Eastern Front Books

[Gaylord Focker]

Would anyone happen to have some good reading titles for books on the Eastern Front?

[mattpeckham]

There are dozens of good ones (hundreds of decent, and thousands in totem). One thing you should pay attention to is the fact that in recent years several new books on the German-Russian war, or specific aspects of it, have been able to draw from Russian as well as German military records for a more scholarly (arguable by author, of course) look at the conflict. I like the following, though I've yet to read all of them from cover to cover:

<u>Stalingrad</u> by Anthony Beevor. Covers Barbarossa in brief, then spends the bulk of things covering the siege or Stalingrad, 1942-1943.

<u>The Road to Stalingrad: Stalin's War With Germany: Volume One</u> by John Erickson. Some have argued this is the definitive work. Caveat emptor, though...no maps, so have your Cassell or Keegan handy.

<u>The Road to Berlin: Stalin's War With Germany: Volume Two</u> by John Erickson.

I believe Osprey has a nice WW2 series, though I don't see anything specific to the East Front:

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/list_by_period.php/per=2

...and give this AOL member page a peek:

http://members.aol.com/VonRanke/east.html

[Bergerbitz]

Hmm...looks like Osprey has at least one book about the Eastern Front. It's aptly titled "Ostfront - Hitler's War on Russia 1941-45" Authored by Charles Winchester (hey,isn't he the snooty guy from MASH?)

The ISBN is: 1-84176-066-8

The reading is quite light in this one, but there are loads of photos and illustrations, some of which are by the venerable Ron Volstad.

Hey, I might have another one...

(dig)

(rummage)

Ah..here we are... "Frontsoldaten" by Stephen G Fritz, published by the Univserity of Kentucky Press. ISBN 0-8131-0943-4

This one is a very personal look at German soldiers through letters and diaries. From what I remember there are a lot of Eastern Front references in this one. Good, good book.

[Herr Oberst]

Looking at the bookshelf behind me. I'd have to say:

When Titans Clashed

Decision in the Ukraine

German Battle Tactics on the Russian Front

and Grossdeutschland I, II, and III, the unit history.

etc, etc, etc

PS: Yes, Andreas, I am reading the South Albertas book now.

[JigVictor07]

I'm currently reading an over 600-page book called The 900 days. The siege of Leningrad by Harrison E. Salisbury. It's one of the Pan Grand Strategy Series books. It seeme to be a very detailed and well researched book.

[John Kettler]

I don't own them, but I can assure you that Osprey has a Kursk study and one for Operation Bagration. Both have maps and 3-D type computer graphics, in addition to lots of photos and illustrations. There may be other such books by now.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Andreas]

Originally posted by Herr Oberst:

PS: Yes, Andreas, I am reading the South Albertas book now.

Good, well done. I will buy you a big hat

Osprey"s Bagration book by Zaloga is a bit 'easy' reading, but quite informative. My favourite on the operation is Adair's 'Hitler's greatest defeat'. Frank Cass Books has two superb series publishing a lot of stuff edited by Glantz. Any of those are worth reading.

Edited to say that the Osprey one on Bagration has pwettier pitchers than the one by Adair. Very good to visualise the terrain, and to use for scenario design.

[ July 17, 2002, 08:04 AM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

[Gaylord Focker]

Thanks!!

[ July 17, 2002, 08:43 AM: Message edited by: Gaylord Focker ]

[Michael Dorosh]

Do not waste your money on Frontsoldaten, it is an abortion as far as books go. The author did not conduct a single interview nor speak to a single German veteran, he just cribbed a bunch of stuff from other books, including the (possibly) fictional "Forgotten Soldier". It is a terrible book.

[Panzer Leader]

Mike, it's good to see that you now consider Forgotten Soldier as only POSSIBLY fictional

Here's my list, taken from memory and in no particular order:

Arthur Clarke - Barbarossa, the first EF book I ever read, got me hooked, though it's a bit dated. I still like it.

900 Days - long in suffering, short in military tactics, still a good look into the lives (and deaths) of Leningraders.

When Titans Clashed - Dry and quick, but chock full of numbers and hard data

Panzers on the Eastern Front - Newest book, haven't read it, but it looks GREAT!

Schutzenpanzer (Ryton) - OK, this is everything you ever wanted to know about the 250/251 series half-track. Not really pertinent to this discussion but I just got it and it's AWESOME!

Zhukov's greatest Defeat - Excellent, and I mean EXCELLENT book on Operation Mars (against Army Group Center concurrent with Operation Uranus, Stalingrad)

Forgotten Soldier - A German private in the Wermacht.

