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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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The Road to Stalingrad/The Road to Berlin John
Erickson`s monumental history of the gruelling Soviet-German war of 1941-1945
takes us from the pre-invasion Soviet Union, with its inept command structures
and strategic delusions, to the humiliating retreats of Soviet armies before the
Barbarossa onslaught, to the climactic, grinding battle for Stalingrad that left
the Red Army poised for its majestic counteroffensive and finally to the battles
that ended the war. Erickson
starts by discussing the state of the soviet forces after the war with Finland.
Stalin and his cronies seem to have made a determined effort at clearing
house, although many incompetent Red Army people and the deadening system of
commissioners continued to exist within the system.
The soviet army that emerged from this reformation was a huge, ponderous
war club, well-equipped with the weapons of war, but unable to move swiftly and
decisively. Erickson
then explores the failing of Stalin to detect how close disaster was.
Stalin had all the clues needed to know that the Germans were planning to
invade, but he did nothing, although a few – too few – of the soviet
officers put their men on alert. Consequently, the Germans achieved enormous success in the
first weeks of battle. Erickson
gives some attention to sections of the war that are not often discussed,
including the soviet command and control system (STAVKA) and the partisan war
behind the German lines. Much of
the information is – unusually – from the soviet sources, rather than the
German ones, and has much new information.
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