Book Reviews: Anthony Tucker Jones

Today’s post is another of my occasional ‘trinity’ or trilogy reviews. On this occasion under review we have three titles, all on WWII armour, by author Anthony Tucker-Jones: Allied Armour, Stalin’s Armour and Hitler’s Armour. 

Allied Armour, 1939-45

Whilst well enough written, Allied Armour - and by Allied what’s really meant is British and American - is, to a very great extent, rather cloyingly data-rich and dry, mostly comprising recitations of the many campaigns in which its subject was involved, with a lot of commander’s names, unit numbers and place names, but - unusually and, it must be said, unhelpfully - no maps. 

I can see why some might be critical of such books, as they are neither deep dives into the tanks themselves, nor any of the particular campaigns. Rather what we have is a series of succinct synopses of the various campaigns as a whole, with a focus on the armoured warfare aspects. Still, I think having works of this type provides a kind of mid-level matrix, knowledge of which is very useful. This can then be deepened by works of more detail on specific armour or actions. 

From Matildas at Arras, via Faliase to the Rhine, 16 chapters cover not only the entire war in the west - including the North African and Mediterranean campaigns - but also the Australasian and Pacific theatres. And in the final 17th chapter, Industrial Muscle, we learn the true scale of armour production for each of the various combatant powers. For example, British and German tank production was roughly equal in quantity, if not quality. But against the combined industrial output of Uncles Sam and Joe, the Axis were doomed. Sherman tank production alone being more or less equal to all British and German tank manufacture combined!

Two appendices list all the Allied armoured divisions and, crucially, there's an alphabetical list of tank types. This last section is as important to the book as the foregoing chapters, as it's where a lot of the more specific vehicle related info' is. Despite the text veering, in places, perilously close to being rather dry and info-heavy, and in danger of falling between the stools of detail and generality, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Enough to read it all the way through, with enthusiasm, and still look forward to following it up with the Russian companion. 

Stalin’s Armour, 1941-45

Having just read the Allied Armour volume of what one might regard as a ‘tank trilogy’, and thoroughly enjoyed it, I’ve dived straight into Stalin’s Armour, 1941-1945. Thank goodness Anthony Tucker-Jones is a good writer! In less capable hands the data-rich material could induce a coma. 

Fortunately the maelstrom of commander’s names, unit titles, and place names is leavened somewhat by, on the one hand, more general descriptive history, such as on the development of Soviet armour - Kotin’s KVs or Koshkin’s T-34? - and on the other, more specific anecdotal reminiscences.

The total absence of maps is an issue with all the volumes in this tank series, leading me to dock a star/kreuz. And it is, for me, even more of an issue in this particular volume, given the scale of operations on the Ostfront. 

Anyone familiar with Hitler’s costly misadventures on the Eastern Front will almost certainly already know that, as a German talking head (ex-soldier) says in, the superb ITV series, The World At War... eventually millions of ant will overcomne even the elepohant (or words to that effect!*). Echoing this, Tucker-Jones concludes ‘Faced by this crude arithmetic the T-34 carried all before it.’

* I've been unable to locate the exact quote!

As with the other companion volumes, there’s a section of black and white photos. Rather oddly most the images in this volume are of damaged, destroyed or captured Soviet materiel, often being inspected by German troops. There are also two appendices, the first listing the many ‘Red Army Tank Units 1941-45’, the second comprising brief descriptions of ‘Soviet Tanks and Tracked AFVs 1941-45’.

For me, with each volume I read, it seems the three titles in this little trilogy are forming a useful ‘matrix’; the more one reads on these subject and campaigns the better and more detailed a picture one develops. The material here does occasionally veer towards the info-heavy side. But all told this a compelling enough read for me to happily and heartily recommend it.

Hitler’s Armour, ...

And so I come last to the one of these three books that most excites my interest, Hitler’s Panzers, The Complete History, 1933-45. This third title in the AFV trilogy by AT-J is organised somewhat differently from the others. Split into four sections, and with larger appendices, 18 chapters tell the fascinating story of Germany’s legendary WWII Panzerwaffe.

Part I, ‘Designing Tractors’ looks at the development of the various main tank types, from the Versailles-busting but otherwise fairly innocuous Pz I through to the awesome but over-engineered and under-produced Tiger II. This is one of the best and most interesting parts of the trilogy, for my money. 

