Matrix Games Forums

Many of the Matrix forums have this kind of thread where people ask for book recommendations on the subject game. So instead of asking I'll offer a few and hope others add their favorites to the list.

In Deadly Combat by Gottlob Biderman. His personal account of life and death on the Eastern Front from a German perspective.

Barbarossa The Russian-German Conflict 1941-45 by Alan Clark. A pretty good overview of the campaign although I prefer the next book over this one for a higher level look at the Eastern Front.

When Titans Clashed by Col. David Glantz and Jonathan House. This one covers the entire Great Patriotic War. Some people find Glantz books rather dry but you can't fault his meticulous research.

Other books by Glantz on individual campaigns I would recommend:

Kharkov 1942: Anatomy of a Military Disaster
Zhukov's Greatest Defeat: The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942
The Battle of Kursk

Russia at War 1941-1945 by Alexander Werth

Stalin's Generals by Harold Shukman

Hitler's Generals by Correlli Barnett

Panzer Battles by Maj. Gen. F.W. Von Mellenthin

Aces of the Reich by Gordon Williamson

Unternehmen Barbarossa and Verbrannte Erde from Paul Carrel. Those are my all time favorites.

I'd also recommend the memoirs of Guderian: Erinnerungen eines Soldaten and Manstein: Verlorene Siege.

Guess all these books got translated to English.

Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin by Anthony Beevor
I'll second anything by Glantz, in particular When Titans Clashed
Also agree with the Barbarossa recommendation.

Forgot about Beevor. Stalingrad should be on my shelf as well.

Agree with the statement on some of David M Glantz books being a bit dry however any done in collaboration with Jonathan M. House are superbly detailed but easy reading.
His latest To the Gates of Stalingrad, volume one in a trilogy is excellent, as is The Battle of Kursk.
Tony Le Tisser has two books Marshall Zhukov at the Oder and The Battle of Berlin which are terrific all with good maps.
And finally The Korsun Pocket by Niklas Zetterling and Anders Frankson is in the same mould.

For what it's worth I would recommend any of the above mentioned books.

This is not a plug but Amazon has some great offers and are hard to beat, also e-bay is the place for seconded hand books.

I'd also recommend Absolute War by Bellamy. A good single volume history.

Agree with the statement on some of David M Glantz books being a bit dry however any done in collaboration with Jonathan M. House are superbly detailed but easy reading.

Yes, many prefer beevor-like pop-folk-historical fantasies.. some of them are quite funny though

Second, on Zetterling, very good.

Book by Newton on Kursk is one of the best

http://www.amazon.com/Kursk-German-Stev ... 679&sr=8-1

also I like books like this:
http://openlibrary.org/b/OL13692437M/Heer%2C-1933-1945.

raw facts and numbers.. [:)]

Erickson's "Road to Stalingrad" and "Road to Berlin".

A teeny bit dry but a lot of Soviet detail.

Second "Absolute War"  Can't believe that I left that off my list.   Truly great book.

ORIGINAL: Lowlander

...His latest To the Gates of Stalingrad, volume one in a trilogy is excellent...

Wasn't aware of his Stalingrad trilogy. Thanks! Looks like volume 2 comes out in August. What a great idea someone had starting this book thread. [:D]

Alan Bullock
Hitler and Stalin; parallel lives
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitler-Stalin-A ... 349&sr=8-2


actually, it contains the biographies of both Hitler and Stalin, and of course their fight along the eastern front

I liked Panzer Battles by van Mollinthin (sp). Also recommend many of the above titles. I also like Lost Victories by Manstein - very propagandaist but gives a lot of insight nonetheless. Of course Manstein is the hero of that one ;-D

I saw a couple of favourable reviews for this:

Wargamer.com - Slaughterhouse

ORIGINAL: Lützow

Unternehmen Barbarossa and Verbrannte Erde from Paul Carrel. Those are my all time favorites.

I'd also recommend the memoirs of Guderian: Erinnerungen eines Soldaten and Manstein: Verlorene Siege.

Guess all these books got translated to English.

A soldier's memories, reading it right now, on the list to be read is also Manstein

If you want to get a feeling of how it was for the soldiers in the eastern front (german side) read:

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer

I also recomend Kursk the decisive battle by Alvaro Lozano, but don't know if this book could be found in english, he also has another about Op Barbarossa. both highly detailed.

Anything by Glantz is a great source of information- particularly the new Stalingrad book. His "Barbarossa" book is also one of the few one volume reads that covers the first months in particularly good detail.

"Moscow 1941" is also a very good read.

ORIGINAL: rjh1971

If you want to get a feeling of how it was for the soldiers in the eastern front (german side) read:

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer...

Might have this all wrong but I thought that book had been discredited as a fake?

ORIGINAL: elmo3

ORIGINAL: rjh1971

If you want to get a feeling of how it was for the soldiers in the eastern front (german side) read:

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer...

Might have this all wrong but I thought that book had been discredited as a fake?

I don't know if I'm the only one but I'm starting to get a bit bored with the recent spate of personal anecdote history a la Stephen Ambrose. There's a place for it but it seems to have pushed out all the other higher-level, analytical military history.

That's the reason I was glad to see Absolute War last year - good old strategic/operational history. Sometimes I want the general's viewpoint, not the squaddie's.

Where do i Start...
 
Armor Battles of the Waffen SS 1943-45 (Stackpole Military History) by Will Fey
Panzer Aces: German Tank Commanders of WWII (Stackpole Military History) by Franz Kurowski
Panzer Leader (Penguin Classic Military History) by Heinz Guderian
Lost Victories: War Memoirs of Hitler's Most Brilliant General by Erich Von Manstein
Tigers in the Mud: The Combat Career of German Panzer Commander Otto Carius (Stackpole Military History Series) By Otto Carius
War Without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa 1941-1942 by Robert Kershaw (very good reading on the first few days of Operation Barbarossa)