Books on the Eastern Front

[lassner.1]

Originally posted by Foxbat:

If that's a starting point I'm afraid to ask what the end point will be Fortunatly these volumes are being translated to english a volume at a time which should help

lol - at least it gives some indication of how unsatisfactory is the "work" done by the likes of Carrell ...

[Andreas]

Originally posted by lassner:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> Originally posted by Foxbat:

If that's a starting point I'm afraid to ask what the end point will be Fortunatly these volumes are being translated to english a volume at a time which should help

lol - at least it gives some indication of how unsatisfactory is the "work" done by the likes of Carrell ... </font>

[John D Salt]

Originally posted by Richard Marchand:

So what are good books about this historic clash?

[snips])

Purely in the interests of irritating people by mentioning something obscure and hard to get, let me submit "The Russian Campaigns of 1944-45" by W E D Allen and Paul Muratoff, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1946. The subject should be obvious from the title, and the book contains 26 maps. The authors are a cavalry Captain who had seen active service, and a Russian military historian.

Despite everything you'd think it had going for it, it is without doubt the second most tedious and sleep-provoking work of military history I have ever attempted to read.

The worst was a book about Inchon, which was not only dull but sub-literate. My mercifully bad memory has erased the author's name.

All the best,

John.

[Grisha]

Originally posted by massimorocca:

Now we have many dead horses (Carrel, Mellenthin, Guderian, Manstein) but what are the good books from the German's perspective? Andreas and Foxbat could you post here your suggestions, please?

Don't forget anything by Ziemke or Seaton. They are great reads from the German perspective.

[MeatEtr]

Just finished my last batch of books and ordered some more books a few days ago. I got "7,000 Km In A Sturmgeschutz", "Blood Red Snow", and "Images of Kursk". Was wondering if anybody has read these and could tell me if they are any good. Although i think "Blood Red Snow" just came out a few months back. Thanks for any feedback.

[ December 10, 2002, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: MeatEtr ]

[Grisha]

Originally posted by massimorocca:

Now we have many dead horses (Carrel, Mellenthin, Guderian, Manstein) but what are the good books from the German's perspective?

Aside from Schmidt, the story of the Russian Front would be the lesser without the memoirs of von Manstein, Guderian, and von Mellenthin. One can make the claim that these famous German personages may have had other agendas or chose to remain silent on more sensitive issues, but the fact remains they were all field officers with experience and skill who participated on the Russian Front. Their story is one of the German Army and since it was the major combatant of the Soviets in WWII, their story must be included among the diverse panoply of publications on the Soviet-German War.

[Andreas]

Originally posted by Grisha:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by massimorocca:

Now we have many dead horses (Carrel, Mellenthin, Guderian, Manstein) but what are the good books from the German's perspective?

Aside from Schmidt, the story of the Russian Front would be the lesser without the memoirs of von Manstein, Guderian, and von Mellenthin. One can make the claim that these famous German personages may have had other agendas or chose to remain silent on more sensitive issues, but the fact remains they were all field officers with experience and skill who participated on the Russian Front. Their story is one of the German Army and since it was the major combatant of the Soviets in WWII, their story must be included among the diverse panoply of publications on the Soviet-German War.</font>

[Michael Emrys]

Just to reinforce what Andreas wrote, I think the point is not that Carrell et al should not be read or that there is somewhere a final authority on the Great Patriotic war. I don't believe either of those statements is true. The point is that one shold be extremely cautious in embracing the views of any writer on a historical subject, including those who "were there". Even meticulous reserchers such as Glantz make mistakes. And as we have seen, those writing from the "I was there" school may be reproducing confused memories of confusing impressions, lack of context, or even agendas other than a disinterested quest for the pure truth.

The solution, I believe, is to read as much as you can get your hands on, and always with a somewhat sceptical eye. Pay attention to a historian's professional critics, but don't always adopt their views uncritically either. Try to balance things in your own mind and draw your own conclusions. The more you read, and the more you think about what you read in a critical fashion, the better you'll become at this. Expect to make mistakes and be prepared to correct them.

And after a while, the saying "The more you learn, the less you know" will begin to take on a whole new dimension.

Michael

[massimorocca]

Having read all the four "dead horses" plus the two "Road" by Ericsson, Glantz's Titans, Clark's Barbarossa, both Overy and Werth's Russian in war; Beevors, Paulus and Cuijkov's Stalingrad; Knappe's Soldat, Soldier of destruction about the Totenkopf, Sajer's Forgotten soldier and obviously all that was published about the Italians in Russia, I'm opened to any suggestion, from the Strategical to operational down to personal memoirs, but only in English.

Thanks again