Customer Reviews

Army Group South: The Wehrmacht in Russia 1941-1945 (Schiffer Military History)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Appalling translation of the otherwise good book. The translation is so awful that the book is nearly unreadable. I don't know why Schiffer employs translators who can barely write in proper English, let alone translate from the German. Don't waste your money.

Lots of what I assume are translational screw-ups. Though it is possible, I can't imagine the author, who was a German Army officer on the East Front, would make the mistakes I saw, such as referring to the "Wiking" SS motorized division as a Panzer division in 1941 or the German "Light" divisions as "rifle" divisions (a designation the Soviets used for their infantry formations)!

Some of the "finer" translational mistakes were: 1) reference to a "Organization for the Dead" which was a semi-literal translation of "Organisation Todt", named, in fact, for a German Minister, Fritz Todt (who is now dead, but wasn't then....(-; )

2) reference to a German recon aircraft, the Feisler Storch as the "nasty stork". Feisler was the manufacturer of the aircraft and though the company may have been nasty, I doubt they'd like to see their creation dubbed the "nasty stork".......

On the, uh, positive side, the various personal accounts are nice, though I've read some in other sources (e.g.,Paul Carrell's "Hitler Moves East"). I haven't seen most of the pictures.

If you can't read German, then this series of books is the closest you can come to the vast world of German Divisional literature published in the past 60+ years. While I'm sure there are better translators out there, the book is readable & to criticize is a bit unfair. I wish more books like this would come out, dedicated to specific battles, rather than a whole Army Group.

This review applies to the series (Army Group North, Center, South)

These books are good in their own way, but are not for everyone.

First, the scope of the book is large, but it describes happenings on the length of the sector of the front through the division and battalion level. This is quite interesting as you feel you are following individual units in movement.

For those who are unfamiliar with the broader narrative of the battles of the eastern front in which the detail of this book takes place, you might want to read a more holistic book, like David Glantz's When Titans Clashed, which is probably the Eastern Front bible.

The beauty of these books is in their status and divisional and battalion reports, which convey the daily carnage of the eastern front.

People will either love this book or hate it. Some will find it intriguing while others find it boring. The book is highly German-centric and some will like that and some won't. While its not the most comprehensive secondary source I've found of AGS, it does have tactical coverage not found in other books and when you add the info in those other books (Erickson, Glantz, Hinze as well as Mr Haupt's companion books and others) to this book, you can have a fairly comprehensive understanding of the war from the German perspective.
While the identification of German divisions, etc is very good, the author doesn't cover the Russian side as thoroughly. There are times when the author does name the Russian units involved but other times he will be satisfied by saying " The Russians attacked..." or " The Red Army attacked...". Five stars is too high because of this slip but the tactical coverage other wise is good. The author describes battles at towns and other locations that I've never read elsewhere. His coverage of the last quarter of 1943, after Kursk and Kharkov campaigns, when Konev drove to the Dniepr River in the Kiev sector was especially welcomed.

There is a small introduction and then the author zooms into Operation Barbarossa by describing the Axis deployment as well as the Soviet positions. The book closes in August of 1944 where the Germans have been pushed back almost to their start point of three years earlier. The 2nd UF is pushing the Axis forces into the Carpathian Mountains. The 1st UF has pushed the front line back to the Tarnopol-Brody-Kovel line.

The AGS had a smaller force than AGC but the oppostion was just as tough if not tougher yet the Germans had an impressive string of victorys those first months. As attrition accumulated and the Soviet war doctrine improved the AGS couldn't hold its own and had to fall back. A sampling of battle action that is covered is: Kiev, Uman, Rostov, Kharkov, Stalingrad, Kursk, the Crimea and the Caucasus, Korsun. There is some discussion of Hitler and his commanders but surprisely not that much. There is some anecdotal experience as well.
There are a lot of useful maps and excellent photos to help the reader follow the narrative. There is one drawback to the maps which are in German; the spelling of some towns is different than the English translation and the reader will have to be deliberate in studying the map. Some of the names are close enough to English that its not a problem. I keep my favorite atlas close by in case a helping hand is needed. There is also an extensive Appendix that includes Order of Battle and other useful stuff that adds to the book. There is no Index or Notes section. The author does annotate when quoting from another book but he doesn't have footnotes on key issues he expresses.

Though I enjoyed this book for its tactical detail, its not my main source. I still rely on David Glantz for statistics wherever possible. The rating is based on having a keen interest in the tactical aspects; if your interests are elsewhere then the rating would be lower. If your interests are in the tactical and you're a collector then you should consider adding it to your collection. If you enjoy reading Anthony Beevor, Anthony Read, Eric Hammel or Stephen Ambrose then perhaps you won't like this volume.

Buena descripcion acerca de las operaciones del Grupo de Ejercitos Sur en la Campaña de Rusia, acompañada de diagramas y esquematicas sobre el desarrollo de aquellas batallas que definieron los acontecimientos en esta area de la guerra. Como siempre, para los lectores de habla hispana, es una lastima que toda esta lietratura no sea llevada al español, porque aun hay miles de hispano hablantes dedicados al tema que no manejan el ingles como para poder acercarse a ella.