Recommended litterature for eastern front ?

[Nikademus]

I'm not "officially" a player yet. (gotta fit WitE into the budget sometime this winter/spring) but right now i'm in the middle of Volume 2 of Glantz's massive 3 volume series on Stalingrad. Great read.....highly recommended. Explains and shows well how the Germans could hold off and routinely defeat their opponents despite the latter often having a great edge in material and men.

[henri51]

ORIGINAL: henri51

To follow the war by use of maps, the West Point series (I forget the exact title-Iam at work...). is very good. I don't have the one on the Eastern Front, but the one on the Pacific War is excellent and although there is no text except for what is on the maps, the map explanations are very clear.There are accompanying textbooks that go with the map books, but I don't have any of them.

Henri

Edit: The book is "The West Point Atlas of the Second World War", and it is used to teach cadets at West Point. I found the Atlas of the Pacific War invaluable in playing WiTP-AE".

[sanch]

"Russia at War", by Alexander Werth. Born in St. Petersburg, he was a correspondent in Moscow for much of the war. His viewpoint is pretty much that of the Russian people themselves. Not strong on military details, but very good on the flavor of the war from the Soviet side.

He took a road trip to the Chir River region in Feb, 1943. He was at a crossroads one night while the Russian army was streaming west after mopping up Stalingrad. His description of the bonfires for warmth and the trucks, horses, even camels all headed west and all loaded with stuff is something waiting to be put to film.

Also,"The 900 Days - the Siege of Lenngrad", by Harrison Salisbury. If you want to know what the starvation rule really means, this book is for you.

I also second "Hitler Moves East", by Paul Carell. I read it in high school, and several times since, as well as "Panzer Battles" by F.W. von Mellenthin.

[abulbulian]

ORIGINAL: timmyab

Panzer Battles - Mellenthin
Mellenthin was the chief of staff of 48th panzer corp from late 1942 onwards so was very much in the thick of it.The first half of the book deals with his experiences in North Africa under Rommel.

+1 was a great read!

[Fletcher]

Any one from Paul Carell, I can recommend that I have:

- Stalingrad
- Operation Barbarrosa (photo album)
- Scorched Earth

Best wishes
Fletcher

[morganbj]

ORIGINAL: Fletcher

Any one from Paul Carell, I can recommend that I have:

- Stalingrad
- Operation Barbarrosa (photo album)
- Scorched Earth

Best wishes
Fletcher

Paul Carell

I also liked Carell's works. They're a little weak on the overall strategies involved, but excellent at ubderstanding what the guy with boots on the gound experienced. I also liked his books on Normandy and Afrika.

[bwheatley]

ORIGINAL: timmyab

Panzer Battles - Mellenthin
Mellenthin was the chief of staff of 48th panzer corp from late 1942 onwards so was very much in the thick of it.The first half of the book deals with his experiences in North Africa under Rommel.

+1 one of my first reads years ago and it's an amazing book. He makes a point of talking about how tenacious the russians are. About the fact you must always destroy any Russian bridgeheads before night fall or the next day it will be unbreakable.

Another good read is "panzer commander" by hans von luck.

Good read
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss? ... ck&x=0&y=0

[CMoore]

This isn't exactly literature, but I got it years ago to help me while playing Avalon Hills Russian Front, dug it out again for AE, since my Pacific knowledge was always lacking, and now I always have it out with WITE

http://www.amazon.com/War-Maps-Septembe ... 553&sr=8-1

ORIGINAL: Johnnie

War Without Garlands (Kershaw) is good for atmosphere, but doesn't contain much discussion of strategy. Main fault is few and inadequate maps. I can't imagine why an author or publisher would think an English speaking readership would have memorized a detailed map of European Russia (or would always have a Russian atlas conveniently at hand.) This is a common failing in military history which I could never understand (a pet peeve of mine.)

[solops]

Bryan Fugate - Operation Barbarossa - 1984 - a 'revisionist' history done after the Soviets began opening their archives. Very good, maybe the best Barbarossa book. Recasts the entire 'look' of the eastern front. A 'must' read.

Timothy A. Wray - Standing Fast: German Defensive Doctrine on the Russian Front During World War II - 1986 - US Army War College - A facscinating and compelling re-evaluation of Hitler's "stand fast" order written by a professional military man for military men.

[Skacee]

I have just went over something interesting about german tactics from U.S. War Department "Handbook On German Military Forces" on internet - http://mr-home.staff.shef.ac.uk/hobbies/doctrine.txt.

[Rasputitsa]

Just finished - Barbarossa, The German Campaign in Russia, Planning and Operations (1940-1942) - Dr.R. Gordon Grant, small book, looks like a low budget production. Almost entirely from the German side, as the title suggests, reviews the planning process, Fuhrer Directives, OKH orders, memorandum and letters during the lead-up and execution of the 1941 and '42 campaigns.

Doesn't go into huge detail, but you don't often see these items set out in sequence, they are usually buried in much larger books and obscured by other details.

