War Without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa 1941-1942

The book offers a vivid account of the 1941 Barbarossa Campaign against the Soviet Union. The story is told from the eyers of the German soldiers fighting on the ground. It is not about strategies and tactics, but rather on the soldiers lived this campaign, the fighting, the morale, the logistics, their hopes and their fears, etc. From this perspective, one understand better the geographical and human challenge of invading Russia. The author has succeeded in gibing a different perspective and provide a "live" atmosphere. I strongly recommend the book to those who want to have a "realistic" view of the Campaign from the ground. After the easy Campaign of Poland and France, Russia was definitely not a war with garlands...

Operation Barbarossa is universally considered as the defining event and the turning point of land operations in the European Theatre of Operations. After the German Angriff nach Osten the war was no longer a matter of a European struggle for supremacy but took intercontinental dimensions and after less than 6 months sealed the fate of Nazi Germany and her allies. This book describes the German Army operations ranging from the start of Barbarossa till its standstill and its reversals in front of Moscow of early december 1941. There is no doubt that Barbarossa was not an option born of Hitler's lunacy but a well thought operation whose success was to be the zenith of Hitler's regime, the realisation of what was first described in Mein Kampf ,and finally an event capable of finally forcing England to accept a peace treaty to sanction German power on the European mainland. This did not happen and from December 1941 German showed clearly her weaknesses and in spite of local successes was no longer able to mount attacks of the same scale of earlier ones. The reasons of this abject failure resides not just in the unexpected resiliance of the Soviet regime but mostly in the inability of the Nazi ierarchy to grasp the realities of the scale of their enterprise. Blinded by their ideology based on racial prejudices the Nazi regime showed their ignorance and lack of planning, that comdemned their finest troops to a gruesome struggle for survival against a cruel and determined enemy. An excellent book strongly recommended not just because of the remarkable coverage of military events but especially for the author's oustanding ability to provide a wider picture of the story including also political, strategic and human factors.

This is a staggeringly good book, and a vital piece of the jigsaw when it comes to understanding the Eastern Front in the Second World War.I have read widely on this subject, from war diaries to accounts of individual battles and to more general overviews. They are, of course, all bits of the jigsaw, and some are more vital than others. Despite its focus on both the initial Barbarossa end of the Eastern Front, and a heavy emphasis on the German experience, this book transformed my understanding.Nowhere else did I gain such a vivid picture of the size of Russia. It's not just a simple case of maps, war diaries or figures for re-supply - it's the glueing together of all of this into a narrative that suddenly makes the great pushes and the kessels come alive - the strain on the German soldiers and the simple human scale of involvement in these actions.In other accounts, of course, these first weeks and months seem to be a golden period for the Wehrmacht, as they plunge deeper and deeper into the Soviet Union, gaining stunning success after stunning success. The strain on and misery of the soldiers enjoying this apparent success comes out through Kershaw's knitting together of the narratives at various levels. This then helps feed into the reasons why the campaign spluttered out at the gates of Moscow, and provide a real, tangible picture of the overstretch that is often talked about in other accounts, without ever fully coming alive.So, again, a piece in the jigsaw, but the most vital that I have read to date. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

War without Garlands is unquestionably one of the greatest books of the early campaigns in the east and, while I make no claim to be military minded, explains expertly how Blitzkrieg worked in operational terms, with diagrams and explanations of how villages and towns were assaulted and the intricate workings of the grand encirclements, the famous Witches Cauldrons in which Stalin's early armies were annihilated. In those terms I doubt I have read a book on the subject in which the author demonstrated such mastery of operational matters, yet managed to fit all the pieces together in one coherent whole. Central to the book's message is how much of the soldiers which crossed into the USSR in June 1941 did so on foot, accompanied by horse drawn artillery, supply and kitchen wagons, and how these humans hauled themselves across dusty, arid steppe, often at a rate close to 50km a day, with only a few hours pause in between marches, in pursuit of armour vast distances to their east. Far greater emphasis is placed on perhaps the last great fortress battle of warfare, the battle for the citadel at Brest, than perhaps any other book I've read on the subject. Kershaw homes in the early warning signs of Barbarossa exhibited by mid July 1941 when the Wehrmacht started to report disproportionately high causalties among junior officers, by September many of the veterans of the French and Low Country campaigns were lost, an elite cadre Germany never regained. Germany was indeed "winning itself to death." That they managed to cobble together units for Operation Typhoon was a miracle in itself. An excellent book on the subject.

The true horror and stupidity of war described in gripping detail. Some of the scenes depicted not for the squeamish, but held my attention all the way. Would like to read a follow-up of the renewal of the Russian campaign by the Germans in 1942.

This a very thorough look at the fate of the Wehrmacht from the inception of Barbarossa to the failure of Typhoon and the resulting defensive actions.It is very much a look through the eyes of the individual German soldier. It is neither sympathetic to them (it certainly list atrocities); but nor does it focus on the Russian or civilian experience. I think some reviewers are overly harsh when they criticize it for not giving a balanced perspective. It is explicitly the German view.It has a great mix of both the emotive individual experiences and a more conceptual explanation of why Barbarossa failed. Its an unusual combination but it works very well.This is a must read book for anyone interested in the Eastern front.

Having read most classic titels on the Eastern Front of course I had to order this book too. It didn't dissapoint me, but after a flying start it seemed to bog down in facts, figures and repeating stories. I found the three first episodes top notch, this was the first book I've read which brilliantly described the whole atmosphere in Germany in the pre-invasion months. By not only let the soldiers speak, but their wifes and children too, I thought the reader got a first-rate perspective on how the general feeling in Nazi-Germany was during that time. The first chapters on the invasion itself were brilliant too, they remindend me very much of Anthony's Beevor's Stalingrad. But then, the speed of the book seemed to bog down, just like the German army did. What follows is an ever-repeating, way too detailed description of every major battle on the eastern front. As a reader, I felt like I had to watch 20 chess matches at the same time while trying to remember every single move. So I thought that a shame, since the start of the book was so brilliant. Anyway, this book is certainly worth reading, and I salute the writer for his investigative skills, but you really must be a die-hard WW II junkie to enjoy this book to the last page.

Very much enjoyed the book. Good mix of technical, historical and personal accounts. The privations experienced by soldiers on both sides is something that should be a part of high school history texts concerning the great wars throughout history. The author has done a great job regarding that aspect of the Eastern Front.

Read this book !!