Aleksei Isaev and Maksim Kolomiet’s Tomb of the Panzerwaffe delivers an engaging operational history of the significant battles that took place near Hungary’s Lake Balaton from January to early March of 1945. In addition it also provides readers with several points of value not normally found in Second World War Eastern Front operational histories. For these reasons as well as those that follow I believe even well informed readers will enjoy this fast moving but information packed book.
Tomb of the Panzerwaffe is divided into two parts.
When it comes to the Second World War I have read countless books, prowled through any number of libraries and archives, and spent more time with my nose in primary sources or journal articles than I probably care to remember. Accordingly, to read Lizzie Collingham's book The Taste of War and have more than one eye-opening experience of revelation and wonder is quite a remarkable experience. But that is exactly what The Taste of War has done in terms of providing even the well-read with not just one or two; but any number of truly unique and revelatory insights on one of the most
David Stahel's Kiev 1941 follows his 2009 work Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East as the second book in a trilogy ostensibly taking a fresh look at the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union. Had Stahel conducted a comprehensive analysis of the military operations near Kiev during the summer of 1941 this reviewer would have much to recommend. Regrettably however Stahel's Kiev 1941, much as its predecessor, all too often rehashes stale Cold War era ideas deterministically advancing the theory that the German invasion was doomed if for no
Paul Kennedy has written a “big idea” book about how and why the Allies won World War II. He has done an excellent job of combining good writing, good use of sources, and good pacing to create a series of narratives that explain why various factors—the Rolls Royce Merlin aircraft engine, the creation of the Seabees, microwave radar—were critical to the Anglo-American and Soviet victories over Nazi Germany and Japan. In each of the five sections of Engineers of Victory: The Problem Solvers Who Turned The Tide in the Second World War, he emphasizes the people,
For armor enthusiasts few battles rank as high in terms of interest as the one fought in July of 1943 near the small Russian town of Prokhorovka; a struggle occurring during the Wehrmacht's summer offensive against the Soviet held Kursk bulge in German lines. In spite of this interest however, a considerable amount of misunderstanding continues to cloud the events that brought Nazi Germany's last great offensive in Eastern Europe to a close.
The December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, that formerly brought the United States of America into World War II, has long attracted tremendous interest from historians and the American public alike.
What's more, even today interest in the Pearl Harbor raid remains high. In the English speaking world alone dozens of books have been written on the subject. One would think that with such a huge body of work available, that there is not much left that is new to say. Nevertheless, Alan D.
Known to the Germans, and thus many in the Anglo-American speaking world, as the Battle at Tscherkassy (Cherkassy) and to the Red Army as the Korsun-Shevchenkovskii Operation; the January-February 1944 battle centered around the town of Korsun has long attracted tremendous interest from amateur and professional historians alike.
Interest in the battle stems from a number of reasons not least of which, and as authors Niklas Zetterling and Anders Frankson amply demonstrate, because the fighting around Korsun marked one of the rare late war large scale operational level engagements whereby the
There is little doubt that Erich von Manstein had one of the finest military minds of the Second World War. Among his accolades, include, perhaps most famously, his role in creating the plan that lead to the spectacular fall of France in 1940. In addition, came his exploits leading Army Group Don in February and March 1943; when his brilliant "backhand" counterstroke not only brought stability to the German Eastern Front, following the loss of Stalingrad, but also forced the surging Red Army back on to its heels.
The story of the Tirpitz, as presented by military historians Niklas Zetterling and Michael Tamelander, is really a metaphor for the experiences endured by many of Germany's Second World War capital ships and the concomitant Allied efforts to destroy them. It is in this look at the struggle between Allied and German maritime assets in one of the Second World War's most hostile physical environments that helps elevate Zetterling's and Tamelander's work on the Tirpitz to more than just another look at one of the Third Reich's largest surface combatants
The war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union has received an uneven treatment from most popular historians. Perhaps no better example of this is in typical accounts of events taking place during the winter of 1942-1943. Most often, this period of the war in Eastern Europe is described strictly from the perspective of the German Sixth Army's collapse at Stalingrad.
