Opening the Gates of Hell

A unique account of the opening weeks of history's largest, most brutal conflict, told through the eyes of those who were there and based on original source material from across Europe.

Opening the Gates of Hell is based on over a decade's research in archives and sites across Europe. It is a ground-breaking examination of the start of the Nazi-Soviet conflict, a narrative history not just of the fighting, but also the impact on civilians, the atrocities committed by both sides and ethnic cleansing carried out by the inhabitants of the regions invaded.

This fascinating history tells the stories of bravery, cowardice, misery and horror through the eyes of those who were there including ordinary soldiers, generals, leaders, politicians and civilians on both sides. The book draws on published and unpublished sources from across Germany and Eastern Europe with the majority of the material never having appeared in English-language accounts of the conflict before.

The combination of combat accounts, analysis of high-level diplomacy and leadership and the visceral accounts of the atrocities committed by both sides gives this book a unique approach to the war on the Eastern Front and will ensure that it is regarded as the definitive work on the subject for many years to come.

About the Author

Richard Hargreaves has been a journalist for 30 years, ten of them in regional newspapers. Since 2000 he has almost exclusively covered the Royal Navy and naval affairs and was an official UK war correspondent in Iraq, 2003. He currently work for the Royal Navy as a press officer/writer and sub editor of its monthly magazine Navy News. He has had three books published to date (Germans in Normandy, 2006; Blitzkrieg Unleashed, 2008; Hitler’s Final Fortress, 2011) which are all still in print.