Model Armour

A look at a new title from Casemate examining the personalities behind the invasion of Russia

The Men of Barbarossa

Publisher: Casemate Publishing

Author: Samuel W.Mitsham, Jnr

Price: £25

Hardback, 256 pages

ISBN: 978-1-935149-15-6

 

Casemate Introduction

"History’s greatest military operation and the commanders who nearly led it to success ...

 

This book not only tells the story of Operation Barbarossa but describes the expertise, skills, and decision-making powers of the men who directed it. The result is an illuminating look at the personalities behind the carnage, as summer triumph turned to winter crisis, including new insights into the invasion’s many tactical successes, as well as its ultimate failure.

This objective is massive in scope, because Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, was massive in scale, arguably the largest military operation of all time. The campaign also changed the world forever. Before Barbarossa, Hitler’s Wehrmacht seemed invincible, like an unstoppable force of nature. No one, it seemed, could check the Führer’s ambitions, much less defeat him. Barbarossa changed all of that.

Pitting Germany in total war against the Soviet Union on a 1,000-mile front, Operation Barbarossa was truly staggering in its magnitude. Wars, however, are not fought by numbers, they are fought by men. Very often, writers stereotype German officers into two categories: Prussian gentlemen or Nazi monsters. There were, of course, both—but there were also varying shades of gray. In this book we learn of the famous commanders and undersung leaders, about those who were willing to stand up to the Führer and those who subordinated themselves to his will. The result casts a fresh perspective on one of history’s most crucial campaigns."

 

 

The Book

I was unsure when given this book to read of what to expect. Although I often find historical texts such as this engrossing, I sometimes find I have to be almost pushed into reading them, then once I begin I can't put them down. This was the case here. Although the title is fairly self-explanatory, the introductory text is slightly misleading I found, since although it 'sort of' tells the story of Operation Barbarossa, there are far more detailed and authoritative texts to be had on that subject, this particular book being far more centred around the actual personalities of the German commanders involved....as it should be given that title.

 

The books contents are broken down logically, yet somewhat unusually;

Setting the Stage

The Planners

The Deployment

The Frontier Battles

Battles of Encirclement

Stiffening Resistance

The Battle of the Smolensk Pocket

The Drive on Leningrad

The Battle in the Far North

The Battle of Kiev

The Double Battle of Vyazma-Bryansk

The Offensive on the Flanks

To The Gates of Moscow

What happened to the Men of Barbarossa?

Appendices 1 - 4

Notes

Bibliography

Index

 

The book is written so that on telling the story of Barbarossa, each personality is introduced as necessary in the telling of the story, this then being interrupted with a detailed description of that person. This doesn't exactly lead to a flowing text, and I found myself at times getting annoyed when the authors mentioned somebody by name since it was inevitable that the next paragraph would begin with "Herr X was born in Bavaria....etc." Trust me...it begins to feel as if you're wading through a series of short biographies, leading to constant backtracking to pick up the thread of what's supposed to be happening with regards to the overall operation.

 

 

Unless you're a dedicated student of this specific part of World War II, it's likely that you will not have heard of most of the persons involved. Those you will have heard of are written of in unflattering tones, and more than once I found what the authors had written completely at odds with what I thought of knew of those particular people. Admiral Canaris being a case in point.

 

 

The book contains a huge volume of historical fact. Just how much fact versus opinion is a moot point, best left to others to verify with more time on their hands than I have, however....in the first few pages the authors refer to the new German wonder tank as an Pz.Kpfw.V Tiger. There are other gaffes too.

 

 

I have to admit to eventually scanning the short biographies to get back to the 'story' of Barbarossa, although strangely I did find myself continuously referring to one of the final chapters to discover what happened to the person after the War...if indeed they survived it. Out of all the many, many people mentioned, the Commander that lived the longest only died in 2004 and this more than anything sort of brought the events described in the book to life for me. Until then I had been reading a historical text, when suddenly it was almost as if it was describing something somehow more 'real'. Difficult to explain.

 

 

 

Conclusion

As anybody who knows me will attest to....I am far from a student of history. Although I am aware of there being far more detailed texts available on Barbarossa, this book actually contained enough detail on it to maintain my interest. Unfortunately the book is far more concerned on the German commanders and men behind Operation Barbarossa, and the way the book is written means that this sometimes gets in the way of telling the story. So much so that it becomes annoying. This is not a fault of the books concept...rather one of the authors. There has to be more ways of beginning a biographical section than simply stating "Heinrich Alfred Hermann Walter von Brauchitsch was born in Berlin......", although I can't actually think of any. But then again, I'm not writing a book.

 

 

If you're really interested in the actual men of Barbarossa, then it's a great read. If you're interested in Barbarossa, then the cover price may discourage you a little.

 

 

My thanks to CASEMATE PUBLISHING for the review sample.