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Books on the Eastern Front of WW2
Review of Ghost Riders: When US and German Soldiers Fought Together to Save the World's Most Beautiful Horses in the Last Days of World War IIhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Very nice review Liz V. I think I actually gave a copy of that book to my daughter to read.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Very nice review Liz V. I think I actually gave a copy of that book to my daughter to read."Perhaps your daughter will lend you her book!
Liz V. wrote: "Review of Ghost Riders: When US and German Soldiers Fought Together to Save the World's Most Beautiful Horses in the Last Days of World War IIhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
Looks like another interesting story that is not well known. Adding to the TBR.
Liz V. wrote: "Review of Ghost Riders: When US and German Soldiers Fought Together to Save the World's Most Beautiful Horses in the Last Days of World War IIhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
It that is about the Lipanzer Horses, Disney has a movie on it. Although it is...well...Disnefied. So probably wouldn't stand up as true history.
1963 Disney released Miracle of the White Stallions, starring Rob Taylor, Lili Palmer, Curt Jurgens, and Eddie Albert. The movie used to make the rounds every summer for a matinee flick for a few years.
Doubledf99.99 wrote: "1963 Disney released Miracle of the White Stallions, starring Rob Taylor, Lili Palmer, Curt Jurgens, and Eddie Albert. The movie used to make the rounds every summer for a matinee flick for a few y..."I saw it man years ago in the theater.
oh yes a family viewing staple, or maybe should say stable, back when.
Any good books on the courland pocket? I can’t seem to find any?
Creighton wrote: "Any good books on the courland pocket? I can’t seem to find any?"I know of this one:
Blood in the Forest: The End of the Second World War in the Courland Pocket by Vincent Hunt.
Beat me to the draw Manray, it is/ isn't exactly a history of the pocket but it was a damn good read.
Also this book may be of interest; "Bridgehead Kurland" by Franz Kurowski.
Bridgehead Kurland by Franz Kurowski
Apparently this book was released in November 2021 although I haven't seen a copy about. It may be of interest to some group members; "The Planning and Preparations for the Battle of Kursk, Volume 1" by Valeriy Zamulin.
The Planning and Preparations for the Battle of Kursk, Volume 1 by Valeriy ZamulinDescription:
In this first volume of a planned two-volume set, Zamulin takes a close look at the condition of the German and Soviet forces following the winter campaign. Analysing first the German side, the author demonstrates that the Germans were in a woeful condition, especially with respect to the number of serviceable armored vehicles and the lack of infantry. However, Hitler was determined to regain the initiative in the East, though some German commanders expressed concerns. Zamulin then looks at the German plans for the summer of 1943 and the process of rebuilding its forces. As he shows through data, the Germans struggled to replenish Army Group South and Model's Ninth Army in the north, and the latter was hampered almost right up to the launching of Operation Citadel by the need to conduct a major anti-partisan operation in the woods and thickets in the German rear, using panzer and infantry divisions that had been earmarked for Citadel. Zamulin next examines the Soviet side, and discusses the planning for the summer campaign, including the decision to adopt a pre-meditated defense of the Kursk salient and to create a multi-echeloned system of defense (though incomplete in depth). The author demonstrates that the Red Army was able quickly to replenish its forces and also create a large mobile reserve, the Steppe Front. Thus, the delay in launching Citadel was not the fatal German error, and it would have failed even if launched earlier. 114 photographs, 39 tables.
Also posted in the New Release thread.
Hey all,Finally finished the second volume of Kirill Moskalenko's memoir. The Southwestern Theater 1943-45 is now on Kindle.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09...
Dale Medley wrote: "Hey all,Finally finished the second volume of Kirill Moskalenko's memoir. The Southwestern Theater 1943-45 is now on Kindle.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09......"
Did you enjoy it?
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Dale Medley wrote: "Hey all,Finally finished the second volume of Kirill Moskalenko's memoir. The Southwestern Theater 1943-45 is now on Kindle.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09......"
Well, I translated it. Did I enjoy it? Maybe like a root canal.
Dale Medley wrote: "Well, I translated it. Did I enjoy it? Maybe like a root canal."I should have made that clear it my message. When you've been working on something for over a year, it begins to seem like everyone in the world should know.
