Fighting in Hell: The German Ordeal on the Eastern Front

Rating:
Summary: Thought it would be better....Look at Something Else!
Review: A very poor book. Don't bother. From the title, you'd think the book has interesting information from high-level commanders. It doesn't. It's mostly just a bunch of ramblings, often contradictory. The chapter on Finland maybe would rate three stars. I think the only useful information in the whole book otherwise was the information on the number of snow-plows per mile that were needed to keep roads clear. If you are looking for any other logistical info, forget it. The description of the book is highly misleading, and I regret having bought it.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting for only the most hard-core WWII historian
Review: An interesting premise for a WWII history book - this is a compilation of the writings of various German soldiers in Allied captivity who wrote about thier experiences on the Russian front - unfortunately most, if not all, of the personal experiences and anecdotes have been left out. It reads like a fairly dry battle manual, describing Russian tacticts, the 'personality' and leadership style of the Russians, etc. very little in the way of interesting anecdotes. This is a valuable piece of researh - useful for a historian doing specific research on tacticts on the Russian front, but is little more than a dry overview. If you are looking for an interesting narative, this is NOT it. If you are looking for battle tacticts and examinations of the russian way of combat - possibly as research material for a book or research paper, this may be for you, otherwise, you may want to avoid this.

Rating:
Summary: A Collection of German Command Debriefings from the 1950s
Review: As noted in other reviews, this book, contrary to the back cover hype, is NOT a dramatic "you are there" narrative of East Front horrors. It IS a selection from the so-called German Reports Series. This collection was produced for the education of US Army officers in the late 1940s and early 1950s and drew on the selective memories of German officers. The authors were debriefed by US military historians while the former were still POWs. The idea was for the Army to tap into the Wehrmacht's experiences in fighting the Russians -- a big American concern at that time. As such, the pieces are tailored to a "lessons learned" presentation. Some German bias shines through the staff college lecture style of the writing. The authors did not really have much insight into the quality of the Russian soldier or leadership.

They did appreciate the tactics used against them and the countermeasures that they had to improvise in daunting circumstances. But amidst all this fragmentary military ephemera, there is no real insight as to how and why they were defeated along the Don and the Dnepr River basins.

Many of these selections are available from the US Government Printing office as reprints of the original US Army Pamphlets (then classified "restricted") from 45+ years ago. The value of this book is that it makes the material available to a wider reading public under a cheap single cover. However, the value would be enhanced by annotations or commentary pointing out the biases of the German authors and bringing in information available since then from the gradually opening ex-Soviet war archives.

Rating:
Summary: Thought it would be better....Look at Something Else!
Review: Fighting In Hell at some pionts was like "Reading In ****" The book is on Personal passages of four German Commanders in the Eastern Front. For someone doing a school report on this subject, the book would have some good info. At some points in the book it is suggested what to wear in really cold weather, etc., For the average reader (like myself) looking for a good read with action, this is not the book. I did learn some new things that I was not aware of previously however, I could not wait to finish this book, it was boring and too long. I'm glad it was only a seven dollar book! I would not buy this book again!!!

Rating:
Summary: Not what you might expect
Review: From the title, I expected more personal-type war stories, but it was fascinating all the same, if you read between the lines. What I really enjoyed were the chapters on the Finnish-Russian conflict (what the Finns call the Continuation War). This is valuable because there isn't a whole lot of this material available in English.

The Germans were allied with the Finns in this effort and it was interesting to note the affection and respect that the German General Erfurth has for the Finns. I especially enjoyed the details on how the Finns operated in the harsh Arctic north.

Rating:
Summary: An explanation of hardships, but little combat action
Review: I have to admit that I liked this book contrary to what other reviewers thought of it. It is only for the reader who is very knowlegeable about combat on the Eastern Front.

The book was written after the war by German Generals for the American army just in case the U.S. went to war with the Soviet Union.

The book is not exciteing reading, and it took a while to read, but it helps to understand, and put together the various problems the German army faced. If you read any of the personal accounts written about the war, this will ad to those accounts with a larger picture. The book will explain what the Generals had to deal with, and rarely looks at a situation from less than division level.

