Lancashire-born teacher, soldier, and documentary film-maker publishes groundbreaking book on mankind's 'bloodiest military campaign'

A Lancashire-born former teacher, soldier, documentary film-maker, novelist, and historian has published a groundbreaking new book on one of the bloodiest military campaign mankind has ever known.
Barbarossa by Stewart BinnsBarbarossa by Stewart Binns
Barbarossa by Stewart Binns

Born in Lancaster and raised in Burnley, Stewart Binns has earned a reputation as one of the UK's premier film-makers and documentary producers over the past 35 years, winning a BAFTA and a Grierson Award for 'Britain at War' as well as a Peabody for ‘Second World War in Colour’.

He also worked on 'Chasing Churchill: In Search of My Grandfather' for PBS in which Celia Sandys, Winston Churchill's granddaughter, travelling United States, France, Morocco, and South Africa in search of her grandfather's legacy, and was the first Executive Producer of FIFA Futbol Mundial, one of the longest-running, football-based magazine shows on TV.

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A prolific author, Stewart has also written seven historical novels since 2011 and five books of historical non-fiction, the latest of which is titled Barbarossa and which focuses on the story of the battle for the Eastern Front during the Second World War. The book was published in late April ahead of the 80th anniversary of the launch of Operation Barbarossa in June.

Stewart BinnsStewart Binns
Stewart Binns

The Barbarossa campaign saw nearly four million Nazi troops march on Moscow with an utterly brutal scorched earth tactic, leading to over 40 million lives lost. An extraordinary retelling of the bloodiest military campaign mankind has ever known, Stewart's book draws on never-before-seen material from Russian archives, including witness accounts.

The first Western account written from the Soviet Eastern European perspective on this pivotal battle, Barbarossa captures the sheer endurance of the Russian people between 1941 and 1945 and recognizes the debt that we in the West should do more to acknowledge.

Stewart himself has military ancestry - his own grandfather, John Tommy Binns, was a gunner in the Royal Artillery and a member of the Accrington Pals who won the Military Medal in 1917 for acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire.

Barbarossa by Stewart Binns is published by Wildfire.

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