What do you think?
Rate this book
Guns Against the Reich: Memoirs of an Artillery Officer on the Eastern Front
In three years of war on the Eastern Front-from the desperate defense of Moscow, through the epic struggles at Stalingrad and Kursk to the final offensives in central Europe-artillery-man Petr Mikhin experienced the full horror of battle.
In this vivid memoir he recalls distant but deadly duels with German guns, close-quarter hand-to-hand combat, and murderous mortar and tank attacks, and he remembers the pity of defeat and the grief that accompanied victories that cost thousands of lives. He was wounded and shell-shocked, he saw his comrades killed and was nearly captured, and he was threatened with the disgrace of a court martial. For years he lived with the constant strain of combat and the ever-present possibility of death. Mikhin recalls his experiences with a candor and an immediacy that brings the war on the Eastern Front-a war of immense scale and intensity-dramatically to life.
In this vivid memoir he recalls distant but deadly duels with German guns, close-quarter hand-to-hand combat, and murderous mortar and tank attacks, and he remembers the pity of defeat and the grief that accompanied victories that cost thousands of lives. He was wounded and shell-shocked, he saw his comrades killed and was nearly captured, and he was threatened with the disgrace of a court martial. For years he lived with the constant strain of combat and the ever-present possibility of death. Mikhin recalls his experiences with a candor and an immediacy that brings the war on the Eastern Front-a war of immense scale and intensity-dramatically to life.
- GenresHistoryWorld War II
224 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2010
11 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 24, 2020
This is an amusing read, but by the time I was two thirds through the book I was convinced this book is mostly, if not completely fictional.
Allow me to give a few examples:
1. During his training, they did not train on actual field pieces but instead used tree trunks.
2. He discusses how blocking detachments regularly mowed down soldiers that retreated 3. His commander regularly orders him as a battery or artillery battalion commander to undertake infiltration patrols to capture prisoners, and these are successful.
4. His commander orders him to infiltrate enemy positions to destroy a 75 mm gun. He and a radioman, stringing along a telephone wire manage to cross a minefield get several hundred metres into German positions, set up in a foxhole for over 24 hours with no one noticing, call down a strike on the gun and then exfiltrate.
5. He is a battery and then a battalion commander, but he spends virtually no time commanding the battery but acts as a forward observer all the time. He even participates in infantry attacks.
6. His batteries get attacked by infantry and tanks, and while he sometimes loses guns, invariably he successfully slaughters the Germans, and destroys lots of tanks -which is quite a feat using 76.2 or 122 mm field pieces at close range.
7. He ends up wandering into an abandoned building, and comes face to face with two Germans armed with sub machine guns. Using a pistol, he shoots down both with head shots.
You see where I am going with this? I have read a lot of accounts and memoirs, and this is a huge number of miraculous events to happen to one person. As well, you end up with the impression that the best move for the Red Army would be to give him full autonomy, and unlimited ammunition, and he would win the war singlehandedly.
Allow me to give a few examples:
1. During his training, they did not train on actual field pieces but instead used tree trunks.
2. He discusses how blocking detachments regularly mowed down soldiers that retreated 3. His commander regularly orders him as a battery or artillery battalion commander to undertake infiltration patrols to capture prisoners, and these are successful.
4. His commander orders him to infiltrate enemy positions to destroy a 75 mm gun. He and a radioman, stringing along a telephone wire manage to cross a minefield get several hundred metres into German positions, set up in a foxhole for over 24 hours with no one noticing, call down a strike on the gun and then exfiltrate.
5. He is a battery and then a battalion commander, but he spends virtually no time commanding the battery but acts as a forward observer all the time. He even participates in infantry attacks.
6. His batteries get attacked by infantry and tanks, and while he sometimes loses guns, invariably he successfully slaughters the Germans, and destroys lots of tanks -which is quite a feat using 76.2 or 122 mm field pieces at close range.
7. He ends up wandering into an abandoned building, and comes face to face with two Germans armed with sub machine guns. Using a pistol, he shoots down both with head shots.
You see where I am going with this? I have read a lot of accounts and memoirs, and this is a huge number of miraculous events to happen to one person. As well, you end up with the impression that the best move for the Red Army would be to give him full autonomy, and unlimited ammunition, and he would win the war singlehandedly.
May 22, 2019
History of best kind of soldier that soviet could ever has. Good, experience, honest, soldier that his people loved.
After studying mathematics and harsh, fast-paced artillery training. Is leading artillery at the war front for many war years.
With his very accurate artillery barrage saves many of infantry units.
However there has been moments that his life was in danger because of NKVD people to whom, one has to prove total innocence, with no room for NKVD predictions, that always lead to guilt.
These like him were the factor of winning, I have impression that author is so tough like made out of steel, so well doing, like steel part. And yet, as best type of leader, friend, a example of human being.