Parts II, III and IV - Off To War, Sturmgeschütz Not Panzers and Wasted Opportunities - cover the war itself. The balance of bigger picture, and close-up detail, is better here, for my money, than in the Allied or Russian titles, in both of which the maelstrom of campaign info’ can be overwhelming (and without maps hard to make sense of). 

Guderian is referred to more than any other Panzer enthusiast, the theme of his tug of war with Hitler - the latter obsessed with both his idea of the ‘triumph of the will’ and size (big guns, big tanks!) - being something of a theme throughout the book. There are those who feel Guderian overstates his own role and importance in all of this. ATJ doesn't raise this issue.

Whereas the Allied volume ranges across Europe, bridging to North Africa via the Med’, and even the conflict with Japan in the further flung Pacific theatre, and the Russian volume has an early Eastern episode in the Russo-Japanese conflict on the edges of Northern China, this German themed volume kind of ties them all together, via the two Eastern and Western Fronts on which all three of these combatant powers fought.  

David Willey's terrific Tank Chat on the Pz IV.

To those familiar with WWII, Germany’s issues of over-engineering, too much diversity, and insufficient levels of production will all be familiar themes. And, as in other areas, these issues bedevilled tank and AFV development and deployment. But these are also amongst the things that make WWII German tanks the most fascinating. And it doesn’t hurt that they also looked so damn cool! 

Anthony Tucker-Jones ultimately concludes that of all the Panzers Germany produced and fielded during WWII, the best, in terms of efficacy, reliability and sheer weight of numbers, was the Pz IV. Germany built approx’ 8,500 Pz IV, according to T-J, whilst Russia’s factories churned out 55,000 T-34s. And Sherman output totalled about 50,000, all told. The more celebrated Panthers and Tigers are critiqued for being rushed into service (and therefore plagues with technical issues), and their impact dissipated, never being built or deployed in large enough numbers to have a decisive impact. 

Hitler’s Panzers also benefits from more picture sections, and more extensive appendices. The latter include production figures, Panzer and Panzergrenadier Division lists, and individual appendices for each of the Pz I-VI, listing and describing variants. Rather oddly these go I, II III IV, and then VI (Tigers) precedes V (Panthers). A bit odd!? There are, regrettably, no maps or glossary. 

CONCLUSIONS

I’d say that, together or separately, these books are a worthwhile additions to the library of any self-respecting WWII history enthusiast. I read them all, one after another, without losing enthusiasm. In fact the interest and excitement mounted with each new volume. I also think they get better progressively (I don’t know what order the author wrote them in?), the Allied book being pretty good, the Russian one a little better, and the German one the best of the three. 

Their best points are that they cover all the major theatres of war, and do so in a readable manner, albeit occasionally being somewhat dizzyingly data-rich. There are one of two things that might be improved on future editions, such as remedying the complete absence of maps. The picture selections could also be better and more diverse. Maps would help the reader follow the actions described, and the picture segments could do a better job of covering the many AFVs mentioned in the text. 

I can see why for some, these might in places fall between the stools of generality and detail. Taken as a whole, however, I think they form an excellent core of information on the development and combat histories of these mighty brutal metal beasts of war. All told, I really enjoyed reading them, and would definitely recommend them. 

Book Review: Dark Valley, Piers Brendon

NB: This is one of my occasional archival posts, regarding a book I read and reviewed years ago, but haven't posted here, that I thought might be of interest.

A small departure here in that this not strictly a book about WWII, as such, but the dark decade of the 1930s, that prepared the way. I won't go into any detail regarding the contents. There are lots of decent reviews and synopses to be found online. I simply want to add my voice to the general chorus of acclaim this book has deservedly garnered.  

Like William Shirer's Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich this is sweeping, compelling history that really draws you in. The kind of thing that'll threaten to end your fiction reading. Why read fiction when real world events are so massively interesting? The 1930s are a particularly fascinating decade, with totalitarian regimes, be they fascist or communist, gaining a worldwide foothold unparalleled before or since.

As others elsewhere have observed, Brendon has an excellent writing style, and is truly masterful at weaving together complex narrative and small anecdotal details. What a period the first half of the C20th was, and - leaving aside WWI - what a period the 1930s were. With Stalin, Franco, Hitler, Mussolini, the Hawkish Japanese military, the latter already at war in China, and more besides, all sandwiched between the cataclysms of two world wars! 

