In his new book BAGRATION 1944: THE GREAT SOVIET OFFENSIVE, Prit Buttar, an ardent explorer of the Eastern Front, examines the series of decisive battles in June-August 1944 on Belarusian soil. While Stalingrad is considered the turning point of the German conquest of the Soviet Union, the Bagration offensive of magnificent proportions - 1.7 million Red Army men - was the straw that broke the camel's back. On June 6, 1944, the Allies opened the second front in Normandy, thus tying up substantial German resources. Germans suffered from confirmation bias, convinced that the main Soviet offensive in 1944 would be against the Army Group North Ukraine. Three years of Red Army and Stavka learning the hard lesson, through the blood of both civilians and combatants, paid off: the Soviet forces reciprocated the Wermarcht's 1941 campaign, smashing the German lines and moving as far away as Warsaw and the borders of East Prussia. Prit Buttar illuminates multiple reasons behind Bagration's success. For example, while the Red Army became more flexible in decision-making on all levels, Hitler's inability to accept the nearing German defeat resulted in command paralysis and unneccessary life loss.

BAGRATION 1944 will be a great source of information for history buffs. It's not suitable for people not familiar with WW2 and the Eastern Front, as the narrative focuses on a narrow topic.

I received an ARC through Netgalley, and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a great historical nonfiction book, it had that element that I was looking for and was invested in the historical element of this. Prit Buttar has a strong way of telling the story and I could see the research being told.