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Rating: 
Summary: Nothing special
Review: Already seen photos and no new ideas...pls save yourself the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Woeful!
Review: Appallingly amateurish effort that looks like it was assembled by a comittee of pre-schoolers. Atrocious spelling and grammar (whatever happened to proofreading?), text that rambles and, towards the end becomes more or less incoherent, text and photographs repeated - sometimes laughably so - one photo is provided with a caption indicating the subjects are vanquished Germans, then a few pages later, the same photo is described as depicting victorious Russians. The text waffles on interminably about "the horror" and "the inhumanity" etc etc, and detail is sacrificed for hyperbole. Few if any good points - some of the photos at least are new and worth seeing - but on the whole, this theatre of the war has been well-described in many other, much more worthy books, Alan Clark's "Barbarossa", for one. My advice is to try one of those and don't waste your precious time on this shabby effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but muddled effort
Review: Interesting, but muddled effort covering the major campaigns of "Operation Barbarossa".Lavishly Illustrated, one might even call it a coffee table book. This volume mixes a straight history of the major campaigns such as Stalingrad, Kursk and the Battle of Berlin with graphically pleasing side bars and "articles" on various aspects of the conflict such as the Panzer Tank, Artillery pieces, etc. Told from an unabashedly, one might even say approvingly German point-of-view, there are serious errors and omissions. Embarassingly, one picture appears in two different places (pg 164 and 175) with two different captions. The side bar comments by Professor Erickson (The Road to Stalingrad, The Road to Berlin), obviously taken from the video series, on which this book is based, are strange and, at times woefully inaccurate. Witness comments on the Soviet Partisan Movement: "It was unrestricted barbaric warfare because partisans made war in a particularly merciless fashion, killing Germans and carrying out atrocities (sic!). The Germans, in return made war in an even more merciless fashion upon the partisans." Actually, it was the Nazis that initiated the atrocities against the local population and the partisans! However, the main body narrative is informative and moves in a brisk, journalistic pace. An Interesting "article" on the Leuthen Project, which I have never heard of appears on page 163. It was a last-ditch effort at troop deployment in the waning days of the War. Strategic narratives by several German Generals were particularly informative. Overall a good first book for newcomers to the War in the East.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but muddled effort
Review: Interesting, but muddled effort covering the major campaigns of "Operation Barbarossa". Lavishly Illustrated, one might even call it a coffee table book. This volume mixes a straight history of the major campaigns such as Stalingrad, Kursk and the Battle of Berlin with graphically pleasing side bars and "articles" on various aspects of the conflict such as the Panzer Tank, Artillery pieces, etc. Told from an unabashedly, one might even say approvingly German point-of-view, there are serious errors and omissions. Embarassingly, one picture appears in two different places (pg 164 and 175) with two different captions. The side bar comments by Professor Erickson (The Road to Stalingrad, The Road to Berlin), obviously taken from the video series, on which this book is based, are strange and, at times woefully inaccurate. Witness comments on the Soviet Partisan Movement: "It was unrestricted barbaric warfare because partisans made war in a particularly merciless fashion, killing Germans and carrying out atrocities (sic!). The Germans, in return made war in an even more merciless fashion upon the partisans." Actually, it was the Nazis that initiated the atrocities against the local population and the partisans! However, the main body narrative is informative and moves in a brisk, journalistic pace. An Interesting "article" on the Leuthen Project, which I have never heard of appears on page 163. It was a last-ditch effort at troop deployment in the waning days of the War. Strategic narratives by several German Generals were particularly informative. Overall a good first book for newcomers to the War in the East.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent overview of the Eastern Front
Review: This book is a great overview of the Eastern Front campaign. With Erickson's insights there is plenty of balance in the book regarding German vs Russian bias. My only real complaint is that the later Russian offensives are given less coverage compared to the intial German attacks. Overall though if you are new to the Eastern Front or just want a quick overview as a refresher or just a good read you can't go wrong with this book. While I have not seen the video series of the same name this book seems to be a companion to it with lots of quotes from the videos.
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