Customer Reviews

War Without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa 1941-1942

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

 

 

This book is really great, an almost essential read for anyone interested in the Eastern front in particular, or WW2 warfare on the personal level in general.
It is well written and easy to read, and thoroughly researched ( as with the author`s other excellent books).

This book does not contain a comprehensive military history of Barbarossa, rather it traces the major actions during the first 6 months, bringing the story alive with numerous personal accounts taken from diaries, letters as well as from interviews.
The majority of these sources are German (not unnaturally, as victorious armies tend to leave behind more pictures and accounts than retreating ones). But Russian experiences are included, and helps balance the story.

Among the many highlights, it was very interesting to read more details about the bitter fighting for Brest-Litovsk, this being an example of the many battles which broke the tempo of the Blitzkrieg. And even though the Germans were victorius in these battles, the time lost and the heavy casualties suffered in the process caused, in the author`s words, the Ostheer to "victor itself to death"

I cannot really find anything negative to say, it is a great read and excellent value for money.

Strongly recommended!!

Kershaw's book on Operation Barbarossa is a pretty good introduction to the topic. It highlights some of the problems the German army ran into on their way to Moscow, the heart of darkness they failed to reach.

Kershaw makes good use of personal accounts, drawing from both published and unpublished memoirs and letters; primarily German ones as is usually the case with books on the eastern front, but he throws in the occasional Soviet take to spice things up. A more balanced mix would have netted the book another star.

Great Book! Gives the reader not only an historical overview of the Barbarossa campaign, but also first hand accounts of some of the German participants in the campaign. I would highly recommend it for both the novice and for the seasoned reader of the Eastern Front.

Kind of a groundbreaking work... readers of the war in the East... this is a must have.

This a very thorough look at the fate of the Wehrmacht from the inception of Barbarossa to the failure of Typhoon and the resulting defensive actions.

It is very much a look through the eyes of the individual German soldier. It is neither sympathetic to them (it certainly list atrocities); but nor does it focus on the Russian or civilian experience. I think some reviewers are overly harsh when they criticize it for not giving a balanced perspective. It is explicitly the German view.

It has a great mix of both the emotive individual experiences and a more conceptual explanation of why Barbarossa failed. Its an unusual combination but it works very well.

This is a must read book for anyone interested in the Eastern front.

Having read most classic titels on the Eastern Front of course I had to order this book too. It didn't dissapoint me, but after a flying start it seemed to bog down in facts, figures and repeating stories. I found the three first episodes top notch, this was the first book I've read which brilliantly described the whole atmosphere in Germany in the pre-invasion months. By not only let the soldiers speak, but their wifes and children too, I thought the reader got a first-rate perspective on how the general feeling in Nazi-Germany was during that time. The first chapters on the invasion itself were brilliant too, they remindend me very much of Anthony's Beevor's Stalingrad. But then, the speed of the book seemed to bog down, just like the German army did. What follows is an ever-repeating, way too detailed description of every major battle on the eastern front. As a reader, I felt like I had to watch 20 chess matches at the same time while trying to remember every single move. So I thought that a shame, since the start of the book was so brilliant. Anyway, this book is certainly worth reading, and I salute the writer for his investigative skills, but you really must be a die-hard WW II junkie to enjoy this book to the last page.

The historical consensus is that the Wermacht - the regular Army, not merely the SS - was up to its neck in the blood of innocents during the Russian campaign. From general to foot soldier, the German soldier enthusiastically participated in mass murder, plunder, and rape. But Kershaw says "No, the poor German soldiers were victims too of a totalitarian system they were powerless to oppose." Sheer nonsense that has been repeatedly discredited by some of the very sources Kershaw cites. See, e.g., "Ordinary Men" - which documents that there were German soldiers who refused to participate in the shooting of civilians, including Jews, and who were not punished for their refusal. Kershaw shows an odd affinity for excusing the inexcusable and, by so doing, comes close to apologizing for mass murder.

This book is very useful for understand the erosion of the german army acroos the mosth of 1941 after the invasion till the Moscow battle. Most of their afirmations are fiables and it gives a new point of view to the sacrifice of millions of russian soldiers that before seem useless. That sacrifice did that the german army arrived to Moscow very weak.
Also there are a lot of information that I don't read in other books abot the inavsion of Russia, as that a lot of the material was french or of the other occupied countries.
But my critic is about the repetion of the suffering of the german soldier a lot of times more that the suffering of the civil population, yes the author speak, a few, about the murder of the russian POW's but don't give number ( more of three millions ! ) that was the more brutal genocide of more people in less time in the history of the mankind.
Also cited some of the attrocities of the german army, but usually in short, and also usually forget what happened to the civilians. It's difficult to understand tha admiration that sometimes reflects the book about the germans when one read the attrocities that they did from the first eay and usually for all the units, not only for the SS ( another myth ). The suffering of a wife that received the letter with the death of her husbandin Germany is nothing in comparation with the suffering of a lot,too much, of russian mothers that see as their chidren died of cold in a hole in the forest where they have been living for more of two years becouse the germans fire her house and take off their clothes even of the babies ( the russian soldiers discovered a lot of the "proud" germans with women's and children's clothes inside of their uniformfor be warmer).
So to title this book "War without garlands " is like to title "The Texas's massacre" a non romantic film. The german army was a band of killer and it's necessary that all the world know that they did in detail, becouse unfortunately there are still a lot of admirers of that assesins.