The German Defeat in the East: 1944-45 (Stackpole Military History Series)

The rating of 4 stars is conditional. If you're a newcomer or have a casual need this book is a quick read and will give you a basic understanding of the Soviet offensive from June 1944 to Feb 1945 from a German perspective. If you have greater demands the rating falls to 3 stars for as an overview it doesn't drill down tactically sufficiently for your needs and there are gaps in the action. I bought the book with a specific intention in mind. I just recently read "Soviet Blitzkrieg" the fine book by Walter Dunn which has a Russian perspective of Operation Bagration and wanted to compare the two books for similarlities and accuracy but it will be difficult to do for the two books have two different levels of detail. Some comparisons will be made but not to the degree needed. The Dunn book spends nearly 250 pages on just the first phase of Operation Bagration while Mr Mitcham's book also covers the offensive against AGN being pushed back into the Baltics (Courtland Pocket) while AGNU, in the south, is pushed back into Rumania and Hungary in about the same number of pages.It seems a little strange to end the book in Feb but there is a lot to cover in the last 2 months of the war and it was probably beyond the publisher's page limits or maybe they both wanted to milk another book. If reading a predominately German perspective is disagreeable for being onesided, then let me suggest reading Walter Dunn, David Glantz or John Erickson to see the Russian side.There are a number of positive attributes of the book that makes it worth 4 stars. Though the tactical coverage is an overview and doesn't have the detail of the Dunn book or a Glantz book, the information is creditable and informative. You can learn from it. There are bios of Model and Busch, the two commanders of AGC. I knew both generals were loyal Nazis but didn't realize Busch was such a devoted lapdog of Hitler and would mindlessly follow all orders regardless of the consequences. There are also many other lesser ranks discussed throughout the narrative which was interesting. Many of them you just don't read about in other books and I applaud the author for including them in the story. There were photos of some of these less known German soldiers as well. The author is very succinct in desrcibing the huge superiority of men, tanks and guns the Soviets had against the Germans by this time. The author frequently gives statistics with his narrative.The author also provides Orders of Battle for each front discussed. I also learned about the Kaminsky Brigade which General Schmidt insituted in the Orel district to help police the civilians. There is also brief coverage of the Warsaw Uprising.The coverage did have some background info on Rumania and Hungary which for the casual reader means not necessarily having to buy another book on this secondary front.There were many maps, and though they're simple, did help to explain the narrative. Besides the photos of the German soldiers, there are other photos to peruse.There is a useful Appendix that displays Rank Equivalents, Unit Strengths, Tank Characterstics and Staff Abbreviations. There is also a useful Index that will help you find any of the many army units that were discussed.Though I was disappointed in some respects - there were gaps in the action and there wasn't enough tactical detail or analysis, I get the impression that despite the terseness the author knows his subject matter and for the right person, this overview would be satisfactory.

Well written. Provides the right amount of detail and drama. I would recommend it not only as an entertaining read, but as a good reference.

Outstanding book! Great order of battle; useful maps.

The book offers interesting details about certain events and people - details that you cannot easily find in the common accessible literature. Although some details are imprecise I consider this book a valuable starting point for any amateur reseracher.

