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Second World War: Eastern Front
General Works
Winter War
Battles
Berlin
Stalingrad
Warsaw 1944
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Books - Second World War - Eastern Front
 Motherland: Part One, Through Hunger and War, Natan Gimelfarb. Part one of the autobiography of a Jewish director living in the Soviet Union, covering his childhood, wartime experiences and student days. The author grew up in the Ukraine, suffered during the pre-war famines, and was forced to flee east ahead of the advancing Germans. A period in the Red Army ended when he was seriously wounded, and the final part of the book looks at his experiences as a wartime student. [read full review] |
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 World War II Soviet Armed Forces (1), 1939-41, Dr Nigel Thomas. This is a fairly traditional Osprey Man at Arms book looking at the soviet armed forces during the early stages of the Second World War 1939-1941. The book gives a brief outline of the early course of the war, the purges of high command, and the land forces' main campaigns, with sections on the Air force, Navy and NKVD uniforms. The book is short and gives an introduction to a big subject with excellent detail on uniforms and organisation at this early stage. [read full review] |
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 The Soviet Union at War 1941-1945, ed. David R. Stone. An examination of the impact of the German invasion on the Soviet Union, and how effective the various elements of the Soviet system were in fighting the war. Topics covered include the collective farming system, Soviet industry, the structure and attitudes of the military, the role of Women and the fate of non-Russians on both sides of the front line. [read full review] |
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Panzer Destroyer - Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander, Vasiliy Krysov. The memoirs of a Soviet tank and self-propelled gun commander who fought at Stalingrad, Kursk and during the long Soviet offensives that followed, ending the war in East Prussia, and who was lucky to survive for so long, losing his crew and his commanding officer, and being wounded four times. Provides a memorable picture of life in the Red Army during some of the titanic battles on the Eastern Front. [read full review]
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The Red Army at War, Artem Drabkin. An impressive collection of rare photographs showing the everyday life of the Red Army soldier during the Second World War, looking at every aspect of life in the army apart from combat, and with some useful captions and first hand accounts from veterans.
[read full review]
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 Hitler's Panzer Armies on the Eastern Front, Robert Kirchubel. A 'unit history' written on the largest scale, tracing the campaigns fought by the four Panzer Armies on the Eastern Front, from their roles in the early German victories, to their eventual defeat and destruction in the ruins of the Reich. A very useful contribution to the literature on the Eastern Front. [read full review] |
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Red Storm on the Reich , Duffy, C., Routledge, London. 1991.
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The Road to Berlin , Erickson, J., Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1983 (Reprinted by Grafton Books, 1985 and Cassell Military, 2003). |
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The Russo-German War 1941 – 45 , Seaton, A., Arthur Baker Ltd, London, 1971.
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| The Russo-German Conflict 1941 – 1945 , Clark, A. Barbarossa, Hutchinson & Co, London, 1965 (Reprinted by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995 and Cassell Military, 2002). A classic work by Alan Clark, later to become a Conservative MP famous for his diaries. |
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Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East , Ziemke, E., US Army Center of Military History, Washington DC, 1968.
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Last Days of the Reich , Lucas, J., Grafton, London, 1987.
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The Red Army at War, Artem Drabkin. An impressive collection of rare photographs showing the everyday life of the Red Army soldier during the Second World War, looking at every aspect of life in the army apart from combat, and with some useful captions and first hand accounts from veterans.
[read full review]
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Battles
Berlin
 Images of War: Berlin, Victory in Europe, Nik Cornish. A pictorial guide to the Soviet offensives that broke through the last German defensive lines in the East and the desperate battle for Berlin, the last major battle of the war against Nazi Germany. A good selection of Soviet and German photographs supported by useful captions and a concise account of the campaign. [read full review]
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 SS Charlemagne, Tony Le Tissier. An account of the military record of the French SS division, SS Charlemagne, as it fought in the German retreat towards Berlin and the final dramatic battle for that city. Told largely in the words of the general commanding the remains of the division in Berlin, and the captain in command of the remaining battalion, this account focuses tightly on one small unit's experiences of that battle. [read full review] |
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 Berlin 1945: End of the Thousand Year Reich, Peter Antill. This book describes the events in the climactic battle for Berlin, looking at the Soviet advance towards Berlin and the Germans' final resistance. Illustrated with a host of maps, colour plates and photographs, it provides a vivid portrayal of the death throes of the Third Reich and the end of the war in Europe, exploring the strategy of both sides and the tactics of impromptu urban warfare. For the Soviets, Berlin was the ultimate prize after almost four years of bloodshed but the cost of taking the city would prove to be staggering. [see more] |
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The Berlin Bunker , O'Donnell, J., Arrow, London, 1979.
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The Fall of Berlin , Read, A & Fisher, D., Hutchinson / BCA, London, 1992.
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Race for the Reichstag , Le Tissier, T., Frank Cass, London, 1999.
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Beevor, Anthony, Battle for Berlin
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Berlin – Dance of Death , Helmut Altner, Casemate, Havertown, PA, 2002.
