Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #371641 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 390 pages

Synopsis
Virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, the Battle of Cherkassy (also known as the Korsun Pocket) still stirs controversy in both the former Soviet Union and in Germany. It was at Cherkassy that the last German offensive strength in the Ukraine was drained away, creating the conditions for the victorious Soviet advance into Poland, Rumania, and the Balkans during the summer and autumn of 1944. Eclipsed by a war of such gigantic proportions that saw the deaths of over one million men or more as commonplace, the events which occurred along the banks of the Gniloy Tickich river should have faded into obscurity. However, to the 60,000 German soldiers who were encircled there at the end of January 1944, this was perhaps one of the most brutal, physically exhausting, and morally demanding battles they had ever experienced. Thirty-four percent of them would not escape.

The culmination of years of research and survivor interviews, Hell's Gate is a riveting hour by hour and day by day account of this desperate struggle analyzed on a tactical level through maps and military transcripts, as well as on a personal level, through the words of the enlisted men and officers who risked the roaring waters of the Gniloy Tickich to avoid certain death at the hands of their Soviet foe.

Customer Reviews

Heart rending
I ordered this book through my library and I must say it was excellent reading, the conditions that men on both sides had to endure was truly horrific and to read the end chapters on survivors tales and the epilogue of german survivors who returned to the scenes of the battle in 1996 makes thought provoking reading, especially when we read that this group met up with soviet soldiers of this conflict. Piles of first hand accounts, units involved, statistics and detailed maps. A must for all eastern front buffs.

Informative Addition to East Front Literature
Nash's book is the first I have seen devoted solely to this little known battle in English. Other books may have a chapter or two but this volume concentrates fully on the Korsun Pocket. The author has tried to be balanced in his treatment of the Soviet and German combatants but inevitably the story is told largely from the German point of view.

Nash provides a solid chronological narrative which is easy to read and the text is broken up by small photographs of scenes from the battle and portraits of the more notable combatants. There are also occasional sit-rep maps. Nash is equally at home in discussing high level strategy as he is the tactical operations of small units of men that make up much of the story. Nash has used the latest sources particularly on the Russian side and has also conducted interviews with participants of the battle. He frequently focuses on the actions of individual officers and men and will come back to them later in the narrative. This provides a degree of personal colour as we see the fates of these men and their units within the context of this developing battle.

My only caveat is that there are not enough maps in the book. Given that it is concerned with fighting in a small and relatively unknown area of the Ukraine it would have helped to have had more maps showing the location of the villages which were fought over but which do not appear on the sit-rep maps.

I can recommend this expensive book if like me you are an East Front buff who can only read in English. Those interested in military history would also enjoy it but would probably benefit from reading more general works on the Russo-German campaign before attempting this one.

Equal to Beevor's Stalingrad
This is a well researched and excruciatingly detailed account of what was a microcosm of the war on the Eastern Front after the Germans defeat at Kursk. Although considering myself well read on the Soviet-Nazi conflict, I had not heard much about the two month confrontation in this part of the Ukraine. This books greatest asset is the way it fleshes out the battles for small dots on the map with backgrounds of all the commanders at all levels - divisional, regimental, battalion - including their ideological stance etc, the full available ordnance of all the combatants involved, the make-up of all corps/divisions stationed in the area.

Don't let me misguide you, this book isn't just a list of figures; the