Red Storm On The Reich: The Soviet March On Germany, 1945 | Christopher Duffy

Red Storm On The Reich: The Soviet March On Germany, 1945 | Christopher Duffy | An indispensable account of the Eastern Front battles

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Red Storm On The R...

	Red Storm On The Reich: The Soviet March On Germany, 1945 Christopher Duffy Da Capo Press, 1993 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

On the night of January 11, 1945, fog, low clouds, and blizzards reduced visibility at times to literally zero along the Sandomierz bridgehead. So the German troops did not notice tanks, assault guns, and towed artillery pieces moving in position by the thousands along the east bank?the Russian side?of the Vistula River. Within seconds after the order to fire was given by the Soviet commander, General Konev, the air became incandescent with unnatural light. A sky of fire and smoke lowered over the country across the river: Houses flared up like torches, bunkers collapsed, roads were broken up, and men were ripped apart. The ferocity of the first attack shook the Germans so badly that they thought they were dealing with the main assault, and not just a reconnaissance in force. So they were completely unprepared for the principal attack and the horrors it held. Thus began the Red Storm on the Reich?the largest, costliest, and fastest?moving military operation in European history."Essentially, the Second World War was won and lost on the Eastern Front," writes renowned historian Christopher Duffy. Until this book, however, the most dramatic events surrounding this part of the war have been little understood. Utilizing a wealth of recently released Soviet materials from Moscow archives, and cross-referencing these with German accounts, Duffy has uncovered a military campaign of unprecedented scale and intensity during which thirty million lives were lost. Red Storm on the Reich brings to life not only the Russian military assault on Germany, but also the human drama behind the epic sieges of Danzig, Kolberg, and Breslau. Duffy's gripping narrative is essential reading for all those interested in modern European history.

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Essential WWII Reading

Ah, what a pleasure to read such a skilled work of narrative-military history. Professor Duffy wrote this after delving into the Soviet records that opened up after the USSR split open, and the book is a delight to read. Duffy takes the emphasis off the drive to Berlin, and turns instead to the totality of the Soviet drive into Germany- the Vistula-Oder operations. The book is incredibly informative and very, very well written. In addition, it has fascinating appendices on matters such as German and Soviet military tactics & structure, as well as brief descriptions on some of the main weapons used by each side. Please trust me on this one, if you are interested in WWII you will love this book.

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An indispensable account of the Eastern Front battles

This is a fine and well known book about the operations in the Eastern Front in 1945 which usually remain at the sidelines of World War II histories. The author is a renowned military writer and a specialist on Frederick the Great's campaigns, a fact that served him well in his attempt to recount the terrible and fast-paced battles of the closing months of World War II in the East. The account is evenly balanced between the German and the Soviet side and so is the criticism for the mistakes commited by the two mighty and ruthless opponents. The period covered does not include the capture of Berlin, but this is not so important because the fate of the Third Reich was sealed months before, during the horrible battles of Poland, East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia. However the book suits more the military history fan than the layman, it requires a solid backround on WW II and is not to be read like Anthony Beevor's popular works. Duffy writes in his introduction that ""Red Storm on the Reich" stands as an atrocious book, in the literal sense of theat term. I have limited the story of destruction as far as I could to that of landscape and machines, and I hope that I have given no satisfaction to lovers of the pronography of violence". I think that he has fully achieved his aim. He presents the operations in a crystal clear way, with the aid of numerous and very good maps, and the editing is excellent, leaving only a few typos. I was especially impressed by his bibliography whic I found very useful. It is not particularly extensive but it includes many first hand accounts as well as some rare and authoritative sources on the subject. The Appendix named "The Conduct of War: Soviet Science and German Art" is also an extremely interesting analysis of the technical and operational matters of the campaign.

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Interesting Look at the final days of the 1000 Year Reich

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, its archives suddenly became available to authors of the Second World War and Duffy seems to have lead the charge to provide an English language accounting of what hitherto has been primarily recounted in a variety of excellent German texts.

As other reviewers have noted, Duffy presents the information in a very balanced and non-subjective way. Soviet atrocities are revealed but not dwelt on in a subjective way. Duffy's narrative combines factual data with interesting narrative showing the human side of a very tragic history.

I was particularly intriqued by his recounting of a German operation launched to retake a captured factory in order to dump, what was essentially nerve gas into a prominent Eastern European River. Who knows the ecological holocaust of that action in a sea of holocausts.

This book is a must read for any student of the final days of Hitler's forces on the Eastern Front. Highly enjoyable.