Many people criticize the book for not talking about the average soldier, but the Generals have to deal with the avaerage soldiers inability to perform under situations that they were not able, or prepared to deal with. This book does well to decribe those problems. One good example is a chapter about the tank tracks. They had to use the wide battle tracks to move in the mud, but upon comming to a bridge at night during an attack, the entire armored group had to remove their battle tracks once they got to the bridge, then replace them with the regular tracks,cross the bridge, then put the battle tracks on again. All of this at night without light that would give away their position. The attack went off 8 hours late.

Frustration for the common soldier, frustration for the Generals.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time!
Review: The book takes the form of a staff study, conducted by two German Army officers who had commands on this front, and prepared as a primer for those who would face the Russians again (presumably in the Cold War). This makes for some dry reading at points, if one expects a historical narrative, as in William Craig's 'Enemy at the Gates' or any of the David M. Glantz volumes. If, however, your interest is in an appraisal of the German Army and their experience as a whole on the Eastern Front, this book will keep you hooked. No epic stories of battles, no abundance of personal antedotes, but rather the nitty-gritty of company and regimental encounters, analyzed for their tactical importance. Less attention is given to overall background detail (such as strategic and sometimes unit) in these episodes, but in no other work have I seen this kind of overall assessment of the Red Army vs. the German, in all seasons, in all climates. From the Red Army tactic in forest combat of setting fires to the methods of aircraft maintainace in different climates, this book has it. The book does tend at times to downplay the Russian combat methods through professional military bias, but overall it is not serious. Lastly, it is likely it would succeed in its aim as a primer for combat in Russia, and should merit some serious attention on that score.

Rating:
Summary: The Great German Legend of WW2
Review: The essence of the Wehrmacht Legend of the Eastern Front is laid out in this compilation of German generals' recollections from the 50's. "...the characteristic fighting method of the Russians: not great achievements by small units with clever leadership, but by sacrifice of masses. Only when the Russians attacked with a tenfold to twentyfold superiority could they achieve temporary successes." pp102. What a crock! The Eastern Front killed about 4-5 million German soldiers at a cost of about 10 million Soviets, a ratio far lower than 20-1. The "clever leadership" of the Germans cost their own country millions of dead and raped civilians at the end of the war when the Russians invaded; "great achievements by small units" were useless against the Red Army's superior strategy, intelligence, and equipment. Only at the beginning of Barbarossa was the Wehrmacht superior to the Red Army; by the end the Red Army out-blitzkrieged the German Army using similiar tactics coupled with its philosophy of "deep war". In 1945 the Germans lost 2 million dead and the Soviets 2.5 million- a case of "sacrifice of masses" of which the Germans were just as guilty. The Germans suffered total defeat in WW2 because the Red Army became superior in almost all aspects of modern warfare by 1945, not just superior in numbers.

Rating:
Summary: A wealth of infomation on combat on the Eastern Front
Review: This book just has to be the best literary buy I've ever made. The price tag on Fighting In Hell could be several times higher and I'd still buy it. It is not a concise dictionary on fighting on the Eastern Front, but rather contains reports on different topics written by german generals after the war. The way these are written convey the cold reality of war, as well as the pride of the author's in the quality of german armed forces. Included are excellent descriptions of the differences of german and russian soldiers and combat methods. The first hand descriptions of Soviet combat tactics and battles fought couldn't come from better sources than from the people that fought the russians. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Good on tactics
Review: This book was certainly interesting (admittedly a matter of personal taste) and would probably be recommended for the military specialist, rather than the general reader or even WWII buff. The book is essentially a description of German tactics and the tactical situation in the east. It's not really a general history of the eastern war nor an organized, thematic presentation. It is a compilation of essays by Colonel General Erhard Raus (1889-1956), Infantry General Waldemar Erfurth (1879-1971) and Infantry General Hans von Greiffenberg (1893-1951). The essays cover topics of specific military interest on the eastern front, eg. climate, partisan tactics, mud, terrain, reconaissance etc. The book would only be of interest to those with a knowledge, or an interest in the most specific details of combat.