Dale Medley wrote: "Well, I translated it. Did I enjoy it? Maybe like a root canal."Hi Dale, my mistake, I didn't check who translated the book, I assumed you had just finished reading it :)
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Dale Medley wrote: "Well, I translated it. Did I enjoy it? Maybe like a root canal."Hi Dale, my mistake, I didn't check who translated the book, I assumed you had just finished reading it :)"
I did read it, like five hundred times. Pretty good, I think.
"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - Chapter 2: Decapitation of Polish Society:"The express desire to kill all Poles who 'could be bearers of Polish resistance in the future' meant that not even Polish schoolchildren were safe, especially when German retaliation for even the most trivial of incidents was often barbaric. On one occasion in the village of Obluze, near Gdynia (Gdingen) in what had now become Danzig-West Prussia, the German authorities arrested some fifty Polish schoolboys in response to the alleged smashing of a windowpane in the local police station on the night of 11 November 1939. The Germans demanded that the schoolboys name the culprit. Unable to learn who was responsible, they ordered the boys' parents to thrash them publicly in front of the church. When the parents refused, SS men brutally beat the schoolboys, shot ten of them and forbade the removal of the bodies, which lay for twenty-four hours in front of the church."
Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing by Alex J. Kay
"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - Chapter 2: Decapitation of Polish Society:"One of the most infamous mass-murder sites of the Intelligentsia Operation was Piaśnica Wielka (Groß Piasnitz) near Wejherowo in Danzig-West Prussia. From the second half of October 1939 until April 1940, between 10,000 and 12,000 inhabitants of Danzig, Gdynia, Wejherowo and Kartuzy (Karthaus), as well as 1,400 German psychiatric patients from several Pomeranian institutions, were killed in the woods around Piaśnica. One of the victims of the Piaśnica massacres was the head of the convent at Wejherowo, Sister Alicja Kotowska. She had been arrested by the Gestapo on 24 October 1939 during prayer. The nuns knew that one of the workers at the convent was an ethnic German. Before she left the convent, Sister Alicja declared: 'I forgive Franciszek for everything'. On 11 November, National Independence Day in Poland, Sister Alicja was among 314 Poles and Jews murdered at Piaśnica. The killings that day lasted from early morning until three in the afternoon. Men and women were led in groups of five to the previously dug graves and shot. Some of the victims were buried alive. Witnesses report that, as she was being transported from the prison to the execution site, Sister Alicja huddled with and comforted Jewish children who were also going to their deaths in Piaśnica. Though the post-war examination failed to identify her corpse, it did uncover a grave containing a rosary of the kind worn by the sisters of her order."
The massacres at Piaśnica:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacr...
https://muzeumpiasnickie.pl/en/massac...
"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - Chapter 2: Decapitation of Polish Society - Sister Alicja Kotowska:https://melanierigney.com/blog/cathol...
Dale, do you translate for some companies or do you choose yourself what books to translate? (I'm Russian, btw)
'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - Chapter 2: Decapitation of Polish Society:"The express desire to kill all Poles who 'could be bearers of Polish resistance in the future'..."
I am sure that had a calming effect on the population.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - Chapter 2: Decapitation of Polish Society:"One of the most infamous mass-murder sites of the Intelligentsia Operation was Piaśnica Wielka..."
Does the book actually say West Prussia, because I was of the understanding that Danzig became a part of East Prussia?
Dj wrote: "'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - Chapter 2: Decapitation of Polish Society:"One of the most infamous mass-murder sites of the Intelligentsia Operati..."
On that subject, the key element is "when?" I believe Danzig was traditionally part of West Prussia -- that is following the establishment of Prussian West Prussia (as opposed to Polish) as a result of the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. Even in the inter-World War period it stood separately from East Prussia, which was beyond the Frisches Haff. West Prussia, as an entity, was disestablished for a period during the 19th century, but recreated in 1878. During WW II, the Nazi government created the Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia.
This 1896 map shows Danzig in West Prussia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Pr...
This map of the German Empire show the same:
https://cdn.britannica.com/04/904-050...
This inter-war map show the Free City period with Danzig separate from East Prussia:
https://i.redd.it/i76sn72jb6v41.png
Check out:
The Vanished Kingdom: Travels Through The History Of Prussia by James Charles Roy.
