Reviewed by Steven Douglas Mercatante [1] 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...
Book and Film Reviews
Hitler's Master Strategist, by Benoit Lemay, Casemate, 2010, Soft cover, $32.95, 528 pages.
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 5:22pm
Review Type: Book
The Life and Death of Germany's Last Super Battleship, by Niklas Zetterling & Michael Tamelander, Casemate, 2009, Hard cover, $32.95, 360 pages.
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 5:16pm
Reviewed by Steven Douglas Mercatante [1] 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...
Review Type: Book
The Iron Men of Metz, Directed by Davidson Cole, Produced by Davidson Cole, Neal Gold, Adam Graham, John Digles, Ligia Popescu, Bruce Rosenzweig and Mary Kay Cook Traveller Jones Productions, 2009, $19.99
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 5:12pm
Reviewed by Steven Douglas Mercatante [1] When one sits down to watch The Ninety-Fifth, The Iron Men of Metz it readily becomes evident this film is not your typical work on the Second World War. Superficially, it is about the U.S. 95th Infantry Division and The battle of Metz; the battle that defined this division's combat record fighting against the Axis forces in the European Theater of Operations during the Second World War. However, within the first minutes of this film, a film first aired...
Review Type: Film
The Red Army's Winter Offensive 1942-1943, by David M. Glantz, Helion & Company, 2009, Hardcover, $59.95 496 pages.
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 5:05pm
Reviewed by Steven Douglas Mercatante [1] 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. Then, in these accounts and almost as an afterthought, the Red Army ends up pushing a...
Review Type: Book
Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945 by Catherine Merridale, Metropolitan Books, 2006. Hardcover, $30.00, 480 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 5:00pm
Reviewed by Steven Douglas Mercatante [1] Catherine Merridale's Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945, is a fascinating and necessary look at men all too often reduced to a subhuman status by not only their Second World War foes but nearly fifty years of Cold War propaganda. What most grants Merridale's work its importance lies within what is sometimes forgotten about the Second World War; the reality Hitler and his National Socialist regime were dedicated to fighting a racial...
Review Type: Book
From Coalition to Collapse, by Richard Dinardo, University Press of Kansas, 2005. Hardcover, $34.95, 282 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 4:54pm
Reviewed by Steven Douglas Mercatante [1] Richard Dinardo's Germany and the Axis Powers: From Coalition to Collapse (Modern War Studies) fills an invaluable niche in the literature currently available on the Second World War's European Theater. In particular, Dinardo has focused on Germany's relationship with Finland, Hungary, Italy and Romania; producing a concise but revealing analysis into the numerous problems that derailed the Axis coalition. In Germany and the Axis Powers Dinardo has...
Review Type: Book
Admiral of the Third Reich, by Keith Bird, U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2006. Hardcover, $34.95, 282 pages.
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 4:48pm
Reviewed by Steven Douglas Mercatante [1] Keith Bird's Erich Raeder: Admiral of the Third Reich breaks new ground in exploring one of the pivotal personalities involved in the war at sea during World War II. Remarkably, in the sixty plus years since the War ended no one has produced a complete biographical treatment of German Grand Admiral Erich Raeder. Bird's work fills this gaping hole in the historical narrative and focuses on not just Raeder, but more importantly his stewardship of the...
Review Type: Book
The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy, by Adam Tooze, Penguin, 2008. Softcover, $20.00, 848 pages.
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 4:43pm
Reviewed by Steven Douglas Mercatante [1] Adam Tooze's The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy is an extraordinary piece of scholarship and for years to come will no doubt be regarded as essential reading for anyone seeking a greater understanding into Germany's Second World War economy. Tooze's work comprehensively breaks down the how and why of Hitler's quest to establish a German empire in Europe and the role economics played in German defeat. Remarkably, Tooze...
Review Type: Book
From Normandy to Lorraine, by Roman Johann Jarymowycz, Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001. Hardcover, $59.95, 362 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 4:38pm
Reviewed by Steven Douglas Mercatante [1] Just when you thought there was little more to be gleaned from the thoroughly documented armored battles in France between June and September 1944 Tank Tactics: From Normandy to Lorraine (Stackpole Military History Series) emerged in 2001 to thoroughly and thought provokingly redefine what is known about these pivotal events in World War Two. In Tank Tactics: From Normandy to Lorraine (Stackpole Military History Series) Austrian born Roman Johann...
Review Type: Book
The German Campaigns of 1942, by Robert M. Citino, Kansas: The University Press of Kansas, 2007. Hardcover, $34.95, 431 pages.
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 19 2011 - 4:34pm
Reviewed by Steven Douglas Mercatante [1] For anyone interested in the German method of warfare, or for those that just enjoy a good operational history, Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942 (Modern War Studies) ranks among the best of today's scholarship. Conventional wisdom has long posited Hitler played the crucial role in turning Germany's stupendous victories during the spring and summer of 1942, in the Soviet Union and North African Desert, into catastrophic defeat in the...
Review Type: Book
