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Books on the Eastern Front of WW2
Interesting account MR9, I wonder how effective that was or did it turn out to be counter-productive in the end!
One more new title to consider for those who enjoy accounts of WW2 snipers or the Eastern Front:
Eastern Front Sniper: The Life of Matth Us Hetzenauer by Roland KalteneggerDescription:
Eastern Front Sniper is a long overdue and comprehensive biography of one of World War II’s most accomplished snipers.
Mathäus Hetzenauer, the son of a Tyrolean peasant family, was born in December 1924. He was drafted into the Mountain Reserve Battalian 140 at the age of 18 but discharged five month’s later.
He received a new draft notice in January 1943 for a post in the Styrian Truppenübungsplatz Seetal Alps where he met some of the best German snipers and learned his art.
Hetzenauer went on to fight in Romania, Eastern Hungary and in Slovakia. As recognition for his more than 300 confirmed kills he was awarded on the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on April 17, 1945.
After nearly five years of Soviet captivity Mathäus Hetzenauer returned to Austria on January 10, 1950. He lived in the Tyrol's Brixen Valley until his death on 3 October of 2004.
Also posted in the New Release thread.
Published in January from Harvard: 
The War Within: Diaries from the Siege of Leningrad by Alexis Peri(no photo)Synopsis:
In September 1941, two and a half months after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, the German Wehrmacht encircled Leningrad. Cut off from the rest of Russia, the city remained blockaded for 872 days, at a cost of almost a million civilian lives, making it one of the longest and deadliest sieges in modern history.
The War Within chronicles the Leningrad blockade from the perspective of those who endured the unendurable. Drawing on 125 unpublished diaries written by individuals from all walks of Soviet life, Alexis Peri tells the tragic story of how citizens struggled to make sense of a world collapsing around them. Residents recorded in intimate detail the toll taken on minds and bodies by starvation, bombardment, and disease. For many, diary writing became instrumental to survival—a tangible reminder of their humanity. The journals also reveal that Leningraders began to reexamine Soviet life and ideology from new, often critical perspectives.
Leningrad’s party organization encouraged diary writing, hoping the texts would guide future histories of this epic battle. But in a bitter twist, the diarists became victims not only of Hitler but also of Stalin. The city’s isolation from Moscow made it politically suspect. When the blockade was lifted in 1944, Kremlin officials censored publications describing the ordeal and arrested hundreds of Leningrad’s wartime leaders. Many were executed. Diaries—now dangerous to their authors—were concealed in homes, shelved in archives, and forgotten. The War Within recovers these lost narratives, shedding light on one of World War II’s darkest episodes.
And back in 2014 Cambridge there appeared:
Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front: The German Infantry's War, 1941-1944 by Jeffrey RutherfordSynopsis:
By 1944, the overwhelming majority of the German Army had participated in the German war of annihilation in the Soviet Union and historians continue to debate the motivations behind the violence unleashed in the east. Jeff Rutherford offers an important new contribution to this debate through a study of combat and the occupation policies of three frontline infantry divisions. He shows that while Nazi racial ideology provided a legitimizing context in which violence was not only accepted but encouraged, it was the Wehrmacht's adherence to a doctrine of military necessity which is critical in explaining why German soldiers fought as they did. This meant that the German Army would do whatever was necessary to emerge victorious on the battlefield. Periods of brutality were intermixed with conciliation as the army's view and treatment of the civilian population evolved based on its appreciation of the larger context of war in the east.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "One more new title to consider for those who enjoy accounts of WW2 snipers or the Eastern Front:[book:Eastern Front Snipe..."As a graduate of the German Army Sniper School in 1984, and a person who interviewed many veterans, I met Matthias and got his story, among many others. He was a very quiet man but very friendly. His neighbor was my friend Wolfgang Falck, father of the Night Fighters.
You've meet some very interesting people Colin!
I was lucky, they gave me a post military career in writing history!
Zitadelle: The German Offensive Against the Kursk Salient 4-17 July 1943Working through the planning and build-up stage; there is an interesting contrast going on between the Germans and Russians; no more so than in Stalin learning to step back, trust his generals and listen to them, while Hitler becomes ever more certain of only himself and ignores any advice.
It was an interesting and compelling drama that developed between the two dictators and their military high command as the war progressed.
