Nazi Germany's assault on the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, Operation Barbarossa, was the largest invasion in history. Almost 3.5 million men smashed into Stalin's Red Army, reaching the gates of Leningrad, Moscow and Sevastopol. But not all of this vast army was German, indeed by the summer of 1942 over 500,000 were Romanians, Italians, Hungarians, Slovaks and Croatians - Hitler's Axis allies. As part of the German offensive that year, more than four allied armies advanced to the Don only to be utterly annihilated in the Red Army's Saturn and Uranus winter offensives. Hundreds of thousands were killed, wounded or captured and the German Sixth Army was left surrounded and dying in the rubble of Stalingrad. Poorly-equipped, often badly led and totally unprepared for the war they were asked to fight, Death on the Don tells the story of the greatest military catastrophes.

Jonathan Trigg served in the 1st Battallion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, reaching the rank of Captain and completing tours in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and the Middle East. Since leaving the British Army he has worked in the City of London and local government. He has also written Hitler's Flemish Lions and Hitler's Jihadis for The History Press.