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Some of the fiercest fighting of the Second World War took part on the southern half of the Eastern Front, where the Germans had made the most progress east before being stopped at Stalingrad. The Soviets thus had to push them a long way west to reclaim all of their pre-war territory, fighting across Ukraine and then into southern Poland (which itself stretched rather further to the east at that point). The book thus covers a considerable amount of ground. We start with the front line in the eastern Ukraine, and end two years later with it just outside Berlin!
At the start of the period being examined in this book the Soviets were faced by Army Group South. However the name of the army group involved changed repeated as the war turned against the Germans. It was Army Group South during the first three battles covered here – the Dnieper, Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive and battle of the Crimea. In April 1944 it became Army Group North Ukraine, and this was the name under which it was defeated in the Lvov-Sandomierz offensive. Soon afterwards it became Army Group A, but after that things become messy with part of the Army Group becoming Army Group Centre and part Army Group Vistula. This happened after the start of the Vistula-Oder Offensive, and we follow the fate of Army Group Vistula.
One nice feature in the section on opposing commanders is that if someone holds several key posts they get a separate section each time. This means that the author can focus on what they achieved during that particular period, rather than having to fit all of their career into the first mention.
For the five main campaigns we get orders of battle for the opposing sides. These are at Army Group and Army or Front and Army level, so the Soviet lists look rather longer than the German ones, simply because a Soviet Army was a lot smaller than a German Army. We get an examination of the state of the rival forces at the start of each campaign, with the Soviets able to gather much stronger forces than the Germans, who were often left scrambling to repair the damage caused by the previous battle in time to have some change in the next one.
The main battles each get about twenty pages. The book is heavily illustrated, so this perhaps comes out at about ten pages of text. This doesn’t sound much, but the text size is smaller than normal, so there is still a reasonable amount of text. I find this level of detail rather useful for giving a clear picture of the course of events, without getting bogged down in too much detail. The text is well supported with wartime photographs from both sides, and a series of useful maps. If you are looking for a very detailed account of the fighting then this book isn’t right, but if you want more of an overview, giving a clear picture of the course of events then this book is just right.
Chapters
Timeline
Introduction: Prelude to Destruction
Soviet Forces
German Forces
Battle of the Dnieper, August-December 1943
Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive, January-May 1944
Battle of the Crimea, April-May 1944
Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive, July-August 1944
Vistula-Oder Offensive, January-February 1945
Defeat, February-March 1945
Author:
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 128
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2023