Dr. Boris Sokolov's Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky offers a unique look at not only the life of one of the Red Army's top Second World War era senior officers, but also interesting insight into a Red Army at war. Detailed English language treatments of the Red Army's personnel are rare. For this reason alone this book is an important one for any student of the Second World War. And minus a few oversights the author does a credible job of providing a detailed study of Marshal Rokossovsky.
Sokolov's work is organized into fourteen informative, albeit at times lengthy, chapters beginning with
Stephen Barratt's two-volume set Zhitomir-Berdichev (sold separately) should go down as the definitive look from the German side of the hill at the critically important combat operations on Army Group South's left flank during the lead up to the far more famous Battle of the Korsun Pocket.
Piggybacking upon my recent review of Tomb of the Panzerwaffe is another well done work covering the tank heavy battles in Hungary that occurred in the final year of the Second World War. In this case Kamen Nevenkin’s Take Budapest ably documents the first Soviet drive on Budapest during the fall of 1944, and in that process provides a firm foundation for those interested in this particular aspect of the Second World War.
The first four of the book’s eleven chapters detail the political, economic, and strategic underpinnings of the Hungarian campaign.
Norbert Szamveber’s Waffen-SS Armour in Normandy covers the combat history of the SS-Panzer Regiment 12 and SS-Panzerjager Abteilung 12 during the Second World War’s Battle for Normandy France; which lasted from June 6 to just about the end of August 1944. These two units served as the armored core of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend; a unit noted for both is ferocious fighting skill and at times criminal disregard for the laws of war.
Waffen-SS Armour in Normandy is organized around its primary goal of providing readers with access to open source publication of the original unit
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.
