About the Book
Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation, Volume IIIB is the second of two volumes relating to (and completing) the Soviet armed forces, mobilisation and war-economy from June to December 1941. The Soviet mobilisation that followed the start of Operation Barbarossa remains the largest and fastest mobilisation ever carried out in human history; involving some 11,790,000 conscripts and reservists. Volume IIIB represents the first ever complete and comprehensive quantitative analysis of this immense Soviet mobilisation program. Every major Soviet combat unit formed in the Red Army, Air Force, Navy, NKVD and PVO is included, along with minor units down to HQ and battalion level. All the combat units mobilised, along with the resources used, are presented in a precisely documented and structured fashion.
Volume IIIB also includes the most detailed study published to date of the Soviet Air Forces (the VVS and PVO) fielded during 1941. It includes: the VVS command and authorised air-unit structures, detailed Orders of Battle (including aircraft types, strengths and readiness) in each VVS command area in June 1941, air-unit reinforcements, and overall aircraft usage, production, replacements and losses during the second half of 1941. The Soviet Navy (the VMF) is similarity treated, with every significant naval vessel accounted for (including those lost and newly commissioned) in each of the USSR's naval command areas during 1941.
Also analysed to the same level of detail are: the actual strength and deployment of Soviet forces in the USSR's internal military districts and Stavka Reserves on 22nd June 1941, pre-war stockpiles and war production of all types of weapon systems and transport, the personnel and equipment used in the formation of newly mobilised forces, the personnel and equipment replacements used by existing combat units, logistical supply of the Soviet armed forces during 1941 (i.e. the changing Supply Distribution Efficiency) and a detailed examination of the Soviet military casualties. The latter includes details on killed, wounded, missing, POW and unfit casualties during 1941, and also reviews the losses from 1942 to 1945.
Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis collates an immense amount of information from many sources, and presents it with contextual history and analyses. The professional or amateur scholar is provided with comprehensive details of all the armed forces on the East Front during 1941, as well as the relevant economic and logistical support. The complete work represents the most accurate and comprehensive quantitative analysis yet, of the East-Front campaign. Currently no other single work provides a comparable reference on what was the most decisive and destructive campaign of WWII.
About the Author :
Nigel Askey, a University of Sussex physics graduate, worked as a consultant for Talonsoft on their 'East-Front' military simulation series. These remain amongst the most realistic tactical-operational military simulations ever published, with several hundred thousand copies sold. In 1990 he immigrated to Australia, and in 1997 commenced research for the 'Operation Barbarossa 'project', which has been under development for over two decades.
Review :
"When complete, this series on Operation Barbarossa will be without peer." David. M. Glantz, Editor-in Chief, Journal of Slavic Military Studies.
As a professional military historian with a special interest in the Eastern Front in WW2, I have spent decades researching and writing about Adolf Hitler's surprise attack on the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941. In all these years, however, I have never found a published source on the topic more unique, provocative and insightful than Nigel Askey's series of books entitled: Operation Barbarossa: The Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation. These books represent the culmination of the author's many years of intense and comprehensive research into published and unpublished source materials (German, Soviet, and Russian) addressing the Barbarossa campaign (June-December 1941) in virtually all its aspects. Only in these books will one find the most exquisitely detailed orders of battle hitherto published, as well as voluminous data on topics ranging from war production, mobilization, and logistics to the effectiveness of land, air, and sea weaponry of both belligerents. Just as significant, Askey's ground-breaking work formalizes perhaps the most sophisticated military simulation methodology yet conceived, embracing a full range of tactical, operational, and strategic simulations. These volumes are so valuable at so many levels: the war gamer, serious military historian, and military history "buff" will discover in them, time and again, data and insights pertaining to Operation Barbarossa that won't be found in toto in any other single published source material. I could not recommend them more highly. (Dr. Craig W.H. Luther, author of Barbarossa Unleased and The First Day on the Eastern Front).
"Askey's book is totally unique. It provides the reader with a most valuable key to the understanding of the huge war on the Eastern Front during World War II. It is a goldmine of information that answers the many, many questions that rise from reading other Eastern Front books. Nigel Askey also deserves praise for the very detailed source references, and the high quality of sources that he has used. When the whole series is completed, it is bound to become the major reference work on the Eastern Front on the same level as John Erickson and David Glantz. Without doubt, Askey's work is a milestone, and an indispensable reference work on Operation Barbarossa for probably decades to come". Christer Bergström, forum.axishistory.com. Author of Operation Barbarossa 1941: Hitler against Stalin (2016), Black Cross/Red Star: Air War over the Eastern Front (2000-2006), Kursk: The Air Battle (2008), Bagration to Berlin (2008), and other books on the Eastern Front.
"An extremely useful resource to military historians seeking detailed assessments of the armed forces on the Russian Front in 1941. They are based on extensive archival research, and provide a level of detail far beyond that found in conventional military histories. Even for Russian Front specialists, they provide a valuable synthesis of data that is otherwise scattered through specialist studies and archival resources, and they offer an unprecedented data-base for military historians studying the 1941 Barbarossa campaign". Steven Zaloga, Journal of Slavic Military Studies.