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The killers as victims

I read this book twice before write my observations, because I wanted confirm my first impression. This is a correct book explainig the movements of the armies and soldiers and the graphics are very correct usually. The author writed a book about Frederick the Great and many others about that time. I understand that for him it's very difficult to understand how the soldiers that he admired so much can be convert in sadic killers. But the way of conduct of german soldiers ( all, not only the SS ) in Russia was so wild, savage and without the minimum sense of moral that no country did germans did in mankind history. If I was German I would hide my face of the people civilized with shame, and instead off, they look like proud people still, that is shameful and dangerous because they are not conscious of all the damage that they did.
This way there is not understandable all the friendliness that runs for the whole book towards the german soldiers and the german people. if a sadic killer go into your house, kill the father, rape the mother and children, after kill them and put fire to the house and when the police surround him, he fires them and fight hardly before the police reduce him, he's a hero ? . This is the form in which the Germans behaved for three years and there is no comparison with what the Russian soldiers did for five months in Germany, moreover if the majority of the victims can relate it, the majority of real Russian victims can not do it.
It's very sad that the suffering of russian people remain ignored till today, but observations like " nobody had the clean hands in that time" are insultants, it equipar the killers and the victims.
The crimes of german people (repit not only the SS) are much bigger that the russian soldiers did. Remember just one example, the foreign slaves who were working in the German cities they were not allowed to enter the antiaircraft refuges when the cities were bombarded. Where are the protest of germans common people about that in that time ? Not even a word on these people started by force of his cities and villages to die in the streets of the German cities under the bombs, most of them young, almost children.
What about the slaves that worked in farms in East Germany ? The author mentioned the french workers as go away with their german bosses like a example of love, what about the slav workers that, I'm sure, were a lot more ? Not a word.
In his book Mr Duffy usually prolog a action with admitration about the german soldiers and the pompous name of their unities, but their defeat by the russian is quickly over . By example : "the Altman bridgehead ...terrain excellent for purpose of defence....105000 men...formidable positions...heavy local counterattacks...." The fight begun the 6 March and 14 and 15 the germans withdraw. I supppose russians did something about, if you read the parrafe seems that the germans go away voluntary, not forced by the russians and the author admire not the russian but the germans.
In chapter 2 speaking about the year of 1944 speak of Nemersdorf massacre, not a word of german massacres much bigger in time and amount in Russia.
In Pag 68 " for almost the first and late time in that war the Soviets saw Germans running from their positions in panic". I'm sorry to disturb Mr Duffy but the germans soldiers running with panic in many others situations, in the contraoffensive in Moscow, when they saw the T-34 the first time, in the south in the withdraw of Caucasus, even in his book : pag 194 " ...a tumult of panic-strickrn troops". pag 197 "...panic...", etc.
It's normal, they were normal men, not the supersoldiers that Mr Duffy believes.
Pag 72 " ninth army....one of most proud and battleworthy formations of the Werchmacht " The first day "this proud formation" lost 20 Km to anonimous russian soldiers.
Pag 81 "The german talent for improvisation". If you ask to one hundred persons I'm sure that none would say anything similar. The german people are good making cars not art workings or something that needs improvisation. Another example of the erroneus admiration of Mr Duffy for the german people.
Pag 114 " german losses 400.000, russian 15.000 killed and 60.000 wounded." Usually many authors say that the Russians gained the war for number of soldiers and volume of material, we see, and know, that it's not true, at least this time.
Pag 138 "German morale and efectiveness recovered so far that....after rhe first shock had passed ' the russian began to put a heavy resistance..." The tactic fracase of germans in this operation by the heroism of russian is explain as a german victory. Again the admiration by nazi germans is showed.
"In terms of numbers the oppsing forces were very approximately equal, at around 1.650.000 to 1.800.000 each." ( Pag 153 ) What surprise, did I believe that the Russians were always exceeding the Germans in number.
Pag 165 ...germans dressed in Soviet uniforms..." Don't seem a example of "fair play".
In Pag 179 "Here the fighting was on nearly equal terms between... russians and germans". One time again.
When spoke about the sinking of the Goya and others ships, not a word about similar desasters when the russian fleet full of civilians and wound soldiers sunk in the Baltic to the beginning of war when they travelled from Tallin to St Petersbourgh. It seems that there are two categories of dead persons and the Russians are always ignored.
In Pag 292 "...and precious archives and art collections, most of them stolen in Russia and another countries after kill their owners.
In Pag 294 Battle of Lake Balaton, just a few words about as "The soviets contained the onslaught ... of several of the best units of nazi army.
In Pag 300 speaking about the recolocation of germans "...the process was inherently violent in character, and was attended with killing and much brutality" What a surprise, seems a joke ¡, the people who transported millions persons to the death, which tested criminal and mortal operations and experiments with babies and children, that massacred thousands of peoples with all his inhabitants, men, women and children, protesting of a violent recolocation ¡ Really a joke, a cruel joke. Even when the author reports atrocities, one forgets that the Germans did it earlier during a lot of more time and in major quantity in Russia and in another occupated countries.
Tha last part of the book with miliar descriptions of armies, weapons and tactics is arid but interesting.
In resume an interesting book but the reader have to be alert about the one side point of view of the writer and contrast this book with anothers, much better that this one, as the Richard Overy's books about the WWII.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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