Product Description

Carefully researched and beautifully written, this book is a classic of military history. Alan Clark vividly narrates the course of the dramatic and brutal war between the German and Russians on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. From the invasion of Russia mounted on Midsummer's Day 1941 and the German Army's advance to the outskirts of Moscow, to the terrible turning point of Stalingrad and the eventual defeat of the Nazis at the Fall of Berlin after the hard years of fighting and advance by the Red Army, this is epic history narrated by a master.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38084 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

About the Author
Alan Clark was a government Minister, Conservative MP, diarist, historian and writer.

Customer Reviews

The Great Patriotic War brought alive in one volume!
I first read this splendid one-volume history of the Russo-German conflict of WW2 more than thirty years ago and its immediacy, masterful simplification of complex campaigns and operations, colourful evocations of heroism and cowardice and outright pathos have never left me. This is not a detailed history and the concentration is on a few major, but decisive, campaigns but these are covered with such verve that the reader is quite likely to be fascinated by the subject for the rest of their lives, and to seek out ever more thereafter. Though meticulous in his descriptions and evaluations, Clark is never a neutral observer - and this is probably what makes the book so totally unforgettable even down to individual episodes. His judgements on men can be devastating - his summary of the clownish ineptitude and outdated heroics of Budenny is as succinct and merciless as anything in Gibbon - and his accounts of epic-scale actions never fail to reflect the human cost. The image of hundreds of thousands of Russian prisoners trudging towards starvation, slave labour and medical experiments after the great 1941encirclement battles in the Ukraine, and of isolated pockets fighting to the last man, as loudspeakers relayed the exhortations of Stalin, will stay with the reader forever. Clark's account of Stalingrad was powerful enough to send my wife and myself to the city itself within months of reading the book - a powerful and unforgettable experience. Clark did not just give us the feel the nightmare of street fighting across entire square miles of blazing ruins and factories, but he helped us visualise the abject misery of the Sixth Army's entombed survivors as, in the unlikely surroundings of a rebuilt department store's basement, we found the spot where von Paulus surrendered. Simultaneously, we were conscious that somewhere to the west that von Manstein's relief forces were stalled, supplies packed in trucks that included even British vehicles captured at Dunkirk eighteen months before. By such details is history brought alive. The section on Kursk could almost stand alone as a modern Illiad and description of the destruction of Army Group Centre, and of the final battles in Germany itself, conveys the full horror of what it means to be part of a hitherto coherent organism in terminal collapse. I came to this book again when my daughter asked me to recommend an introduction to the subject - and from her enthusiasm, three decades on, I sensed that in this book we probably have a timeless classic. Other books deal with the Great Patriotic War in greater detail - commander's accounts, of which the best is probably von Manstein's "Lost Victories", war-correspondent's accounts like Alexander Werth's "Russia at War" or Curzio Malapartre's searing "The Volga rises in Europe", modern reassessments of specific campaigns like Anthony Beevor's superb "Stalingrad" and popular histories like Harrison Salisbury's "The Thousand Days" - but none can equal this as an introduction and as an overview. By the sweep of the narrative, by the elegance of the prose, by the power of the imagery and, above all, by the sheer humanity of tone, this marvellous history justifies Alan Clark's entire life. A wonderful book.

If you're into miltary history, then this is a good read.
This book made me see the Russo-German campaign in a new light. Previously-held beliefs that the Russians were somewhat fortunate to survive the might of the Nazi war machine in the early stages were swept away by Alan Clark's account of the unpreparedness of the Wehrmacht for the campaign in the first place, the arrogance and ineptitude of the German high command and the stubbornness and bravery of the ordinary Russian soldier. He goes into great detail about the movement of armies and who did what and where, interspersed with personal accounts from people who actually did the fighting. He also makes reference from time to time of the constant in-fighting between the German generals, vying for personal power bases and favours from Hitler, all to the detriment of the German war effort. Alan Clark traces the campaign from beginning to end, from the early years of German successes to their disatrous failures at Leningrad, Stalingrad and Kursk, and finally to the Russians at the gates of the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin. If you like strategy, then this is for you.

A Riveting Read
While not containing the small personal details of Beevor's Stalingrad and Berlin, this book is nonetheless a fascinating read, and will make you eager to learn more, which is no bad thing. Clark's grasp of politics is clear from his descriptions of the machinations of the German high command and in the final months the mistrust between the allied leaders as they approached Berlin. An excellent grounding in the subject, almost worth buying for the verbatim texts of many of Hitler's conferences alone, which clearly chart his mental disintegration towards the end. Recommended.