developments in the East, particularly the drastically escalating threat of a Stalinist offensive against Germany due to the mobilization of the Red Army. The second part of the study (Volumes 1 and 2) demonstrates, based on the Wehrmacht's intelligence documents and other reports, that the government of the German Reich had sufficient evidence for the decision to launch a preemptive attack on the Soviet Union.

In ten chapters, the author informs, based on documents from the Red Army, about the creation of the strategic mobilization area, the preparation of the Red Army for offensive actions, the covert mobilization of the Red Army in the form of "large-scale exercises," the offensive orientation of the development of armored troops, air forces, and airborne troops, the mobilization of the Red Army up to the establishment of offensively capable groupings, the preliminary order from Timoshenko on June 11, 1941, to prepare for the attack, and the operational plans confirmed by Stalin from the General Staff.