It's not easy to write an original monograph on the Red Army and Wehrmacht's tanks during Operation Barbarossa. This is a topic that many historians, scholars, and researchers touch on when discussing the Eastern Front but rarely do they go into detail. Specialist texts that look at the history of tank creation/production leave much to be desired and general WWII readers can easily become bogged down in the details. With "The Tanks of Operation Barbarossa" Boris Kavalerchik is able to give readers a little of everything: a look at the conditions that allowed for the creation of tank industries in Germany and the Soviet Union, two countries that very much lagged behind Britain and France or were forced in the wake of the First World War to cease production of armored vehicles in general; a rundown of the various models produced, including their strengths and weaknesses; and a look at how they fit into the greater strategy and tactics utilized by the Red Army and Wehrmacht during the Second World War. The majority of the text deals with tank design and production as well as the human element that operated these tanks. The final chapters look at the weaknesses and strengths of the most numerous of the latest tank models (Pz III and IV and the T-34 and KV I and II tanks). How they performed on the field of battle is analyzed through the experiences of a Soviet tank division and a German tank division in a meeting engagement in and around Raseiniai. This is not a text I would recommend for those unfamiliar with the Second World War or the Eastern Front. For those with a general interest and a fair amount of knowledge, this is a great addition to your library if you want to better understand how and why the Wehrmacht was successful in its encounters with large numbers of Red Army tanks throughout the summer of 1941.
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