Suggested titles for a newbie

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Fri Jan 30, 2004 6:23 am

Hitler's Army by Omer Bartov - real eyeopener.

Morden

Qvist · Post by **Qvist** » Fri Jan 30, 2004 7:11 am

Hitler's Army by Omer Bartov - real eyeopener.

Eyeclouder, more like! I consider that a severely flawed book - full of questionable analysis, weak logic, misrepresented sources and some rather glaring factual errors. All the worse because several of his major conclusions are not too implausible - except, notably, his critique of the Primary groups theory and resulting conclusion that ideological zeal mainly explains the Ostheers continued efficiency as a fighting instrument.

cheers

sid guttridge · Post by **sid guttridge** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 5:55 am

Hi Qvist,

I would still recommend Bartov's book. It is particularly successful in illustrating that there was a less than distinct dividing line between the profesional soldiery of the German Army and the political soldiery of the Waffen-SS late in the war. The German Army acquired an increasingly overt political presence and motivation while, as discussed in other books (and threads on Feldgrau), the Waffen-SS's political elitism was simultaneously being eroded.

Whether one agrees with Bartov or not, he is very well worth a read, especially as little else deals with this area in depth.

Cheers,

Sid.

Qvist · Post by **Qvist** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 6:41 am

Hi Sid

I agree this is one of the better aspects of Bartov's book, and one where I think his conclusions are largely tenable, though I suspect there are probably others who deal more fully with it. Actually I also think that his assumption that nazi notions and ideals were to some extent relatively prevalent among the soldiery is a quite plausible one, but here his analysis flats flat on its face, logically and empirically. The remainder pretty much consists of terrible analysis and misconstrued data in support of untenable theories. I for one most certainly would not recommend it.

cheers

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 4:02 am

Hi Adam,

Red Storm on the Reich is a must IMHO for the end of the war.
Carell is a good read as others have said if you put the questions of bias aside.
There is a Carell book entitled 'Barbarossa in Bild' which accompanies the EF books and provides good pictures and maps. I'm not sure if it's available in English but anyway there isn't much text in it.

Panzer Battles by FW Mellenthin is also a good read, as far as I can remember and has some good maps, albeit a little difficult to read in my edition.

Personally I would also recommend Manstein's Lost Victories.

BullsEye · Post by **BullsEye** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 3:55 pm

Hello everyone,

Since Adam has now had a month to ponder which book to get on the Ostfront I would like steer the postings towards information about Paul Carel (Paul Karl Schmidt). I have read that Carel was a Nazi propagandist before adopting his pen name and beginning a new career as a "military historian"

but I have also read that he was Hitler's interpreter, the same guy who wrote a book on the subject under his real name, Paul Schmidt, around 1950. What info do you guys have?

Regards,

Oscar