Germany's Eastern Front Allies 1941-45 (Men-at-Arms) [Paperback]

Peter Abbott (Author), Mike Chappell (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 1982 | Series: Men-at-Arms (Book 131)

The 1930s were a time of growing tension for the smaller states of Eastern Europe. Since the end of the First World War they had enjoyed an independence which most of them had not known for centuries, but this was now threatened by the growing power of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Instead of combining for self defence, they were bitterly divided. The Munich crisis of 1938, which served as the prelude to World War II, showed how little reliance could be placed on the Western democracies, whose power to intervene militarily in Eastern Europe was negligible. In effect this left the smaller East European states with little alternative but to become clients of either Germany or Russia.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Packed with specially commissioned artwork, maps and diagrams, the Men-at-Arms series is an unrivalled illustrated reference on the history, organisation, uniforms and equipment of the world's military forces, past and present.

About the Author

Peter Abbott has co-authored several titles for Osprey, including Men-at-Arms 131 Germany’s Eastern Front Allies 1941-45 and MAA 202 Modern African Wars 2: Angolia and Mozambique.
DR. NIGEL THOMAS is an accomplished linguist and military historian and is currently a Senior Lecturer in charge of the Business Language Unit at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle. His interests are 20th century military and civil uniformed organizations, with a special interest in Germany, Central and Eastern Europe. He was recently awarded a PhD on the Eastern Enlargement of NATO.

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (November 25, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0850454751
• ISBN-13: 978-0850454758
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.2 x 9.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #318,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good look, July 31, 2004

By 

Michael A Dorosh (Calgary, AB, CANADA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Germany's Eastern Front Allies 1941-45 (Men-at-Arms) (Paperback)

I'll attempt to concentrate my remarks on what I think prospective buyers want to see - a description of what is inside the book; as with all MAA titles, different people want different things, some are interested primarily in uniform details, others in history.

This book offers a good deal of detail in many areas. As always, do not make this your sole source of information, but it is a great start on many subjects not covered anywhere else, not even the internet.

The book starts with an historical introduction to the politics of Eastern Europe, dividing Eastern European participation in WW II into 5 phases and providing some nice maps. It then looks at several different nations in turn - Finland, Hungary, Romania (mis-spelled "Rumania" throughout the text), Slovakia, and "Other Allies" - primarily Italy with a mention of the Spanish contingent. These "other Allies" have their own titles in MAA.

The overviews of the nations concentrated on politics and also have reasonably detailed orders of battle, including divisional compositions which also give an idea of how large their militaries were. The focus is on ground forces, with little said about air forces (and nothing about naval forces, for the simple reason that what little naval forces some of these combatants had played little or not part in the Eastern Front campaigns).

Nice touch was the inclusion of a chart with AFV national markings, and there are good detailed sidebars on the rank structure of the Finnish, Slovakian, Romanian and Hungarian armies with nicely done insignia sketches as well as info on branch/corps insignia.

Photos are good, and colour plates cover the four main nationalities well. Chappell is always good, and these seem to be some of his better figures; nice variety of poses and very clear details.

Comparing the info on Romanians in this volume to that presented in MAA 246, one can see that there are many details left out, but the basic essentials are all presented here. As a uniform enthusiast, I was pleased with the insignia information alone - this information isn't available anywhere else. Those looking for detail on equipment, armour, small arms, will need to look elsewhere.

Nice supplement to the other books in the MAA line dealing in more detail with some of these same subjects.

4.0 out of 5 stars A good, but incomplete book, November 20, 2010

By 

F. Carol Sabin (Bucharest, Romania) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Germany's Eastern Front Allies 1941-45 (Men-at-Arms) (Paperback)

A good book about this subject. However, their battles are not covered too much.
As Romanian I found this book incomplete about Romanian armed forces involved in the war against USSR, since the Romanian Air Force (the largest after Luftwaffe) and Romanian Navy (which also saw some action in the Black Sea). The Axis allies ORBATs are really good.
Other countries also lack deep coverage.
Too many big photos...and the price is somehow too much.
With little more effort a much better book could be written.

1 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a very descreptive book, July 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Germany's Eastern Front Allies 1941-45 (Men-at-Arms) (Paperback)

This book tells you the info and has very nice full color ilistrations that help you visulize the men.