Rating: 
Summary: NOT A BOOK YOU CAN BREEZE THROUGH, BUT WORTH IT.
Review: All written accounts of the war of the eastern front are exhaustive in detail, and tough to envision. By the sheer fact that the the soviet union was so vast, with seemingly hundreds of cities, towns, and villages. And a battle probably occured in almost every one. Well, at least in the western soviet union. And this book is no different. One cannot possibly memorize all of the actions led by all of the different soviet tank divisions, tank armies, tank corps, rifle armies, shock armies, cavalry divisions, artillery divisions, etc., without going mad. But the book does give you the bigger outcomes of these monstrous engagements in a well written, concise way. The complex political aspect of the forces behind the war are also examined. The only complaint i have is the gross lack of maps to trace the battles. At more than one occasion, i had to break out my atlas to see where the hell everything was happening. In conclusion, a well written, mostly unbiased account of the second half of the war in the east.
Rating:
Summary: A classic & a masterpiece
Review: Before colonel Glantz started producing its fine string of books devoted to the Eastern Front, John Erickson's two volumes (this one and "The Road To Stalingrad") were THE source for anyone seriously interested in the topic. Also, professor Erickson had the incomparable merit to write using loads of (painfully) researched Russian sources,giving to his work far more balance than any earlier book on the Great Patriotic War (as WWII is known in Russia), that usually were inaccurate or awfully biased towards the German point of view. It's not by chance that the same col. Glantz (another rare bird as historian) always states that his own work is just an update of what Erickson did in the 70's and the 80's. Actually, "To Road to Stalingrad" & "The Road To Berlin" arent' particularly dated, and still convey not only the finest "big picture" of this titanic conflict (whose dimensions are often difficult if not impossible to grasp) but also a stream of invaluable details on the (near) death and unexpected resurrection of the Red Army (and the Soviet State) in its struggle against a ruthless, vicious and powerful enemy. Yes, there are no maps (a minor complaint, given the wealth of Historical Atlas available on the market) but in any case, if you're into the subject, this is the book to buy.
Rating:
Summary: The best book in English about the Russian War
Review: Chuikov, in his history of events leading up to, and including the Battle of Stalingrad, was hampered in his task by Political overtones,and tended to overplay his admittedly important role in the battle. On the other hand, Western writers, particularly in the 60's and 70's were overwhelmed by the need to downplay the huge relevance to the successful completion of the Second World War of the battle, and the need to decry the efforts of Stalin and the Soviet leadership for narrow political reasons.The author here has avoided both extremes, and while giving deserved due to Zhukov, Chuikov, and their men, has managed to weave in an overlay of the political and econcomic events triggered by the events of, initially, Barbarossa, and then the Stalingrad Battle, with its sequel Uranus and Saturn. People seeking to understand the 40's and the events particularly of the Second World War, cannot do so without undertanding the cataclysmic events of July 1942 to February 1943 in the city of Stalingrad, nor understand Soviet sensibility after the war to what they saw as expansionism in Europe, without a sense of the loss and suffreing wrought on Russia by the invasion of 1941. An immense book, powerfully written, and with a deep overlay of careful and exacting scholarship.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy the paperback
Review: Ericksons Road to Stalingrad is masterly insofar as it documents in huge detail the unit to unit, army to army cross-currents from June 1941 until the battle for Stalingrad. At times when the author digresses to discuss the strategic concepts and preconceptions, he is authoritative. BUT, the paperback suffers enormously from the absence of maps....and it becomes virtually impossible to fathom who is where and how far apart different actions are. The book is written very much from the Russian point of view and there is little analysis of German methods or mentality. There are too few signposts in the text to aid the reader; eg at times the text jumps from one front or time to another with few clues that a flashback is occurring or that the action is now hundreds of miles different from previous paragraphs. Talk about the fog of war; here you can be in it and never leave your armchair.
Rating:
Summary: There are three classics on Stalingrad. This IS one of them!
Review: If you're studying Stalingrad or building up a credible military library, you really need this book, which stands alongside Antony Beevor's best-selling "Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege" and Joel Hayward's definitive "Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitlers Defeat in the East 1942 - 1943". Make sure you have all three. Erickson's book explains Soviet grand strategy, operational art, and tactics, and does so during a narrative that is gripping and informative. Yes, it is true that you need maps to help you locate the place names but check out the good maps in Hayward's book while you are reading Erickson's. Erickson cut a trail with his meticulous use of Soviet russian-language archival documents. This gives the book real strenth and reliabilty. Soviet sacrifices were as great as Soviet suffering. I would like to shake the hand of every Soviet commander Erickson mentions. Thank God for them is all I can say. THEY won World War II. The books I mention in this book review are so far ahead of the rest that I would give them all six stars. You must get them. Erickson's companion volume, by the way, is about the period from Stalingrad to Berlin. It is also magnificent. By the way, I once met Professor Erickson and I can affirm that he is a thoroughly nice gentleman. He signed his book for me and happily answered my dumb questions. Isn't it nice that at least some of our paramount scholars aren't ivory-tower types?
