Synopsis
Discusses the events surrounding the Russian military assault on Berlin
Reviews
Duffy, a senior lecturer in military history at the British Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, reminds us that the war against Hitler was essentially won on the Eastern front. In this solidly researched study he describes the Soviet assault on Germany from January to April 1945, tracing events from the start of the Vistula offensive up to but not including the capture of Berlin ("on which very many works have already been written"). It is the story of two massive Red Army groups under marshals I. V. Konev and G. K. Zhukov, their drive across western Poland into Germany, and the futile defensive measures of the German forces. Given the overwhelming superiority of troops and tanks, the Soviet advance was well-nigh inexorable, as Duffy shows, with Zhukov and Konev pausing only to deal with cut-off German strongpoints. The author has interesting things to say in regard to the savagery of the Russian troops once they crossed into the German homeland. Recommended for serious students of modern military strategy, the book presents a comprehensive picture of the epic-scale warfare on the Eastern front in 1945.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Standard military historical fare from Duffy (The Military Experience in the Age of Reason, 1988), who here details the final Soviet drive against the Nazis on the road from Poland to Berlin. With overwhelming superiority in armament and troop strength, the Soviet battle plan initially involved two coordinated assaults across the Vistula River in mid-January 1945. The assaults met with less resistance than anticipated--in fact, the German front collapsed, enabling the Soviet armies to begin a race to the Oder and German soil that made it seem as though the war would be quickly won. However, eventually bogged down by increasingly desperate fighting and the possibility of attack from the flanks and rear, Soviet operations turned to consolidating positions and eliminating pockets of resistance while maintaining steady progress westward. Duffy considers each siege and state of the assault separately, providing a full analysis of strategy and paying particular attention to the divisive role Nazi functionaries played in the Wehrmacht's efforts to fight back and regroup. Although battles are described with dramatic highlights, the march becomes fragmented into a series of isolated conflicts in which descriptions of maneuvers during the siege of K”nigsberg or Breslau, or on the Oder, often appear formulaic or repetitive. A lengthy appendix closely analyzes Soviet and German styles of warfare, with the former's mechanized ability and tactical advantage on the offensive proving decisive. Well researched and meticulously presented, but only occasionally engaging: a history of interest primarily to military specialists. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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