Hitler's Defeat on the Eastern Front

Images of War

by Ian Baxter

Drawing on rare and previously unpublished photographs accompanied by in-depth captions, the book provides an absorbing analysis of this traumatic period of the Second World War. It reveals in detail how the battle of Kursk was the beginning of the end and how this massive operation led to the Red Army recapturing huge areas of the Soviet Union and bleeding white the German armies it struck. Despite the adverse situation in which both the German Army and its Waffen-SS counterparts were placed, soldiers continued to fight to the bitter end and attempted to build new defense-lines. But as the Red Army launched its long awaited summer offensive on June 1944, German forces were forced to withdraw under the constant hammer blows of ground and aerial bombardments. Those German forces that survived the artillery barrages, the onslaught of the tank armadas, and mass infantry assaults, streamed back from the battlefield and fought vicious battles through the Baltic States, Byelorussia, and built up new defense along the Vistula in Poland. As the final months of the War were played out on the Eastern Front, the Army and Waffen-SS, with diminishing resources, withdrew across a devastated Reich and fought out their last battle with party militia forces around a devastated Berlin.

Genres: Military Fiction, World War II, War

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Ian Baxter is a military historian who specializes in German twentieth-century military history. He has written more than forty books and over 100 articles about the World War II era.

He has reviewed numerous military studies for publication and supplied thousands of photographs and important documents to various publishers and film production companies worldwide.

Reviews

[Ietrio]

another ode to the war.

Although Russian losses in both men and equipment far exceded the German, their losses could be replaced. German losses, however, except where armour could be recovered, were total.

+ glorification of the German results in destruction
+ the Russians were Soviets at the time, telling about the qualifications of the author
+ Soviet losses could be replaced only in the sick mind of the Nazi fanboys, decades later people died in places all over Europe because of the German expansion madness
+ in the sense of replenishing the stock of weapons, it was as easy for the Soviets as for the Germans, both indutrial production facilities were still in working condition
+ Germans, with a total loss will still kill one year later, but that is beyond Ian Baxter's knowledge
+ and that is just one phrase.
+ and even the title is misleading. one solider jumping out of trenches in full war gear is nothing rare or special. it is just another propaganda image that ads no new information, but keeps the emotion alive

[Schacco]

Piece of crap. This book has value only for those who are interested in photos of smiling SS-men, mortars, machine guns and VERBAL DESCRIPTION of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS clothing.

[David]

This book has some nice photos in it and for that I am willing to give it three stars. However the text and photo captioning is terrible. The author seems to be an Englishman but the text and captions read like they were translated into some obscure, unintelligible foreign language and then translated back into English by a drunk monkey. A large number of the photo captions make no sense whatsoever and an even larger number seem to use the same caption, or a variation thereof, for numerous photos. Several photos purport to show soldiers in specific actions dressed in uniforms which were not available at the time indicated. Many of the photos misidentify weapons also. If you come across this book enjoy the photos and don't pay much attention to the text or captions.