Eastern Front book recommendations

[Andreas]

What is also very good is the Charles Sharp stuff from the Nafziger Collection, available through the Battlefront.com bookshelf.

Matt should pay me for this

[Urban Shocker]

Originally posted by Andreas:

I implied that maps and descriptions of battles on smaller scales involves less interpretation or guessing on the part of the scenario designer.

[TSword]

All Glantz's books on the Eastern Front are excellent. They usually cover some specific operations.

I also recommend (Especially for Scenario Designers) Nipe's Last Victory in the East (Operation Star, Gallop and Manstein's counterattack at the beginning of 1943) gives one very detailed insight into the actual battles, even down to company level, mostly from a german perspective although russian moves are covered as far to understand the ongoing battles.

Interesting because it shows both sides on the attack and defence. (Be warned, you need a good map to follow the actions. I had to read through a second time with a detailed map to really comprehend what was going on and where..)

Greets

Daniel

[freaky ol'man w/very long wings]

it's too quiet...bump

[Lawyer]

Nobody has mentioned "Enemy at the Gate" (the book, not the movie). Is it good?

[Nekander]

For every Finn I recommend this one, I think it's not translated to English or any other languege.

Pekka Kantokosken Punaiset panssarit: Puna-armeijan panssarijoukot 1918-1945.

Melkoinen opus, 500 sivua ja melkoisella tarkkuudella koottua tietoa. Ostin omani juuri tänään ja vaikuttaa erinomaiselle. Sisältää melko mukavasti kuvia, ovat tosin aika pieniä.

-Nekander

[L.Tankersley]

Originally posted by Lawyer:

Nobody has mentioned "Enemy at the Gate" (the book, not the movie). Is it good?

I read it over vacation a few weeks ago.

My response was lukewarm. It spends a lot of time down at the "personal" level, following several people (German and Soviet solders and some civilians, plus some Italians from the 8th Army) but it's not really a coherent narrative. Then there's some detail about the Soviet & German staffs and the planning discussions and so on. It jumps around a lot. It sort of reminds me of Ambrose's oral history works, like Citizen Soldiers -- a lot of short scenes of varying interest, trying to give you a sense of what it was like to be there, but no real central narrative. Also appears to fall squarely in the camp of "the Germans lost because Hitler was a nut and wouldn't let the professional soldiers do their jobs," -- while there may be an element of truth in this, it's far from the whole story.

On the other hand, I got it for less than $5. Can't go too far wrong for that.

[Mick_Oz]

After opening the earlier thread.. I just wanted to say thanks for all the great suggestions. There's so much to choose from that we run the risk of never getting time to play CMBB. You guys are the best! I ambled over to my local library and picked up Paul Carell's two volumes: HITLER'S WAR ON RUSSIA and SCORCHED EARTH (thanks Bruno).. which should kick things off very nicely. This forum is a wonderful resource.

[Michael Emrys]

Originally posted by Mick_Oz:

I ambled over to my local library and picked up Paul Carell's two volumes: HITLER'S WAR ON RUSSIA and SCORCHED EARTH

Interesting place to start. You can only go up from there.

Michael

[Mick_Oz]

[]Interesting place to start. You can only go up from there.

Michael

--

Well after reading the first chapter, it does appear he's just a bit on the melodramatic side .. but since I'm off on a week-long fishing trip, I reckon lashings of purple prose might perfectly suit the occasion. Besides, who am I to scorn the offerings of my local library? Unfortunately, the detailed instruction manual (in Russian of course) for how to repair the wing-nuts of the T-34 had been loaned out.

[Little_Black_Devil]

I recently have begun reading Peter G. Tsouras' "Panzers on the Eastern Front", and found it quite interesting, that the same story in reference to the obstinate KV was covered, as seen in Robert Kershaw's "War Without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa 1941/42".

Tsouras' story, covers a few more different/new interesting details, including the specific tank type in question. According to him - the Heavy Russian Tank covering the bridge, which has caused the Germans so much trouble, was indeed a KV-1 in case anyone was interested.

[Michael Emrys]

Originally posted by Mick_Oz:

Unfortunately, the detailed instruction manual (in Russian of course) for how to repair the wing-nuts of the T-34 had been loaned out.

Oh tragedy! How could that have been permitted! And we were hoping for a thousand word essay from you on the subject before the end of the month. Oh well...

