Customer Reviews

Barbarossa to Berlin Volume Two: The Defeat of Germany: 19 November 1942 to 15 May 1945 (Chronology of the Campaigns on the Eastern Front 1941-45)

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Many books have been written and are yet to be written on the Eastern Front battles between Germany and the Soviet Union. This book and its companian are a good starting point for a novice study of these battles.

The books are a quick read but with only a half page or less per day it leaves a lot left out and only covers the major actions of the combatants.

A recommended addition to a Eastern Front libary as a good starting point for future research.

If you're into chronology this 2 volume set is a must. Its the most comprehensive study of tactical engagements that I have found of the war in Russia. The 2 volumes have over 600 pages of daily entries. During key campaigns like Barbarossa, Typhoon, Stalingrad, Kursk etc, each day's entries are two or three pages long. Each entry will give key commanders and units involved, the tactics used, nearby cities and rivers, the bridgeheads established etc and with a little effort you can follow a favorite general or division throughout a campaign or even the entire war. Putting this info into a database makes it easy and interesting to follow Manstein, Kluge, Zhukov or Rokossovsky etc on how they bested their enemy. There are a few cases of individual or company size bravery mentioned but for the most part the engagements are discussed at a division, corps or army level. After a brief introduction volume one starts at 6/22/1941 and ends on 11/18/1942 and the second volume takes you from Operation Uranus to 5/15/1945.
Between the two books there are 52 black and white maps that are helpful and there are only a very few photos. There is a bibliography that I found helpful and there is separate indexes for people and places.

As with the first volume, this second book contains so many factual errors, that it is definitely not recommendable. See for example the horrible treatment of the Finnish "sector" 1944, where it is claimed that the Finnish Army was destroyed in two phases. Outdated German and Soviet secondary sources have been used (see the bibliography) with no interest in accuracy of provided information.