Good memoir to read: Rokossovsky

[Grisha]

Most of us are very familiar with the German memoirs of Guderian, von Manstein, and von Mellenthin. But how many of you have read Rokossovsky's A Soldier's Duty? It's an excellent memoir by Marshal Rokossovsky, recounting his experiences as a Soviet commander in WWII. Those of you not familiar with Soviet Generals, Rokossovsky was arguably the Red Army's finest Front commander of the war, and only Vasilevsky could be considered a better commander overall. A Soldier's Duty can be found through Abebooks.com, and though the book is Soviet-era material, the sincerity of Rokossovsky comes through quite convincingly.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>"Everything's topsy-turvy, damn it!" he would exclaim in exasperation. "The devil knows what all our training was for! Communications are supposed to be established from higher echelons downwards, but here you have to go begging to the units to lay a line to the commander's CP...."

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The division commander was relieved to find himself no longer on his own. We replenished his regiments with men collected on the road. As soon as stragglers learned that there were units still resisting the Germans in the Yartsevo area and along the eastern bank of the River Vop they flocked to us in increasing numbers, sometimes in units or groups headed by officers.

As a witness of and participant in the events, I think it important to record this fact. Many units had gone through harrowing experiences; they had been scattered by enemy tanks and aircraft, yet they continued to seek leadership. They wanted to fight. It was thanks to this deeply rooted feeling that we succeeded in our organizational efforts.

On the Yartsevo Heights, A Soldier's Duty, Rokossovsky<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[ 10-09-2001: Message edited by: Grisha ]

[Commissar]

I would like to get my hands on this book. Rokossovsky is probably the most overlooked commander who fought on the Eastern Front. Others like Zhukov get all the attention. My only concern is that many of Rokosovssky's words have been deleted or corrupted by Soviet censors. By chance, do you know how much it costed and how big it is?

[Skipper]

Go straight to:

Military books in Russian - youll find a lot of stuff to read there. Probably, half a year worth of reading.