I'm about half way through
David Stahel. So far it's been very good. More detail that I can handle but that's OK. I think I need to invest in a good WWII atlas to help with the maps.
Just finished up
Christopher BellamyVery good overview of the Eastern Front. It gave me a new perspective on the massive scale that the war was fought on as well as the heavy losses the Germans suffered in the early going. It wasn't as easy as most histories make it out to be.
My only real complaint was that once it got past Stalingrad and Kursk everything else is covered much too quickly. That seems to be the case with most of the books about the Eastern Front that I've read. 1944 and Berlin don't get a lot of coverage.
I've read the first book you mentioned John and I really enjoyed it, in fact I've enjoyed nearly all his books on the Eastern Front. I have a copy of Christopher Bellamy's book but haven't read it yet.
I agree - I used them extensively for in researching my Eastern Front books about my father-in-law, who served in the Red Army. Jerome wrote: "The best ones I know of are
Russia Besieged
Red Army Resurgent
The Soviet Juggernaut
The're part of this MASSIVE Time-Life series of books on EVERY ..."
Some extremely good books about the Eastern Front include Enemy at the Gates by William Craig. Comparing it to the movie proved to me that the movie was more inspired by the book, and may have lent the names of the characters, but the movie was not at all representative of the book.The other book I like is Fighting in Hell by Peter Tsouras and Dennis Showalter. A report originally commissioned by the U.S. Army, it compiles four accounts by German officers about their experiences on the Eastern Front.
John wrote: "Just finished up Christopher BellamyVery good overview of the Eastern Front....My only real complaint was that once it got past Stalingrad and Kursk everything else is covered much too quickly. That seems to be the case with most of the books about the Eastern Front that I've read. 1944 and Berlin don't get a lot of coverage."
Yup, that ruined it for me.
Scott wrote: "Some extremely good books about the Eastern Front include Enemy at the Gates by William Craig. Comparing it to the movie proved to me that the movie was more inspired by the book, and may have lent..."Was at Barnes & Noble yesterday and saw they had hardbound copies of Enemy at the Gates in their bargain area. Great book if you haven't read it, the movie, not so much.
Marc wrote: "Scott wrote: "Some extremely good books about the Eastern Front include Enemy at the Gates by William Craig. Comparing it to the movie proved to me that the movie was more inspired by the book, and..."The movie was good as a movie. Just don't take it as an authentic depiction of what happened in Stalingrad.
I finished up
Evan Mawdsley. I thought it was better overall than
, mostly because it covered more of the post Kursk history.I think I need to find books that cover only from '43 onwards. I know I have books by Beevor, and Hastings dealing with the later years. I'll have to give them a second look and see what else is out there.
After saying I'm going to concentrate on the later part of the war I started
by Robert Forczyk.This brings up a new issue. The more books you read the more contradictory views you come across. Several times the author mentions how he feels David Glantz and David Stahel misinterpreted data or relied on faulty Russian data in their books and interpretations of different battles. I guess at some point you just have to decide who makes the best argument.
I quite enjoy David Stahel's books on the Eastern Front and no matter who the author or historian is there will always be a contrary view on certain issues but I always enjoy reading books that challenge my views on any subject as long as they can support their arguments with facts and not some out there theory.
True, I've read one book by David Stahel and really enjoyed it even though I didn't completely agree with his argument that Germany lost the war in '41 based on the losses and set backs they were dealt. I enjoyed it so much in fact I went out and bought a couple more of his books.
John wrote: "True, I've read one book by David Stahel and really enjoyed it even though I didn't completely agree with his argument that Germany lost the war in '41 based on the losses and set backs they were d..."I've read three of his books covering the Eastern Front and have enjoyed all three.
The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer will always be the best book relating to the eastern front to me, as the author describes his experiences vividly and makes one imagine how awful it really would have been!Having myself a great uncle who was in the Wehrmacht fighting in Russia, and hearing his experiences it makes me, I guess in one way proud that this man went through hell, but also after experiencing this, was one of the nicest most genuine human beings I've ever known!