I borrowed this from a friend many years ago, and liked it so much I had to get my own copy after reading his, in a repeat of what had already happened with the aforementioned Shirer book.

The material relating to Japan is, I find, particularly fascinating, as so much historical literature on this period and the two world wars is so Euro-centric. Also the militarism of Japan differed markedly from that of Russia, Germany and Italy, in that it was much more broad based, rather than focussing on a charismatic figurehead. Indeed, the Japanese emperor seems to have been carried along on a martial current that flowed through a whole class (primarily the officer class), ultimately more or less saturating the whole culture.

One specific episode amongst the many in this brilliant book that really struck me - haunted me even, for a little while after reading it - was the horror of Magnitogorsk, in Stalinist Russia. The name of the city alone sounds both awesome and terrifying! A hint of what was happening can be inferred from the fact it was declared a closed city, i.e. off limits to foreigners, in 1937. But I won't say why here. Buy this superb book and read about it yourself.

Book Review: Holocaust, Stephen Wynn

This short and easy to read account of the holocaust is, I think, really very good. It's not your typical bloated academic heavyweight tome; worthy but nigh on unreadable. Put together by author (and former policeman) Stephen Wynn, it's refreshingly brief, drawing on a very small number of sources, but still covering quite a lot. 

Over 18 chapters he ranges from pre-war Nazi beginnings, very briefly looking at the roots of anti-Semitism in Germany at that time, and then building to the formulation of the 'final solution' at the infamous Wannsee Conference, in '42, chaired by the equally infamous Reinhard Heydrich..

Various 'Operations', most of the major concentration camps (and mention of many subsidiary ones), and such sub topics as Einsatzgruppen, and female guards, are all covered, before the book looks at contemporary news of the events and ponders how much and what/when the allies learned.

The book ends with Wynn saying 'It cannot and must not ever happen again'. Well, amen to that. But in my view Brexit, Trump, Bojo and co. bode ill for political stability in our times, with their cheap openly xenophobic populism. But back to the book: as a quick and easy introduction to a vast much covered subject, this is a lively and engaging read.  

Book Review: D-Day, Philip Warner

Philip Warner's superb book is in fact mostly a compendium of accounts by men who took part in the manifold aspects of D-Day. The quality of these correspondent's writings is variable. But the best stuff is absolute gold.

Warner opts to deploy his sources in a chronological-cum-thematic manner, which is good, as we can concentrate on one strand of action at a time, such as airborne drops, or the naval contribution, tanks, infantry, and so on, and thereby see how the bigger picture unfolds through multiple colourful facets, adding up to an exciting kaleidoscopic view of the whole.

Here's a list of the chapter headings:
I  Invasion from the Air: The RAF, the Gliders and the Parachutists
II  The Navies
III  On The Beach - The Sappers and others
IV  The Armoured Corps
V  The Infantry
VI  Marines and Commandos
VII  Intelligence and Signals
VIII  The Medical Services
IX  The Royal Army Service Corps
X  The Canadians
XI  The Royal Artillery
XII  The Chaplains
The French Viewpoint

The above list conveys both the arrangement of the books contents, and the scale and scope of Overlord itself. One thing that consistently emerges from the many vivid and moving testimonies that appear here is awe at the scale of it all. The book appears under a banner for The Telegraph newspaper, as it was in their pages that Warner published a letter asking for survivors of D-Day to contact him.

Philip Warner's own part in the content is quite minimal, consisting of brief introductory remarks for each chapter, and the selection and arrangement of the firsthand testimonies. These are, unsurprisingly having been collected in the U.K., very much weighted towards the British perspective. Americans and Canadians are mentioned in passing (the latter even having their own very brief chapter), but this is an avowedly and unashamedly Anglo-centric account.

What makes this particular book really enjoyable - thrilling, I would say - is the patchwork quilt of very personal stories. These range from the drily formal 'At 06:00 hours, we...' etc, to the very colourfully anecdotal ('we breakfasted on whisky and Mars bars'!). But, whilst none are Pulitzer Prize winning professional journos, the quality is, by and large, superb. Sometimes poignant, often funny, filled with both pride and humility, and replete with fascinating detail, they bring this gargantuan operation vividly to life in a way little else can.

I absolutely loved this book, and highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in this most momentous day. In one word: brilliant!

