War without Garlands - Robert Kershaw

[GSLevel9]

I've been an amateur historian for most of my life. I've walked Civil War battlefields and looked for scars on old buildings in Europe. I've watched "Saving Private Ryan" and watched every episode of "BoB"... twice. I love "The Pacific" and cried during "We were Soldiers".

I consider myself pretty knowledgable about WW2.

My interest in the Eastern Front was always lukewarm, I tended to read more about the European theater, like D-Day and the liberation of France and Italy. I'm certainly an anti-war type person... but have always had deep admiration and respect for soldiers fighting literally for their society and way of life.

So I picked up WWG at Amazon to learn more about the German invasion of Russia in 1941. I'd always learned, "Ok the German amassed a huge army on their East Border and invaded Russia, they reached the gates of Moscow and the winter came and they all froze to death" (basically, lol...)

SO I read the book. And I must say... I've changed. I used to read a book or watch a movie and when the American GI fired the bazooka destroying the Germna tank I'd cheer!

Well this book paints a different picture of WW2 in the East. And let me say... there was NOTHING good or Patriotic or heroic or redeeming about this war.

A few examples? How about this... Russian soldiers were conscripted at gunpoint in their home towns, given overcoats and boots and thrown on train cars. The train cars were packed young men for 8-10 hours with no food or water and when they'd arrive near an ongoing battle the soldiers would be marched at gunpoint to the front and ordered to take a position, unarmed. The Germans would be dugoin in defensive positions and couldn't believe what they were seeing. Hundreds and thousands of unarmed men rushing towards their trenches. They were well armed and had plenty of ammo. As the hordes charged the German positions the machine guns would fire, the artillery would open fire and each charge would leave thousands of dead Russians on the field.

Russians rarely surrendered. Because they were heroic and valiant? No. Because if an officer surrendered his troops, his family would be arrested and taken to the Gulag. If an enlisted man surrendered his family would receive no compensation or gov't support.

And what did I learn about the Germans? Well there were 2 kinds of German soldiers. The younger ones, 18-25 years old were mostly farm boys and city kids fighting for the fatherland and what was good and right in the world. Then there were the others... the Nazi's filled the Policeand "Special" Divisions with older men in their 20-30's who were more "numb" to emotional distress. When the Germans would take a Russian village the young soldiers would chase out the Russian soldiers and advance to the next village. Then later in the day the "other" soldiers would move into town. I read stories about villages where the SS would literally force civilians to dig mass graves and they'd be shot and drop into the freshly dug grave. They'd line up civilians one at a time, women, children with teddy bears in hand and one by one they'd be shot.

And as for those massive "grand land battles"? Oh, how about this one? Several German armies surrounded 5 Russian armies West of Kiev. The Russians were encircled with no hope of escaping, trapped in a "pocket".

The Kiev pocket (or Kessel as the Germans called it) contained 665,000 Russian soldiers who refused to surrender even though they were without supplies, food or ammo. The Germans ordered their armies to destroy the pocket.

So over a few week period the Germans "reduced" the Kiev pocket. They used artillery to pound the Russians, airplanes to bomb them and finally ground troops to kill them, in hand to hand combat if necessary. The Russian fatalities numbered 616,000 DEAD, 84,000 WOUNDED

So, bottom line of the book. The Russians beat the Germans, right? Not really. The Russians simply had more bodies to sacrifice than the Germans. The whole damn thing was a bloody waste. War is suddenly less interesting for me, now... I need to go play with my puppy.

[PDJane]

1. The trouble with history is that the winners write

epilogue, and they tend to manipulate the history. I'm afraid the US has become expert at manipulating history, at least inside the US, and the population as a whole remains woefully ignorant of the blood and guts part of the glory.

War is a money-making racket....and a waste.

[planetc]

2. wishing I could recomment this twice n/t