.
.
by Prit Buttar.
Hardback (6.3×9.5 inches). 488 pages. 2025.
Once again, Buttar provides an excellent account of WWII’s Eastern Front, this time on the 1944 Soviet Operation Bagration that shattered Germany’s Army Group Center (AGC).
Front-by-Front, the offensive hit where the Germans least expected it. AGC fielded 486,000 troops, 118 tanks, and 452 assault guns (p137). AGC saw little in the way of the reinforcements needed to combat the 1.7 million Soviet troops, 3,800 tanks, 2,000 assault guns, 32,700 guns, mortars and rocket launchers, and 7,800 aircraft (p117) and most were transfers from other parts of the Eastern Front. The Germans were outnumbered 3.4 : 1 in troops, 10.2 : 1 in armored fighting vehicles, 10.1 : 1 in artillery, and 8.5 : 1 in aircraft (p137).
Oddly enough, in March and April of 1943, USSR and German representatives met in Stockholm, Sweden to discuss a peace deal. Stalin offered 1941 borders and Hitler offered the Dnepr River line. Negotiations went nowhere.
The overwhelming attack and desperate defense play out as you might expect. The Soviets had learned a few things about mobile warfare since 1941 and Hitler’s insistence on turning cities into fortresses and forbidding retreats doomed any sort of elastic defense. Great descriptions and analysis, punctuated by sprinklings of excerpts, offer a smooth read.
Only the Vilnius chapter stumbles over the bugaboo of too many excerpts and too little of Buttar’s masterful prose. To me, excerpts should be short, incisive, and highlight some viewpoint or explanation more powerful than prose can convey. Buttar’s prose is too good to be overshadowed by excessive excerpts. Thankfully, the vast majority of the book unfolds with superb research, exceptional analysis, and spirited prose.
Couple typos: “approached over a bill” (p251) is probably “hill” and “Model’s counterattack east of Moscow” (p431) has to be “Warsaw.”
The book contains 14 black and white photos and 30 black and white maps. The latter are especially helpful with large unit placements along a front and the geographic relation between cities and towns. Terrain shows the larger rivers, road networks, and railroads, although they are much appreciated and far more informative than the usual half dozen maps in many books. OOBs and numbers are within the text.
Well done.
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
