Lesser known battles and books

[kwilper]

Hello!
I'm interested in reading about some of the lesser known battles of WW2 and I hope you can give me some advice about such battles and books to read. I have been thinking about getting "Hells Gate" by Nash when it's (hopefully) being re-released this year, and I'd like to read other books in this category, books describing the battles in detail from the German viewpoint. Some battles I have been thinking about is the third battle for Kharkov, the battle for Budapest, the Ruhr pocket, the Korsun pocket and the battle of Narva, but maybe you know of other, lesser known battles and books describing these battles in detail?
Thanks in advance.

[hucks216]

Hells Gate is a very good book about The Korsun Pocket/Cherkassy. There is another, less in depth but still very good, book on this battle and is The Korsun Pocket (ISBN: 978-1-932033-88-5)
Foe Budapest I have only read one book, Battle for Budapest: 100 Days in World War II (ISBN: 1850436673 // 978-1850436676) but it is worth buying it (Amazon stocks it).
I'm not sure about Narva as such but the fighting there is covered in The Last Knight Of Flanders (ISBN: 0-7643-0588-3) which is about a soldier in the Langemarck SS Division.
Others that may be of interest is Panzerschlacht (ISBN: 978-1-906033-16-3) and covers the fighting on the Hungarian Plains in late 1944, while The Bloody Triangle (ISBN: 978-0-7603-3434-8) covers the less covered armoured fighting in the Ukraine in 1941.
Those ones are the ones I can think of off the top of my head that I have within my line of sight as I write this but if I remember any more before I head back to work tomorrow I will let you know. And I am sure other members will be only too pleased to help.

[Marc Rikmenspoel]

Here's a varied lot of books in English, from an Axis viepoint, about lesser known battles:

Slaughter at Halbe, by Tony LeTissier, it covers the terrible retreat of the 9. Armee from the Oder, south of Berlin, in the last days of the war. Should be easily found cheaply.

Estonian Freedom Fighters in WW2, edited by August Jurs, deals with the pro-Axis Estonian forces (Police, Heer, Waffen-SS) from the point of view of the Estonian veterans. I don't know the availability.

For the Homeland, by Rudolf Pencz, is the history of the 31. SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier Division. It was composed mostly of Hungarian Volksdeutsche, and fought first south of Budapest in the autumn of 1944, and then west of Breslau during 1945. The book can be had from a variety of dealers.

The Caucasus and the Oil, by Wilhelm Tieke, covers the Caucasus and Kuban campaigns in a manner similar to a Paul Carell book. There's an emphasis on the role of the Wiking Division, since Tieke served in the Nordland Reg. and had a lot of assistance from Wiking veterans. Another book widely available from dealers.

Last Victory in Russia, by George Nipe, is an exhaustive look at the Third Battle of Kharkov, which isn't very obscure, but you mentioned an interest in that campaign. Again easily available.

I think Panzerschlacht is a fascinating look at the autumn 1944 fighting east of Budapest, and I agree with the recommendation, but be aware that it is very chaotically written, and is not light or easy reading.

I also support the recommendation of The Last Knight of Flanders, for a good overview of the Flemish Waffen-SS with a focus on Narva. See Tieke's Tragedy of the Faithful for an overall history of the III. (germanic) SS-Panzerkorps before, during, and after Narva.

In Good Faith, by Friedrich Husemann, is the history of the 4th SS-Polizei Panzergrenadier Division. The first volume is available in English and covers the division while it was still an infantry unit during the advance on Leningrad in 1941, the Volkhov pocket during the first part of 1942, and the First Battle of Lake Ladoga later that year. The second volume's translation is due to be released later this year, and covers the divisional battle group on the Volkhov, the rebuilt division (now a PG one)against partisans in Greece, and then in the Banat and Hungary in the autumn of 1944, at Danzig and Pomerania in early 1945, and then north of Berlin in the last weeks of the war.

I hope these suggestions are helpful!

