Hitler had gambled on a quick victory over the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941. He based this assessment largely on the gelding of the Russian Army by Stalin, on its shabby performance against the Finns, and on faith in the Blitzkrieg strategy which had steamrolled over both Poland and France in a matter of weeks. As the world knows by now, he nearly succeeded, but Russia traded space for time, called on its huge manpower reserves, and stemmed the Germanic tide at Moscow, Stalingrad and Leningrad. Stalingrad, of course, was a turning point in the war but the real, attritional defeat was at the gigantic tank battle of Kursk in summer 1943, which bled German armoured power white. After that, it was a slow, unstoppable East to West tide which rolled over Berlin and Vienna and led to the Iron Curtain era which ended only a few years ago. Alan Clark's history, which first came out in 1965, appears to have a certain in built staying power.