Customer Reviews

Red Storm on the Reich: The Soviet March on Germany 1945

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Red Storm" is an excellent history of an overlooked yet vital part of World War II: the fighting between the Soviet Union and Germany in the last months of the war from East Prussia and Poland into Berlin. The text is very readable with a refreshing and frequent use of personal experiences of both Soviets and Germans. Not just soldiers but ordinary people describe life during this inferno. Some of the incidents are truly heart-wrenching, especially the scenes of deprivation suffered by the people unfortunate enough to live in this region during those last few months. The descriptions of the military action are well-paced with a good use of maps. The detailed appendix and endnotes are full of interesting trivia and departure points for more reading on specific topics. The author also digs up obscure episodes of interest. An example is the use of German capital ships like the heavy cruisers Prinz Eugen and the Admiral Scheer in bombarding the advancing Soviet troops. These German ships and others hurled thousands of rounds of shells over the heads of the German troops from their positions offshore in the Baltic Sea. The German Navy also played a crucial role in the evacuation of civilians and troops from seaports in front of the Soviet offensive. The discovery of Nazi concentration camps like Auschwitz by the advancing Soviet troops is also covered. The only (minor) faults I could find were the lack of any historical photographs and the author's tendancy to talk about the Nazi's regime's survival "into summer"-though the regime seized to exist after May 10, which is still spring to most people. I highly recommend "Red Storm on the Reich" if for no other reason than it keeps alive the memories of the fighting and now vanished ways of life in cities like Breslau, Danzig, Stettin, Konigsberg, and other cities which today have lost even their German names.

Until the late 80's, knowledge about what happened on the Esatern Front was limited, due to many factors, one of which was the totally stereotypical way in which the Soviet participants and historians retold these tremendous events. In the early 90's, with the collapse of the Soviet Empire, historians could, for the first time, access new and heretofore unpublished material. This book represents one of the first of these "new history" texts. It describes in broad brushstrokes the huge operations on the Eastern Front which resulted in the collapse of Germany in 1945. In addition, it gives enough human element that one can begin to imagine the untold suffering of both the anonymous soviet soldiers whose lives were squandered by the millions, and of the Germans, both civilians and military who were brushed aside or crushed impersonnally under the irresistible soviet juggernaut. It gives one a whole new perspective on what happened in early 1945.

This is a fine and well known book about the operations in the Eastern Front in 1945 which usually remain at the sidelines of World War II histories. The author is a renowned military writer and a specialist on Frederick the Great's campaigns, a fact that served him well in his attempt to recount the terrible and fast-paced battles of the closing months of World War II in the East. The account is evenly balanced between the German and the Soviet side and so is the criticism for the mistakes commited by the two mighty and ruthless opponents. The period covered does not include the capture of Berlin, but this is not so important because the fate of the Third Reich was sealed months before, during the horrible battles of Poland, East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia. However the book suits more the military history fan than the layman, it requires a solid backround on WW II and is not to be read like Anthony Beevor's popular works. Duffy writes in his introduction that ""Red Storm on the Reich" stands as an atrocious book, in the literal sense of theat term. I have limited the story of destruction as far as I could to that of landscape and machines, and I hope that I have given no satisfaction to lovers of the pronography of violence". I think that he has fully achieved his aim. He presents the operations in a crystal clear way, with the aid of numerous and very good maps, and the editing is excellent, leaving only a few typos. I was especially impressed by his bibliography whic I found very useful. It is not particularly extensive but it includes many first hand accounts as well as some rare and authoritative sources on the subject. The Appendix named "The Conduct of War: Soviet Science and German Art" is also an extremely interesting analysis of the technical and operational matters of the campaign.

Mr Duffy has provided us with a definitive account of the last stage of the war in Europe. Sadly there appears to be little in the English language literature dealing with the operations of the Red Army to reach Berlin and bring to an end the war. We can count ourselves all the luckier that Mr. Duffy's book is such a gem. He sets out to tell us the operations in a seamless narrative, effortlessly switching between layers of command reaching from a German platoon commander to a Soviet Marshal and into the Fuehrerbunker. After this section, he discusses in detail the operational problems facing both armies. He does so in a very accessible way, providing references to the first section for the specific examples. Mr. Duffy has an impressive amount of sources that he draws on, and the literature list is exhaustive.
I came away from this book with a significantly increased respect for the capabilities of the Red Army that my grandfather fought. The operations described in here dwarf the Ardennes battles in every respect, and are a serious reminder as to who won the second world war, and why Europe looked the way it did for 50 years after 1945.
A must read.

This book is an excellent source of information on a sector of the Eastern Front that does not get that much attention--the fighting retreat into Germany in late '44 to the outskirts of Berlin. The book is informative and well-written but I would have liked to read about more individual experiences of the combatants involved. Of particular interest are the chapters on the sieges of the fortress cities like Breslau and Konigsberg. Some illustrations would also had been nice. Overall, recommended.

Duffy has written an excellent book on the chaotic times as the Soviets invaded Germany from the east. Some things will never be known with any certainty, but Duffy manages to give a coherent account of a tumultuous time. I give only four stars because the book omits the actual capture of Berlin. In some ways Berlin was anticlimatic, because the Reich was disintegrating, but without Berlin in the book, it feels incomplete.

Ah, what a pleasure to read such a skilled work of narrative-military history. Professor Duffy wrote this after delving into the Soviet records that opened up after the USSR split open, and the book is a delight to read. Duffy takes the emphasis off the drive to Berlin, and turns instead to the totality of the Soviet drive into Germany- the Vistula-Oder operations. The book is incredibly informative and very, very well written. In addition, it has fascinating appendices on matters such as German and Soviet military tactics & structure, as well as brief descriptions on some of the main weapons used by each side. Please trust me on this one, if you are interested in WWII you will love this book.

I thought this book was well written, research and quite interesting. The book was written without much bias and accounts from both sides were taken into consideration. Like the previous reviewer, I didn't understand why Mr. Duffy didn't go into Battle of Berlin which was the crowning jewel of the Soviet offensives which ended the war. I guess Antony Beevor's work have to covered that end. The book come highly recommended for anyone interested in the final months of the Third Reich along the eastern front.

Wow! This book prooves Adolph Hitler was Joseph Stalin's best ally and secret weapon. It prooves Hitler and all the Nazi's were devil's. Hitler not only killed non Germans but he and his Nazi's killed thousands of non Nazi Germans. It also explaines the raping and looting that was encouraged by some of the soviet officer's. World War two was a view into the very pit of HELL itself.

This was the 11th book I've purchased on Germany in late 1944/1945. All have been good except Slaughterhouse but none have had the perfect balance like this one. Some have been detailed which was good but to the exclusion of the bigger picture, such as Tragedy of the Faithful. Others were good but too big picture, such as The Last Thirty Days.

This book found the perfect balance between feeling the tension building in Germany, getting the feeling you are on the front, to being told what division was being thrown in to the front, or withdrawn. Divisions I've never heard mentioned before get a mention.

It flows really well and I've never ever read accounts of some of the battles.

Great book.