Book Review: The Germans In Normandy, Richard Hargreaves

Whilst this isn't 100% perfect - very little in life is! - it's bloody good. And I use the word bloody deliberately. This is very much in the (combat ruptured) vein of Anthony Beevor's WWII writings, in its expert deployment of firsthand testimony from all levels, revelling in mud and blood.

The book starts with pre-invasion preparations, and the odd mixture of ennui and anxiety, as the occupiers wait for the inevitable but long time coming opening of the 'second front' [1]. Once the invasion gets underway we move around, from the German reactions to initial Allied paratroop drops, to the lethargic response of the fractured chain of command, so familiar from other accounts and the depiction in the classic Longest Day movie. Yep, Hitler really was left to slumber!

Hitler demanded the impossible of von Kluge, at left. [2]

We frequently encounter characters such as Rommel, and Von Kluge, and it's interesting to note how their outward actions relate to their own inner personal feelings, the former apparent from their orders and their relations with both subordinates and superiors, the latter coming via less guarded comments to colleagues, or letters home. It's very clear that for all the vaunted fighting spirit, cutting edge materiel, and the dynamism and flexibility of auftragstaktik, the fragmented nature of the German armed forces and the complicated chain of command worked against decisive action.

But as the book proceeds, the air of inevitability builds: the Luftwaffe was by this point a spent force, the Kriegsmarine never became the equal of the Royal Navy, let alone the combined might of the UK/US maritime coalition, and the ground forces - split between the Wehrmacht, the SS, and diluted with Ostruppen, the young and the old Volksturm, etc. - were simply overwhelmed by the weight of Allied materiel.

Rommel on a tour of inspection of the Atlantikwall.

When the fighting is near the coast and the Allied position on land is still tenuous - Rommel's idea that Germany could only win if they prevented the Allies gaining a foothold was almost certainly the best hope they had [3] - the Allies could still bring to bear not only their airborne superiority, a decisive factor on the Western Front from hereon in, but also the incredible weight of their naval flotilla's firepower.

As the fighting moved inland the combination of total Allied airborne dominance and the scraping-bottom dribs and drabs situation for the German's, combined with Hitler's by now totally unrealstic and detrimental 'power of the will' philosophy, which would countenance no retreats, was a certain recipe for disaster. What's most amazing is how the Germans continued to believe and obey. I suppose sheer desperation and having been locked into a victorious mindset for so long may have enabled this.

It's not just top brass, this book is a paean to the trials of the 'Landser'.

As I say, this isn't perfect: there's no glossary, and the maps could've been more plentiful and informative. The photos aren't the best selection on the subject I've seen [4], and occasionally the text repeats itself somewhat. But this is not a dry recitation of unit names and troop movements, as so many military history books are, and is instead a very well put together patchwork or collage of firsthand testimony, which really brings the events to life.

I found this terrifically informative exciting and compelling, and would highly recommend it.

---

NOTES:

Funk, poster-boy got the German war effort.

The main dustjacket photo is a colourised version of a very famous image of 18 year-old Hitlerjugend panzergrenadier Otto Funk, right after a small unit action in Rots, Normandy, 1944. Here's an interesting link to a webpage where you can learn more about the series of photos this came from, Otto Funk, and the location 'then and now'. The above image, cover of a German photo-feature magazine, is from the same series

[1] Really a third front, with the Ostfront (and Balkans) as the first, and the north-Africa then Italian/Med as the second.

[2] Kluge typifies the German generals: honour bound to obey, but ultimately unable to deliver, vacillating between belief and despair. His relation to the Stauffenberg plot and the fallout from that is a fascinating and tragic sub-plot. And it's a story echoed in the actions and fate of Rommel and others as well.

[3] Albeit still a forlornly unrealistic one.

[4] Apart from the Funk cover pic, all my picture selections for this post are not in this book.

Book Review: Hitler, Ian Kershaw

'an unimaginable harvest of sorrow ... a level of destruction never experienced in human history'

Whilst the quote at the top of this review is actually a truncated observation Kershaw makes regarding Operation Barbarossa, or the battle on the Eastern front, between Russia and the Third Reich, it could actually stand for the whole war, and the epoch of Nazism. Whilst Mao's China and Stalin's Russia can also boast death tolls that defy comprehension, yet still WWII - or Hitler's war, as it can be justly called - remains in a league of its own. 