Okay I see now. I found a better? map on Wiki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivi...
okay it is only better, in the sense that it is really pretty with colors and is specific to the German Occupation during WWII. LOL
Glad to see that MR9 answered that question while I was sound asleep, thank you :)
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Glad to see that MR9 answered that question while I was sound asleep, thank you :)"I didn't mean to butt in.
No, I'm glad you did, the time difference means I am usually safely tucked away in bed while most of the group are chatting away :)
"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - Chapter 2: Decapitation of Polish Society:"By the end of summer 1940, some 3,500 Poles regarded as politically dangerous - teachers, priests, political and social activists - had been shot as part of Operation AB. It had also cost the lives of about 3,000 common criminals. Ten thousand more were interned in concentration camps, including Sachsenhausen and Auschwitz, which had been specially built for this purpose. Taken together, Operation Tannenberg, the Intelligentsia Operation and Operation AB claimed the lives of up to 100,000 Polish civilians in the space of a year. On 2 October 1940, during a discussion with Governor General Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Vienna Baldur von Schirach, Gauleiter of East Prussia Erich Koch and the chief of staff of the Party Chancellery, Martin Bormann, Hitler justified the murder of the Polish intellectual elites as follows: 'The can only be one master for the Poles, and that is the German; [...] therefore, all representatives of the Polish intelligentsia are to be killed. This sounds harsh, but it is simply the law of life'. During a speech in the town of Srem (Schrimm) on 15 November, Arthur Greiser even invoked the Almighty to justify Germany's treatment of the Poles: 'When God introduced justice into the world, he also created hatred. And that is how we have learned to hate the Poles.' In June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the killings of Polish elites were extended to the eastern part of Poland, which had been annexed by the USSR in September 1939."
Operation AB and other German Operations:
https://www.polishnews.com/intelligen...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_...
Manray9 wrote: "'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Glad to see that MR9 answered that question while I was sound asleep, thank you :)"I didn't mean to butt in."
I am glad you put forward an answer as well. It is never butting in when you are sharing information.
"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - Chapter 6: Extermination of Captive Red Army Soldiers:"By the beginning of February 1942, that is, over the space of little more than seven months, 2 million Soviet prisoners of war had died or been murdered in German custody. This was almost 60 per cent of the 3.35 million Red Army soldiers captured during this period, most of them by the end of October 1941. On Reich territory, at least 265,000 Soviet POWs died during these months; this constituted a death rate of around 53 per cent. (By contrast, death rates among Polish and Soviet civilian forced labourers inside Germany were well below 10 per cent.) The fact that this rate of mortality was scarcely lower that the death rate in the POW camps east of the Reich's borders not only sheds an unmistakably clear light on living conditions for captive Soviet soldiers in Germany. It also throws into stark relief the common fate of Soviet POWs in German captivity regardless of their whereabouts, and give the lie to the claim that long transportation routes and the associated problems were to blame for the mass mortality. Over an extended period between October 1941 and February 1942, as many people died in a single large POW camp in the occupied Soviet territories as could be murdered during the same time span by an entire Einsatzgruppe. Indeed, as of winter 1941-42, captured Soviet troops constituted the largest single victim group of Nazi mass-killing policies."
Nazi Treatment of Soviet POW's:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/conten...
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/conten....
Some of the details in the book; "Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing", are too graphic to post. Accounts of how some German's killed infants and children in Russia and other areas are sickening. In all fairness the author did make this statement in his Introduction:"A word of warning: some readers may find this work harrowing to read. This might appear to be a rather banal or unnecessary statement to make about a book with the subtitle 'A History of Nazi Mass Killing'. It is true however, that I have not shied away from presenting the events in graphic detail. My purpose is not to shock or sensationalise. On the contrary: writing a sanitised version of these events would only succeed in making them appear more abstract; realism and accuracy would be sacrificed in favour of palatability. There is a moral obligation to the victims to tell their story as faithfully as possible. My extensive use of testimony from survivors and other victims hopefully goes some small way towards giving them a voice and treating them as individual huma beings rather than statistics. If this book is emotionally hard to read, let us for a moment imagine how infinitely more difficult it must have been for the victims to suffer the events described here."
Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing by Alex J. Kay
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Some of the details in the book; "Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing", are too graphic to post. Accounts of how some German's killed infants and children in Russia and other area..."I have this book sitting on a shelf right next to me--I'm thinking it might be awhile before I'm in the proper frame of mind to read it.
