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Red Storm Over the Balkans: The Failed Soviet Invasion of Romania, Spring 1944. By David M. Glantz. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007. ISBN 0-7006-1465-6. Maps. Photographs. Tables. Appendix. Notes. Selected bibliography. Index. Pp. xiv, 448. 839.95.
In early April 1944 Romania's oil was still in full production for the Axis, the country was negotiating with the Allies in Cairo for a way out of the war and no agreement had yet been reached between the U.S.S.R. and its Western Allies on spheres of influence in the Balkans. Therefore, a successful Soviet strategic offensive through Romania at this time might have had major consequences both for the duration of the war and the postwar settlement.
The book's claim is that just such a strategic offensive, with open-ended, opportunist goals in the Balkans, was attempted by...