Compressing the two-volume Hubris and Nemesis into a single book, in large part by stripping out the 'scholarly apparatus' (footnotes, etc.), this single volume edition nonetheless remains a chunky tome, the main body of the text being just shy of 1,000 pages. In addition to the 969 pages of text there are 80 pages of black and white photos, and ten pages of fairly basic maps.

Also available as a two volume monster...

... under the subtitles, Hubris and Nemesis.

This is a fascinating and compelling account of the man whose life story became a focal point in the unfolding of one of the twentieth century's greatest traumas. As Kershaw tells it Hitler's early unfocused slacker lifestyle was brought sharply into focus by WWI, during which he found a role, or position in society, that gave him purpose and direction, and his first real sense of self-esteem, having previously been something of a loner and failure as an artist in Vienna. 

His sense of injustice at the outcome of WWI became a monomania, which he combined with a particularly virulent strain of antisemitism, both of these things seemingly commonplaces in German culture at the time, forming his lifelong creed: never again, Hitler swore, would Germany suffer the shame it had in 1918. And the alleged enemy, international Jewry - be they capitalist or Bolshevist (for many, but perhaps few or none more so than Hitler, the Jews were an all-purpose bogeyman) - would be made to pay.

Hitler and croneys in prison, during his lederhosen period. [1]

Kershaw covers it all admirably thoroughly, if occasionally rather academically. One of the parts I find most fascinating, perhaps in part because I'm a bit of an art-school drop out, is Adolf's rise from art-school reject to beer hall demagogue, and ultimately Führer.

Early on in that 'resistible rise', during Hitler's interment - see the above photo - after his failed putsch (Munich, 1923), he wrote, or rather he dictated (how appropriate!) Mein Kampf, in which he laid out the manifesto he would later implement, seeking 'lebensraum' (living space) for Germany in 'the East', the east chiefly being Russia. 

During this erratic and uncertain ascent a dynamic set in which, prior to 1941, seemed to some to cast Adolf as an infallible leader of indomitable will, but after that point rapidly overreached itself and unravelled, revealing itself to contain the seeds of its own destruction.

Hitler and a photographer rehearsing demagoguery. [2]

One of Kershaw's chief contributions to the massive literature on all things Third Reich appears to be the 'working towards the Führer' idea. I don't know if this is an original idea of his or not, and it does seem like just the kind of term to arise in academia. Kershaw's a professional academic as well as author.

I must admit such phrases often irk me somewhat, but it has to be conceded that it fits the bill here admirably. Kershaw is also very strong on the notion that Hitler achieved his form of leadership only by dissolving norms of government, such that the whole system inevitably evolved into a complete mess (and having recently read Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich this clearly was the case), the only common thread in all the chaos being the clarity of 'working towards the Führer'.

I do have a few gripes: given the massive range of sources available, Kershaw's repeated recourse to Goebbel's diaries was at times so frequent as to be a little annoying. Also, in some areas - e.g. air warfare - he occasionally appears to be happy trotting out familiar clichés (which other books, for example Paul Overy's Bombing War, elucidate more accurately). But all things considered this is undoubtedly an excellent rendering of a hugely important and massively fascinating dark chapter of our recent history.

20th April, 1945, Hitler's 56th birthday. [3]

Despite the smile the strain is showing.

As a modeller and wargamer I love the German army in WWII, even the SS elements. But as a human being I also have to recognise what an appalling project they were serving. I once visited a concentration camp in Germany, and it was extremely sobering to stand on the very ground where unspeakable and barely believable barbarism occurred - and the camp I visited was only a 'transit' and not a 'death' camp - so close to home both in time and space.

One can only hope we might learn something from history.

----------
NOTES:

The author.

[1] Hitler in Landsberg prison, where he served time for treason after the failed Beer Hall Putsch. Left to right are Hitler, his chauffeur and Mein Kampf amanuensis (along with Hess) Emil Maurice, Herman Kriebl, Rudolf Hess and Friedrich Weber.

[2] One of a series of photos in which the aspiring politician practised his dark arts, and which he later sought to ban from public circulation. He also sought to suppress images such as the one below.

[3] This picture and the one below it, both from the same medal award ceremony, were taken on one of Hitlers's last days above ground, both literally and metaphorically. By this point the Russians were shelling Berlin, and Hitler, living deep below ground in his Reich Chancellory bunker, had just 10 days left.

Book Review: Iron Kingdom, Chris Clark

Beyond the Pickelhaube?