Karl wrote: "The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer will always be the best book relating to the eastern front to me, as the author describes his experiences vividly and makes one imagine how awful it really would ..."Hi Karl, have you checked out this first-hand account of a German soldier fighting on the Eastern Front:
In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front by Gottlob Herbert Bidermann
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I quite enjoy David Stahel's books on the Eastern Front and no matter who the author or historian is there will always be a contrary view on certain issues but I always enjoy reading books that cha..."Rick, you might want to check out this one I just finished:
Stalingrad To Kursk: Triumph Of The Red ArmyThe author presents some interesting views about the war on the Eastern Front and how events might not be exactly as they've been portrayed. For example, he discusses the possibility that Operation Mars might have been planned as a major offensive in conjunction with Operation Uranus (the plan to encircle Stalingrad), but because the Russians took such heavy losses and was mostly a failure it's been written up as primarily a diversion. Also, the tank battle at Prokorhovka was not the largest tank battle in history, but because it was part of a larger Soviet victory it's been proclaimed (mostly by the Russians) as such. He mentions there was a battle in mid-1941 which featured somewhere in the nature of 3000 tanks, many of which were older, obsolete types on the Russian side. Ended up as a massive defeat for the Russians, so they don't talk about it. I'm no Russian Front scholar, but I found the book to be interesting in its scope.
Hi Marc, thanks for that recommendation, I'll try and check it out sometime soon. I've got this book by David Glantz to read on Operation Mars:
Zhukov's Greatest Defeat: The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942 by David M. GlantzIn regards to the largest tank battle on the Eastern Front I think this book covers it:
Dubno 1941: The Greatest Tank Battle of the Second World War by Aleksei Isaev"In June 1941 1941 - during the first week of the Nazi invasion in the Soviet Union – the quiet cornfields and towns of Western Ukraine were awakened by the clanking of steel and thunder of explosions; this was the greatest tank battle of the Second World War. About 3,000 tanks from the Red Army Kiev Special Military District clashed with about 800 German tanks of Heeresgruppe South. Why did the numerically superior Soviets fail? Hundreds of heavy KV-1 and KV-2 tanks, the five-turret giant T-35 and famous T-34 failed to stop the Germans. Based on recently available archival sources, A. Isaev describes the battle from a new point of view: that in fact it’s not the tanks, but armored units, which win or lose battles. The Germans during the Blitzkrieg era had superior T&OE for their tank forces. The German Panzer Division could defeat their opponents not by using tanks, but by using artillery, which included heavy artillery, motorized infantry and engineers. The Red Army’s armored unit - the Mechanized Corps - had a lot of teething troubles, as all of them lacked accompanying infantry and artillery. In 1941 the Soviet Armored Forces had to learn the difficult science - and mostly ‘art’ - of combined warfare. Isaev traces the role of these factors in a huge battle around the small Ukrainian town of Dubno. Popular myths about impregnable KV and T-34 tanks are laid to rest. In reality, the Germans in 1941 had the necessary tools to combat them. The author also defines the real achievements on the Soviet side: the Blitzkrieg in the Ukraine had been slowed down. For the Soviet Union, the military situation in June 1941 was much worse than it was for France and Britain during the Western Campaign in 1940. The Red Army wasn't ready to fight as a whole and the border district’s armies lacked infantry units, as they were just arriving from the internal regions of the USSR. In this case, the Red Army tanks became the ‘Iron Shield’ of the Soviet Union; they even operated as fire brigades. In many cases, the German infantry - not tanks - became the main enemy of Soviet armored units in the Dubno battle. Poorly organized, but fierce, tank-based counterattacks slowed down the German infantry – and while the Soviet tanks lost the battle, they won the war."
Some great recommendations there guys! I'll certainly be adding them to my reading lists!
Karl wrote: "Some great recommendations there guys! I'll certainly be adding them to my reading lists!"Give it a few days till the June theme read kicks in, you won't know what's hit you!
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Hi Marc, thanks for that recommendation, I'll try and check it out sometime soon. I've got this book by David Glantz to read on Operation Mars:[bookcover:Zhukov's Greatest Defeat: The Red Army's ..."
I'd say you already seem to know about both of the points I brought up! I haven't read any of Glantz's works, but I do have John Erickson's two-volume set on the Eastern Front which I need to get to someday.
I read both of Erickson's books on the Eastern Front, I think he was one of th of earliest historians to write from the Russian perspective. I quite enjoyed both books although he annoyed me by referring to the German Panzer Grenadier Division Großdeutschland as a Warren-SS unit.