This book is an embarrassment.As a work of history, it would have been an embarrassment if it had been written at the height of the Cold War, but at least it would have had that "excuse".Another reviewer had already pointed out the copious use of the term "Reds" for the (always faceless) Soviet Army. The idiosyncratic writing style in its portrayal of the gallant German military including the SS. The rather convenient early note of excluding discussing the Holocaust and other atrocities thus making no mention of scorched Earth, mass executions of civilians as partisans.I was willing to slog through, as I was eager for any resource on the Eastern front of this specific time, where so much of the WW2 literature written in English is focused on the US, the UK or the ANZACs. Both my grandfathers fought on the German side in WW2, but passed away before I was old enough to ask the right questions and understand the answers. One fought extensively on the Eastern front, was wounded several times and probably only survived and escaped becoming a POW of the Soviets by being transferred to fight the US some time 1944/45. Only books can now tell me what it must have been like.I could only get to page 69 (of the paperback edition) and reading "although it is never popular among American pro-Socialist apologists - and their intellectual brethren - ..." and put the book away with disgust, not to open it again until I sat down to write this review. Hence my review covers only part of this work.Nobody would have flinched had this been written in the 1950s in the witch cauldron of McCarthyism, but in 2001? Maybe it's a result of the high-water of neo-conservative triumphalism, I don't know and won't speculate.I suppose among those "American pro-Socialist apologists" he would count the writers of that bastion of the Comintern and the Fifth Column of the Communist Revolution - namely, the Foreign Military Studies Office and the Combat Studies Institute of Fort Leavenworth, KS.Colonel David M. Glantz analyses the one-sidedness of descriptions of the Eastern Front due to having been able to only access the (strongly apologist) German and other Western writing. While Soviet writing was either inaccessable during the Cold War or massively false until the post-Stalin revisions of his conduct of the "Great Patriotic War". He blames much of the one-sidedness on German authors, but maybe he should look more closely at what some Americans, such as Samuel Mitcham produce.Lt Colonel William used Operation Bagration as an example of Deep Attack back in 1987. Neither of these officers of the US Army are likely to be pro-Soviet in any way.This was just the final straw for me, but it was a slog even before then.The maps are all but useless and unreadable. Even when reading and cross-referencing along with the text it is near impossible to make out troop actions and deployments. Admittedly the fiasco of the AGC made it hard to work out movements and the Russian onslaught whirled the Wehrmacht around like leaves by a leafblower.Then there are gems like this (page 53) - refrring to Russian partisans murdering wounded or fleeing German troops: "Guerillas are frequently very brave when fighting against unarmed prisoners, the wounded, defenseless women, small children, and babies."Just what is the author trying to say here? Partisans, very nearly by definition, are forces fighting behind enemy lines on the occupied territory of their homeland. Is Mitcham saying that Russian partisans committed atrocities against Russian women and children (as opposed to the Wehrmacht and SS)? That the later atrocities against the German population weren't committed by the Red Army but by partisan units? When did they accompany the main Soviet armed forces?!And not one word on the war crimes of the German occupiers (which turned the initially pro-German population against them). Committed by both SS and the Wehrmacht.For probably 30 years or more the myth of the "criminal SS" and the "gentlemanly Wehrmacht, abused by Hitler" has been thoroughly debunked. This isn't anti-German propaganda, this has been documented in trial after trial, from Nuremberg onward. There are reams of documents, written orders, photographic evidence - if Mitcham makes any reference to them beside a brief statement in the Introduction and a caption in the image section, I just couldn't make myself dig for it.If Mitcham wants to exclude discussion of atrocities to focus on military action, that's fine, but then do that for both sides.The parts that should be most important in this book, the description of the military actions are as unsatisfying as the rest of it. The author drops rapid listing of units, jumping back and forth willy nilly. Interspersed are anecdotal bits that don't do anything, as they aren't detailed enough to give a personal touch and only serve to derail the already torturous flow of the rest of the text.Professor David Reynolds of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archived at King's College London wrote that "Stated bluntly, the deepening Cold War froze our understanding of the Second World War in many important respects. And although the Cold War is now over, I think we have still not entirely escaped its frosty grip on the historiography of 1939-45."Looking at this book, it's sadly true.

Great Book or DVD

Another great book from the Stackpole Stable.It chronicles the Russian Army's defeat of Army Group Centre in Operation Bagration from theaftermath Kursk to the gates of Berlin. Good points, very clearly & concisely written with separate appendices at the end of each chapter giving a detailled thumbnail biography of the main characters involved. Clear & easy to follow maps.Not so good, the author's modern Americanisations in the text where T34's are "blown away" and the Russian Army is constantly referred to as "the Reds".Appendix 3 also has an unfortunate missprint where,in detailling the major tanks of the period, each has 100mm added to it's gun calibre so that a T34 has a 176mm gun & the Tiger a amazing 188mm weapon.That said, it is still a fine effort & well worth adding to my eastern front collection.