[kwilper]

Thank you for your suggestions.
I was looking at "Panzerschlacht" a while ago, but it has been given very mixed reviews on Amazon so I didn't buy it. Maybe I'll give it another chance, but my budget is limited so I think I'll prioritize other books first. "Slaughter at Halbe" looks interesting and so does "The Korsun Pocket" (I am waiting for a Norwegian translation of this book). I had almost forgotten "Last Victory in Russia". It is already on my list of books I want, but thank you for reminding me of it
Do you know of any good books on the Ruhr battle? I've only found "Battle for the Ruhr" by Zumbro, but I don't know if it is any good.

[Richard Hargreaves]

Do you know of any good books on the Ruhr battle? I've only found "Battle for the Ruhr" by Zumbro, but I don't know if it is any good.

Battle of the Ruhr is very good. The author did an incredibly thorough job with his sources, conducting interviews with German veterans and the like.

[kwilper]

Battle of the Ruhr is very good. The author did an incredibly thorough job with his sources, conducting interviews with German veterans and the like.

Thank you. I will add it to my list (it's getting long...)

[sniper1shot]

It seems that you have mentioned only Eastern Front obscure battles. I picked this book up at a second hand store and was quite surprised at what I did not know.
This book takes place in Western Europe in Holland.

The Forgotten Battle- Overloon and the Maas Salient 1944-45
by A.Korthanls Altes and N.K.C.A. IN'T Veld

And yet, another battle that is rarely covered in Naval terms, or at least that I have seen is the battle of the Sundra Straight where both the USS Houston and HMAS Perth were sunk:

Proud Echo
by Ronald McKie.

[kwilper]

Thanks for the advice! I haven't read much about the Holland campaign other than what has been written about Market Garden, and the book you suggested was really cheap on Amazon.

[Helmut]

Servus,
I didn't particularly care for Slaughter at halbe. I found it somewhat disjointed and hard to follow. Of course this could be due to the nature of the battle but I didn't think it was one of letisssier's best.

Regards,

Helmut

[hucks216]

Another 2 books are Last Laurels: The German Defence of Upper Silesia, January-May 1945 by George Gunter (ISBN: 1874622655 // 978-1874622659) & To the Bitter End: The Final Battles of Army Groups A, North Ukraine, Centre, Eastern Front, 1944-45 by Rolf Hinze (ISBN: 1874622361 // 978-1874622369). Of the two I preferred the former as there does tend to be a lack of objective reporting in the latter when it comes to mentioning various acts (Polish & Czech partisans attacking poorly armed Germans, The bombing of Dresden etc but a complete lack of reference to the Wehrmacht committing war crimes during this period, and that the Germans were subjected to severe Soviet actions without recourse to mentioning just what provoked the Russians into behaving as they did, i.e. German actions in Russia).

[Kelvin]

Any book for Jassy-Kishinev in August 1944 ?

[hucks216]

Red Storm Over The Balkans: The Failed Soviet Invasion Of Romania Spring 1944 by David M. Glantz.

[Richard Hargreaves]

Aside from the relevant unit histories (I'm assuming the Totenkopf one is pretty good for it), then in German there's:

Hans Kissel, Die Katastrophe in Rumänien 1944
Hans Friessner's memoirs, Verratene Schlachten. It deals more with the political background than the front-line action. Surprisingly lively for a general's recollections...
Rehm, Jassy. Schicksal einer Division oder einer Armee?

Did you safely get your book by the way, Kevin?

[hucks216]

Did you safely get your book by the way, Kevin?

Apologies for not getting bck to you, completely slipped my mind. It arrived back safely thanks.

[panzermahn]

I know some folks is going to lambast me for saying this but good old Uncle Kurowski had written a couple books about lesser known battles in the Eastern Front

- Deadlock before Moscow (Battles of Velikiye Luki)

Tony Le Tissier, Franz Kurowski, David Glantz, John Erickson, Paul Carell (P.K. Schmidt), Rolf Hinze, George Nipe Jr. and our own Richard Hargreaves ( ) wrote mostly on Eastern Front