Best Books on Eastern Front (that put you right there in the action)?!

[rainman2015]

OK, coming back into wargaming after raising kids for 10 years, and this game is the game i always wanted when i was younger, i am devouring the rules and trying to learn it, and playing my first campaign as the Germans vs the AI, and having a blast already learning as i go. Hard to believe i was away from wargaming for so long! So, i have an off-beat question that i have not seen on the forums.

I am finding as i get back into this that i want to read some books that put me right there on the scene where the soldiers and commanders were. Not really looking for a huge bird's eye dry history of how the armies moved here and there, but something more visceral and personal.

When i was young and playing SPI's War in Europe, i remember reading a book called 'The Forgotten Soldier' by Guy Sajer about 3 times and every time couldn't put it down. Some books like that would be great.

Also, maybe something like Manstein's 'Lost Victories', which i have not read would put me right there with my Panzer divisions as they roll towards Leningrad.

What books would yall recommend?

Thanks!
Randy

[rainman2015]

This one looks pretty good, maybe on par with the awesome 'Forgotten Soldier' by Sajer...

http://www.amazon.com/In-Deadly-Combat- ... A85TMMGZMJ

Randy

[rainman2015]

Just found this very good thread...

tm.asp?m=2677115&mpage=1&key=documentaries

[obiwan53]

Paul Carrel's HITLER MOVES EAST (AKA Hitler's War on Russia) is excellent.

(Grins) I've read messages on this forum for years... You got me to make my first post!

David G.

[mrchuck]

Alan Clark: Barbarossa
Alexander Werth: Russia at War
Goeffrey Jukes: The Defence of Moscow; Stalingrad: the Turning Point; Kursk: the clash of armour (all Purnells)
Alan Wykes: The Siege of Leningrad (Purnells)

I feel that the first in particular is a classic. These are all old; Werth was a British reporter in the USSR at the time and you get a really good feel for how desperate things were until the end of 1942.
I don't buy for an instant that the Germans couldn't have won; they came mighty close.

You would want to triangulate Carrel's opinions rather than take them as gospel, same goes for all the apologists who blamed Hitler later. Clark is a good antidote for that.
I had a peek at the other thread mentioned above, really good stuff there too.

Not really a shortage of books on the subject these days...

[Lobster]

ORIGINAL: obiwan53

Paul Carrel's HITLER MOVES EAST (AKA Hitler's War on Russia) is excellent.

(Grins) I've read messages on this forum for years... You got me to make my first post!

David G.

And don't forget the sequel, "Scorched Earth, The Russian-German War 1943-1944". It picks up where "Hitler Moves East" leaves off.

"The Bloody Triangle, The Defeat of Soviet Armor in the Ukraine", Victor J. Kamenir.

[sven6345789]

Paul Carell does write like upfront, but please read about what he did during the war. It is also astonishing that Carell was able to write 500+ pages about the eastern front without mentioning the Einsatzgruppen or the extermination of Jews and russian civillians once. He also blames Hitler for all that went wrong. A nice read, but Paul Carells books should not be the ONLY thing you read about the eastern front.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Carell

[morvael]

I agree. I read one of his books, about Afrika Corps, and in places it was hard to read because of all the pro-German eulogies.

[morvael]

Some good reads (IHMO):
http://www.amazon.com/Erich-Von-Manstei ... 1612000592
http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Barbaro ... 052117015X
http://www.amazon.com/Kiev-1941-David-S ... 1107610141
http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Typhoon ... 1107035120
http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Moscow-Dav ... 1107087600
http://www.amazon.com/Mechanized-Jugger ... 0811735036
http://www.amazon.com/Wages-Destruction ... 0143113208
http://www.amazon.com/Panzers-Eastern-F ... 184832619X

[loki100]

for some balance of perspective, this is an interesting collection:

http://www.english.battlefield.ru/memoirs.html

This links to those translated into English, if you can read Russian go to the home page and start from Воспоминания, where there are more. Mostly very matter of fact as to the harsh realities facing ordinary members of the Red Army

[morvael]

I have several books with memoirs of Soviet soldiers, they are a good read too. But I have these in Polish and on paper, so it's hard to find out links to English versions of these. But they were very good reads too. Memoirs are best to find out what horror awaited ordinary rank and file on the front.

[AndyG1]

When I read the header for this post, my first thoughts were also Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer!!!

However, if it's still available, I highly recommend 'The Outermost Frontier' by Helmut Pabst. It is the posthumous diary of a young German soldier, ending with his last Will when he died in September 1943. This takes you right there, for sure.

http://www.amazon.com/Outermost-Frontie ... 0718306007

[sh0nyu]

I recommend the Opsrey Campaign series: there are some books about the Eastern Front (Barbarossa Part I,II; III <- one for each Army Group; Moskau 1941, Demjansk - the frozen hell, Kharkov 1942, Stalingrad, Kursk, Bagration, Berlin 1945). I know could be more, but in the Warrior series you can find additional info about the troops.

[comte]

Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East by Stephen G. Fritz

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Aces8

Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East by Stephen G. Fritz

warspite1

+1

[rainman2015]

Thanks yall (yes, from Tex-has)!

So far, have on the Amazon order list:

Barbarossa by Clark (everyone seems to recommend this one and i don't ever remember reading it)
Hitler Moves East and Scorched Earth (Paul Carell series)
Ostkrieg (Hitler's War of Extermination)
Outermost Frontier: German Soldier In The Russian Campaign (sounds great, thanks for the tip, if it is half as good as Forgotten Soldier it will be great)

Found another book that looks very good that no one has mentioned too...

In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front by Gottlob Herbert Bidermann (anyone ever read that one?)

Randy

[rainman2015]

I think i will get Barbarossa and the Carrel books first.

Randy

[RedLancer]

Absolute War - Chris Bellamy

(I'm biased as he mentored my MA Dissertation)

[Sardaukar]

This is based on German soldier's diaries he kept during years, it's quite good:

http://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Inferno-J ... B004DI7R2E

It's first hand account and gives really good insight what was going on in heads of ordinary infantryman (wel, he was AT-guy by trade) during 1941-43.

[typhoon]

Found this a real good read Panzer Operations: The Eastern Front Memoir of General Raus, 1941-1945 and this less enjoyable but still quite good Panzer Battles by Von mellenthin