As WiTE player and with some hindsight you wonder what they were thinking about, the assumptions made, the changing of objectives and how out of touch these directives and orders became, especially in late 1941. It like watching a slow motion train wreck. The book also indicates how weak the majority of German units had become after the winter of '41 and how desperately short of everything they were.

Finally the command crisis in September 1942, when Hitler seems to realise that the war in Russia cannot be won and that, consequently, the war is lost. [:)]

[dwyche]

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is an excellent personal account of the life of a landser in the Grossdeutschland division

[Tullius]

In German is published das "Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht" ("War Diary of the Wehrmacht High Command". It contains many interesting background informations. Generally all german titels shoud be read with a little distance. Sometimes the author was involved in events and historians are more interested in ideology and looking only for "proper" facts. Memories of russian generals were available in the former GDR (East Germany).

[EisenHammer]

ORIGINAL: dlazov66

Has anyone read or have an opion on  Brian Taylor two volume set:

Barbarossa to Berlin Volume One: The Long Drive East: 22 June 1941 to November 1942
(Barbarossa to Berlin a Chronology of the Campaigns on the Eastern Front 1941-45) (Vol 1) - Brian Taylor

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1862272069/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=A1BLS9JEA2NMDL

Barbarossa to Berlin Volume Two: The Defeat of Germany: 19 November 1942 to 15 May 1945
(Chronology of the Campaigns on the Eastern Front 1941-45) - Brian Taylor

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/186227228X/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=AB892GDNBN4AE

I have both of them, as a chronology your not going to get any better than this anywhere. I found both books entertaining and mostly accurate. There are some mistakes but they are minor, the books give an excellent feel of how massive the War in the East really was. IMHO they are keepers.

[Davekhps]

Just wanted to mention that my Amazon copy of Volume 1 of Glantz's new "Barbarossa Derailed" showed up this week.
 
This thing is HUGE.  And it's only Volume 1!  Volume 2 will continue the story, Volume 3 will be archival German and Soviet letters, orders, and memos, Volume 4 will be all newly-commissioned maps.  It's extraordinary the level of effort put into this thing, Glantz has really taken it to the next level.
 
(And thankfully, a hundred pages in the book is far more readable than some of his denser efforts-- I'd say more "Kursk" than "Leningrad" or "Balkans.")
 
I'm shocked that a guy getting that far up there in age (he's nearing 70) can still be so prolific, but it's very welcome.

[Swayin]

The Battle of Kursk by David Glanz
Blood Red Snow by Gunther Koschorrek
In Deadly Combat by Gottlob Bidermann
The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer
The 900 Days: the Siege of Leningrad by Harrison Saulsbury

Just a start ... enjoy!

[Zebedee]

DRZW is excellent if aging in parts now. Glantz is enjoyable and has done wonders in making some of the Soviet records accessible to non-Russian speakers.

Tooze's Wages of Destruction provides critical understanding (in English) of the more recent research into the German war economy. For those who read German and wish to track this movement away from the Speer mythology, it's worth following up on his notes and bibliography.

Harrison's work on the SU economy (eg Accounting for War) is fairly groundbreaking in reconciling Soviet figures with outside guesstimations and suspicions.

Krivosheyev presents an interesting take on Soviet losses during the war in Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. Sometimes flawed in methodology as far as the Soviet figures are concerned (eg NKVD losses are usually not added in) and exceptionally erroneous as far as he touches upon German losses.

Creveld's Supplying War remains seminal in its coverage of logistics though it would be worth revisiting in the light of some of the more recent archival research.

For operational history, Ziemke and Bauer's works (eg Moscow to Stalingrad: Decision in the East[/i) are excellent. Note however they focus on the operational decisions and decision making processes although this provides for some interest contrasts to the post-war works of the German generals themselves.

Bergstrom's Barbarossa: The Air Battle July-December 1941 is superb on the time period covered. Murray's Strategy for Defeat remains the seminal overview of the LW at war, albeit one which is fraying badly round some of its edges.

[EisenHammer]

Michael Jones The Retreat: Hitler’s First Defeat, is a good book to read for Operation Typhoon.

[randallw]

ORIGINAL: solops

Bryan Fugate - Operation Barbarossa - 1984 - a 'revisionist' history done after the Soviets began opening their archives. Very good, maybe the best Barbarossa book. Recasts the entire 'look' of the eastern front. A 'must' read.

That book is from about 1983-1984; the follow up, after the fall of the Iron Curtain and all that jazz, is Thunder On The Dnepr, which I have been reading lately. Bought a used copy on the internet with a gift certificate. Net cost under $1.

[von Beanie]

There's a new (2010) book that is the daily diary of a German soldier who managed to survive the first three years of the war. It is called Eastern Inferno. I highly recommend it if you can handle all of the mutilation stories.
 
One thing that surprised me is that he described daily Russian strafing and bombing attacks as his division (299th) approached Kiev. I had always had the impression that the Russian air force was too weak to operate regularly just after the campaign began. He also described at least two Russian paradrop commando operations that summer against the division HQ. There's lots of incredible stories in this book. It is the best firsthand account of the eastern front since Guy Sager's The Forgotten Soldier, which I would also recommend.