|
VanSandman posted:You poor bastard you posted too well! Now look at you. In short - horrible. Close street fighting, starvation, cold, brutality. Battles were fought over single houses, sometimes rooms. The Germans called it Rattenkrieg for a reason. The philosophy of the Eastern Front was exemplified at Stalingrad. If you look at pictures of the battle, specifically of the city itself, you can see that the actual physical city was annihilated. The battle was fought over the fractured corpse of a city. Book-wise I would suggest definitely starting with Beevor. EDIT - removed LLOS. The Stalingrad Protocols by Jochen Hellbeck is written in German, but it has interviews with Red Army soldiers present at Stalingrad. A quick google search for first hand accounts also brings up several - including diary entries, which, due to censorship of letters, are often more candid about life in the kessel. For example http://cbweaver.wikispaces.com/file/view/Stalingrad+Primary+Accounts.pdf I have to say, my area of expertise is not Stalingrad - I wrote my undergraduate dissertation on the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan - so take my recommendations with a grain of salt and I am sure someone will have an even better bibliography! haakman fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Nov 15, 2013 |
#
¿
Nov 15, 2013 12:19
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 2, 2024 00:48 |
|
|
gradenko_2000 posted:
Fever dream I'm afraid. The situation prior to invasion was incredibly complex - the ruling group, the Khalqi branch of the PDPA, were Marxist-Leninist in ideology and tried to introduce some pretty drastic reforms (establishing legal ages for marriages, and ordered all marriages to be entered into voluntarily. Considered the education of both men and women a top priority) which, given the nature of the Afghan tribes, did not go down too well, not even mentioning the brutal ways in which the reforms were implemented. The country was in full on rebellion by the time the Soviets stepped in. As to reasons why - there are loads. Natural resources, preservation of the Brezhnev Doctrine, geopolitics, fear of radical Islam, Andropov generally being a poo poo.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2013 18:31
|
|
|
Godholio posted:I lived in England for a few years growing up. The historical things that I still remember are the HMS Belfast (museum ship docked in London), the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and Framlingham Castle near Ipswich. Also in that area is Sutton Hoo. A bit late, but I live in Framlingham And worked at the castle during my teenage years, if anyone has any questions.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2014 13:01
|
|
|
Hastings writes for the Daily Mail and his personal views on WW1 are highly political - Michael Gove lite. His work on the Falklands was good.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2014 13:44
|
|