It has been more than 60 years since the end of the Second World War, a conflict that shaped the second half of the Twentieth Century. The significance of the war, and its relevance to the lives of so many, has generated a legacy of published material on the topic sufficient to fill a library. Yet disproportionately few publications deal exclusively with the true cauldron of the conflict - the brutal and uncompromising war between Germany and the Soviet Union; and fewer still attempt to provide, in a single volume, a comprehensive overview of that war from the commencement of Operation Barbarossa to the last battle in the rubble-strewn streets of Berlin.