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

Rating:
Summary: An indispensable account of the Eastern Front battles
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Way to Teach History
Review: 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the early 90's, with the collapse of the Soviet Empire, historians could, for the first time, access new and heretofore unpublished material.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.