Customer Reviews

Scorched Earth: Hitler's War on Russia, Vol. 2

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Paul Carrell's book covers the war in Russia from the end of 1942 (post-Stalingrad)to the collapse of Army Group Center in mid-1944. The book is written from the German perspective but is intermixed with Soviet history sources and accounts. The book deals with important battles and retreats of the German armies from an individual perspective. Reading the book will make the reader truly visualize what the landsehr and the panzer forces of the German armies dealt with in trying to resist the great Soviet juggernaut. While the book may ignore attrocities and other low points of the Great War now amply covered elsewhere, it gives the reader a fascinating perspective on the war in Russia, where contrary to popular belief in the U.S., WW II was really fought. An excellent read all in all.

This has to be one of the best books ever written on the Russian-German War. Paul Carell has a way of making you feel like you were there with the troops. Very hard to put down. I have read this book twice, and will read it somemore

Tells the odissey of the 2nd phase of the invasion of Russia, and, altough not as interesting as the 1rst phase (the invasion and the failure at Moscow), the Germans keep giving the Russians a hard time, untill their horrendous defeat at Kursk. The very best on both books is the soldier's letters and comments, that places you right in the front.

The Germans had the best army of the first half of the 20th century. twice they took on major coalitions; twice they nearly won. In WWII they were defeated because their opponents learned from them. C. tells the story of the first 3 years of the German-Russian conflict. He evidently could not bring himself to finish the series. The scale, scope, and ferocity of this conflict were vastly larger than the campaigns in the West. C. tells the story in terms of both the big and the small picture. one reads vignettes of individuals, smaller units, and small conflicts amidst the vast canvass of the war. His focus is German success. After Jan '43 the successes are often retreats and break-outs. the leitmotif is that Stalin wanted more. Pace increases. the last campaign is a whirlwind, finishing with the escape of 5 soldiers from the disaster. This can produce gaps and distortions. Although C. says that Kursk-Orel was the decisive battle, he does not describe a German defeat, only the end of the attack.

More seriously, the only mention of anti-Semitism or Jews concerns Russians in panicked Moscow. C. mentions, with protests, that v. Manstein was sentenced for kidnapping civilians. Near the very end he mentions, in a single sentence, Hitler's disastrous occupation policy. Hitler is always to blame. Had he only heeded his generals! For comparison one can imagine a history of the American Civil War that described one Confederate victory after another, until the final surrender, caused by superior forces. Such an account would never mention slavery, would not tell of the frequent execution of captured black soldiers, the enslavement of others, brush over Fort Pillow as an accident, ignore General Lee quietly watching black captives being shot after the battle of the Crater. The Confederates would fight for "self-government" or the like, and the phrase United States would not appear.

C. never seeks to explain the why of this warm why Germany attacked Russia. German soldiers fought well, many, perhaps most, honorably. That does not justify the conflict. Blaming the outcome on Hitler and superior numbers and material is rather weak. These were reasons for not attacking Russia.

Both German wars had disastrous aftermaths. scorched history might be a better title.

Second volume of Carell's detailed account of the hideous conflict between Germans and Russians in the second world war. The Russians lost and lost and lost, but won. They lost 20 million souls. They prevailed.