Prussia is perhaps best known to readers of military history, who will be familiar with her as a nation thanks to Frederick The Great, the Napoleonic wars, Bismarck and the Franco-Prussian war, and, of course, the two World Wars. This in itself says a lot about how we've thought of Prussia.

Before I get to Clark's book, I hope you'll allow me a brief digression on a very British view of Prussian culture: one of my first encounters with the classic cliché of the militaristic Prussian type came in the form of the comic film Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines. The German officer in that movie, played by Gert 'Goldfinger' Frobe, was a fairly benign rendering of the stereotype, sending himself up by parping tuba type bass-lines from pompous martial music, whilst simultaneously exemplifying the vaunted 'military efficiency' of the German officer class by teaching himself to fly from a manual. 

In the end his literal downfall is bought about, on one occasion at any rate, by that quintessential image of Prussian militarism, his pickelhaube helmet, the point of which bursts his balloon (during an aerial duel with a Frenchman). Behind this relatively recent iteration of the Junkers type as a harmless comical buffoon, there has long lain a much darker vision of aristocratic German elitism, whose paradoxical combination of rigid servility ('I voz only obeyink orderz' was still a comedic playground catchphrase in my childhood) and belligerent arrogance are still popularly seen as amongst the root causes of two world wars.

Gert Frobe as Col. Manfred Von Holstein.

Has a pickelhaube puncture, and winds up...

... in the drink.*

Whilst Clark makes no reference to the above-mentioned film, the character of the pickelhaube wearing 'kraut' is nevertheless much in evidence, from the amazing zeppelin-with-uhlans image on the cover, to cartoons from Simplissimus, or the image of a square-headed walrus-mustachioed Hindenberg, and throughout much of the text. But Clark's book, which at just short of 700 pages is not for those with only a passing interest, is about so much more; from Pietism and the Prussian enlightenment (Prussia was home to Hegel, and later Marx and Engels, as well as Frederick the Great, Bismarck and Hindenberg) to Prussia's dynastic dramas and personalities, and the conflicting driving forces of provincial particularism versus the desire to unify the crazy patchwork of atomised sociopolitical entities into a 'Greater Germany'.

And the book is, on the whole, all the better for this richer synthesis. Having said this, as with so many modern history books, I did find myself occasionally struggling with Clark's laudable but exhausting need to try and cover as much as possible. Adam Zamoyski addresses this issue admirably in excusing his brisk and generalising or simplifying treatment of the Congress of Vienna. Getting such a balance right must be a very difficult thing, and doubtless few authors can hope to please all their varied readers. Still, on the whole Clark does a very good job, peppering his narrative with interesting little details, as well as covering the grander arcs of events. Sometimes's the details, particularly regarding diplomacy or administration, can get a bit dry, and I did drift away from the book about midway through, ironically during the Napoleonic years (This is particularly ironic for me as it's my wide reading in Napoleonic history that lead me to buy this book).

Right, said Fred.

But after a brief respite I came back to it and got stuck in again. In the interlude I'd read Kershaw's single volume Hitler biog., in which he says, in the intro, that Clark suggested Hubris and Nemesis to him as titles for his full two-volume version. Clark does in fact use these titles himself, for two of his Napoleonic-era chapters. And, as with any good book, this has prompted the desire for further reading. 

Amongst the many intriguing threads Frederick the Great appeals to me, both for the excitement of 'great captain' style military history, but also because he's also just generally very interesting. Amongst other things I'm very attracted to his blunt irreligiosity: Clark quotes him as saying of Christianity that it's an 'old metaphysical fiction, stuffed with ... absurdities... fanatics espoused it, intriguers pretended to be convinced by it and some imbeciles actually believed it.' Brilliant!

Right next door to Prussia, Poland is another country with a famously unstable and chequered history. During the Napoleonic era Poland ceased to exist, her neighbours, Prussia, Austria and Russia, carving her up, whilst Napoleon exploited Polish nationalism without rewarding her people with the return to nationhood they thought he might help bring about (indeed,the War of 1812 was originally talked about in the circles of France and her allies as the Polish war!). 

Thanks to Prussia's role in two world wars it is the largest of the modern European powers currently erased from the map. Will she, like Poland, make an eventual return? It doesn't look very likely at present. But who really knows, perhaps at some future point the Prussian national identity will return? Based on our most recent previous historical experiences, this could potentially be a very scary development!

Prussia reborn? Nein!

