Customer Reviews

Operation Barbarossa in Photographs: (Schiffer Military History)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is by far the largest collection of eastern front photos I've ever seen. Most of the photos are never before seen snapshots taken by ordinary soldiers and this is also one of two weakest points of this book: they (photos) are not of best quality. Other weak point is captions. They are very short and mostly un-informative (caption might read for example "German soldier in trench" and nothing about where the photo was taken etc.).

This is definately not a book for eastern front enthusiast who is looking for facts about war fought in Russia, but for one who is tired of seeing same old photos we have seen during last 30 years. Quantity of photos alone makes this book worth buying.

This is a massive collection of photographic records of battlefield,soldiers and civilians at nazi-russia war times. It seems that most of the photos may never have been introduced or published before.They're very vivid,captions are accurate and to the point. But I think all photo captions are too brief to understand the whole process of war.Scarcely any other explanatory texts are. It makes this book not a history work but only a kind of war photo album. It may leave serious readers something to be desired,I sure. But if you have had carell's other works,this book can be a useful pictorial guide to them. Even if main text is very poor,all photos match well with military history are worth seeing.

Okay, I was looking at reviews and after looking at those done by others, I just HAD to write something! Operation Barbarossa in Photographs is absolutely great!! Paul Carell is a famous German author and is a vet of the Wehrmacht too. Yes, the book has a German bent--it was written by a German who was THERE--of course he will have a different perspective than someone sitting at home in America in the 21st century. This is a MUST-HAVE book and is chock full of SO many good pictures you can't read in one or even two sittings, it just has to be broken up to absorb it all. I HIGHLY suggest this book for any student of the Eastern Front and/or the German Military of the Second World War.

The obvious pro-German bias in the books written under the pen name of Paul Carrell comes from more than his German ancestory. Not only was he a Nazi but an important member of the propaganda machine. The short bio below should dispense any illusions that he ever smelled gunpowder or fought on either the eastern or western fronts. Having said that it must be admitted that his books are all well written and combine a good blend of grand strategy and tactics. Especially interesting are the anecdotes involving individual soldiers and small unit actions that convey what it was like for the common landser who's primary goal was just to stay alive.
I've read a large number of books on the Ost Front but have to admit that Carrell's are my favorite.

"Paul Karl Schmidt became a member of the NSDAP in 1931 and a member of the SS in 1938. He graduated from university in 1934, and became an assistant at the Institute of Psychologie of the Kiel University in Germany. He held several positions in the Nazi Student Association.

In the SS Schmidt was promoted to the rank of Obersturmbannführer in 1940. During the same year he became press spokesman of foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. In this position he was responsible for the German Foreign Ministry's news and press division.

The main task of Schmidt was the chairing of the daily press conferences of the ministry. He must therefore be seen as one of the most important propagandists of National Socialism during World War II. Recent studies confirm that his influence was at least on the same level as that of Otto Dietrich (Reichspressechef of Adolf Hitlers) and of Hans Fritzsche (Pressechef the Reichspropagandaministerium). Schmidt was also responsible for the very well done German propaganda magazine 'Signal', which was published in several languages to tell the German side of the story in neutral countries during the war"

This is another great book written by Paul Carell. Main subject of this book is also the German-Russian war as his famous works. This is a massive collection of vivid photographic records of battlefield,soldiers and civilians. It seems to me that most of the photos may never have been introduced or published before. Even if 60 years have passed since 'barbarossa',the photos are full of reality as though they are this times' . All photo captions are brief and to the point.Graphic quality is also good.Explanations match well with military history. I think this book will be a good pictorial guide to author's definitive works(for example,Hitler moves east,The scorched earth...etc)on the war in Russia.

This is another great book written by Paul Carell. Main subject of this book is also the German-Russian war as his famous works. This is a massive collection of vivid photographic records of battlefield,soldiers and civilians. It seems to me that most of the photos may never have been introduced or published before. Even if 60 years have passed since 'barbarossa',the photos are full of reality as though they are this times' . All photo captions are brief and to the point.Graphic quality is also good.Explanations match well with military history. I think this book will be a good pictorial guide to author's definitive works(for example,Hitler moves east,The scorched earth...etc)on the war in Russia.

I bought this book in the past and always regretted letting it go at a used bookstore by mistake. The book is rich with an incredible volume of pictures and numerous outstanding shots not seen elsewhere. The captions are well fed and informative.

If you are student of the greatest land war ever seen and the largest battles ever fought, this is a photo book for you. So few people living in the US today know anything about the Great German-Russian War of 1941-1945. This is where 60% of all German forces were during WWII. Germany was so occuppied fighting the Russians and that it had few resources left to fight the US and Britain, lucky for the US and Britain. When Russia used to sneer at our landing at D Day Normandy, they had a point, the then Soviet Union would lose a 100,000 or more in just one battle.
God knows how many Russians were really lost in this war, and Germany still has counted all of it losses. This war is the real reason that Germany became a pacifist state and Russia was so paranoid.

"Operation Barbarossa in Photographs", by author Paul Carell, is a collection of photos from the Eastern Front of World War II from both German and Russian sides (although primarily from the German side). Paul Carell is the pen name of Paul Schmidt, who, during World War II, worked as the chief press spokesman for Germany's Foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop. This book is a photographic companion of sorts to two other of Mr Carell's books, "Hitler Moves East" and "Scorched Earth".

The book contains approximately 570 pictures of the war on the Eastern Front, many of which are in color. The pictures are generally very good, although the quality is uneven, much as you might expect since most were taken by soldiers at the front, not professional photographers. Be aware that if you aren't familiar with the Eastern Front, the accompanying text is fairly minimal, and almost presumes you are fairly conversant with the battles and locations being shown. My only complaint about the book is that the captions for the pictures are weak, the layout of the captions could easily be improved, and many pictures don't have captions at all. Also, there are some charts shown in German in the book that aren't translated into English. However, the pictures are compelling and do a good job in giving an idea of what the soldiers on both sides went through.

I recommend this book as a good visual history of the Eastern Front.

Combat photos by the soldiers themselves. The very concept is strange to me, if i was in the middle of a fire fight taking a photo would be the last thing on my mind, but this guys did, and most of them a great. War in it's most simple a gritty form, death staring at you straight. Many photos are shocking, like the masses of dead civilians, combat casualties, the russian bomb dogs, an one particular photo of a corpse, squashed flat by armored vehicles like it was a cartoon character. A very good book over all.