Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941-1945

by Anthony Tucker-Jones

Anthony Tucker-Jones casts new light on the brutal fighting on the Eastern Front in World War II. Through his analysis of German front-line command assessments, he reveals the shocking destruction of German forces by the Soviets as early as 1942—and yet Hitler kept on fighting. Step by step, he describes how the German war machine fought to its very last against a relentless enemy.

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction, World War II, Military Fiction

337 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2017

About the author

Defence analyst Anthony Tucker-Jones spent nearly 20 years in the British Intelligence Community before establishing himself as a defence writer and historian: commenting on regional conflicts, counter-terrorism, intelligence and military affairs.

He is a highly experienced expert with particular strengths in editing, feature writing, report writing, communicating to specialists and non-specialists alike.

Anthony Tucker-Jones has been extensively published in numerous titles and on various news websites. He has also written a number of books.

He is widely travelled with assignments in Africa, Europe, the Far East, Latin America and the Middle East. He lived for a time in Bahrain.

Anthony holds an MA in International Relations & Strategic Studies from Lancaster University.

(Taken from official website.)

Reviews

[Heinz Reinhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better single volume treatments of the war between the Soviet Union and the Axis Powers.
The author, a former officer in British Intelligence, has compiled a worthy addition to anyone's military history library or East Front collection. The writing is clear, crisp, utilizes numerous first hand accounts (but doesn't inundate the text with them, they're used effectively to give life to the narrative without distracting from the academic analysis of the events portrayed), and is very well paced.
This book is one of the few to go into any detail on the reasonings behind the various nations allying with Germany against Moscow. Most time is spent on Romania and Hungary, but also covered is Finland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and even Croatia. The book also covers their military operations in some depth, a definitely welcome addition to a gap of knowledge commonly found in most East Front studies.
There are only a couple of gripes.
Firstly, the beginning of the war is quite awkwardly written. Granted, Operation Barbarossa from June 22 to the defeat before Moscow is, possibly, an overtold story. However the narrative of the wars opening was jumpy both geographically and chronologically, which was a tad distracting. And details were sparse on the opening months of the war.
Again, this is understandable as I doubt the author wanted to join in on the gleeful flogging of the deceased equine that is the historiography of Barbarossa.
Secondly, the author would quote Soviet sources and statistics for losses in a battle while only rarely quoting German sources. Even David Glantz, himself at times a bit too biased towards the Red Army, points out the obvious errors of Soviet memoirs and official stats.
Even so, it could be the author wanted to put in perspective the obvious decline of German arms post 1943, and the clear imporvement and professionalism of that of the Red Army in the same period.
Despite those flaws, the book is well worth the time and expense, and does an excellent job covering the post Kursk Soviet offensives. In fact one of the real highlights of the book is that half of the actual war narrative is devoted to post Stalingrad operations, something most other accounts merely skim through. Instead, this book gives one of the very best accountings of the eventual Soviet triumph, while never slipping into overt bias for either side.
Thoughtfully analyzed, well documented, enjoyably written, this is an outstanding book on the Russo-German War of 1941-1945 and should definitely be seen by a wider audience.
Highly recommended.

[John Valdez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew! I’ve always been interest in the Eastern Front. I’ve read several books, articles, and essays on the fighting but none quite like Slaughter on the Eastern Front. The book provides a detailed examination of division-level engagement between Germany and allies vs the Soviets from Operation Barbarossa through the fall of Berlin. The numbers and names associated with unit strength, division names, casualties, and key players is thorough almost to the point of exhaustion. There are a few maps illustrating unit movement but I would’ve preferred more. I often read with Google Earth open so I could reference the vast area comprising the Eastern Front.

The book starts by discussing the prelude to Barbarossa including the mistakes both Germany and Soviets made prior to Germany crashing the Soviet frontier. The majority of the book focuses on large scale engagement and tactics. You don’t get too much individual perspective from soldiers or civilians affected but each chapter does have first person observations from many of the unit and military leaders. The final few chapters were my favorite, particularly when the author describes the fate of the German allies of Romania, Hungary, and Italy. The author also gives attention to the Soviet Japanese fighting prior to 1941, in which the Russians bloodied Japan enough to convince Japan not to open a second front once Hitler attacked the USSR. The book closes with some excellent appendices on operations, troop strength, and casualty figures.

The book does a great job of capturing the brutality of the Eastern Front and the staggering loss of life. The book truly lived up to its title.

[Rob Wilkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was overwhelmed by the statistics of the armies and the battles and would have preferred to learn more about soldiers' tactics and motivation
The numbers however are staggering and make it clear that the war in western Europe, despite its scale and misery, was just a sideshow.

[paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history buffs dream.

A compelling and informative read. If your looking for facts and figures on the war on the Eastern front this is the book for you. It's heavy in detail , but impressive because of it.

[Gilbert Durochez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth the read

Good read. Could not put the book down. Very informative. Never knew the total destruction of lives suffered by both Russian and German losses on the Eastern Front later Germany.

[Gerhard Venter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthony Tucker-Jones does not spend undue effort in embellishing the hardships suffered by the common soldier on the Eastern front. He just gives the facts. In that way, he leaves it up to the reader to try and imagine what it must have been like.
There were two lucky groups: Those who died early, and, to a lesser extent, those who got out early. The rest knew what hell is. (Interesting for me to know that, when I was born, the majority of the German soldiers who had survived were still imprisoned in Siberia.)
If you're a WWII scholar, or just especially interested in the Eastern Front, I highly recommend this book.

[Aiden · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing this book does really well is illustrate the scale of the Eastern Front. The amount of blood spilled and troops committed is astronomical and difficult to wrap one's head around. This book does a great job at showing how much of a sideshow the Western Front really was in the grand scheme of things. It does a good job at covering major campaigns in depth in my eyes. I knew very little about the conduct of Operation Bagration beforehand, for instance. This book is worth the read for one interested in the other side of WW2.

[David A Carbo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Russian Centric

Kind of a boring read, Russian losses seem under reported and having photos at end instead of during period discussions shows poor layout. After fall of Berlin extra material added in as back fill.

[Philip Kuhn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good one volume book on the subject. The author does not have any real insights.
David Glantz's book When Titans Clashed was better.

Philip Kuhn

[Michel D. Guernsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book for .militar y

It would be a great asset to students researching the Second World war from Stalin's and Hitler's view point
.

[Shan S Rea · Rating 4 out of 5]

good insights into the slaughter on the eastern front. Germans really never stood a chance as most scholars understand. Helps to explain the huge scale of the war on the ost front.

[Paul Reska · Rating 5 out of 5]

superb historical read

This is the most comprehensive account of the Eastern Front battles that I have had the pleasure to read. It is well documented and well written

[Riaan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is honestly just my opinion and I am no writer, but this book is about the numbers and I would say if you are studying this theatre of WW2, then it is a good book.