Donan Posted November 5, 2001 Share Posted November 5, 2001 If you can find it. Paul Carell's, 'Hitler Moves East'. A classic. dla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themaltese Posted November 5, 2001 Share Posted November 5, 2001 I personally like PANZER LEADER by Heinz Guderian (good perspective on both fronts) and TIGERS IN THE MUD by Otto Carius (very difficult to find). Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Posted November 5, 2001 Share Posted November 5, 2001 Regarding David Glantz, it is important to distingush between the types of books he as published. Some books Glantz has published, such as the popular Kursk book or "Zhukov's Greatest Defeat", contain detailed interpretation of events with first class research data from Soviet AND German sources. Other books, such as 'Kharkov 42' or 'Bellorussa 44', are raw translated publications of Russian General Staff studies. These books are informative but are very dry and contain a limited amount of interpretation of events. I also happen to have some signed private publications of Glantz that were put togeather by the author in a spiral binding (Smolensk 41 and Moscow 41). You can obtain these from http://209.204.189.49/cgi-bin/foxweb.exe/articles/home Glantz also recently published in 2001 a book on the siege of Leningrad. I find Alan Clarke's books very much stilted torwards the German perspective with little cross correlation from Russian sources. Fully three quarters of his book is dedicated to the inital period of the war 1941-1942, with only a quarter dedicated to the defeats of the Germans from 43-45. This is because Clark relied almost exclusively on revisionist German histories where the Russians are depicted as always outnumbering the Germans with faceless hordes of men incapable of tactical or operation finesse and where Hitler was the cause of all defeats. The fact is from 43-45 the Russians simply out generaled the Germans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ligur Posted November 6, 2001 Share Posted November 6, 2001 I would have to recommend the recently published Stalingrad by Antony Beevor. He delved into the Russian military archives after they were opened for research and produced a gripping account of the events leading to the battle of Stalingrad and the fight for the city itself. It is very in-depth about a lot of things, including good information about the various operations going on everywhere else, and what resulted of the Stalingrad disaster. The accounts of the soldiers fighting in the city during the German attack and later the horror of Der Kessel, the cauldron of freezing, hunger ridden terror for the German invaders, is chilling stuff to read. The reader gets to meet interesting characters like Vasili Zaitsev and various other tough sonuvabitches. I would say it is also, after being a good read, a historically accurate and reliable source of information about one of the most staggering events of the Eastern Front. The colossal, annihilating total war that went on on the vast steppes of Mother Russia makes the Western Front pale in comparison on several occasions. Monolithic dead, suffering and waste of man power, humanity and hardware. This all translates well to you after reading the book. I quiver at the mere thought of playing that stuff on my computer in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ligur Posted November 6, 2001 Share Posted November 6, 2001 One more thing about Beevor's Stalingrad: Usually horrible issues arise about biased book authors; IMHO Beevor is unbiased and has done his research using archives from both sides. If you ever thought the Russians were the above mentioned faceless horde (I had a very dim view about the real capabilities of the Red Army untill I read this book, too, I only knew they were good at camo... heh) you'll discover it quite untrue. Both sides are delved into equally. Nobody is celebrated as super-men, but given credit when credit is due. One of the most hilarious parts of the book is describing the winter in Stalingrad: Whilst the Germans were literally freezing to death a Siberian soldier wrote home: "The frosts are good" and was enjoying the honest winter. I bet the boys in Der Kessel were thanking Mr. Hitler for refusing with the winter equipment, har har. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted November 6, 2001 Share Posted November 6, 2001 <blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Donan: If you can find it. Paul Carell's, 'Hitler Moves East'. A classic.<hr></blockquote> I haven't read it myself, but I've heard that he is often unreliable. Makes stuff up out of thin air or something. Never lets the facts get in the way of a good yarn. Things like that. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donan Posted November 9, 2001 Share Posted November 9, 2001 <blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Michael emrys: I haven't read it myself, but I've heard that he is often unreliable. Makes stuff up out of thin air or something. Never lets the facts get in the way of a good yarn. Things like that. Michael<hr></blockquote> Re: Paul Carels, 'Hitler Move East'. Maybe so, it's been a very long time since I read it. I have a recollection he might of been a former German soldier too, but no bias really showed up. But I honestly can't remember. Donan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesreidau Posted November 9, 2001 Share Posted November 9, 2001 Another voice in favor of "In deadly combat" here. My favourite personal memoire of the eastern front from a German point of view (if you can find one from a Russian point of view that isn't propoganda you've struck gold I understand). The story of this guys fight is amazing. At first he writes brusquely and doesn't seem to want to dwel on things much. As he goes along though, his writing style changes and he gets more involved, more detailed.. it's quite stirring and terrifying stuff in a lot of places. PeterNZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guderian44 Posted November 9, 2001 Share Posted November 9, 2001 What about Prof. John Erickson's Road to Stalingrad and Road to Berlin books? From the Red Army POV (and if you don't like Glantz I guess you'd *hate* Erickson). Very detailed operationally - the one thing I don't like about these two books despite their being constants on my bedside table is the almost complete lack of maps. I have to use another map book I've got to figure out who went where with what. Guderian44 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urban Shocker Posted November 9, 2001 Share Posted November 9, 2001 While the description does not explicitly mention the Eastern front this looks like an interesting book for the battle scale we enounter in CMBO and will likely encounter in CMBB. It might even have desriptions of battles on the Eastern Front. Has anybody read this book? Small unit Armor Book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offtaskagain Posted November 10, 2001 Share Posted November 10, 2001 I just found a page that has quite a few books for the German side. I've been looking for Otto Carius's book but I always seem to find it being out of print. Cool books Edited because I'm an idiot and forgot the link. [ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: panzerwerfer42 ]</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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