When Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, launching World War Two, its army seemed an unstoppable force. The Luftwaffe bombed towns and cities across the country, and fifty divisions of the Wehrmacht crossed the border. Yet only two decades earlier, at the end of World War One, Germany had been an utterly and abjectly defeated military power. Foreign troops occupied its industrial heartland and the Treaty of Versailles reduced the vaunted German army of World War One to a fraction of its size, banning it from developing new military technologies. When Hitler came to power in 1933, these strictures were still in effect. By 1939, however, he had at his disposal a fighting force of 4.2 million men, armed with the most advanced weapons in the world.

The Bolsheviks' Army --Revolution and reaction -- The Treaty of Versailles -- The Polish-Bolshevik War -- The corporate program -- The road to Rapallo -- Poison gas -- Coups and countermeasures -- The Frunze era -- Command of the air -- The wooden titan -- New faces -- Chemist gypsies -- The Junkers scandal -- Resetting relations -- The Lohmann scandal -- The tanks arrive -- Winter of crisis -- Machines of the future -- Yellow cross -- Hunger -- Schleicher -- Rearmament -- The end of an era -- Enemies again -- Long knives -- The end of Versailles -- Terror -- The technological window -- Purges and panic -- Stormclouds -- Fulfillment -- Uneasy allies -- Blitzkrieg -- Whirlwind.