"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - So called anti-partisan operations on the Eastern Front, like Operation Bamberg, were really just extermination drives against the civilian population:"In the days before the operation began, the divisional commander, Brigadier Baron Gustav von Bechtolsheim, issued orders in which he pointed to the 'decidedly hostile' attitude of the civilian population to the Germans and demanded a 'most ruthless crackdown on men, women and children.' It was on this premise that 'Bamberg' commenced. Over the course of a week, the division surrounded the territory between Glusk, Parichi and Kopatkevichi and gradually tightened the envelopment. This was followed by the destruction of a series of villages within the pocket, the murder of their inhabitants and the plunder of all available foodstuffs. In their final report on the operation, the units involved recorded the shooting of 3,423 partisans and their accomplices (the actual figure was in the range of 5,000 to 6,000) at a cost of only 7 dead, 8 wounded and 3 sick on the German side. They furthermore reported the plunder of 2,454 head of cattle, 2,286 sheep, 312 pigs, 115 tons of grain and 120 tons of potatoes - livestock and food stolen from the civilian population at the end of a severe winter. By contrast, only 47 rifles and sub-machine guns were captured."
Operation Bamberg:
https://codenames.info/operation/bamb...
"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - Some more material from the author on German anti-partisan operations in Russia:"Looking at the paltry weapons haul from some of the aforementioned operations - 17 machine guns and 11 heavy weapons from Operation Hamburg; 133 weapons from Operation Hornung - compared with the huge death tolls, it is clear that the use of large-scale operations was not the effective way to fight the partisans. Describing an attack on a Soviet village in January 1943, Artur Wilke from the office of the commander of the Security Police in Minsk wrote: 'I have the inner conviction this evening that scarcely any real bandits were killed.' In fact, these operations were actually designed to kill Belarusian civilians rather than partisans as such. With their military fortunes in decline, the Germans resolved to wipe out those people who might conceivably provide aid to the partisan struggle behind German lines. Thus, German units stuck to the roads and targeted adjacent villages (especially those bordering forested areas) during the large-scale operations, and intentionally avoided forger deeper into wooded areas where actual partisans and their bases might be encountered. As the former drive of Einsatzkommando 8, Georg Frentzel, later stated: 'Our objective here was to deprive partisans in the forests of any opportunity to supply themselves with food, clothing, etc. from the villages.' The large-scale operations were a complete failure not only when it came to eliminating partisans, however, but also in their aim of cutting the partisans off from potential support networks. On the contrary: the brutality of German tactics only contributed to the growth of the partisan movement from 30,000 partisans in Belarus at the end of 1941 to 57.700 there in January 1943 and 122,600 in November 1943, which in turn led to even more desperate measures on the part of the Germans. Surprised by the number of bicycles found in partisan camps, the commander of the 1st SS Infantry Brigade, Karl von Treuenfeld, issued orders stating: 'Anyone bicycling must be shot'."
Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing by Alex J. Kay
Those are some pretty stark numbers AR. Tough reading.
Mike wrote: "Those are some pretty stark numbers AR. Tough reading."It has been a depressing read at times Mike!
I have moved this post by Scott to this thread:I was going to read "The End" by Ian Kershaw. I also have read "The Fall of Berlin" by Antony Beevor.
Is "The End" as good as Beevor's?
"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - From the chapter - Suppression of the Warsaw Uprising - the author covers in some detail the events of the Wola Massacres.The Wola Massacres:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wola_ma...
Witness accounts:
http://www.warsawuprising.com/witness...
"The Defeat of the Damned: The Destruction of the Dirlewanger Brigade at the Battle of Ipolysag, December 1944" - The Dirlewanger Sonderregiment during the Warsaw Uprising:"Losses throughout the battle were extremely high until nearly the end. Kampfgruppe Meyer alone, in three days of fighting from 5-7 August, was reduced from 356 to only 40 men after Meyer had fought his way through 5 kilometers of insurgent resistance to reach the Bruhl Palace. When the initial phase of the battle ended on 8 August, the combined combat strength of Meyer and Steinhauer's battalions - not including the regimental headquarters, headquarters, supply and heavy weapons companies - was only 120 men. After two months of more or less continuous combat in Warsaw, the portion of the regiment engaged in the battle reported having a combat strength on 8 October of only 648 men. Hundreds of its original members and over a thousand replacements has been killed, wounded, or declared missing during this 65-day period."
