Is Leaping Horseman as good as Island of Fire? I mean same level of detail, same overall view of how their story fitted into the battle?
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Some very good books
- Thread starter V.Grossman
- Start date
Just finished the memoirs of Hans Ulrich Rudel.
If one thought the Axis record for Allied tank kills on the Eastern Front was held by a Knispel or a Carius, not so. Golden boy Rudel is credited with over 500 tank kills, many of which (incl. IS-2) in his tankbuster JU87G armed with two 37mm Flak cannons shooting "Wolframkern" (Tungsten core) rounds.
While many passages of this memoir are today perhaps too sympathetic of the regime and abounds with Cold War-type rhetoric about "Mongolian hordes" (he was also involved in all sorts of unsavoury activities and scandals after the war), there is much here for anyone interested in Luftwaffe operations on the Eastern Front.
Memorable anecdotes: fishing in the Dnieper using 100-pound bombs; taxiing a Stuka for 20km along a road in dense fog.
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On the topic of anecdotes, more from (once again) Raus' Panzers on the Eastern Front:
A short comment on Koschorrek's memoir mentioned before in this thread: after reading it, a confirmation of the number of factual inaccuracies and spelling mistakes (PPsh=Kalashnikov; Hoth and Krakow misspellings) - possibly poor translation and editing to blame for this too. Yet it is still very readable for portraying the despair and continual retreat of this heavy machine-gunner and his comrades.
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Just started Willi Heinrich's (of "Cross of Iron") novel "Savage Mountain" about the battles of the 101[SIZE=-1]th Jager Division[/SIZE] in the Carpathian mountains near Kosice.
Somewhat cheesy book covers here:
If one thought the Axis record for Allied tank kills on the Eastern Front was held by a Knispel or a Carius, not so. Golden boy Rudel is credited with over 500 tank kills, many of which (incl. IS-2) in his tankbuster JU87G armed with two 37mm Flak cannons shooting "Wolframkern" (Tungsten core) rounds.
While many passages of this memoir are today perhaps too sympathetic of the regime and abounds with Cold War-type rhetoric about "Mongolian hordes" (he was also involved in all sorts of unsavoury activities and scandals after the war), there is much here for anyone interested in Luftwaffe operations on the Eastern Front.
Memorable anecdotes: fishing in the Dnieper using 100-pound bombs; taxiing a Stuka for 20km along a road in dense fog.
---
On the topic of anecdotes, more from (once again) Raus' Panzers on the Eastern Front:
- "Russian Camel Rider Brigade Attacks German Panzer Company" - 6 December 1942
- A Russian "swamp battalion" maintain a bridgehead chest-high in the mud on the edge of the Donets for days on end.
- "Tanks cross a river on top of other tanks - 5 August 1943" Soviets build a bridge across the Donets by driving tanks into the river and lashing planks on top. ("In Soviet Russia bridge goes over tank"
) - Raus' report on the use of panzerfausts during the Pomeranian battle: of the 580 Allied tanks destroyed, 380 were destroyed by panzerfausts.
A short comment on Koschorrek's memoir mentioned before in this thread: after reading it, a confirmation of the number of factual inaccuracies and spelling mistakes (PPsh=Kalashnikov; Hoth and Krakow misspellings) - possibly poor translation and editing to blame for this too. Yet it is still very readable for portraying the despair and continual retreat of this heavy machine-gunner and his comrades.
---
Just started Willi Heinrich's (of "Cross of Iron") novel "Savage Mountain" about the battles of the 101[SIZE=-1]th Jager Division[/SIZE] in the Carpathian mountains near Kosice.
Somewhat cheesy book covers here:
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I always have thought that Osprey Publishing Ltd. of the U.K. was an excellent publisher of information especially designed for the historic wargamer and those with an interest in military history; they cover the whole range of the history of warfare, and they have numerous titles covering the Second World War.
I wouldn't call them specifically uniform information books, but each book contains about 5-6 double sided colored print illustrated drawings, in the main, based on actual photographs, with detailed notes and information about the uniforms the soldiers are wearing; each book also contains detailed historical information, and Osprey has different series of books, some focusing on specific campaigns, some specific battles like Stalingrad, and another on the various armies and individual infantry units involved.
The books, really booklets, because they average between 50 to 60 to 70 pages in length, are expensive, considering they are on on the shortside in length, averaging between $16.00 to $25.00 U.S. depending on the series.
You can usually find them at better hobby stores in the U.S.; a Borders Bookstore in my area has some of them (granted, it is a Borders located in one of the most upscale neighborhoods in town); I don't know if they have different language editions.
However, the price is worth it, considering that they are written usually by an expert military historian or expert of some sort, and contain great information and photographs.
See for yourself:
www.ospreypublishing.com
Also, Time-Life's WWII Series (published 1979) also is a good series to look at; there were about 20 or so books that dealt with the European and Pacific theaters, and they also had some books in the series dealing with special topics like resistance and partisan fighters. They are chock full of photographs and interesting information; you can probably find them at most public libraries in the United States.
I wouldn't call them specifically uniform information books, but each book contains about 5-6 double sided colored print illustrated drawings, in the main, based on actual photographs, with detailed notes and information about the uniforms the soldiers are wearing; each book also contains detailed historical information, and Osprey has different series of books, some focusing on specific campaigns, some specific battles like Stalingrad, and another on the various armies and individual infantry units involved.
The books, really booklets, because they average between 50 to 60 to 70 pages in length, are expensive, considering they are on on the shortside in length, averaging between $16.00 to $25.00 U.S. depending on the series.
You can usually find them at better hobby stores in the U.S.; a Borders Bookstore in my area has some of them (granted, it is a Borders located in one of the most upscale neighborhoods in town); I don't know if they have different language editions.
However, the price is worth it, considering that they are written usually by an expert military historian or expert of some sort, and contain great information and photographs.
See for yourself:
www.ospreypublishing.com
Also, Time-Life's WWII Series (published 1979) also is a good series to look at; there were about 20 or so books that dealt with the European and Pacific theaters, and they also had some books in the series dealing with special topics like resistance and partisan fighters. They are chock full of photographs and interesting information; you can probably find them at most public libraries in the United States.
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