On a more serious note, I didn't mean to suggest that you ought not to read Carrell or to enjoy him. Just don't take what he says as gospel.

Michael

[ August 04, 2002, 01:41 AM: Message edited by: Michael emrys ]

[John Kettler]

To the Glantz pile please add:

"The Soviet Airborne Experience" Combat Studies Institute, Research Report No. 4, November 1984. Got mine years ago at the GPO bookstore for $10.00

and finally read it over the last few days, the 136 pages on WW II, that is. Most interesting, but academically written, and has lots of foldout maps in the back, many quite valuable for scenario designers, but the thing is maddening, too, not least because he provides no detail on the Soviet aircraft referred to. Most people have enough trouble with the main types, let alone the transport types. I did know that a Po-2 was a biplane for liaison and light attack and that an Li-2 was a Soviet C-47, but many I'd never heard of. What's a U-2? If he can tell us how many men went into an airborne patoon and what they had, why couldn't he provide basic data on the aircraft and their carrying capacities?

The Paul Carell (Paul Karl Schmidt) books may not be the last word in historical accuracy, but they are full of fascinating vignettes which put human flesh on dry accounts. This was where I read of

Russian defenders reoccupying fortifications repeatedly while living on grass and the chilling account of the "dead" tank which came to life in the courtyard of a a German divisional HQ several days after the HQ moved in. Some of the accounts

I read in his books back in high school really got to me and gave a chilling sense of what battle was like for the participants.

I have relatively few books on the Eastern Front, but I number among them several treasures. One is

called THE RUSSIAN WAR: 1941-1945, edited by Mrazkova and Remes, Dutton, New York, 1975. This is a book of Russian war photography and will blow your mind. It covers everything imaginable and many you'll wish it didn't.

The other biggie actually covers the war from 1939-1944 but has phenomenal Eastern Front material. It's a facsimile of the war sketchbook (Kriegs-Skizzenbuch) of artist Hans Liska and is in German, but the sketches and paintings speak for themselves, whether it's the coxswain of a Sturmboote, Ju-52s racing in to land on a smashed Soviet airfield, the thrilling, almost fatal near collision of a shell and an observation aircraft, FOs roosting in an attic OP, the hell of a forest set ablaze while hunting partisans, the bitter cold of the Caucasus, and the endless mud of Rasputitsa as a German column slogs past a flak post atop log pilings. The mass Nebelwerfer firing is worth the price of the book, and the rainbow juxtaposed against a smashed landscape is unforgettable. Fans of railroad guns, armored trains, cavalry, pretty girls and flowers won't be disappointed either.

Martin Caidin's THE TIGERS ARE BURNING (book's about Kursk) is useful but somewhat hamfisted in approach. It reads as extremely proSoviet, with a rah rah tone even Paul Carell would find embarrassing. I suppose it was meant to counterbalance the then dominant German view of the War in the East.

Hope this information helps.

Regards,

John Kettler

[rvalle]

Thanks for the recommendations guys. I just placed an order for "In Deadly Combat" and "War without Garlands".

rv

[gatpr]

Also John A. Armstrong Soviet Partisans of WW2 and Adair ( I think) The Destruction of Army Group Center. Both are worthwhile.

[Ligur]

I would not overlook Antony Beevor when talking about the Eastern Front.

I've read his Stalingrad (I'm convinced it is THE Stalingrad book out there), and currently going through Fall of Berlin 1945.

The Fall of Berlin, particularly the first 80 or so pages, has been chilling reading about the horror of the total war in the Ostfront and the astounding amount of human suffering involved. The book has goddamn changed me. I had to put the book down and go do something else a few times.

Of course his books are depicting the situations on a larger scale but often include interesting little stories about inviduals and are, in general, very good and educative reads.

[blabla]

I am now on page 404, it has been excellent and i believe hitler was flaming for dismissing Guderian when he advised to take a step back to the Dnieper...

[Nidan1]

"Fighting in Hell" is a collection of after action reports from GeneralOberst Gerhard Rauss, Commanding Officer of the 3rd Panzer Army, and others, that gives some interesting insights into the operational difficulties experienced by the Germans during the whole war in the East.

It covers Russian tactics under various circumstances, attack, defense, encirclement etc.

The weather contitions during all seasons, and the unique difficulties of each. One interesting section described how the Russians used diliberately set forest fires to attack German truck parks and artillery positions. A good read with lots of detail.