Customer Reviews

The Siege of Leningrad: 900 Days of Terror (Cassell Military Paperbacks)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A great general account of WWII around Leningrad. It has both the Germans and the Finns in it and describes operations from 1941 to 1944 when the siege was lifted. You find out about the first battles, like those done by Vatutin when he encircled the 8th Panzer division in 1941, something that might come as a surprise to many, and delayed Army Group North for 3 weeks. As well about the operations in 1942 and 1943 which restored the land link with the rest of the USSR yet the siege in and of itself would last until 1944. For those not too familiar with the Eastern Front this would be a great book, for those that want details of everything that happened within those 3 years, I would suggest waiting for Glantz's next book on Leningrad, a more indepth study. This book is also unlike the others of his that I have in that it has many pictures, exactly like his new "Barbarosa" book.

This book is unlike Glantz's books on Kursk, Kharkov, or Mars in that it is a slim, larger-sized hardback with a lot of photos and color maps. He also doesn't go into a large amount of detail. This scope makes it a lot easier to understand - while I understood battles that Erickson (in "The Road to Stalingrad") describes but I was confused about. Also, it's a good primer before jumping into "The 900 Days" by Salisbury.

This book sheds light on a relatively unknown (for me, anyway) part of the war on the Eastern Front. As well as the indepth text (which one is always assured of when David Glantz is the writer), two other things place this book ahead of the rest. First, the maps (one can easily lose track of what is happening when it comes to Russian place names); second, the photographs, which are mostly new and not the same old tired images. There are also exhaustive chapter notes and appendices. For anyone wanting to know what really happened at Leningrad in World War II, this book is a must. Well done Mr Glantz

In `The Siege of Leningrad' David Glantz is successful in providing a succinct and informative account of the military aspects of this battle. By drawing on Soviet sources Glantz describes how the Soviet military successfully defended the city against German attack and eventually lifted the siege. A particular strength of this book is that Glantz gives considerable attention to the failed Soviet attempts to lift the siege and highlights the terrible price the Soviets paid in the fighting around the city.

The book is, however, let down by the poor quality of much of Glantz's writing. Many passages are confusing or `jumpy' and some accounts of battles read like a shopping list of unit and place names. Due to his focus on the Soviets Glantz's accounts of the German objectives and strategies can also be unclear. For example, it is never made clear whether the Germans were serious about capturing Leningrad after 1941 and Hitler's role in the battle is confusing. I also found the number of maps in the book to be somewhat unsatisfactory - while each chapter has a clear and useful map the book would have benefited from the addition of maps depicting the major battles described in the text.

While I'd strongly recommend `The Siege of Leningrad' to readers looking for a military history of how the Soviet military defended the city and eventually lifted the siege, it's not successful as a general history and should be avoided by non-specialist readers.

Books about the Leningad siege usualy deal mainly with the human aspect of the event, presenting collections of personal accounts and experiences, like Harrison E. Salisbury's "The 900 days: The Siege of Leningrad". Fortunately, for those interested in the military campaing, this book presents an almost day by day narrative of the operations on the various fronts, with statistcs and comments on the stategies and commanders. And all this without being a tedious reading. This book is a "must have" military and historic reference about the subject.

After having recently read quite a bit about WWII, and more recently on the Eastern Front, I stated looking for more books to read. I naturally wanted to read about Leningrad since this was the longest siege of the war and had an appalling amount of death. Glantz seemed to be a good call and well versed on the Eastern Front, but his writing is just down right boring.

I understand that this is a military history, that its main focus is to analyze the strategies that both countries used to attack and defend their positions. I've read other military analysis and found them to be interesting and informative. Glantz seemed so focused on the military analysis that all you are left with is a day by day analysis of the bullet points of the war. X army moved here, y division deployed over there, while x, y and z army of Russia countered over here. What you're left with is nothing more than a long list of armies and their deployments. Absolutely nothing interesting, even in the remote sense, to anything he is writing about (unless, perhaps, if you attend West Point and the sole focus of the class is army deployment).

Glantz doesn't inject anything into his narrative (nonexistent for the most part), like eyewitness accounts from the soldiers of both countries, or commentaries from the generals who lead the armies. You don't get to read about what the civilians went through or see the war through their eyes. All of this is necessary to bring home the tragedy that was the Siege of Leningrad. Without this input you are left with a long list of armies and a completely boring and uninspiring account of such a tragic conflict in WWII.

A lot of this is against Glantz or his publisher, because the back of the book clearly states that this was a tragic and heroic war for the civilians and soldiers alike. They billed the book as something much more than it actually is, leading to a potential reader to think they were going to get a much more in depth look. I certainly would not recommend to anyone (unless you sole interest is to read about deployments) and I would venture to say that this will be the last book I will ever read by Glantz. 2 stars simply because as a military history there is some worth in army deployments, but it doesn't do anything for the amateur historian, which is who will be reading this book.

2 stars.

I found the book to be overly dull. Too much description of what units were where and which would attack. Read Harrison Salisbury for a good book on the siege. This might have been a well intended military analysis but leaves the reader gasping at all the details of unit locations, commanders, etc.

For a Russian standpoint on the Eastern Front of World War II, Glantz is the definitive authority and his books the best available sources today. Most books on the subject tend to presenet heavily the German perspective and this is quite to the contrary here it is the Soviet army that has the first place. The book covers the entire 900 day siege very well, as it includes every military detail and battle that happened during this period. Glantz's text is super informative and it will satisfy any serious student of World War II, as it doesn't miss any important fact. You will learn about the initial German advance to the city, the terrific battles around it, the tragic destruction of Gen Vlasov's 2nd Shock Army, the raising of the siege in January 1943, the subsquent bloody repulses that the Red Army suffered, and the final triumphal (albeit very costly) strategic offensive in January/February 1944. The book is also full of statistic data and it has plenty of photographs, many of which are very good. There are many maps presented in a clear simplistic way, which is good, although sometimes the text referes to locations omitted on the maps. This is an informative and complete book on the Siege of Leningrad, but heavily focused on the military aspect of that episode. It is recommended if you are looking for a Russian prespective and you are really interested in the subject and wishing to go the full depth studying it.

The Siege of Leningrad 1941-1944 is the incredible true story of the German Army's three-year assault on Leningrad. A tale of heroism and tragedy, shelling and starvation (nearly 4,000 of the city's inhabitants starved to death on Christmas Day alone), The Siege of Leningrad recounts the details of a turning point of World War II. Intensively researched, and enhanced with a handful of black-and-white photographs, The Siege of Leningrad 1941-1944 is a welcome addition to library and personal world history shelves and reference collections.

It gives a living history of the siege of Leningrad, now once again St. Petersburg. It is a beautiful city full of history.