In Deadly Combat - A lieutnant (then captain) in a anti-tank outfit goes up against Stevastapol, then Leningrad. GREAT personal account.

Panzer Aces - Small unit actions, it doesn't get any better than this!

Infantry Aces - Same with Infantry.

That's all I can think of now, but look around, there are MANY good ones. I've never tried the Osprey books, but the one on Bagration looked interesting.

[Michael Dorosh]

Don't forget SOLDAT by Siegfried Knappe.

[Zitadelle]

I would also add Glantz's book: _The Battle of Kursk_.

And, _Stumbling Collossus_ (D. Glantz, again...) presents a strong overview of the capabilities of the Soviet armed forces the impact of Stalin's purges and at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa.

Alan Clark's book is definitely a first book on the conflict for some of the veterans. Recently, it probably has been replaced by Glantz's book _When Titans Clashed_; albeit that is a heavier book compared with Alan Clark's lighter read.

The Osprey books (Kursk and Bagration- both by S. Zaloga) make for good bathroom reading: interesting, small, but overall light reading.

For an overview of the Soviet Army organization, check out the Red Army Handbook: 1939-1945 by Steven Zaloga. The book outlines how organizational structures of army units changed throughout the conflict to reflect Soviet experiences, need, and times of shortages.

[Grisha]

For the Soviet side, most anything by Glantz or Erickson will be accurate and devoid of postwar myths. Also, check out Frank Cass publishers. Glantz is their editor in chief for much of the Soviet military material there as well. A word of warning though: be prepared for academic level text. The good news is that these books will not only show you the Soviet-German War, they will teach you how the Soviets won it on the battlefield - a lot of relatively new material here that clears away many of the myths.

For the German side, anything by Ziemke or Seaton is well worth reading.

[freaky ol'man w/very long wings]

Please check my posts for more titles. I also placed reply with titles on post "Why Kharkov was important".

[Big X]

Enemy at the Gates, by William Craig, is a great book. The recent movie of the same name was based on only a small part of this book. It covers both sides of Stalingrad, with many great anecdotes.

[BeauCoupDinkyDau]

The Last Battle - Cornelius Ryan

I would mention Panzer Aces and Barbarossa , but someone on this thread already has. I have Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad , but have not yet read it. Enemy at the Gates by William Craig was also a good read (and informative if it's your first book on Stalingrad like it was for me).

[Michael Emrys]

I'm really surprised that nobody has yet mentioned War Without Garlands by Robert Kershaw. This book tells the intimate story of the average soldier on both sides, mainly through the device of quoting from diaries and letters home. But it also at every step relates the personal to the operational so that everything is in context. It only deals with the first six or seven months of the war, as I recall, but does so more movingly than anything else I have read or seen onscreen. Anyone interested in warfare on the CM level should zone right in on this book. At least four and a half stars.

Michael

[ July 18, 2002, 01:39 AM: Message edited by: Michael emrys ]

[BeauCoupDinkyDau]

Originally posted by Michael emrys:

I'm really surprised that nobody has yet mentioned War Without Garlands by Robert Kershaw.

Michael

I've got Kershaw's It Never Snows in September (Market Garden from German POV), but have yet to read it. How would you compair War Without Garlands to other books covering that time period? I know you said it was the best, but by how much compaired to others? I really liked Ryan's A Bridge Too Far , and I think that is why I never got around to reading Kershaw's book on Market Garden, because Ryan's filled my need for knowledge on that battle. If you liked Kershaw's Barbarossa book that much, I might just have to dive into his Market Garden book sometime soon! . . .and pick up the Barbarossa book too.

[ July 18, 2002, 01:49 AM: Message edited by: Vader's Jester ]

[James Crowley]

I would definately agree with michael emrys about "War Without Garlands", for all the reasons he mentions. There is a lot of detail about all aspects of the fighting up to the battle for Moscow; lots of useful diagrams and maps and some good photo's ( there is a nice sequence detailing a duel between a Mk111 and a T26)

Another excellent book is "Last laurels" by Georg Gunter (Helion&Company), translated from German, and dealing with the battles in Upper Silesia, Jan to April 1945. Broad scope but fast paced with some personal accounts of small unit actions and some nice photo's.

[Nidan1]

Hello all, my first post ever on this site, although I have been following it since starting to play CMBO last year. "It Never Snows in September" is an excellent compliment to "A Bridge too Far" for one big reason. It explains and details how the Germans cobbled together an effective defense comprised of disparate and widely scattered units. The difficulty of the terrain and the numerous bridges wouldnt have stopped the Allies alone, if there were no German units in the way. It is an excellent read.