I've started the fifth chapter, 'The Economics of Apocalypse' in the book; "Bloodlands". Operation Barbarossa has started and the author is covering the circumstances of the Soviet POW's held by the Germans:"Some of the most infamous prisoner-of-war camps were in occupied Soviet Belarus, where by late November 1941 death rates had reached two percent per day. At Stalag 352 near Minsk, which one survivor remembered as 'pure hell,' prisoners were packed together so tightly by barbed wire that they could scarcely move. They had to urinate and defecate where they stood. Some 109,500 people died there. At Dulag [transit camp] 185, Dulag 127, and Stalag 341, in the east Belarusian city Mahileu, witnesses saw mountains of unburied corpses outside the barbed wire. Some thirty to forty thousand prisoners died in these camps. At Dulag 131 at Bobruisk, the camp headquarters caught fire. Thousands of prisoners burned to death, and another 1,700 were gunned down as they tried to escape. All in all at least thirty thousand died at Bobruisk. At Dulags 220 and 121 in Homel, as many as half of the prisoners had shelter in abandoned stables. The others had no shelter at all. In December 1941 death rates at these camps climbed from two hundred to four hundred to seven hundred a day. At Dulag 342 at Molodechno, conditions were so awful that prisoners submitted written petitions asking to be shot."
by Timothy Snyder
Very graphic first-hand account Jonny although it might be better suited in the Great War thread :)Also maybe spell check has changed something to; "mattress" urinated???
My bad Rick, no more early morning posts! I'll shift it tonight.
Most of these books on the Eastern Front discussing Soviet failures and German successes fail to mention that German forces, in particular tankers had far superior inter-communications and radios, with the throat microphone being a great invention. This eliminated sound distortions from outside the mic itself, providing clear communications. Otto Carius in particular told me that on many occasions, they won small engagements due to the enemy having to use hand and arm signals to direct their attacks in formation.
Most Soviet tanks did not even have radios throughout the war. As a former old grunt, good com is just as critical as good intel. FYI my old book on the Eastern Front (full of interviews) may be of interest: "Occupation and Insurgency: A Selective Examination of The Hague and Geneva Conventions on the Eastern Front, 1939-1945"
Jonny wrote: "My bad Rick, no more early morning posts! I'll shift it tonight."No problems Jonny, its not a issue :)
More from the book; "Bloodlands", this is after the German invasion of Russia, into eastern Poland, the area occupied by Russia in 1939:"The German invasion prompted the NKVD to shoot some 9,817 imprisoned Polish citizens rather than allow them to fall into German hands. The Germans arrived in the western Soviet Union in summer 1941 to find NKVD prisons full of fresh corpses. These had to be cleared out before the Germans could use them for their own purposes."
Colin wrote: "Most of these books on the Eastern Front discussing Soviet failures and German successes fail to mention that German forces, in particular tankers had far superior inter-communications and radios, ..."The book I read recently on Zitadelle covered the German advantage in tank communications over their Russian adversary.
Zitadelle: The German Offensive Against the Kursk Salient 4-17 July 1943 by Mark Healy
My interviews with participants on both sides were some of the best I ever had, tankers, pilots and grunts.
Colin wrote: "My interviews with participants on both sides were some of the best I ever had, tankers, pilots and grunts."Would be some great stories there!
Here is a great quote from "Bloodlands" reflecting the position of the Poles during the Warsaw Uprising, torn between the Nazi's and the Soviets:"The German reaction was so unbelievably destructive that Polish fighters had no alternative but to await Soviet liberation. As one Home Army soldier put it in his poetry: 'We await you, red plague/To deliver us from the black death'."
I found this account of interests from the book; "Bloodlands" which refers to events after the end of WW2:"The Czechoslovaks, whose German minority numbered about three million (a quarter of the population), had been marching their German citizens across the border since May. As many as thirty thousand Germans would be killed in these expulsions; some 5,558 Germans committed suicide in Czechoslovakia in 1945. Gunter Grass, by then a prisoner of war in an American camp in Czechoslovakia, wondered if the GIs were there to guard him or to protect the Germans from the Czechs."
