Customer Reviews

Fighting in Hell: The German Ordeal on the Eastern Front

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

As noted in other reviews, this book, contrary to the back cover hype, is NOT a dramatic "you are there" narrative of East Front horrors. It IS a selection from the so-called German Reports Series. This collection was produced for the education of US Army officers in the late 1940s and early 1950s and drew on the selective memories of German officers. The authors were debriefed by US military historians while the former were still POWs. The idea was for the Army to tap into the Wehrmacht's experiences in fighting the Russians -- a big American concern at that time. As such, the pieces are tailored to a "lessons learned" presentation. Some German bias shines through the staff college lecture style of the writing. The authors did not really have much insight into the quality of the Russian soldier or leadership.

They did appreciate the tactics used against them and the countermeasures that they had to improvise in daunting circumstances. But amidst all this fragmentary military ephemera, there is no real insight as to how and why they were defeated along the Don and the Dnepr River basins.

Many of these selections are available from the US Government Printing office as reprints of the original US Army Pamphlets (then classified "restricted") from 45+ years ago. The value of this book is that it makes the material available to a wider reading public under a cheap single cover. However, the value would be enhanced by annotations or commentary pointing out the biases of the German authors and bringing in information available since then from the gradually opening ex-Soviet war archives.

This book is split into 4 segments of German officers talking about: (1) colder than expected winters (2) Numerically superior Russian forces thrown against the Germans (3) Russian haphazard ability to use terrain to its advantage. Each "General" says the same thing - giving a repetitive feeling to the book. (It was difficult to stay attentive after section 2).

NO personal account of action by anyone (save one or two anecdotes in entire book).

NO general explanation of the locations of battle (how about 1 or 2 geographical maps).

NO feeling of what the German or Russian soldier went through on the Eastern Front.

Believe previous reviewers: this is NOT what you would expect by the title. Better title: Review of German Difficulties Fighting in Russia: A General's Perspective (Yeah, a boring title for a repetitive book).

I rated 1.5 stars because I was disappointed with the lost opportunity for a great review of what the German (or Russian) soldier went through on the eastern front.

This book just has to be the best literary buy I've ever made. The price tag on Fighting In Hell could be several times higher and I'd still buy it. It is not a concise dictionary on fighting on the Eastern Front, but rather contains reports on different topics written by german generals after the war. The way these are written convey the cold reality of war, as well as the pride of the author's in the quality of german armed forces. Included are excellent descriptions of the differences of german and russian soldiers and combat methods. The first hand descriptions of Soviet combat tactics and battles fought couldn't come from better sources than from the people that fought the russians. Highly recommended.

An interesting premise for a WWII history book - this is a compilation of the writings of various German soldiers in Allied captivity who wrote about thier experiences on the Russian front - unfortunately most, if not all, of the personal experiences and anecdotes have been left out. It reads like a fairly dry battle manual, describing Russian tacticts, the 'personality' and leadership style of the Russians, etc. very little in the way of interesting anecdotes. This is a valuable piece of researh - useful for a historian doing specific research on tacticts on the Russian front, but is little more than a dry overview. If you are looking for an interesting narative, this is NOT it. If you are looking for battle tacticts and examinations of the russian way of combat - possibly as research material for a book or research paper, this may be for you, otherwise, you may want to avoid this.

This isn't an Allied version of history but rather a military analysis of a theater of conflict at a more practical level, as told by select Generals in the German Army. It is built upon personal experiences and perceptions of actual participants, not the scripts of Hollywood movie moguls. If you pick up this book without having an interest in learning, then this book is not for you. Keep in mind that this was edited and compiled by the U.S. Army for instructional purposes. In spite of that, it is an interesting and quick read at a very reasonable price.

This book is window-dressed to look like a new piece of literature on the Eastern Front. It is not, it is a series of post-war reviews by German Officers, no doubt to provide data to the US Army for what it considered an upcoming or inevitable war with the USSR. It is technically useful however it is boring. So if you're writing a thesis on this topic then perhaps it's a good buy -if you just have an interest (or obsession) in WWII topics then spend your money a bit more fruitfully - The Forgotten Soldier, I Flew for the Fuehrer, Stuka Commander, Panzergrenadier etc. etc. are good passionate books written from the German side.

To summarise, this is a textbook.

I have to admit that I liked this book contrary to what other reviewers thought of it. It is only for the reader who is very knowlegeable about combat on the Eastern Front.

The book was written after the war by German Generals for the American army just in case the U.S. went to war with the Soviet Union.

The book is not exciteing reading, and it took a while to read, but it helps to understand, and put together the various problems the German army faced. If you read any of the personal accounts written about the war, this will ad to those accounts with a larger picture. The book will explain what the Generals had to deal with, and rarely looks at a situation from less than division level.

Many people criticize the book for not talking about the average soldier, but the Generals have to deal with the avaerage soldiers inability to perform under situations that they were not able, or prepared to deal with. This book does well to decribe those problems. One good example is a chapter about the tank tracks. They had to use the wide battle tracks to move in the mud, but upon comming to a bridge at night during an attack, the entire armored group had to remove their battle tracks once they got to the bridge, then replace them with the regular tracks,cross the bridge, then put the battle tracks on again. All of this at night without light that would give away their position. The attack went off 8 hours late.

Frustration for the common soldier, frustration for the Generals.

From the title, I expected more personal-type war stories, but it was fascinating all the same, if you read between the lines. What I really enjoyed were the chapters on the Finnish-Russian conflict (what the Finns call the Continuation War). This is valuable because there isn't a whole lot of this material available in English.

The Germans were allied with the Finns in this effort and it was interesting to note the affection and respect that the German General Erfurth has for the Finns. I especially enjoyed the details on how the Finns operated in the harsh Arctic north.

The book takes the form of a staff study, conducted by two German Army officers who had commands on this front, and prepared as a primer for those who would face the Russians again (presumably in the Cold War). This makes for some dry reading at points, if one expects a historical narrative, as in William Craig's 'Enemy at the Gates' or any of the David M. Glantz volumes. If, however, your interest is in an appraisal of the German Army and their experience as a whole on the Eastern Front, this book will keep you hooked. No epic stories of battles, no abundance of personal antedotes, but rather the nitty-gritty of company and regimental encounters, analyzed for their tactical importance. Less attention is given to overall background detail (such as strategic and sometimes unit) in these episodes, but in no other work have I seen this kind of overall assessment of the Red Army vs. the German, in all seasons, in all climates. From the Red Army tactic in forest combat of setting fires to the methods of aircraft maintainace in different climates, this book has it. The book does tend at times to downplay the Russian combat methods through professional military bias, but overall it is not serious. Lastly, it is likely it would succeed in its aim as a primer for combat in Russia, and should merit some serious attention on that score.

A very poor book. Don't bother. From the title, you'd think the book has interesting information from high-level commanders. It doesn't. It's mostly just a bunch of ramblings, often contradictory. The chapter on Finland maybe would rate three stars. I think the only useful information in the whole book otherwise was the information on the number of snow-plows per mile that were needed to keep roads clear. If you are looking for any other logistical info, forget it. The description of the book is highly misleading, and I regret having bought it.