Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #716851 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Soldier: The Magazine of the British Army
‘reveals how the Red Army thwarted Hitler’s dramtic, seemingly inexorable invasion.’

BBC History Magazine
‘Operation Barbarossa saw some of the fierest fighting of the war. Millions were left dead and Nazi Germany was never to recover.'

Customer Reviews

Dry account
I'm very interested in military history, and have read dozens of books on the subject. Very seldom have I stopped reading a book halfway because it was dull, but this became one of those occassions. All the details are there, and that's what's wrong with the book. Try this for size (quote typical for the book):

"While Timoshenko was conducting his 'Offensive', Lieutenant-General M.G. Efremov's 21st Army unleashed heavy attacks against the German Second Army's XXXXIII and LIII Army Corps, whose forward elements had reached the Dnepr river at Rogachev and Zholbin. He also orchestrated an attack northward toward Bykov on the Dnepr jointly with Korobko's 4th Army. Attacking on 13 July, Komkor [Corps commander] L.G. Petrovky's 63rd Rifle Corps drove German forces westward from Rogachev and Zholbin, while Colonel F.F. Zhmachenko's 67th Rifle Corps, reinforced by Major-General S.M. Krivoshein's 25th Mechanized Corps, launched futile attacks against Guderian's southern flank."

It was enough to bore me to tears. While it might be great as a reference, it isn't for the general reader on the subject. For a more rewarding book, check Robert Kershaw's "War Without Garlands", which has a much more flowing narrative, interspersed by quotes from interviews and soldiers' letters to give a better idea of what it was like on the eastern Front. "Barbarossa" is for those interested in grand strategy and operations, and who don't want their books contaminated with human interest.