Scarcely a day goes by without someone asking me this question, so I’m finally making
a video about it. What books should you pick up if you’re new to the Axis-Soviet Front
(aka the Eastern Front) of WW2? Well, I’m going to recommend 3 books to start off with,
in the order you should read them in. Then we’ll talk about what to do beyond that.
The first book you should pick up is Richard Overy’s “Russia’s War”. This is short,
sharp and sweet. A perfect introduction to the Eastern Front. The only major downside
to this book is the title. It’s not “Russia’s War” it’s “the Soviet Union’s War”.
Although he does refer to the Soviets people’s throughout the text, so maybe it’s the publishers
fault. Either way, this title is a mistake. Unless you’re talking about individuals,
it’s best to call the Soviet peoples “Soviets”, not Russians, because the Soviet peoples were
also Cossacks, Ukrainians, Siberians, Georgians, and so on. So, apart from the title , a great
book - and should be the first on your list.
The second book you should read is “Ostkrieg: Hitler’s War of Extermination in the East”
by Fritz. The reason I’m recommending this is because it’s a narrative story, it explains
Hitler’s goals in the East - this was a war for living space, resources, oil and food, and
that it was a war of annihilation. Some people have this impression that the lovely German
army had a nice little stroll eastwards and did nothing wrong. This book will show you
the brutal and harsh reality. Murder, pillage, death, starvation, execution. This was not
a nice war, and Ostkrieg is recommended reading because the last thing anybody wants is you
to come away without the knowledge of just how terrible this war was for all sides - German,
Axis and Soviet. Definitely the second book you should pick up.
The third book you should pick up is “When Titan’s Clashed”. The reason I’m recommending
this is because, if you want to know something about the Axis-Soviet Front of the Second World War,
you go to David Glantz. He is the God of the Axis-Soviet Front of the Second World War.
He and his co-author Jonathan House, are putting the old histories to shame. You’ve had the
overview with Overy, you’ve had a bit more detail with Fritz, but now you’re getting
into the depths of this. Army Groups, Armies, Corps and Divisions. Numbers and statistics.
Strategy, operational and tactical movements. You may not want to read this book from cover
to cover because it’s quite heavy, but it’s a fantastic reference that everyone should
have. Every time I’m looking into a new battle or campaign for one of my videos, the
first thing I do is pick this book up and ask “What did Glantz say?” If you want
to know about a battle on the Axis-Soviet Front of World War Two, forget Wikipedia,
take a Glantz at it.
Beyond those three books, I’m going to list a bunch of other books that I do recommend
you pick up once you’ve digested the first three books I mentioned. This list will be
in the pinned comment of the comment section below - not the description, because there’s
a 500 character word limit. In that pinned comment, I’ll also list a bunch of links
to my other videos on the Axis-Soviet Front which you may want to sink your teeth into,
so be sure to check them out. My Patreons are awesome - they’re the ones who bought
me most of these books, allowing these videos to be possible - so thank you guys. And as always
thank you for watching, bye for now.