Book suggestions

[gordonmull]

This isn't really all that naval but I'm looking for suggestions for first-hand accounts of the WWII Eastern front, preferably from the German point of view but I'm open to Soviet. I've already read Blood Red Snow and The Forgotten Soldier, which are both excellent books.

[Red October1984]

I'm also interested if anybody has anything to recommend. I like this sort of thing.

[ikalugin]

Are you more interested in the human tragedy side of that war or the military science/history side?

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

Are you more interested in the human tragedy side of that war or the military science/history side?

As for me, I like both.

Open to suggestions.

[ikalugin]

I would look if I have any good books translated.

What I would suggest reading would be the -commission for studies of war experience- materials (or whatever it was called). That commission would collect and study the combat experience and then transmit it around the armed forces in form of special documents.

This was done quickly and hence (amongst other things) allowed the Soviet Armed Forces to grow from where they were in 1941 to where they were in 1945.

[Eichhörnchen]

Hi, gordonmull: I have the two books you've read. I also have "The Outermost Frontier: A German Soldier in the Russian Campaign" by Helmut Pabst (ISBN 0-7183-0600-7) which is a personal account type book;

also "War On The Eastern Front 1941-1945: The German Soldier in Russia" by James Lucas (no ISBN number in the book, but it was published by Cooper & Lucas Ltd) factual, with good long passages of personal account, which is the type of book I especially like.

[BossMark]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

also "War On The Eastern Front 1941-1945: The German Soldier in Russia" by James Lucas (no ISBN number in the book, but it was published by Cooper & Lucas Ltd) factual, with good long passages of personal account, which is the type of book I especially like.

I would recommend this as well Barbarossa by Alan Clark (A very good read even though it is wrote by a Tory)

[ikalugin]

Those would be secondary sources, no?

Why not recommend any of the works by David Glantz then? Or Armstrong?

[Eichhörnchen]

[Eichhörnchen]

[Catfish]

Valentin Mikula: "Stuka"

very good book, from training, to Poland, to Stalingrad .. and back, with a short intermezzo around Malta. You also learn a lot about flying and tactics, very tense and (unlike Hollywood and other western literature of the kind) not glorifying, while describing mentality and comradeship. You can compare this to "Das Boot", but with planes.
Don't know if ever translated into english though.

Greetings,
Catfish

[Eichhörnchen]

"Swastika In The Gunsight: Memoirs of a Russian Fighter Pilot 1941-43" by Igor Kaberov

Focused particularly on the siege of Leningrad.

ISBN 0 7509 2240 0

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by gordonmull

This isn't really all that naval but I'm looking for suggestions for first-hand accounts of the WWII Eastern front, preferably from the German point of view but I'm open to Soviet. I've already read Blood Red Snow and The Forgotten Soldier, which are both excellent books.

Pretty good selection here:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...astern+f%2Caps

[kranz]

for a German perspective: Paul Carell - Operation Barbarossa and its continuation Scorched Earth.

[STEED]

Originally Posted by BossMark

I would recommend this as well Barbarossa by Alan Clark (A very good read even though it is wrote by a Tory)

I second this one.

For the air war Christer Bergstrom series..
Barbarossa: The Air Battle July-December 1941
Stalingrad - The Air Battle: 1942 through January 1943
Kursk: The Air Battle July 1943
Bagration to Berlin: The Final Air Battles in the East 1944-1945

Osprey campaign series has a number of books, be careful they do cost money. Three of their titles have been grouped together in a book with a little bit more info. Operation Barbarossa by Robert Kirchubel.

Talking of Barbarossa here are some more..
Barbarossa by David Glantz (Well worth checking out his books)
Barbarossa by Bryan I. Fugate
War without Garlands by Robert Kershaw

David Stahel has written four books very detailed, I've read the first two just waiting for the next two to come out in paperback.
Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East
Kiev 1941
Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941
The Battle for Moscow

Death on the Don: The Destruction of Germany's Allies on the Eastern Front 1941-44 by Jonathan trigg (He also wrote four books on volunteers from other countries served in the Waffen SS)

Red Storm on the Reich by Christopher Duffy
Hitler's Final Fortress Breslau 1945 by Richard Hargreaves
Berlin Soldiger by Helmut Altner

Three more on the last days..
Until the final hour by Traudl Junge
In the Bunker with Hitler by Berd Freytag Von Loinghoven
Hitler's last days by Gerhardt Boldt

And from the Russian point.
Ivan's War The Red Army 1939-45 by Catherine Merridale

Antony Beevor two on Stalingrad/Berlin