The Defeat of the Damned: The Destruction of the Dirlewanger Brigade at the Battle of Ipolysag, December 1944 by Douglas E. Nash
"The Defeat of the Damned: The Destruction of the Dirlewanger Brigade at the Battle of Ipolysag, December 1944" - The author mentioned the tank battle at Debrecen where the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Army suffered the loss of over 200 tanks on 12 October alone.Battle of Debrecen:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_....
"Opening the Gates of Hell: Operation Barbarossa, June–July 1941" - The German invasion has begun, and this incident took place near Deutsche Przemysl:"And on the very end of the German line, a small group of pioneers moved across the San unnoticed on three inflatable sacks to begin scouting the outposts of the Molotov Line on the western edge of the city. They found the 1,150ft-high Tartar's Hill, which dominated the valley, unoccupied, and seized three prisoners, including an artillery officer. 'Why didn't you shoot?' his interrogator asked. 'We didn't receive any orders to do so,' he said with a laugh, threw himself on the grass and asked for a cigarette."
Opening the Gates of Hell: Operation Barbarossa, June–July 1941 by Richard Hargreaves
"Opening the Gates of Hell: Operation Barbarossa, June–July 1941" - On some of the losses sustained by the Luftwaffe on the first day:"At least some of these losses had been inflicted by Soviet pilots taking desperate measures. Lieutenant Ivan Ivanov failed to stop a raid by Heinkel 111s of Kampfgeschwader 55 on the airfield at Dubno in Ukraine, but his Rata succeeded in catching up with Werner Bahringer's bomber as it returned to base. When his guns ran out of ammunition - or jammed - Ivanov crashed his fighter into the bomber, sending both tumbling towards to ground, killing all the occupants. Ivan Ivanov's deed would enter Soviet folklore as the taran ('battering ram'). It would earn him, posthumously, his nation's highest honour: Hero of the Soviet Union. And it would be repeated several time this day. Mid-morning, Dmitri Kokorev's formation of MiG-3s and Ratas intercepted Messerschmitt Me110s near Zambrow. In the ensuring dogfights, three Soviet and two German fighters were shot down. Out of ammunition, Kokorev used the propeller of his MiG-3 to smash the rudder of an Me110, causing it to crash, while the Soviet pilot succeeded in bringing his damaged fighter back to his airfield. Lieutenant Leonid Butelin lost his life when he drove his propeller into the rudder of one of several Ju88s which had attacked his airfield at Stanislav in Ukraine."
The Taran: Ramming in the Soviet Air Force by J.T. Quinlivan:
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand...
"Opening the Gates of Hell: Operation Barbarossa, June–July 1941" - A Russian armoured counterattack with some of the new KV tanks:"When the Red armour came into view, Sander's platoon opened fire, 'sending one salvo after another over'. Several T-26s went up in flames. But not the KVs. 'From time to time all of us cheer: hit! And then: crap! Despite very clear hits, the tank continues to calmly, slowly, and stubbornly roll.' Wilhem Sander reckoned every third round which left the barrel of his 3.7cm gun hit its target - but simply ricocheted off the Soviet tank 'in a wonderful curve'."
One another part of the front:
"1st Panzer Division reported that one KV-2 was hit 70 times - yet not a single shell penetrated its armour. Only at point-blank range - 100ft - did armour piercing shells seem to have any effect on the Soviets' 'big old lumps'."
Kliment Voroshilov tank:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kliment...
"Opening the Gates of Hell: Operation Barbarossa, June–July 1941" - A number of German soldiers reckoned that the Battle of Raseiniai was one of the hardest fought battles on the Eastern Front:http://www.avalanchepress.com/Raseini...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...
'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""1st Panzer Division reported that one KV-2 was hit 70 times - yet not a single shell penetrated its armour. Only at point-blank range - 100ft - did armour piercing shells seem to have any effect on the Soviets' 'big old lumps'."That had to be disconcerting...the western allies would have the same experience with German tanks.
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)
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)
Richard Hargreaves (other topics)
Richard Hargreaves (other topics)
Richard Hargreaves (other topics)
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[bookcover:Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the Europea..."
Great book, but cost prohibitive. Best to get as a Library Loan, which is what I had to do. It was written mostly with an eye to gamers, but still a wonderful book.