"Soldiers of Destruction" is an excellent East Front book dealing mainly with Waffen SS formations and their actions in the East.

[imported_Wildman]

While not accurate, a very interesting read is

"The Russian version of the Second World War" edited by Graham Lyons.

It is a compliations of WW2 compiled from USSR school books. In other words, what they taught their children about the Great Patrotic War. Very enlighting and I had to continually hold back my irritation at what was written and remember what was in our school books. Not accurate but an eye opener for a westerner.

It also goes into more depth about western vs. soviet perception about the three most contentious areas of perceived villiany.

1. Negotions between Allies and USSR, and USSR and Hitler resulting in Stalin-Hitler Pact

2. Soviet-Finnish War

3. Warsaw Uprishing

Like I said, not accurate but important as a national mindset.

[Gaylord Focker]

Welcome to the fourm Nidan!

Thanks again for your suggestions, i look forward to picking up these books.

[Xenophile]

'Barbarossa', Alan Clark. Written, a little surprisingly, by an English conservative in the mid 1960's, it's still stands up quite well as military history - it must have been outstandingly original at that time. It follows the conflict mostly at the strategic and operational levels but never forgets the nature of the political background. It's a long passage but this sums up what I feel about the Eastern Front better than I ever could:

"An element of tragedy pervades the German defeat in Zitadelle. Perilously close to annihilation at Moscow, dreadfully mauled at Stalingrad, this magnificent army had twice recovered. {...} If tragedy is too strong a word, no observer can avoid a sense of frustration at the persistent abuse of this wonderful machine. And so it is all the more important to remember that just as the Nazi state rested on a basis of total brutality and corruption, so the parts of the army machine, the actual weapons with which the soldiers fought (...) came from the darkened sheds of Krupp and Daimler-Benz; where slave labour toiled 18 hours a day; cowering under the lash, sleeping 6 to a 'dog kennel' 8 feet square, starving or freezing to death at the whim of their guards."

'Forgotten Soldier', Guy Sajer. I don't much care if this is a conflation of truth with anecdotes or fiction: too much just seems to ring true to ignore it as a personal description of this war from a naive youth.

'Panzer Battles', FW von Mellinthin. Written in the mid 1950's this suffers a bit from the author's preoccupation with the war he expected NATO to fight with the USSR. Nevertheless he wants to give good advice, so I tend to regard him as basically truthful about military matters. In any case, his service record is amazing - staff officer, mostly at corps level or above, in Poland, France, the Balkans, Western Desert(PanzerArmee Afrika) , Eastern Front (48th Panzer Corps and 4th Panzer Army), Western Front (Army Group G and 5th Panzer Army.

Almost anything by John Keegan is worth reading but he hasn't written much about the Eastern Front. So it's a little off-topic, but 'Six Armies in Normandy' is excellent. Some of the accounts he uses cast light into very unusual places. The tale of Staff Sergeant Summers is worth the price of the book on it's own - not for what Summers did, brave as he was, but for what his men wouldn't do and what the Germans did let him do.

'Russia's War', Richard Overy. As it suggests, this is the Eastern front, told by a westerner, but from the Soviet point of view. Worthwhile to see it this way.

[Michael Emrys]

VJ, if you like Ryan there's a good chance you will like Kershaw too, as they employ somewhat similar styles to organize their work. The Barbarossa book is more heart-rending than Ryan's book, probably because the story it has to tell is more brutal and tragic in its essence. But in both there is a good interaction between the personal and the operational.

Michael

[IronDuke]

Originally posted by Grisha:

For the Soviet side, most anything by Glantz or Erickson will be accurate and devoid of postwar myths. Also, check out Frank Cass publishers. Glantz is their editor in chief for much of the Soviet military material there as well. A word of warning though: be prepared for academic level text. The good news is that these books will not only show you the Soviet-German War, they will teach you how the Soviets won it on the battlefield - a lot of relatively new material here that clears away many of the myths.

For the German side, anything by Ziemke or Seaton is well worth reading.

I agree. Glantz and House's "The battle of Kursk"

was exellent military history. The chapter on Prokhorovka was about as good as I've read in the way it cut through the hype and myth to describe what actually happened.

Erickson's work requires patience but is well worth the effort. He knew the subject inside out and it has stood the test of time. Amongst the others, someone else mentioned Soldiers of destruction. This was a good read, although not just for it's description of Totenkopf in action, but for the light it shed on one of the less glamorous (and more notorious) Waffen SS units.

Beevor's Stalingrad is in the pile of books I keep threatening to read.....