100 Books Like Hitlers Heerführer

The final recommendation I’d make is only partly related to Operation Barbarossa, but deserves inclusion in that discussion as well as the wider coverage of the war (for those seeking to go further). Mawdsley covers the war from many angles (economic, political, military as well as the experience of occupation) and provides insightful analysis for each turn of events. The endnotes and bibliography are exhaustive, providing a useful guide for whatever subject of interest a reader exploring the vast historiography of the Nazi-Soviet war might have. A first-rate read for both Operation Barbarossa and the wider war in the East.

Admittedly, this is neither a cheap book nor a light read (it has 1,364 pages), but it remains a landmark work that no serious scholar of Operation Barbarossa can afford to ignore. As volume 4 of the semi-official German history of the war it concerns mainly German plans, operations, and occupation policies, although some sections do deal with Soviet responses as well as the early contributions of German allies to the invasion. It is the work of six German historians with generally even quality throughout, although the military chapters by Klink and Hoffmann are now somewhat dated. Overall, a work of superb scholarship.

If my first two listings are somewhat inaccessible to the average reader, fear not, Megargee’s concise study of Operation Barbarossa is a masterful summary of the campaign as well as the parallel German war of annihilation in the East. Richly illustrated with maps and photos, Megargee transforms a huge and complex war into a short (150 page), straightforward read. There is also a helpful bibliographic essay at the end and numerous sub-headings to guide the reading. It is the perfect introduction to the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

No list of best books about Operation Barbarossa war would be complete without at least one title from David Glantz— the grandee of scholarship about the war in the East. Many of his titles are known for their great size and forensic detail, but this book is an exception. It is highly readable and, unlike Megargee’s book (above), it covers both the German and Soviet experiences of the war. Photos and maps abound and there is also an appendix with wartime orders and official directives. It is the best overview of the Nazi-Soviet war in 1941. 

Grigory Baklanov (born Grigory Friedman) belonged to the generation of soldiers that faced the full brunt of the German attack on the Soviet Union and of whom only 3% survived. Forever Nineteen (trans. Antonina Bouis) is a tribute to the men who remained forever young; as the author elucidates in the introduction to the novel’s American edition, “I wanted them to come alive when I wrote this book, I wanted people living now to care about them as friends, as family, as brothers.” Baklanov had attained international renown with his 1959 novel The Foothold [An Inch of Land], which appeared in 36 countries. His portrayal of the war is more personal than Grossman’s and has a different angle: rather than depicting famous battles, he is concerned with ordinary soldiers’ lives, which can be cut short at any moment. (Disclosure: Grigory Baklanov is my father.)

In contrast to its title, The Time of Light is well beyond heavy, but I still found it hard to put down, both times I read it.

Rich in beauty but drenched in brutality, it’s an unconventional war story that takes place in a far-flung region that’s been steeped in conflict for centuries.

In 1994 Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, we meet an aging former German soldier who’d been captured some five decades prior at the Battle of Stalingrad, and who had chosen, upon his eventual release from Soviet captivity, to not return home. His conversations with an Armenian priest pull us heart first into his deep grief, his overwhelming shame, and his search for forgiveness, as he wrestles with his personal role in the savage Nazi invasion of Russia.

For me, The Time of Light is human complexity laid bare, a visceral read that delivers on both emotional and intellectual levels.

This is the third and final of Rick Atkinson’s three-volume Liberation Trilogy, and if you loved the first two, as I did, you’ll love this one. A meticulous researcher and masterful storyteller, Atkinson devotes this volume to the final year of World War II in Western Europe (D-Day to V-E Day).

Along with mining diaries and letters of soldiers, civilians, journalists, and world leaders for fresh details, Atkinson balances the human drama with crisp military analysis and engrossing background information.

I was indebted to this two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author for helping me better grasp what Ellen England’s father experienced while he labored, in concert with thousands of Allied troops, to cripple and ultimately defeat Hitler’s vaunted Wehrmacht.

I give retired US Army Colonel Glantz pride of place here because of his leading role in correcting the history of this conflict. Cold War politics made the Germans ironic but underserving heroes.

Glantz sets the story straight and shows how and why the Soviet Union and Red Army earned the title of victors. This book is very readable and covers the entire four-year war in surprising detail. I consider it a great introduction to his massive body of work.

What happens when an author with a remarkable knack for insightful research and a gift for brilliant narrative prose takes on the task of telling a story of such epochal importance? A wonderful book that conveys the desperation of the moment and weaves this together with latter-year perspective. Among Beevor’s many insights, my favorite is his assertion that “the German leadership’s greatest mistake in the Ardennes offensive was to have misjudged the soldiers of an army they had affected to despise.” So very true! The Germans badly underestimated the U.S. Army and they paid the price for their dismissive chauvinism.

I include this remarkable book because Bartov does for German criminality what Glantz does for operations: corrects decades of misconceptions. He was at the forefront of the post-Cold War movement to undo the “clean Wehrmacht” vs. “dirty Nazis/SS” bias that dominated the first 40 years of post-WWII history.

He makes clear that the German military was political and politicized and that Nazi ideology went deep into the ranks and was a key factor in keeping Germans, as a nation and as a platoon or regiment, fighting against hopeless odds.