"It was indeed Hitler's worst defeat! Though he had to move forces to the West to counter the expected Second front of the Western Allies, the shortest route to the heartland of the Third Reich, the German Army faced its greatest odds on the Eastern Front. Stalin was preparing a massive offensive to liberate the last remaining areas occupied by the Germans. However, Hitler's obsession with holding ground dulled his strategic thinking and nullified the efforts of his own generals to use their undoubted operational ability. With the world following the progress of the Normandy landings, these dramatic happenings on a distant front were for many years destined to be ignored. No, 50 years later, a full length study of the defeat of Army Group Centre shows that a disaster greater even than the Allied invasion in France was inflicted upon the Germans many miles to the East." -- From the back cover.

Includes maps of: Eastern Front on the Mornings of 22 June and 22 July 1944; Options for the Soviet 1944 Summer Offensive; Soviet Plan for Operation Bagration; 3rd Panzer Army Sector with the Salient around Vitebsk; 4th Army Sector around Mogilev; 9th Army Sector around Mogilev; Operations of 12th Panzer Division in the South and 5th Panzer Division in the North - the Final Moves of 4th Army, 28 June to 7 July.

The German army -- Hitler and his generals -- The turn of the tide -- Stalin and the Stavka -- The Soviet Army -- 1944 -- a year for decisions -- Maskirovka (Deception) -- The German view -- The partisans -- Final Soviet preparations -- In the north -- To the Berezina -- Fourth Army and Mogilev -- In the South -- Ninth Army and Bobruisk -- 5th Panzer Division and 5th Guards Tank Army -- 12th Panzer Division in the South -- The fate of Fourth Army -- Afterwards -- The long march home -- To the West -- Fifty years on -- German Order of Battle, 23 June 1944 -- Comparative Ranks -- Soviet Order of Battle -- Soviet casualties in the Belorussian Operation -- Stavka Directive : Maskirovka -- Front Directive : Maskirovka -- Hitler's 'Fester Platz' Order -- Hitler's Operation Order No. 8 -- Veterans Interviewed.