Book Reviews - Eastern Front

[@AndersBjornTH]

Vasily Grossman, Russian journalist’s account of the great patriotic war, “Life and Fate.” Considered by many as the greatest 20th century book in Russian literature.

[@quaver1239]

Have read a few of Vasily Grossman books, including this. You are right; it is a great book. Another two are "The Road" and "A Writer at War."

[@AndersBjornTH]

@@quaver1239 works by Timothy Snyder and Anne Applebaum on the Holocaust and Holodomor are also quite interesting.

[@terrym3837]

The Glantz trilogy on Stalingrad is detailed day by day but they aren’t an easy read and can be a long slog,but if it’s detail you want then Glantz books have it

[@Chiller11]

Thanks for those reviews. I’m just beginning to contemplate the importance of the SinoJapanese campaigns. There seem to be parallels between the war in China and the Eastern Front in that the geography was expansive and the scope of the conflict both in military and civilian costs was both enormous and largely ignored.

[@standyl2268]

Dr. Roman Töppel's book: Kursk 1943 is outstanding.

[@KrisV385]

This is great. Love having someone with Paul's knowledge share a reading list so I can focus on reading good books on a broad topic like the Eastern Front.

[@WW2TV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@quaver1239]

Thank you so much. The first lot of book reviews I've found on KZbin. Very, very interesting. Hope you will bring us more reviews in due course.

[@WW2TV]

There are several other book reviews on the channel kzbin.info/aero/PLDG3XyxGI5lCxhQZvZSN5NhVNySocWA3E&si=RJ9vwzzeF06-qqmO

[@quaver1239]

The first book (published 1993) about the Bielski brothers and their Jewish partisan group was by Nechama Tec, the story having been told to her by Tuvia Bielski two weeks before he died in 1987. It was upon this book that the movie, Defiance (with Daniel Craig), was based. An excellent work of non-fiction.

[@ivoferin8176]

LHM books are great! Glantz Imo is the expert on the eastern front. They are heavy to read but he is methodic in showing daily events of specific battles. Consult value is also huge for Glantz. Buttar is also great in that he processes events and turn them into a compelling narrative.

[@davidlavigne207]

I've recently just finished Ian MacGregor's book "The Lighthouse of Stalingrad" and it was superb reading. It was very much reminiscent of "Enemy at the Gates" by William Craig which was adapted from "War of the Rats" by David L. Robbins. I definitely got the impression of how demoralizing it was to be in Stalingrad whether Russian or German, but especially for the Germans. I highly recommend watching the WW2TV presentation about the book. I'll have to check out "Islands on Fire" by Jason Mark as the "Red Barricades" factory district was so important in the Soviet defenses. I am waiting to read Elizabeth Wein's "A Thousand Sisters" as it is on my list, but must order Lyuba Vinogradova's books soon as well. Those were excellent presentations as well. Thanks for the opinions WW2TV. What a great job you do to bring us this opportunity to learn Woody. Well done Sir!

[@meddy833]

Great review, and points you made. I think most people only have ever seen the WESTERN version of the Eastern Front which was suppressed and propagandized throughout the Cold War. Now, because of the work of the authors mentioned and shows like this, people who are interested in the REALITY of the scale and scope of fighting on the Eastern Front, now have a chance to learn it properly, from both sides. Thanks for all you do Sir.

[@TerryDowne]

Read Stahel's "Retreat From Moscow." It's a very good book, but he seems to suggest that Moscow was a German victory because the German Army survived. I don't think I'd go that far, but he clearly knows his staff.

[@sevenonthelineproductionsl7524]

One excellent read from this past spring was Dennis Showalter's Armour and Blood. I read Glantz's book on Kursk in the pandemic and it was a slog but Showalter really nails the battle on a day by day level, and includes analysis of the behavior of Germans towards Soviet POWs during the battle which I appreciated. Great addition to the historiography of the battle.

[@k-9mantrailing324]

Thanks for these recommendations. Given your comments on modern day Ukraine, I have been wondering why there is not way more news reporting, including reports from journalists on the ground, on the situation in Ukraine. In past conflicts we had daily reporting of the fighting from people on the ground. Have you wondered the same? The only thing I have really read is that the fighting is a modern version of Kursk. Also, I have seen reports of 400 thousand dead Ukrainians- this is an unbelievable number.

[@andrewskitt8676]

My first learning about the eatern front was "Johnny Red" in Battle picture weekly 😁. Maybe you can do a show on that? Keep up the good work 👍

[@WW2TV]

Great suggestion! I think I talked about Johnny Red in my Graphic Novels and comic reviews

[@marks_sparks1]

03:13 having watched so many great shows on the Holocaust and the Eastern Front on WW2TV, I'm now fully converted to Pauls belief that the Holocaust and the Eastern Front are inseparable. And museums should not have separate areas to both events because subconsciously, it's reinforcing the Clean Wehrmacht myth, which needs to die a quick death. I'm sure museums aren't doing to show respect to the victims by having the Holocaust separate, but the German war effort goes hand in hand in with the extermination policy. And as the recent show on German trains in occupied territory has displayed, when it comes to who has primacy in desicion making on the Eastern Front, extermination policy wins out all the time.