Rating:
Summary: There are three classics on Stalingrad. This IS one of them!
Review: If you're studying Stalingrad or building up a credible military library, you really need this book, which stands alongside Antony Beevor's best-selling "Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege" and Joel Hayward's definitive "Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitlers Defeat in the East 1942 - 1943". Make sure you have all three. Erickson's book explains Soviet grand strategy, operational art, and tactics, and does so during a narrative that is gripping and informative. Yes, it is true that you need maps to help you locate the place names but check out the good maps in Hayward's book while you are reading Erickson's. Erickson cut a trail with his meticulous use of Soviet russian-language archival documents. This gives the book real strenth and reliabilty. Soviet sacrifices were as great as Soviet suffering. I would like to shake the hand of every Soviet commander Erickson mentions. Thank God for them is all I can say. THEY won World War II. The books I mention in this book review are so far ahead of the rest that I would give them all six stars. You must get them. Erickson's companion volume, by the way, is about the period from Stalingrad to Berlin. It is also magnificent. By the way, I once met Professor Erickson and I can affirm that he is a thoroughly nice gentleman. He signed his book for me and happily answered my dumb questions. Isn't it nice that at least some of our paramount scholars aren't ivory-tower types?
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest work on the Second World War
Review: John Erickson, may he rest in peace, wrote a hisotrical work on the most savage war in the history of mankind in a way that has yet to be surpassed. When one looks at the war in the east from 1941-1945 all the other fronts of the war, except for China's struggle between Communist partisans led by Mao against the Japanese, look like trivial sorry excuses for war. D-day was nothing....a puff of dust, even the ferocious fighting in the Pacific pales in comparision with such titanic actions as Kursk, Operation Bagration, East Prussia, the firey assualt on Budapest. Erickson did not say this flat out but as you read it becomes quite apparent that the war was fought and won by the Russians. This very unconventional but compeling work beats anything Steven Ambrose wrote. Even the scientific battle analysis of david glanz does not come close to this masterwork. John Erickson, you were the best....
Rating: 
Summary: Political overview
Review: This book is more of a study of Stalin and his fight to survive the immense crisis that resulted from Germany's invasion and lasted 4 long years. This book details who was in charge of what armies, thier political fate and affiliations and how long they remained in charge until scapegoated. This book does provide great insight into the 1930's purges of the Soviet military and wonderfully details the rush to production that the Soviet Union had to undergo to survive. But it does not provide a sense of size in regards to the fighting nor does it provide many details except when certain areas were lost or retaken, who was in command, and maybe how many tanks, guns, and men were available at the beginning of the fight. No battle casualties are provided, so if division has 800 men at the end of the fight, was it full strength at the beginning? By the end of this book, you'll tire of seeing unit designations, since they are virtually meaningless in the context of the text. Overall, a wonder study of the way Stalin managed and fought the war from the Kremlin. Committees, organizations and offices springing from nowhere only to vanish again as Stalin maintained his grasp on the Soviet Union. This is not a great book in regards to the maturation of the Red Army strategies, equipment or tactics as it seems to only deal with these topics in a precursory way.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent detailed account of the "Great Patriotic War"
Review: This is an excellant book for those seeking detailed accounts of the war between the USSR and Germany. Mr. Erickson does a masterful job of detailing the Soviet failures at the beginning of the war through their successful defense of Moscow to the fall of the Crimea setting the stage for Germany's catastrophic defeat at Stalingrad. This account is largely from the Soviet perspective, but I do not believe that detracts from its value. The author displays little bias, he rather lets the facts speak for themselves. This has one weakness: as others have said, it has no maps. The lack of maps make it somewhat difficult to follow unless one has some idea of the geography of the USSR; even then, it is still difficult to follow at times. However, overall this is an excellent work for anyone seeking more detail about the Great Patriotic War.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent detailed account of the "Great Patriotic War"
Review: This is an excellant book for those seeking detailed accounts of the war between the USSR and Germany. Mr. Erickson does a masterful job of detailing the Soviet failures at the beginning of the war through their successful defense of Moscow to the fall of the Crimea setting the stage for Germany's catastrophic defeat at Stalingrad. This account is largely from the Soviet perspective, but I do not believe that detracts from its value. The author displays little bias, he rather lets the facts speak for themselves. This has one weakness: as others have said, it has no maps. The lack of maps make it somewhat difficult to follow unless one has some idea of the geography of the USSR; even then, it is still difficult to follow at times. However, overall this is an excellent work for anyone seeking more detail about the Great Patriotic War.
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