Format: A5

Number of pages: 280

The Second World War began in September 1939 as a regional conflict in Central Europe and ended six years later with the signing of Japan's unconditional surrender. Behind the usual interpretation of war events as a dramatic sequence of combat or political operations, it is necessary to see the daily suffering of millions of soldiers at the front and the civilian population in the background, concentration camps with gas chambers, bombed-out cities and endless streams of desperate refugees. It is relatively easy to follow the war on General Staff maps, but this is only part of the truth. Its greater part is hidden in the fear of the attacking soldier, in the groans of the wounded or in the cries of the bereaved. The author of this book will be haunted until his death by the footage of the burning Kalmyk steppes with thousands of herds of half-crazed Cossack horses, whose riders met their deaths in the failed Soviet offensive near Kharkov. He had that apocalyptic image in front of his eyes even while writing this book.

The second edition is enriched with an interview with the deceased author, an afterword by his close colleague prof. Martin Kovář and a picture appendix.