Our latest reviews have had a heavy German Eastern Front focus. This month we turn our attention west to Normandy during the summer of 1944. There, one of the most mythologized battles of the Second World War unfolded in a clash of armor that resonates to this day. That is the subject of this month's book review.
Stalingrad is a battle that fascinates on so many levels. Survivors of Stalingrad offers yet another. This book's searing first-person descriptions as to what it was like to survive the hell that was the final months of the German Sixth Army's existence during the winter of 1942-1943 is truly a must-read.
Photographic research can be a powerful adjunct to primary documents and secondary sources such as operational military history, memoirs, journal articles, and other such publications. The Battle of Stalingrad: Then and Now is a great example of that idea.
The Germans And The Dieppe Raid is well worth your time. James Shelley's reasearch is thorough and comprehensively explains how the Wehrmacht defeated Operation JUBILEE in spite of relying mostly upon a second-rate "static" infantry division to do the heavy lifting in terms of defeating a well-trained and equipped Allied raiding force. The book also provides considerable analysis as to what this victory meant for the more important fighting in France that would come two years later in 1944.
By July of 1944 (with the Allied success of D-Day coupled with the even bigger Soviet success of Bagration) it was obvious Germany had lost the Second World War. The German military commander-in-chief of the western front was Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. By that point in the war Rundstedt had acquired a reputation for saying and doing what he saw fit, regardless of the consequences.
So, perhaps it was no surprise that on July 1, 1944 he bluntly informed Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel (the head of the German armed forces high command - OKW) that they had no choice but to make peace
Perhaps no military establishment in the world has focused more heavily on operating interceptors, ground-based radars, and surface to air missile systems than Russia. The two-volume set recently published by Krzysztof Dabrowski explains the long gestational process that has produced a modern Russian surface to air missile based defense force that is one of the world's best. You can read my review here.
The largest armored battles of the Second World War's Normandy campaign took place on the eastern side of the Allied bridgehead. These battles, fought by the Germans in defense against the British and Canadian attacker's seeking to liberate France, were the key to understanding the outcome of this crucial campaign. Bloody VerrieresVolumes I and II offers unprecedented insight into how the Germans ultimately prevailed against the major Allied Operations Goodwood, Atlantic, and Spring.
I last commented on the Russian-Ukrainian war about eight months ago. In that article I speculated on whether or not a breakthrough of the first Ukrainian defensive line in the Donbas would lead to a Russian breakout. That could have meant a potential return to the sweeping war of maneuver that had characterized the initial weeks of the Russian invasion (or "special military operation"). Since then quite a bit has changed, not least of which is a reappraisal of Russia's methodology for fighting this war.
Just to recap, Russia opened the war in February by invading with a small force of
This month we take a look at the Korean War. More specifically, the struggle for survival the U.S.1st Marine Division engaged in at the Chosin Reservoir during the winter of 1950. The full review can be found here.
In Battlegroup professor and former British Infantry Officer Jim Storr takes his considerable, training, knowledge, and experience and condenses it down toward assessing the comparative strengths and weaknesses of the NATO and Warsaw Pact armies that faced off across the East/West German border during the 1980s. I enjoyed this book and think you will too. Check out my review here.
