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. Well-researched, these books are an excellent starting point for understanding how and why the German 4th and 1st Panzerarmy's were unable to stop Soviet General Nikolai Vatutin's 1st Ukrainian Front from...
Book and Film Reviews
German Operations West of Kiev 24 December 1943-31 January 1944 Volume's 1 and 2, by Stephen Baratt, Helion & Company Ltd, 2014, Hardcover, $61.69 (per volume with each volume including accompanying map book), each volume approximately 300 pages (with accompanying map books another 400 plus pages in total)
Steve Mercatante
on Jun 28 2015 - 2:07pm
Review Type: Book
The Struggle for Hungary, Autumn 1944 by Kamen Nevenkin, The History Press, 2013, Softcover, 288 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Dec 20 2014 - 2:34pm
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,...
Review Type: Book
The Combat History of SS-Panzer Regiment 12 and SS-Panzerjager Abteilung 12 Normandy 1944 Based on Their Original War Diaries, by Norbert Szamveber, Helion Books, 2012, Hardcover, $47.94, 304 pages.
Steve Mercatante
on Oct 14 2014 - 9:56pm
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...
Review Type: Book
The Defeat of the Sixth SS Panzer Army in Hungary 1945, by Aleksei Isaev and Maksim Kolomiets, Helion Books, 2014, Hardcover, $46.44, 184 pages.
Steve Mercatante
on Oct 3 2014 - 2:59pm
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...
Review Type: Book
World War II And The Battle For Food, by Lizzie Collingham, Penguin Books, 2013, Softcover, $22.00, 634 Pages
Steve Mercatante
on Mar 24 2014 - 10:26pm
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...
Review Type: Book
Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East, by David Stahel, Cambridge University Press, 2012, Hardcover, $35.00, 486 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Apr 24 2013 - 11:59pm
Reviewed by Steven D. Mercatante*
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...
Review Type: Book
by Paul Kennedy, Random House, 2013, Hardcover, $30.00, 464 pages
Reviewed by Jonathan D. Beard*
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...
Review Type: Book
An Operational Narrative by Valeriy Zamulin, Helion and Company, 2011, Hardback, $69.95, 664 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Sep 4 2011 - 4:40pm
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. Nevertheless, in Demolishing the Myth: The Tank...
Review Type: Book
Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions by Alan D. Zimm, Casemate, 2011, Cloth, $32.95, 464 pages.
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 5:30pm
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...
Review Type: Book
The Encirclement and Breakout of a German Army in the East, 1944, by Niklas Zetterling & Anders Frankson, Casemate, 2008, Hardcover, $32.95, 320 pages.
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 5:26pm
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...
Review Type: Book