Again from "Bloodlands", events in Poland after the war involving German civilians caught up in the whirlwind of events:"In the village of Nieszawa in north-central Poland, thirty-eight men, women, and children were thrown into the Vistula River; the men and women were shot first, the children were not. At the camp at Lubraniec, the commander danced on a German woman who was so badly beaten that she could not move. In this way, he exclaimed, 'we lay the foundation for a new Poland'."
I suppose this is the legacy left by the Nazi regime, but German civilians are to suffer the consequences. After what the Jews and Poles suffered under the Germans I suppose it would be hard to be critical of them, but again are they now acting as badly as their oppressors?
People do not like to admit the reality that the majority of humans are like water and electricity, they take the path of least resistance. Likewise, the most venal attitudes we hold within may come to the surface given the proper circumstances. Avoiding these pathways is what separates the true professional soldier from the mediocre civilian amateur and psychopathic man in uniform. I have seen it in Africa, Asia, etc.
I found this statement in "Bloodlands" to be very interesting. This is in regards to Stalin and Russia's role in winning WW2:"Russians, he maintained, had won the war. To be sure, about half the population of the Soviet Union was Russian, and so in a numerical sense Russians had played a greater part in the victory than any other people. Yet Stalin's idea contained a purposeful confusion: the was on Soviet territory was fought and won chiefly in Soviet Belarus and in Soviet Ukraine, rather than in Soviet Russia. More Jewish, Belarusian, and Ukrainian civilians had been killed than Russians. Because the Red Army took such horrible losses, its ranks were filled by local Belarusian and Ukrainian conscripts at both the beginning and the end of the war. The deported Caucasian and Crimean peoples for that matter, had seen a higher percentage of their young people die in the Red Army than the Russians. Jewish soldiers had been more likely to be decorated for valor than Russian soldiers."
I've never taken the time to consider the make up of the Red Army like that before, considering it was mainly Russian and hence the horrific casualties suffered by the Red Army was Russia's blood payment to stop Hitler when in fact it was made up of people of the Soviet Union under Russian/Stalin domination.
Getting my head out of the trenches for a second before switching from the Somme to Third Ypres with Osprey'sLeningrad 1941–44: The epic siege, Robert Forczyk in his usual style. Why read this pamflet in a world where we have Anna Reid, David Glantz & William Salisbury ? Because it doesn't focus on the siege like most Leningrad titles. No offense, but it's refreshing to get the military operations on the periphery of the city separated from the civilian starvation within.
Nothing better than a change of pace or focus sometimes Dimitri, makes the next book refreshing.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I found this statement in "Bloodlands" to be very interesting. This is in regards to Stalin and Russia's role in winning WW2:"Russians, he maintained, had won the war. To be sure, about half the ..."
Check out Army of Worn Soles for a close-up description of the war in Ukraine through the eyes of a Ukrainian conscript who was there.
I didn't partake in the group read but I finally finished these two volumes. 
Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941-1942: Schwerpunkt
Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1943-1945: Red SteamrollerI never thought I'd say this but I think it was a little too much of a good thing. Lots of good information about armored units and tactics but the two volumes together wore me out.
I've got both volumes yet to read but maybe I will have a break between the two books :)
Now, I know these translations from Werner Haupt's output have been mentioned in other topics, but we never got the word back whether they're any good, especially now that we're 20 years later - all tough the early 90's were the golden age of re-opened Russian archives.
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
Books mentioned in this topic
Opening the Gates of Hell: Operation Barbarossa, June–July 1941 (other topics)Opening the Gates of Hell: Operation Barbarossa, June–July 1941 (other topics)
Opening the Gates of Hell: Operation Barbarossa, June–July 1941 (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Richard Hargreaves (other topics)Richard Hargreaves (other topics)
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Richard Hargreaves (other topics)
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The Red Army was woefully unprepared and incompetently led during the initial stages of the Winter War against Finland in 1939-40. Just how bad was it? The Finns achieved their greatest successes in the fighting north of Lake Ladoga. They inflicted 141,300 casualties on the Soviets -- a figure greater than the total number of Finnish troops engaged on that front. Lev Mekhlis, head of the Red Army's political directorate, went around with a detachment of NKVD troops, holding drumhead courts, and shooting commanders, chiefs of staff, and commissars. The shootings were conducted in front of the staffs of the forces involved - pour encourager les autres.