ebooks Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941-1942: Schwerpunkt by Robert Forczyk in History

Review

106 of 109 people found the following review helpful. "Highlight Reel" for Fighting on the Eastern Front in 1941-1942By WryGuy2In a way; "Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front"; by Robert Forczyk; reminds me of a sports highlight reel. You know; the kind where you get to see all of the big plays; turning points; and exciting action; and where the less important content isn't shown. Although the analogy I just made isn't perfect; virtually every effective large scale attack and successful defense during the fighting on the Eastern Front during 1941 and 1942 was spearheaded or strongly supported by armored forces; hence you're getting the highlights; or good stuff here.In this book; the author lays out how the Germans and Soviets used their tanks and assault guns and how tactics for their use evolved over time during the many massive battles fought by these relentless foes. Well; that's only partially true. As Mr Forczyk shows; German armored and offensive doctrines were fairly mature by the time Operation Barbarossa kicked off in June 1941; as they had almost two years of fighting to develop them. The Soviets; on the other hand; were attacked at the worst possible time; attempting to implement new doctrine based on what they had learned from their disastrous Soviet-Finnish war as well as from recent German successes; while beginning to upgrade their tanks to newer models and trying to recover from Stalin's purges of their senior officer corps.Rather than break down and describe the individual chapters; as other reviewers have already admirably done; let me lay out why this book is one of the best books I've read on this portion of the war. First; the author served in tanks; and is able to analyze tank warfare with the eyes of someone who studied and trained in tanks; albeit a generation or so removed from World War II. Next; he clearly understands combined arms warfare; and his analysis points out that Germans successes ... and Soviet failures ... in this time frame was largely due to fact that the Germans understood the importance of it and the Soviets usually did not; or at least they lacked the patience to pull it all together. Third; I find his work much more balanced between the German and Soviet points of view than most other authors. He also applies a necessary corrective to recent works that basically state that either the Germans couldn't have won the war; or that they were beaten shortly after launching Barbarossa. He points out that German losses; while heavy; were not crippling in 1941; at least not until after Operation Typhoon; and even then the Germans weren't beaten. And he takes great pains to show both sides' successes and failures. (As an aside; I wonder how the war would have played out if the Germans had dug in for the winter in late October rather than pushing their forces until they were overextended and worn out; as the author shows that they were still in reasonably good shape at that point.) And fourth; he clearly explains how the Soviet tank forces painfully learned their lessons and were slowly becoming more combat effective over time; rather than just showing snapshots; so to speak; of how bad they were in 1941 and better in 1942.The included photographs were great; but I would have liked to have seen a few more maps. (I understand that this is a limitation set by the book's publishers; though; and not the author's fault.) The appendices giving orders of battle and tank production were also good.Overall; this is an outstanding book that shows how critically important armored forces were for both sides during this portion of the war. It presumes that you have at least a passing familiarity with the subject matter; but that's ok; because you wouldn't be buying a book on tank warfare if you didn't. :-) But it's written at a level that a novice can still follow; so you won't be buried in technical jargon that you don't understand. To sum; this book has earned a coveted spot on the top shelf in my office. Five stars.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Overwhelming detail at first - but better with timeBy Chris F. HallmarkAs someone who has read WW II history books for years; predominantly about the land and aerial battles involving the Western allies; I am trying to educate myself more about the Eastern aspect of the war. The more I read about the incredible conflict between the Russians and Germans the more I realize the sheer scope and huge; determining impact that front had on the war. This book was almost overwhelming in its level of detail about every strata of command; specific key individuals of rank; operation plans; key battles; geographic terrain; etc. I realized how much I need to learn about this part of the war. This book represents a very incredible amount of research on the subject - and just through 1941-1942 when the situation was starting to change and the Russias would begin to prevail until the end of the war! I had a hard time reading this at first; but once I decided not to get too bogged down in the details and just go with the flow; I developed a sense about what was happening. I got the Kindle version - it is recommended that the reader have a separate era specific general map of that front to help understand the locations of the many battles; the print is pretty fine. The book does a good job of describing the negative impact of both Hitler's and Stalin's boneheaded decisions on their own respective countries and on the commanders that knew what they were doing. Stalin's brutality toward his own officers and soldiers is well documented. His "purge" of leaders well before Barbarosa set his armoured forces back for the early years of the war. But boy did the Reds recover and start to seize the initiative! This is a book I will eventually read again as I learn more about this aspect of the war. I was impressed enough by the time I finished the book that a similar documentation of the 1943-1945 time frame would have been welcome.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Excellent readBy Mike WhitfieldWhile I found this harder going than the author's second part; it is still an excellent treatise on Eastern Theater armored operations over the first two years. The author uses primary sources from both sides to tell the tale; sometimes pointing out how primary sources tend to be self-serving. In such cases; subsequent events usually suffice to make clear which primary source is lying; although often; one's own side's historical documents put paid to self-serving memories.For myself; I find fascinating the extent to which USSR units depended on substandard Lend-Lease armor and Germans on well-engineered but thouroughly obsolete Czech tanks which were medium only in name. One can only imagine the difficulty in supporting units which had almost as many models of tank as tanks. (Although the author rarely touches on this; only where it directly exerted a dominant effect on armored battles; the situation was even worse with trucks and prime movers.) I also found fascinating how the Soviets; kings of massed and heavy artillery; so seldom managed to properly include it in their own operations - even more inexplicable during this time frame when the largest and often only significant threat to T-34s and KVs were vulnerable towed AA artillery.Overall; if one is interested in armored warfare or in World War II; both these books are must-reads. We often read of the supposed superiority of the French tanks - which is largely only on paper - but oddly; we seldom read about the superiority of the Soviet tanks; which is critical if we are to learn from these operations. The lessons on respective failures of both mass and quality are also quite useful for our time. Highly recommended.