A WW1 report from the Eastern front
592946
Tremendous report on WW1.  Really a different war from WW2 on the Eastern front.  Still a huge waste of good soldiers. Written nearly 100 years ago.
1667903
"Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War 1941-1945", by Historian Evan Mawdsley, is a one-volume history of the war on the Eastern Front during World War II.  Mr Mawdsley is a Professor of International History at the University of Glascow, specializing in Russian History, and was able to take advantage of new studies and source material from the former Soviet Union when writing this book.

I'm somewhat of an amateur historian and own over 500 books on World War II.  Most of the books I've read about the Eastern Front tend to have a "German" slant, because until the last 15-20 years, the Soviet archives were not assessable to historians and what was released was highly censored, so German sources and accounts were primarily used.  In recent years, though, western historians such as David Glantz (as well as a younger generation of Russian historians) have been able to examine and incorporate newly released material into fresh examinations of the Soviet role in World War II and publish new accounts and analyses in English.

In this book, Mr Mawdsley examines the Soviet positions (and to a lesser extent the Germans ones) ... economically, militarily, politically ... and explains why the war unfolded as it did, and how things changed as time when on.  He gives overviews of the major battles, but in a refreshing change, he covers all of the Soviet offensives as well as the German ones.  (There were a lot of Soviet offensives that were dismal failures, which were officially "forgotten" on the Soviet side, and not really covered on the German side as they didn't result in major changes to their front.)  He also shows how each side's strategy evolved as the war went on, and what impact those changes had on the fighting.  This work is written more from the Soviet perspective rather than the German perspective, which is fine by me, as I already own a multitude of books from the German point-of-view.

This is the first book I've read that ties all aspects of the Soviet side of the war together in such a logical, compact, and yet complete manner.  It does not go into great depth on the battles themselves ... the book would have to be triple its length to even begin to provide that level of detail ... but it gives an outstanding overview, explanation, analysis, and summary of the war on the Eastern Front.  The only nit I have is that the book probably needs a few more maps.

I'm not given to gushing, but I've enjoyed this book as much as any I've read all year, and it's earned a place on my top shelf.  Mr Mawdsley's writing style is crisp and easy to digest, and he organized his material very well.  As I mentioned above, while this book is written more from the Soviet perspective, it was not biased toward either side in my opinion.  I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Eastern Front of World War II.
4289299
I really enjoyed this book, it was easy reading and gave a lot of interesting details of the eastern front as well as the life of a Stuka pilot. It was amazing how many tanks were destroyed by one pilot, I didn't realize how much damage Stukas did in the later parts of the war.
2962553
This latest book from Michael Jones covers the German offensive in 1941 to take Moscow, Operation Typhoon, and the subsequent Soviet counter-offensive, Hitler's first retreat. The author uses numerous first-hand accounts throughout the book, taken from German and Russian soldiers and Russian civilians.

The book is easy to read and offers a nice overview of this period but nothing too technical or in-depth, more of a general or popular historical narrative. There are a number of black & white photographs within the book that had been taken by the soldiers involved in this conflict.

Some of the first-hand accounts are quite graphic and quite a few I had not previously read before. Here are a few examples:

"Osadchinsky and his comrades reached a German forward position. `Before us was a scene of utter carnage,' he continued. `There were bodies of our soldiers, entangled in the barbed wire, and those of the enemy, littering the trenches, bayoneted or ripped apart by grenades.' Osadchinsky had fought the Germans with a burning hatred in his heart, and had shown their soldiers no mercy. But now, to his surprise, he felt a grudging respect for them. `They have followed the orders of their high command,' he thought, `and fought and died where they stood. What iron discipline! But what is the point of such senseless sacrifice? These men have shown real heroism - but I doubt whether their heroic deeds will ever be known or appreciated'."

From a German soldier: "There was the stink of frostbite, as men used the same bandage - pus-encrusted and stiff with scabs and rotted flesh - again and again. Some had long rags of blackened flesh hanging from their feet. It was snipped off. The bones were exposed, but with their feet wrapped in cloths and sacking, the men had to go on standing sentry duty and fighting......Everyone had diarrhoea, and one soldier was so enfeebled that he collapsed on the way to the doctor and froze to death. Older men developed rheumatism, and often screamed with pain. But we couldn't let anyone go."