Clark avoids such speculations, contenting himself with the rich historical story. Prussia's role in unifying Germany, including her relationship with her chief rival Austria, as well as the many smaller states (such as Saxony, Bavaria and a myriad of others) during a period of escalating nationalism, is just one of the many fascinating themes he expertly explores in this book. 

Whilst Clark is in many respects thoroughly academic, there are flashes of wit and style which make works such as this a little more palatable to the lay reader, such as when he observes that 'William I was ... widely revered... a figure with the gravitas and whiskers of a biblical patriarch.' But all told I found this a somewhat uneven read, compelling and even exciting in places, but sometimes a little too drily or academically thorough.

Overall, however, Iron Kingdom was rewarding and informative enough that I enjoyed and would recommend it.

* Twice, once in the ballon, and once in his plane.

Book Review: D-Day, The Battle for Normandy, Antony Beevor

This is my third Beevor WWII book (the others were Stalingrad, and Ardennes, 1944), and I have to say that, for my money, he's arguably the best and most seductively exciting author currently writing, in a very crowded field. For once, we have here a book that really does live up to the dust-jacket hype. As Dominic Sandbrook puts it, Beevor undoubtedly is 'a master of narrative, expertly blending the grand sweep with the telling anecdote'.

British troops in action during Operation Goodwood. [1]

The title D-Day is a bit misleading, but is thankfully made good by the subtitle: yes, this book covers the D-Day landings - and does so very well - but it's given over more to the ensuing campaign, the Battle for Normandy, in north-western France. The relationship between the Allies is interesting, and Montgomery doesn't come off too well in Beevor's accounts. There's some tension and communication failures, leading to bogging down, particulalry, it would seem, in Monty's sector, where he often put an overly positive gloss in events, such that the gap between his reports and reality created tension with the American and Canadian allies, and even many of his own British colleagues and subordinates.

A P-47 Thunderbolt...

An RAF pilot scrambles to his Typhoon, during the Normandy campaign.

A pilots eye view, as a Typhoon fired its rocket(s) at what one hopes is a German column.

What an aerial bombardment looks like from above the bombers and their target, in this instance, the unhappy Villers Bocage.

And the devastation wrought by aerial bombing. [2]

Allied aerial dominance is a very strong theme in their victory. But, as ever, bombing proved to be a very inefficient blunt instrument, often causing collateral damage, sometimes aiding the German defenders (although also damaging them materially and traumatising them psychologically) and hampering the Allied advance, and certainly never delivering what it's apologists claimed for it.

With military histories such as this, which cover an immense amount of activity, any one of which myriad elements might merit a sizeable book itself, condensing events into a brief, readable synthesis, it can be bewildering trying to follow the numerous parallel threads. I feel Beevor handles this aspect as well, perhaps better, than most. 

Whilst the Allies feared Tigers and Panthers, Beevor argues the 88mm was one of Germany's most effective weapons.

Yes, despite the numerous maps included, it can be rather confusing. But this is as clear an account in one reasonably sized book as you're likely to find. And the scope is huge, from the landings themselves, to the numerous follow up operations, with such extras as Stauffenberg's bomb plot and attempted coup, and the Paris Uprising, all succinctly and adroitly told in an exciting, compellingly spare prose. 

After covering the landings, beach by beach, we follow the numerous operations, such as the British Epsom and Goodwood (both of which proved to be, as Beevor notes with irony, anything but 'a day at the races'), the Canadian Operation Totalise, and the most vigorous and successful breakthrough and breakout, that of Patton's forces in Operation Cobra.

It's the 'mass of unfamiliar sources, fresh voices and untold anecdotes', as fellow military historian Max Hastings pithily puts it, that really make this such an exciting read. Beevor does this sort of thing with such an easy fluency that it belies the great skill needed to write military (or indeed any) history with such verve. And his sources range from the top brass to the grunts. Beevor has always been notable for his ability to effortlessly shift gear from the higher echelons to the mud and blood of ground level conflict. And I have to say I love his books all the more for it.

A knocked out Cromwell amidst the ruins of Villers Bocage.

Tiger Ace Michael Wittman, Allied Nemesis of Villers Bocage. [3]

Whilst it's definitely good to have author's like Beevor not banging the nationalist drum - indeed, for some native readers he's overly critical of the British part, and Monty in particular - some might suspect him of sucking up to his prospective American readership. All things considered, the more I read Beevor on WWII, the more I admire his skill as an historian and storyteller. If you want military history writing that excites, informs and inspires, his books - and this one is a peach - are a good place to start.

