Crumbling Empire: The German Defeat in the East, 1944 [Hardcover]

Samuel W. Mitcham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0275968561 | ISBN-13: 978-0275968564

The last place a German soldier wanted to be in 1944 was the Russian front. That summer, Stalin hurled into battle more than six million men and 9,000 tanks, supported by 16,000 fighters and bombers and more than 12,800 guns and rocket launchers. Despite this massive effort and the resulting decimation of German forces, events on the Eastern Front are largely neglected by historians who focus instead on German defeats in Normandy and the Ardennes. This account details the massive battles on the Eastern Front from the summer of 1944 until the fall of Budapest in early 1945, a period when Hitler lost the majority of his conquered Eastern territories and many of his best remaining divisions. To destroy the Third Reich, the Allies needed to defeat the German Wehrmacht militarily, and the decisive victories of this period occurred on the Russian Front. More German soldiers were lost in White Russia than at Stalingrad; more troops were lost in Rumania in a brief ten days than in the entire Normandy campaign; and German losses in Hungary were greater than the Battle of the Bulge. The most mobile army in the world in 1940, the German Army was the least mobile by 1944, and Hitler's "stand fast" and "fortified place" policies imposed a paralysis that neither senior German generals nor the High Command of the Army were able to overcome. Outnumbered 3 to 1 in men, 5 to 1 in tanks, and 20 to 1 in airplanes, the German Army was slaughtered, as casualties mounted and the empire crumbled.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

By late 1942, Hitler had annexed an area more than 20 times the size of pre-war Germany, most of it in the East. But in the summer of 1944, Stalin sent six million men, 9,000 tanks, 16,000 fighters and bombers and over 12,800 guns and rocket launchers into battle against the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. In Crumbling Empire: The German Defeat in the East, 1944 Samuel W. Mitcham Jr. (Why Hitler?), a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot and professor of geography at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, covers the battles that ensued on a division-by-division, tracking troop movements and setbacks, and through to the battle of Stalingrad and the liberation of Budapest.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This detailed account of the collapse of the Eastern Front covers the period June 1944 to February 1945. The horrendous defeats at Stalingrad and Kursk were past, and the Wehrmacht had a chance to back off, stabilize the front, and possibly retain some of its gains. Instead, a series of bad decisions by Hitler, coupled with substantial gains in combat efficiency by the Soviet Army, vitiated those efforts. By February, the German empire in the East was gone, and the battles would henceforth be on German soil. Mitcham (The Desert Fox in Normandy) does not break any new ground all citations are to secondary sources) but he does provide detailed information about a complex period. The frequent and confusing changes in leadership, organization, and location are carefully detailed. Most of his attention goes to the decisive area at the center of the front, but he does provide a coherent window on the collapse of Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Of considerable interest is Mitcham's extensive footnoting of the fates of the many German and other Axis commanders. Still, most libraries will be sufficiently served by Paul Carell's Scorched Earth (Schiffer, 1994) and Earl F. Zeimke's Stalingrad to Berlin (Dorset, 1986). For substantial military history collections. Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Ft. Leavenworth, KS
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Trade (September 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275968561
• ISBN-13: 978-0275968564
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,166,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Situation East: Steel meets the Hammer., September 8, 2002

By 

Sean Marche (Portland, Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crumbling Empire: The German Defeat in the East, 1944 (Hardcover)

September 7, 2002
Crumbling Empire:
The German Defeat in the East 1944
By: Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr.

By its very title, this book is a detailed account of the changing tide of the war in the east.
Written mainly from a German intermediate corps and divisional perspective, the author intersects both graphic tactical details and a strategic explanation into a coherent discussion of the actual battles.
The book also includes biographies and accounts of lesser known but historically valuable leaders and units which served in this area. From the flanked, preempted commands of Field Marshal Ernest Busch to the largely unknown and less than honorable actions of the Kamensky and Direlwanger battalions; in addition to the vitally important role of famous and elite units like the 3rd SS panzer division "Totenkopf" and the 5th SS panzer division "Viking"--assigned missions of futility and impossibility (and almost achieved them).
At appropriate times, the author overlays with a description of the strategic military and diplomatic situation in the region or sector, and its impact on the vital control of natural resources--copper, bauxite, grain and petrol. It is not mentioned, but also needed foreign currency and gold reserves. Aspects in the war in the east that argueably caused the defeat of the German Reich faster than tactical bloodshead on the battlefield.
Supporting material includes substantive photographs and well documented, detailed footnotes and order of battle diagrams. And some front line situation maps which are lacking. In appearance, it looks as if the maps are hand drawn templates that have been photocoped. The information is compressed, cluttered and difficult to discern against the textual material referenced.
Beyond this, the book is well written and detailed towards the issue. The reader can both imagine and understand the inexorable situation facing the Germans, the ferocity and desperation of the battles themselves and an accurate survey of the strategic situation in the east in 1944 during declining months of the great patriotic war.

Sean Marche

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great overview but few Russian sources, August 1, 2001

By 

john a. johnson (Live Oak, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crumbling Empire: The German Defeat in the East, 1944 (Hardcover)

Mitcham does a far better job on the obvious areas of the Ostfront, and actually covers some issues that carry into 1945. His sources are far more German oriented than Russian, and that always brings balance issues into the picture. He pays little attention to Hitler's dismissal of von Manstein and teh underlying reasons for that strange decision. The real annoyance is that a book about East Front that was published in 2001 used mostly German sources when more and more Soviet era sources are available.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The outline and definition of defeat., February 18, 2004

By 

Sean Marche - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crumbling Empire: The German Defeat in the East, 1944 (Hardcover)

By 1944 the direction of world war two is moving inexorably against Germany and evidence of this is seen on every military situation map.
Crumbling Empire: The German defeat in the east 1944 is written from a German divisional and corps perspective and follows the last desperate attempts of the German Wehrmacht to wedge the crushing Soviet offensive against Germany and her axis allies, particularly Romania and Hungary. The detailed text includes unit assignments and aggressive tactical warfare, including accounts of the lesser-known atrocities of SS units like the Kaminsky and Direlwanger battalions.
The well-written text includes a survey of the German diplomatic mission developing in the face of exponential military losses. Despite last-ditch espionage and effective rearguard actions, the German military position remains difficult throughout the entire campaign as there is literally no effective response against a vengeful Soviet onslaught that is determined to make the final moves in the great patriotic war.