Three maps are supplied within the text of a basic nature, but enough for the reader to have a general idea of the major locations mentioned and the major offensive movements. Overall this is a good and enjoyable (if you can say such a thing about a horrific conflict of this nature) book to read and offers a decent general narrative account for anyone who has not previously read about this period of history.
1286171
This is an overview of the great war written pretty soon after the events. (1922) Don't be fooled by a publish date of 2017. 2017 must refer to the electronic version.  It has no historical depth. It is not the result of a detailed look at German, French, and English archives. It is a straight forward narrative of the events of the war by an American history professor.

In his view, the war is all the Germans fault (yes, I agree), but he doesn't bother to lay out the German side. The author is hopelessly admiring of the allied hero's like Foch.  In what Universe could any WWI general be called great. Military thinking in 1914 was criminally incompetent. Just consider, it was 1916 before all European troops had metal helmets even though it was know before the war that the number one killer was shrapnel through the head from artillery.  This book is valuable as a window to what educated Americans thought about the war.
3184752
I found it both informative and interesting, Excellent insight into the trials and tribulations of the average German soldier on the Eastern front.
3354773
A bit detailed but for those that like this type of detail (myself included) it is fascinating. This area of WWI is often overlooked by the western theater in France but it is all connected. As the author shows, the war and individuals involved in the eastern theater influence and are influenced by the western front.

This is my first book by author Wawro but certainly not my last.
140169
Received book right away. Is an excellent summary of World War 1. There is enough detail in a small book to satisfy ones interest in the subject.
2346888
The details of World War One, which took place between 1914 and 1918 (the US got involved starting in 1917), have largely been forgotten as we get further away from it, and having a large chunk of World War Two occurring over the same territory didn't help. In World War One: A Layman's Guide, Scott Addington describes some of the root causes of the war (a lot of mutual treaties, nationalism, and fear) and then goes on to give a sort of "5,000 foot view" of the major battles and locations. Some items which I would be interested in are largely ignored - the battle in the air, for instance, where for the first time aerial combat occurred on a wide scale including fragile early airplanes and the huge Zeppelin Dirigible bombers. What is well described is the war on the ground, where thousands of men died in order to gain a few yards of mud - or, often enough, not to gain any at all. The early uses of chemical weapons is described - as is how they could be as dangerous to the side using them as they were to the other side.
The book is titled "A Layman's Guide" - and that is an accurate statement. It's not going to give you a Doctorate in History on the war and it's weapons, nor is it overly simplistic and detail free. It is an interesting read that offers enough detail to be educating without being so over-detailed that it would be useful as an insomnia cure. I liked it - and I learned more about a war that I didn't know that much about when I began reading it.
697318
Mikhin - Gun's Against the Reich

This is a good if not great memoir.  The author was a mathematics student in Leningrad when drafted to serve as a gunnery officer in the wake of the 1941 German invasion.  He served on the Leningrad front, at Kursk and its aftermath in 1943, and in the battles across the Ukraine in 1944.

Several points made an impression on me: 1) The Red Army soldiers were often amazed at the lavishness of food and material that they found in captured German positions - smoked sausages, large quantities of ammunition, clothing, etc. - which contrasted with their own meager supplies; 2) I had not appreciated to what degree the forward artillery observers were exposed to danger.  The author - who commanded a battery  - frequently had to cross "no man's land" under harrowing circumstances to reach a suitable place from which to watch the German positions and direct artillery fire.  I previously had the general impression that to be an artilleryman was much safer than being a front line infantryman, but this memoir opened my eyes; 3) Finally, it is clear that the Soviet troops operated under amazingly primitive conditions.  The author recounts that for one late winter night river crossing in 1944, the Red Army infantry simply tossed logs into the freezing water, leapt in after them, and kicked their way across the river while clinging to the logs, all in face of heavy German fire.