[@TerryDowne]

Glantz is dry, yes, but if you want detail he has it. He writes like an official historian and his style reminds me of the US Army Green Books, but I can cope with that just fine.

[@ivoferin8176]

Stahel books are great but he only covers Barbarossa and preparations and policy into Barbarossa.

[@stevemolina8801]

A very interesting book is SMERSH - Stalins Secret Weapon by Vadim Birstein

[@scottkrater2131]

Cross Of Iron, by German Eastern front veteran Willi Heinrich. It's fiction but a good read. WW2 version of All Quiet on the Western Front.

[@vgramatski]

@WW2TV Paul, two (albait belated) reading recommendations in English from based on your comments - "Red Wind over the Balkans" by Kaloyan Matev and "Bulgarian Fighter Colours Volume 1/2" by Denes Bernad. These are quite different but incredibly well researched books dealing with, suprise, the Balkan theater. Both are hardcover, lavish volumes with excellent prints, tons of photos, references and charts. The first is precisely in the context of the Eastern Front, as Bulgaria was occupied by the Red Army in September 1944 and then follow-up offensives by the Soviet Ukranian 3rd Front against Belgrade and the Bulgarian Army towards Kosovo in an effort to cut off the retreating German Army Group E. The book goes into great detail in the political context in the Balkans in 1944 in preliminary chapters, followed by extensive descriptions of day-to-day operations of all warring sides. The second recommendation may at first glance seem aimed towards aviation and scale modeling enthusiasts but it is also an incredibly detailed study of the efforts of the fighter arm of the Royal Bulgarian Air Force to stop the USAAF's 15th and RAF's strategic bombing campaign against Bulgaria, it's capital city of Sofia in particular, in 1943-1944. The air war, especially the "late war" air battles, over the Balkans are virtually unknown in the West. And, while they are indeed smaller in scale compared to the massive air campaign over Germany, they were nonetheless big, bloody aerial battles of hundreds(!) of planes at a time. I'll leave you to check the conclusions of the author but suffice to say that the "minor" Axis air force did fare suprisingly well against the USAAF, mostly due to it's well trained and highly motivated, if not combat experienced, fighter pilots.

[@WW2TV]

Thank you

[@gnosticbrian3980]

Why do folks criticise the Soviet Union for sharing with the Nazis in the breakup of Poland but they never criticise Poland for sharing in the breakup of Czechoslovakia? At noon on 30 September, 1938, Poland gave an ultimatum to the Czechs giving Prague until noon the following day to evacuate an area with a population of 227,399 people. Why do folks also fail to mention that, prior to the Molotov Ribbentrop pact, the Soviets had spent the best part of a year trying to get an agreement with Britain and France. The Brits sent a very low-level delegation by slow boat and with no powers of negotiation. When Stalin offered 300 divisions to defend Poland, Britain offered 1 [a whole ONE!]. At that point, the Soviets realised that Britain and France were not serious and did a quick, dirty deal to allow the reconstruiction of their army.

[@davidlavigne207]

Never have I have heard of this fact. Thanks. I always thought there was more to the story than we have heard.

[@JuleyC]

They also had a non-aggression treaty with Germany well before the Molotov Ribbentrop one.

[@gnosticbrian3980]

Who had?@@JuleyC

[@JuleyC]

@@gnosticbrian3980 Poland

[@gnosticbrian3980]

Thanks for the clarification.@@JuleyC

[@gordy3714]

Paul is Victor Kamenir the only guy who has covered the Battle of Dubno. Info seems to be scarce.

[@gagamba9198]

Have you read Alexey Isaev's _Dubno 1941: The Greatest Tank Battle of the Second World War_ ? The translation is a bit clumsy. A bit more pro Red Army biased than Kamenir.

[@georgepress1261]

You really should have tik on your show. Definitely the books you preview on stalingard tik use for his battlestorm stalingard series

[@WW2TV]

Never going to happen

[@JuleyC]

@@WW2TV My heart skips a happy beat every time I see you say this. As good as his Stalingrad series maybe/is his arrogance and opinionated self is trying to put up with in any of his other videos.

[@ComVlad]

Particulary in the context of the Holocaust/war crimes I would highly recommend Stephen G Fritz's "Ostkrieg: Hitler's war of Extermination in the East". Excellent combination of an accessible general history of the war in the east and a good deconstruction of the clean Wehrmacht myth

[@BlackMan614]

Great reviews!!! You covered them all, except maybe George Nipe Jr? Or is he too controversial due to his Waffen SS books?

[@WW2TV]

I've not read his books

[@BlackMan614]

@@WW2TV AFAIK, he is the first historian to question the narrative of Prochorovka being the largest tank battle of WW2 and the claim of 400 destroyed tanks.

[@WW2TV]

Ben Wheatley will be on at some point to talk about that subject. His book will be the definitive one on the subject I think www.amazon.com/Panzers-Prokhorovka-Hitlers-Greatest-Armoured/dp/1472859081

[@terrym3837]

The Eastern front stands alone in its barbarism and lack of any humanity