Book excerpt: A Russian historian recounts the legendary Soviet defense of Brest against Nazi invasion in this lively and authoritative WWII chronicle. On June 22nd, 1941, Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa began with the Nazi attack on the Soviet frontier fortress of Brest. Across a massive front stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea, the German forces advanced, taking the Red Army by surprise and brushing aside the first stunned defenses. But the isolated stronghold of Brest held out. The defenders, trapped and without hope of relief, put up a tenacious resistance against an entire Wehrmacht division as the Soviet front collapsed behind them. The heroic defense of Brest has become one of the legends of the Second World War on the Eastern Front, an example of selfless Soviet heroism in the face of Nazi aggression. Rostislav Aliev describes the fighting, hour by hour, in vivid detail. In the process, he strips away the myths and exaggerations that have grown up around this famous story. Using eyewitness testimony and extensive research, Aliev reconstructs each stage of the siege. From the shock of the initial artillery barrage, he describes the defenders’ chaotic struggle to organize resistance, their doomed counter-attacks, the continuous pounding of German guns and bombs, the grim fate of the Soviet survivors, and the extraordinary resistance of small groups of soldiers operating in the underground passages of the shattered fortress.