Dealing with alcoholic subordinate who has been degraded from office department to destroying 9 out of 40 German tanks when command office though, there has been no more then 15 tanks.
And this book is also good overall picture with details like, that Germans has good food, always some food provision, and has lice in their trenches,on themselves and everywhere.
After studying mathematics and harsh, fast-paced artillery training. Is leading artillery at the war front for many war years.
With his very accurate artillery barrage saves many of infantry units.
However there has been moments that his life was in danger because of NKVD people to whom, one has to prove total innocence, with no room for NKVD predictions, that always lead to guilt.
These like him were the factor of winning, I have impression that author is so tough like made out of steel, so well doing, like steel part. And yet, as best type of leader, friend, a example of human being.
Dealing with alcoholic subordinate who has been degraded from office department to destroying 9 out of 40 German tanks when command office though, there has been no more then 15 tanks.
And this book is also good overall picture with details like, that Germans has good food, always some food provision, and has lice in their trenches,on themselves and everywhere.
December 18, 2025
The author is either the coolest luckiest superhero that ever walked the Earth since Hermes, or a blatant liar (by his own choice or forced by the propaganda/ censorship authorities).
Which is sad, since his writing is quite good and he probably had real stories to tell, which are not in this book...
To contextualize this review: i did read and rated highly other Soviet ww2 memoirs, and i also rated lowly some German ridiculous superhero memoirs.
Which is sad, since his writing is quite good and he probably had real stories to tell, which are not in this book...
To contextualize this review: i did read and rated highly other Soviet ww2 memoirs, and i also rated lowly some German ridiculous superhero memoirs.
January 14, 2026
The most tense part is not how lucky the author was or how many Germans he annihilated. It is how cruel the Red Army superiors treated their subordinates. Under the notorious "No one step back" order by Stalin, the real luck is how to escape from the NKVD's merciless grips.
March 21, 2020
Pretty okay. Very factual. Not really my thing, but I can't go to the library because of quarantine, so I am reading the books in the house.
June 3, 2024
Relatable early, tough to finish.
June 27, 2014
This is a good if not great memoir. The author was a mathematics student in Leningrad when drafted to serve as a gunnery officer in the wake of the 1941 German invasion. He served on the Leningrad front, at Kursk and its aftermath in 1943, and in the battles across the Ukraine in 1944.
Several points made an impression on me: 1) The Red Army soldiers were often amazed at the lavishness of food and material that they found in captured German positions - smoked sausages, large quantities of ammunition, clothing, etc. - which contrasted with their own meager supplies; 2) I had not appreciated to what degree the forward artillery observers were exposed to danger. The author - who commanded a battery - frequently had to cross "no man's land" under harrowing circumstances to reach a suitable place from which to watch the German positions and direct artillery fire. I previously had the general impression that to be an artilleryman was much safer than being a front line infantryman, but this memoir opened my eyes; 3) Finally, it is clear that the Soviet troops operated under amazingly primitive conditions. The author recounts that for one late winter night river crossing in 1944, the Red Army infantry simply tossed logs into the freezing water, leapt in after them, and kicked their way across the river while clinging to the logs, all in face of heavy German fire.
I'd recommend this for any reader interested in the Eastern Theater.
Several points made an impression on me: 1) The Red Army soldiers were often amazed at the lavishness of food and material that they found in captured German positions - smoked sausages, large quantities of ammunition, clothing, etc. - which contrasted with their own meager supplies; 2) I had not appreciated to what degree the forward artillery observers were exposed to danger. The author - who commanded a battery - frequently had to cross "no man's land" under harrowing circumstances to reach a suitable place from which to watch the German positions and direct artillery fire. I previously had the general impression that to be an artilleryman was much safer than being a front line infantryman, but this memoir opened my eyes; 3) Finally, it is clear that the Soviet troops operated under amazingly primitive conditions. The author recounts that for one late winter night river crossing in 1944, the Red Army infantry simply tossed logs into the freezing water, leapt in after them, and kicked their way across the river while clinging to the logs, all in face of heavy German fire.
I'd recommend this for any reader interested in the Eastern Theater.
April 10, 2013
War is often depicted as a dehumanized event with the true heroes stories often left untold. This was a journal of a Russian captain who fought without training ,with the constant fear of not only being killed by the Germans, but of being killed by his own fellow soldiers. With a compassion for his fellow man and the Communist Party 's rationale for killing its own people without mercy, this soldier fought from Moscow to Czech. Lost later in the Kremlin's politics, he went back without any real acknowledgment for his courage and strength.
Great read if you are interested in Russian military practices in the WWII.
Great read if you are interested in Russian military practices in the WWII.
April 18, 2016
Fantastic.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews