Hey /his/, can we talk about the Eastern front in WWII? Do you guys know of any little known battles or occurrences? Have any authors you would recommend? I've read a few books by David Glantz, his writing style is kind of dry but he gives a good breakdown of force composition, tech, maps, orders of battle, etc.
The sheer scope of the Eastern front blows my mind. There are a lot of large battles that are completely forgotten to history. It's really a topic I'd like to know more about. Such a tremendous clash of ideologies, yet at least her in America, it's very rarely discussed.
Also, could we get some fucking maps up in this bitch?
Also, here's some music for the thread.
http://youtu.be/zDEem_aEttE
"Les Preludes" by Franz Liszt. This was chosen as the theme song for Barbarossa by the Nazis.
I think the Battle of Budapest is pretty overlooked.
I think there was a Battle of Lauban, which was basically a lucky last ditch German tactical victory in 1945. So the 1st Ukrainian Front was kicking ass in their advance westward and the 7th Tank Guards Corps of the 3rd Guards Tank Army attacked the Silesian city of Lauban. This started on February 17th and only the remainders of the 6th Volksgrenadier Division defended the place, so they were pretty screwed. However the 8th Panzer Division, 408th Division, and 10th Volksgrenadier Division swept in and stopped the advance. However many of them were understrength and lacked fuel. Ultimately they recaptured the town and held it till the end of the war. Both sides suffered heavy infantry losses but the Germans only lost 10 tanks. Meanwhile the Russians lost 162 tanks, 106 vehicles, and 159 assault guns. Many kids served with the Germans in this battle.
>>39510
>There are a lot of large battles that are completely forgotten to history
Such as?
>>39510
>>42040
What the fuck. How is this not history?
>>42040
Bait.
>>42015
Red army looks like an organisational headache.
>>42369
They were the largest mobilized army in history.
>>42369
Nuh, this map looks the way it does because Soviet units tended to be smaller than their axis counterparts. Since this map displays armies it makes the soviet side a bit crowded.
>>39510
Yak-3 best plane
FW-190 was great too though
>>41852
Well the battle of Brody comes to mind, it was an often overlooked tank engagement right at the start of the invasion, involving more than 4000 tanks.
>>39733
why do you think that ?
>>42522
Please disregard that picture, as those are actually Yak-9s. But my point still stands.
>>42369
Do a playthrough with them in HoI3 :^)
>>42549
It's not overlooked at all. It's just discussed as a part of Barbarossa without being singled out.
>>41609
Wasn't there some German battlecruiser that only ever fired its guns in anger during some evacuation of some small town on the Baltic coast?
>>42924
The heaviest battleship did nothing of note before being sunk in 1945.
>>43046
*heaviest ever sailed.
>>42827
I am with the BlackICE mod, it got to july 1941 before I decided to stop for the day.
>>41852
http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/failures.htm
Here's a good read about why the eastern front is under documented.
A lot of soviet military archival documents were only made public in the last 20 years or so. Much of what we know about the eastern front comes from German generals and soldiers and not their Soviet counterparts. We're now able to view both sides of the vast battle and take a somewhat more objective approach to discerning what happened.
>>39510
I was wondering why that piece sounded so familiar. The Nazis used it in the ending of one of their propaganda songs - Russlandlied
>>43530
absolutely correct
I strongly recommend the books Ivan's War by Catherine Merridale and Stalingrad by Jochen Hellbeck for anyone interested in the average Red Army soldier's views on the eastern front. I will add that Ivan's War can be slightly condescending at times.
>>43914
The Nazis really loved them some Liszt.
>>44216 #
Yeah, as I mentioned in the OP post, David Glantz is pretty good for the Soviet perspective. He heavily references soviet archives in most of his books. He was actually one of the US Army's top experts on the Soviet military. I thought about emailing him to see if he responds. I was able to find his website the other day.
I know Stalingrad's been done to death, but all the urban combat/rattenkrieg is really interesting. Any recommended books?
Some pretty neat footage from the eastern front.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nzqyPzW1o8
>>39510
This gives an interesting perspective from a soviet intelligence officer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Clv-c6QdBs