The author.

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NOTES:

[1] Except for the cover image, this is the only photo on this review that also appears in this book. The rest are harvested from the interweb at large, with many sourced from Wikipedia.

[2] I forgot to note where this image depicts, but I don't think it's the same as the one above, which is Villers Bocage.

[3] Veteran 'Tiger Ace' and, for the Germans at least, hero of the Ostfront, Wittman was eventually  ambushed and killed during this campaign, by Shermas such as he had hitherto been so effective in destroying.

Book Review: Stalingrad, Antony Beevor

Antony Beevor has a talent for writing military history that reads almost like an action novel. His account of the demise of the German 6th Army - the largest in the entire Wehrmacht at the time - during the fight for Stalingrad, is gripping.

The colossal scale of war on the Ostfront, and the barbarism of both sides, driven by pitiless ideologies, make this theatre particularly and ghoulishly fascinating. And, as is often said, Stalingrad is commonly viewed as the turning point both in this conflict, and the war at large.

A saluting skeleton greets German troops arriving in Stalingrad. [1]

The Germans pressed all available resource into their service.

Hitler and Stalin both became maniacally obsessed with imposing their will in this contest, neither permitting their beleaguered troops to give up or retreat. The profligacy of lives on both sides is truly appalling. Beevor, like the reader, is clearly enthralled by the carnage.

It strikes me that Hitler allowed himself to be deflected from his original goal of securing the breadbasket of the Ukraine and the oil of the Caucuses, and was lured into a wasteful concentration on prestige targets, namely cities: Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad.

Germans dug in beneath a knocked-out T-34.

A famous pic. of German troops amidst the rubble of Stalingrad.

These battles favoured the Russians, as they denied the Germans the undoubted advantages of their mobile 'blitzkrieg' tactics, drawing them into static battles of attrition, in which the weight of Soviet numbers could be used to wear the Germans and their sometimes less than enthusiastic allies (Italians, Romanians, Hungarians, etc.) down.

The detail of the battle itself is well conveyed. Although I'd have liked a few more maps to have helped track how things developed. And Beevor manages to move pretty deftly around the theatre, from the action amidst the rubble to developments elsewhere on the flanks, without spoiling the narrative flow.

Soviet troops fighting in the ruined City..

You can easily see how arduous such street-fighting must've been.

He also moves smoothly through the various gears, from the top brass, with their concerns of ideological and personal prestige, down the chain of command to the God-forsaken 'grunts', fighting for their lives in a Dantean inferno, the hellishness of which is made all the worse by the inhumanity of the political ideologies that drove this conflict.

On that topic, one thing that really strikes me, the more I read about Russian history during Stalin's reign, is that - whilst Hitler singled out certain groups, in particular the Jews, for merciless persecution - 'Uncle' Joe seems, whilst preserving a glacially cool exterior (unlike the often apoplectic Führer), to have been a psychotic mass murderer of a far more wide-rangingly brutal and paranoid type.

Russian POWs who starved to death in Stalingrad captivity.

Stalingrad literally became a blitzkrieg graveyard.

Another striking thing is how many Russians sought to join the Germans. Some might well have done so just as a means to survive. But many, especially those persecuted under Communism (e.g. Kulaks, Cossacks, Poles, Ukrainians) initially saw the Germans as liberators from the Stalinist/Communist yoke.

According to Beevor the NKVD, part of Stalin's internal police/terror apparatus, were shocked and appalled when they discovered how many Russians were collaborating with the German invaders. These 'Hiwis' (from 'Hilfswillige') in places made up as much as 25% of German forces, and some estimates - unsurprisingly uncertain in the fog of war - run as high as 80,000 for the battle at Stalingrad itself.

The pitiful remains of VIth Army, passing into captivity.

Young aryans of the vaunted 'master race', reduced to troglodytes.

In typically Stalinist fashion, such people became 'former Russians'. Caught between two such appallingly inhumane ideologies the sufferings of all concerned were, frankly unimaginable. But Beevor does a damn good job of trying to convey how things were, and it makes for terrifically gripping reading.

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NOTES:

In researching images for this post I found a really cool post (click here) on abandoned German armour at Stalingrad. Some great images/info!

[1] Little did they know how prophetic this macabre roadside attraction would prove to be.