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The Russians and Berlin 1945 , Kuby, E., Heinemann, London, 1968.
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Battlefield Berlin: Siege, Surrender and Occupation 1945 , Slowe, P & Woods, R., Robert Hale, London, 1988.
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Stalingrad
 Sacrifice on the Steppe, Hope Hamilton. The tragic tale of the Italian Alpine Corps sent by Mussolini to fight alongside the Germans in Russia, their disastrous retreat after the Soviet counterattack at Stalingrad, and the fate of the many men who were captured by the Soviets, from the early poor treatment to the later political indoctrination. [read full review] |
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 Notes of a Russian Sniper, Vassili Zaitsev. An utterly compelling account of the battle of Stalingrad as seen by Vassili Zaitsev, the sniper whose exploits inspired the film 'Enemy at the Gates'. A very well written memoir that gives the reader a clear idea of the nature of the fighting in the ruins of the city, and of the skills needed by a sniper in that environment [read full review] |
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 Stalingrad 1942, Peter Antill. One of the most monumental and widely discussed battles in the history of World War II, Stalingrad was a major defeat for Germany on the Eastern Front. The book provides a detailed breakdown of the armies on both sides, discusses the merits of the commanders, the ways in which these influenced the battle and the Germans allowed themselves to be diverted from their main objective and concentrate such large resources on what was, initially anyway, a secondary target. [see more] |
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Stalingrad: How the Red Army triumphed, Michael J. Jones. Focusing on the first phase of the battle - the German assault on the city - this book attempts to discover how the outnumbered defenders of Stalingrad managed to hold on until the Soviet counter-attack turned the tables on the Germans. A valuable attempt to uncover the true events of a battle often hidden behind a layer of Soviet propaganda [read full review]
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Warsaw 1944
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Panzers on the Eastern Front, Erhard Raus, ed. Peter Tsouras. A series of accounts of German successes on the Eastern Front written for the US military by General Erhard Raus during the 1950s. A very valuable historical source, well presented by the editor, and of great value for anyone with an interest in the fighting on the Eastern Front. [read full review] 
Images of War: Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's Invasion of Russia, Hans Seidler. A collection of German photographs from the first six months of the invasion of the Soviet Union, from the triumphal advances in the summer to the first dreadful experiences of the Russian winter. A good selection of high quality pictures, showing the German army at the height of its powers and confidence. [read full review] 
Eastern Inferno, The Journals of a German Panzerjäger on the Eastern Front, 1941-1943, Hans Roth. The remarkable journals of Hans Roth, who fought with an anti-tank unit attached to a German infantry division on the Eastern Front from 1941 until his death some time in 1944. Roth took part in the initial invasion, the battle for Kiev and the shattering retreat from Stalingrad, before disappearing during the destruction of Army Group Centre in 1944. [read full review]
Through Hitler's Back Door - SOE Operations in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, 1939-1945, Alan Ogden. A look at some of the most obscure operations carried out by SOE, in areas that became part of the Soviet sphere of influence before falling behind the iron curtain at the end of the war, after having sided with the Germans during the fighting. [read full review]
Guns against the Reich - Memoirs of an Artillery Officer on the Eastern Front, Petr Mikhin. The autobiography of a Soviet artillery officer who fought in front of Moscow, at Stalingrad and Kursk, and on the long advance into central Europe. This is an excellent account of life on the front line on the Eastern Front, and a valuable contribution to our understanding of life in the Red Army. [read full review]
Prisoner of the Gestapo: A Memoir of Survival and Captivity in Wartime Poland, Tom Firth. A tale of survival in wartime Poland in which the author saw in the early Russian occupation of eastern Poland, occupied Warsaw, the inside of a Gestapo prison, the front line in 1944 and the paranoid workings of the Soviet state at the end of the war. An enthralling tale of the best and worst of humanity [read full review]
Sniper Ace: From the Eastern Front to Siberia, Bruno Sutkus, An account of the life of one of the most successful German snipers on the Eastern Front and of the decades he spent in exile in the Soviet Union, of most value for the picture it paints of the fate of many German prisoners of war when they fell into Soviet hands at the end of the war. [read full review]
Men of Steel: 1st SS Panzer Corps, The Ardennes and Eastern Front 1944-45, Michael Reynolds. A hugely detailed account of the battles fought by the 1st SS Panzer Corps in the last few months of the Second World War, covering its role in the Ardennes offensive in the west and the last German offensive of the war in Hungary. [read full review]
War of the White Death: Finland Against The Soviet Union 1939-40, Bair Irincheev. A detailed military history of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, based on an impressive knowledge of both side's archives. Focuses almost entirely on the fighting on land, with some very detailed accounts of individual battles. [read full review]
Race for the Reichstag - the 1945 Battle for Berlin, Tony Le Tissier. A detailed but still coherent and readable account of the desperate fighting around and in Berlin in April and May 1945 (and within the two high commands), looking at events from both the Soviet and German sides and supported by some useful maps [read full review]
