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Some very good books

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#43
I just bought all of these!

Sniper on the Eastern Front: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger

Armor Battles of the Waffen SS, 1943-45 by Will Fey

Tigers in the Mud: The Combat Career of otto carius

IVANS WAR.

IN DEADLY COMBAT

The Forgotten Soldier - German Soldier account WW2

Soldiers of Destruction by Charles W. Sydnor, Jr.

WILLY PETER REESE- A STRANGER TO MYSELF

I'll let you know in a few months which were the best!!
 
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#45
Rapp said:
IVANS WAR.
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I'm at the place where she writes about the Kursk battle, and again (Bolt questioned her figures earlier on in this thread), the figures are so hard to believe:

'Of the 403,272 tank men (including a small number of tank women) who were trained by the Red Army in the war, 310,000 would die.'

More than three-quarters of them - could so many of all Red Army tankers have died in the war?

Her sources for this are:

John Erickson and Reina Pennington in Paul Addison and Angus Calder, eds., Time to Kill: The Soldier's Experience of War in the West 1939-1945

Perhaps someone knows about this book?
 
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#46
Nestor Makhno said:
Wow! Come into some money, did you?
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No, I just work my ass off building 80 pcs or so a day!

Aktionman it could possibly be true 400,000 or so crewmen with 4-5 per tank = 80,000 to 100,000 tanks. When you hear stories of individual tank aces scoring over 100 kills a piece or one average crew in a tiger/panther killing 10 t34s or so in an engagement or a french ss man in berlin knocking out 6 tanks with fausts in 24 hrs.....I think its possible if not a high casualty rate.
 
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#47
aktionman said:
'Of the 403,272 tank men (including a small number of tank women) who were trained by the Red Army in the war, 310,000 would die.'

More than three-quarters of them - could so many of all Red Army tankers have died in the war?

?
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Yes, I would agree those figures are very hard to believe. Consider that the Soviets produced around 57,000 T-34's during the course of the whole war and this was by far the most numerous Soviet tank. Even if ALL these were destroyed with 100% death rate among crew that makes "only" 228 000 deaths. I think if every Soviet tank deployed in the war were destroyed with no crew surviving it might add up to 310 000 deaths but that just isn't plausible.

By the way, the highest death rate of any service branch of any country in the war belonged to the U-boat arm of the German navy. About 70% of those on active service died.
 
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#48
Rapp said:
80,000 to 100,000 tanks [...] I think its possible if not a high casualty rate.
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Perhaps. Another reference puts USSR tank losses for the war at 96,500. I suspect once again the source may be Krivosheev's Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the 20th Century. To me this is astounding: almost 100,000 tanks and over 300,000 crew!

A book I saw recently, which someone may know more about:

Panzers on the Eastern Front: General Erhard Raus and his Panzer Divisions in Russia, 1941-1945
 
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#49
aktionman said:
Perhaps. Another reference puts USSR tank losses for the war at 96,500. I suspect once again the source may be Krivosheev's Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the 20th Century. To me this is astounding: almost 100,000 tanks and over 300,000 crew!
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Wikipedia lists total Soviet armoured vehicle production of all types at 106,334. I know Wiki isn't gospel, but I think it's safe to say 100,000 tanks destroyed is just not plausible. I'm pretty sure the Soviets had some tanks left at the end of the war.
 
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#54
aag567 said:
Can anyone reccomend a Russian war memoir? The only one I've got is A Writer at War.
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Search previews posts of this thread it has 1-2 "Red":p memoirs.

A lots of books about Russian women.
http://www.h-net.org/~russia/bibs/women.html

A collection of Russian and German stories about Stalingrad.
http://www.amazon.com/Voices-Stalingrad-Jonathan-Bastable/dp/0715321765/ref=pd_sim_b_2/103-3009056-4296620


And 2 books with memoirs of Russian women.
http://www.amazon.com/Defending-Leningrad-Konstantinova-Poryvayeva-Kruglova/dp/0968270239/ref=sid_dp_dp/103-3009056-4296620

http://www.amazon.com/Women-War-Resistance-Selected-Biographies/dp/0968270220/ref=sid_dp_dp/103-3009056-4296620
 
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#55
aktionman said:
A book I saw recently, which someone may know more about:
Panzers on the Eastern Front: General Erhard Raus and his Panzer Divisions in Russia, 1941-1945
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Well I gave in, bought this one, and am happy I did. It is an edited version of some of the works produced by Raus after the war. The history of these writings is in itself an interesting story and is also related in the back of the book. Raus was part of over 600 German POW officers who shortly after the war wrote pamphlets for the U.S. Army in a series called the "German Report Series". Some of the titles (the first few by Raus):

Small Unit Actions During the German Campaign in Russia 1953
German Defense Tactics Against Russian Break-Throughs Oct 51
 Russian Combat Methods in World War II Nov 50
Military Improvisations During the Russian Campaign Aug 51
Combat in Russian Forests and Swamps Jul 51
Operations of Encircled Forces Jan 52
Terrain Factors in the Russian Campaign Jul 51
Effects of Climate on Combat in European Russia Feb 52

Some of the original publications are available online at places such as the U.S. Army Center of Military History.

If you are more interested in a point of view close to the ground, this is one. I found the encounter between the reinforced regiment Kampfgruppe Raus and a single KV-1 tank for 48 hours during the first week of the war to be a real eye-opener. Numerous tanks, 50mm AT-guns, night-time demolition attempts by engineers and even two 88mm AA gun attacks could merely cause minor damage and a small dent in the barrel. The tank crew were finally only overcome by stuffing grenades through a small hole in the hull made by one of the 88s.
 
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#60
Dr. Peter Venkman said:
Just finished Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and am currently reading Panzer Leader. After that I'll probably get ahold of Manstein's memoirs and a few more books after that. Guderian's memoirs paint a pretty vivid tale of how ****ing stupid the OKW was.
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Shirer's Rise and Fall is a classic, an absolute must read for those interested in WWII history and the political history of the Nazi party in particular. The thing that really struck me about this story was just what a bunch of wingnuts and misfits the senior Nazi leaders really were. I found it incredible that this group of freaks was able to gain complete control over one of the world's most advanced countries. I think it should be required reading for some of the posters on this forum who seem to identify with the Nazis just a little too closely.
 
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