I'd recommend this for any reader interested in the Eastern Theater.
4643299
This is a well written and comprehensive treatment of the combat operations of WWI. there is just enough of the political precursors of the war to orient the reader to the causes of the war, without distracting from the combat itself.  The inclusion of the many individual stories of the participants gives it the impact necessary to begin to get at least the beginning of an understanding of the human suffering caused by this war.  The reader will find in the narration an understanding of not only the Second World War but the continuing conflicts of today.
3551687
Compiled and written by professional Soviet staff officers in a Glantz-style, this study provides a detailed look at the conduct of some major operations of the Second World War, insufficiently covered by historians, and offers a rare insight into the Red Army's conduct of the war at the operational-strategic level.
This volume is consisting of seven parts, corresponding to the operations conducted, each drawn from a different source, in our case, articles that appeared in various military journals during 1947-1965.

These operations include the massive Vistula-Oder operation (covered in 66 pages in Part II), East Prussian Operation (almost 200 pages, Part III), East Pomeranian offensive (Part IV with 30 pages) or Lower & Upper Silesian operations (Parts V-VI, almost 200 pages combined). Part I is the smallest (only 18 pages), written by General S.M. Shtemenko, and can be regarded as an Introduction to these operations.
As I expected from ex-Soviet postwar studies, the book is highly Soviet centric and communist/propagandistic in nature; however, it contains valuable information about Soviet strategic planning during winter 1944 - spring 1945.

This study divides the presented operations into some identical main parts: preparations, conduct of operations, results and brief conclusions. Usually, each section contains valuable information on the overall correlation of forces, equipment and troops' densities along the breakthrough sectors and Soviet plans for supplying the offensive, detailed information regarding the employment of the various Soviet combat arms, etc.
In all operations described, the situation of the German forces and their maneuvers/actions are slightly covered. It is pretty much a one-side show; only enemy losses are shown and very inflated, as the Soviet successes.

The last part is consisting of 58 documents generated by Stavka during 1944-1945 relating to strategic and operational conduct of the various operations.
Eventually, the book includes seven b&w maps, 49 tables and no photos. Maps are excellent, but only after you acquire a magnifying glass in order to see the micro-units displayed.
In spite of the fine translation and editing job of Dr. Harrison, the total lack of objectivity make this book recommended only for a very narrow audience and with limited scope.
1667257
By 1918, the war to end all wars was in its fourth year.  Germany had consolidated its defenses on the Western Front in what was known as the Hindenburg Line, designed to protect its overstretched army while maintaining its territorial gains.  The French and British armies were reaching the limits of their respective manpower pools, while the relatively untrained American army was only just arriving in numbers.  There seemed to be no end in sight.

British Field Marshal Haig planned a huge offensive for late September 1918.  In it, British, British Commonwealth, French and American troops would hammer a portion of the Hindenburg Line.  Into this offensive went all the lessons learned from the years of trench warfare.  Against it, Germany matched its demonstrated ability to reposition reserves and counterattack.

The fighting raged from 27 September to 08 October.  Author Alistair McCluskey documents the fighting, making sense of the troop movements, attacks, and counterattacks through narrative, battle diagrams, period photographs, and illustrations by Peter Dennis. The author's concluding analysis is worth the trip.  Highly recommended as a concise introduction to the conclusion of the Great War on the Western Front.
2766965
An excellent insight into the battle tactics of WW1 that were successful and rarely discussed or understood since 1918. Some bias on behalf of the author is to be expected but this first hand account of the decisive year of the war is interesting, informative and a good read for anyone wanting to understand the real challenges faced by military planners and the very creative means they employed to overcome these challenges.
1101941
This book is written from the author's own experiences during WW1. Excellent and interesting outlook on a different part of the Great War. He tells about the food,  treatment of prisoners , idle time spent playing cards and times of battle action. He was finally released among others in Denmark.
719159
Good review of just how bloody and vicious the Eastern Front was during WWII. Written from memory or a diary shortly after the War, but not published for many years.
Not for the squeamish!!
2947042
This is an excellent account on how "The Great War" affected all of the nations that participated in "WW 1" and some who did not.
England, France and Germany/Austria as well as Russia were bled dry in men and treasure.  Italy and the United States also suffered crippling losses that affected the future as well.
It is well written and reads like a conversation. I really liked this book