RED STORM ON THE REICH: THE SOVIET MARCH ON GERMANY, 1945 by Christopher Duffy
SKU:
$16.00
$16.00
per item
Red Storm on the Reich: The Soviet March on Germany, 1945 by Christopher Duffy
The Eastern Front: On the night of January 11, 1945, fog, low clouds, and blizzards reduced visibility at times to literally zero along the Sandomierz bridgehead. And so the German Fourth Panzer Army did not notice tanks, assault guns and towed artillery pieces moving to position by the thousands along the east bank, the Russian side, of the Vistula River. Because of reduced visibility, air support would not be at hand, though the artillery would be firing against pre-arranged targets, and the bad weather gave the infantry and tanks an extra element of surprise. Within seconds after the order to fire was given by the Soviet commander, Generl Koney, the air became incandescent with an unnatural light. A sky of fire and smoke lowered over the country on the west side of the Vistula: the frozen soil was torn up hundreds of times over, houses flared up like torches, bunkers collapsed, roads were broken up and men were ripped apart. The weight and 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 unsuspected horrors it held. Thus began the Red storm on the Reich, the largest, costliest, and fastest-moving military operation in European history.
"Essential, the Second World War was won and lost on the Eastern Front, " writes renowned historian Christopher Duffy. And readers of Red Storm on the Reich will be left with little doubt about that. Until now, however, the most pivotal and dramatic events surrounding this part of the Great Patriotic War (as the Russians call it) have been little understood. Utilizing a wealth of recently released Soviet materials from archives in Moscow -- statistics, log books, diaries and memoirs -- and cross-referencing these with German accounts of the same conflicts, Christopher Duffy has uncovered a military campaign of unprecedented scale and ferocity during which thirty million lives were lost -- a deadly harvest in which the slaughter and suffering of German civilians reached unfathomable dimensions.
By quoting extensively from the memoirs of Soviet and German commanders and diaries of infantrymen, Red Storm on the Reich brings to life not only the Russian military assault on the historic lands of Germany, but also the human drama behind what can only be called epic sieges of the fortress cities of Danzig, Kolberg, and Breslau. Duffy's gripping narrative of this unexplored offensive and the psyches behind it makes for essential reading for all those interested in the Second World War and in European history.
Castle Books, Hardcover, 2002
This is a BRAND NEW book.
The Eastern Front: On the night of January 11, 1945, fog, low clouds, and blizzards reduced visibility at times to literally zero along the Sandomierz bridgehead. And so the German Fourth Panzer Army did not notice tanks, assault guns and towed artillery pieces moving to position by the thousands along the east bank, the Russian side, of the Vistula River. Because of reduced visibility, air support would not be at hand, though the artillery would be firing against pre-arranged targets, and the bad weather gave the infantry and tanks an extra element of surprise. Within seconds after the order to fire was given by the Soviet commander, Generl Koney, the air became incandescent with an unnatural light. A sky of fire and smoke lowered over the country on the west side of the Vistula: the frozen soil was torn up hundreds of times over, houses flared up like torches, bunkers collapsed, roads were broken up and men were ripped apart. The weight and 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 unsuspected horrors it held. Thus began the Red storm on the Reich, the largest, costliest, and fastest-moving military operation in European history.
"Essential, the Second World War was won and lost on the Eastern Front, " writes renowned historian Christopher Duffy. And readers of Red Storm on the Reich will be left with little doubt about that. Until now, however, the most pivotal and dramatic events surrounding this part of the Great Patriotic War (as the Russians call it) have been little understood. Utilizing a wealth of recently released Soviet materials from archives in Moscow -- statistics, log books, diaries and memoirs -- and cross-referencing these with German accounts of the same conflicts, Christopher Duffy has uncovered a military campaign of unprecedented scale and ferocity during which thirty million lives were lost -- a deadly harvest in which the slaughter and suffering of German civilians reached unfathomable dimensions.
By quoting extensively from the memoirs of Soviet and German commanders and diaries of infantrymen, Red Storm on the Reich brings to life not only the Russian military assault on the historic lands of Germany, but also the human drama behind what can only be called epic sieges of the fortress cities of Danzig, Kolberg, and Breslau. Duffy's gripping narrative of this unexplored offensive and the psyches behind it makes for essential reading for all those interested in the Second World War and in European history.
Castle Books, Hardcover, 2002
This is a BRAND NEW book.
1 available