John Erickson was educated at St John's College, Cambridge and served in British Army Intelligence from 1946 to 1949. He was Fellow in Soviet Military Affairs of St Anthony's College, Oxford and Lecturer at the University of St Andrew's and the University of Manchester. He was Visiting Professor at Indiana University, Yale University, Texas A & M University and the US Army Russian Institute. He was latterly Professor and Director of the Centre for Defence Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He was the author of numerous books and articles about the Soviet Army. He contributed biographies of Soviet commanders to The Warlords (edited by Field Marshal Lord Carver) and Stalin's Generals (edited by Harold Shukman). The Road to Stalingrad, the first volume in his authoritative history of the Soviet-German war, is also available as a W&N ebook. Less