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This is one of two books looking at the tanks involved in the fighting of 1945 in Europe, the other looking at the Western Front.
The most obvious difference between these two books is the number of German tanks involved. In the Western Front volume German armour was almost absent. After the failure of the Ardennnes offensive the Germans shifted the bulk of their surviving tanks to the east, and in the last few months of the war the vast majority of new tanks were sent to the Eastern Front. Even so the Germans were massively outnumbered by the Soviets in 1945, had less of a technological edge than in earlier years, and had lost most of their tactical edge.
After a brief look at the campaigns of 1945 we move onto the organisation of the two side’s tank forces, which also includes an examination of tank numbers. We then move on to an examination of the main armoured fighting vehicles on each side (the Technical Factors chapter), focusing on the main tanks, tank hunters and armoured assault guns. These two chapters fill most of the book, and are about the same size. There are no detailed battle accounts here, and the Battle Analysis section is only one page long, followed by a look at the lesssons learned by the post-war Red Army.
This is a useful overview of the armoured forces deployed on the Eastern Front during the battles of 1945, showing how badly outnumbered the Germans were, and how the Soviets had learnt from earlier battles to improve the quality of their armoured fighting vehicles.
Chapters
Introduction
The Campaign
Doctrine and Organisation
Technical Factors
Battle Analysis
Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 48
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2022