With several books already under his belt, Mr Beevor became known in 1998 for his epic account of the siege of Stalingrad, and went on to produce accounts of D-Day and the fall of Berlin.
At the same time, in nineteen forty-four, the Soviets were attacking Germany from the east. Earlier, Soviet forces had succeeded in breaking German attacks at Stalingrad, Moscow and Leningrad.
German losses were extremely heavy in the Soviet Union. One hundred sixty thousand German troops died at Stalingrad, and more than one hundred ten thousand surrendered.
Okay, we’re going to skip most of the big battles of 1942 - like the Battle of Midway, which effectively ended Japan’s chance of winning the war - and focus on the Battle of Stalingrad.
I mean, remember also that there's a Stalingrad underground station in Paris, which is a kind of memory of that time when the Red Army is seen as being the great force which destroys the German army.
They will try to regain that impetus as part of the big summer 1942 offensives, and of course that ends up with Stalingrad, and we all know how that turns out.