Customer Reviews

Germany and the Second World War: Volume IV: The Attack on the Soviet Union

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This is the 4th volume of the "Official German" history of World War II. There are suppossed to be 10 volumes altogether. Volume 4 is so far the most ambitious and controvesial of the set. It is well over 1000 pages, many, many tables, charts etc. It even comes with a spiral bound 4 color map book that shows the operational side of the conflict. Considering that this tome covers the decision to invade, the build up, and attack from June 1941 thru December 1941 you will understand the scope of this project. While laying the bulk of the blame on the conflict to the Nazi's, there is some discussion on the new revisionist thinking that Stalin was in fact preparing a strike into Germany but was forestalled by the German assult. I will let you the reader figure out which way the book tends to go. The translation from the German is very good, I had no trouble following the text. This book and series is not meant for a first time introduction to World War II; great detail is given on the socio/economic aspects of this conflict that rarely get mentioned at all the standard popular books. All in all a great addition to the series and a wonderful new look at a topic that never seems to go out of style. You will love it in your library!!

Oxford University Press' ongoing translation of the German government's official history of the Second World War, Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, has produced yet another fine volume. This is to my knowledge the best work available on Germany's attack on the Soviet Union. The sheer scope and depth of the campaign are laid out in astonishing detail.

This volume is not for the light-hearted or the dabbler. If you've gotten this far, you're presumably not either, but it is an extremely dense work, as others have noted, not a mere military description or operational narrative. This is an examination of ALL dimensions of Barbarossa, heavy with emphasis on the political economy aspects of the Nazi drive East. A large amount of the material is on the campaign's preparations(or lack thereof, as the case may be. Much space is given over to colonial ambitions, political ambitions, business plans, transport capacity, raw material balances, and the such so it can read rather dry for many pages, but this conflict deserves understanding from all its levels, not just the romanticized battle-fighter perspective. Many may miss a more detailed combat narrative (I did, I admit). The volume generally does not but dabble in affairs below army-level. It's not what this work is about. This is a strategic, not an operational, account, as distinguished from the Western official histories such as Blumenson's US Army in Northern Europe work. That being said, what is in Volume 4 here is so important and well put forth, one should not miss the combat detail you can get elsewhere. These volumes are about more than what division was where. This one, in particular over its first half, reveals a certain political bent given up of its times, but it is not overt, just somewhat regrettable. To sum up, if you're serious about your Eastern European Theater in WW2, than this is a must. And the spiral-bound map supplement is superb!

Another reviewer mentioned a spiral bound booklet of maps,etc. I did not receive this when I purchased the book directly from Oxford University Press.

Having spent hundreds of dollars on this book, it was sad to see that it suffers from an extremely high number of peculiar typographical errors. Supposedly a corrupted file was the one actually sent to the printers; I guess nobody bothered to check.