Today, Tuesday January 27th, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It has been 70 years since the Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945.
Auschwitz is actually more than just one camp. At its peak it included a network of dozens of camps all built and operated during World War II by Hitler's Third Reich in Silesia in occupied Poland. Auschwitz I and nearby Auschwitz II-Birkenau were the two main camps. Auschwitz I was primarily a work camp though tens of thousands died there.
Early in December 1941 German led Axis forces had driven to the gates of Moscow. However, the Red Army counter-attacked their overextended enemy. Soviet armies drove the Wehrmacht and its Axis allies back across the entirety of the front, and put the nail in Operation Barbarossa's coffin. Nevertheless, by early in January 1942 most of the initial Soviet counterstrokes had fizzled to a halt, and for good reason.
In just over six months of warfare the Soviet Union had lost control over 40 percent of its population, a third of its heavy industry, and staggering military losses reaching nearly 5
I just finished Tomb of the Panzerwaffe: The Defeat of the Sixth SS Panzer Army in Hungary 1945 and really enjoyed it. You can read the full review here.
If you are interested in how and why the Wehrmacht during Operation Typhoon was able to wreck the most powerful Fronts in the Red Army then I cannot recommend this book enough.
There are 17 intact Avro Lancaster Bombers remaining in the world. Nevertheless, only two are flyable. One is an Avro Lancaster from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, the other is Britain’s and is flown by the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF).
Last week the Canadian Lancaster arrived at RAF Coningby, Lincolnshire, U.K to join its British peer. The two bombers will spend several months touring the UK as part of a busy schedule of 60 airshows.
Good Afternoon. I just wanted to let everybody know that the Michigan War Studies Review has published my review of Dennis Showalter's Armor and Blood: The Battle of Kursk: The Turning Point of World War II. I am happy to say that this is a wonderful book, unlike the last book I reviewed for them (David Stahel's lamentably lacking Operation Typhoon), especially in terms of introducing the general World War II enthusiast to an accurate and well written description of this very important battle.
The Michigan War Studies Review (MiWSR) has just published my latest book review. This is my third review for MiWSR (a scholarly journal affiliated with the Michigan War Studies Group) and it is of David Stahel's Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Unlike the previous two work's I have reviewed for MiWSR this is unfortunately a book that I found quite lacking.
Though the book has some commendable qualities, it's overall impact is to further obscure just why and how the Second World War reached the conclusion it did.
The latest issue of Gun Mart Magzine is now available, and readers can find on its website a recommendation of Why Germany Nearly Won: A New History of the Second World War in Europe.
Gun Mart Magazine praises Why Germany Nearly Won: "There are plenty of books which postulate the opinion of ‘what if’ Germany had won the war, but this book is different. Firstly, the opinion of the title is based onsolid research to present a sound argument.
