"Stalin's War"

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Spock
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"Stalin's War"

#1 Post by Spock » Tue Sep 07, 2021 11:41 am

https://www.amazon.com/Stalins-War-New- ... 203&sr=8-1

I highly recommend this new history of WW2 focusing on Stalin. Fresh, new perspective that does not just focus on the Eastern Front-you don't get that until almost halfway through.

2 nuggets so far-the British and French seriously considered bombing the Caucasus oil fields in early 1940 when Stalin was still helping Hitler. As Stalin's attacks on the various small countries between him and Germany occurred (Finland, Baltics, Poland etc) I almost expected Britain and France to declare war on the Soviet Union.

#2-It is very likely that Stalin would have attacked Hitler later in the summer of 1941 had Hitler not moved first.

The massive movement of troops and equipment to western Soviet territory for such a possible attack was one reason that the Russians lost so many men and equipment in the first part of Operation Barbarossa.

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Bob Juch
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Re: "Stalin's War"

#2 Post by Bob Juch » Tue Sep 07, 2021 6:02 pm

Spock wrote:
Tue Sep 07, 2021 11:41 am
https://www.amazon.com/Stalins-War-New- ... 203&sr=8-1

I highly recommend this new history of WW2 focusing on Stalin. Fresh, new perspective that does not just focus on the Eastern Front-you don't get that until almost halfway through.

2 nuggets so far-the British and French seriously considered bombing the Caucasus oil fields in early 1940 when Stalin was still helping Hitler. As Stalin's attacks on the various small countries between him and Germany occurred (Finland, Baltics, Poland etc) I almost expected Britain and France to declare war on the Soviet Union.

#2-It is very likely that Stalin would have attacked Hitler later in the summer of 1941 had Hitler not moved first.

The massive movement of troops and equipment to western Soviet territory for such a possible attack was one reason that the Russians lost so many men and equipment in the first part of Operation Barbarossa.
That's not clear; are you saying the movement itself caused that loss?
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Spock
Posts: 4295
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:01 pm

Re: "Stalin's War"

#3 Post by Spock » Wed Sep 08, 2021 10:19 am

Bob Juch wrote:
Tue Sep 07, 2021 6:02 pm
Spock wrote:
Tue Sep 07, 2021 11:41 am
https://www.amazon.com/Stalins-War-New- ... 203&sr=8-1

I highly recommend this new history of WW2 focusing on Stalin. Fresh, new perspective that does not just focus on the Eastern Front-you don't get that until almost halfway through.

2 nuggets so far-the British and French seriously considered bombing the Caucasus oil fields in early 1940 when Stalin was still helping Hitler. As Stalin's attacks on the various small countries between him and Germany occurred (Finland, Baltics, Poland etc) I almost expected Britain and France to declare war on the Soviet Union.

#2-It is very likely that Stalin would have attacked Hitler later in the summer of 1941 had Hitler not moved first.

The massive movement of troops and equipment to western Soviet territory for such a possible attack was one reason that the Russians lost so many men and equipment in the first part of Operation Barbarossa.
That's not clear; are you saying the movement itself caused that loss?
Semantics, I guess. The movement itself probably didn't. But the fact that there were so many troops/airplanes/tanks that had just been moved there-and were not prepared for defense probably did.

For example, the countless air bases that the Soviets were building on the territory that they had seized since September 1939 were undergoing fresh construction and earth moving. Hence, they were easy to spot from the air. They had a plan that they did not have time to implement to build several dummy airbases for each real base.

I think my favorite feature of the book is that the author does a really good job of placing the reader in the moment. For example, it is March 1940. This is what is going on and how things looked to the protagonists. At this point, we don't know that Hitler will invade France in a couple months.

Another example (as I said above), is that while I obviously know that Britain and France did not declare war on the Soviet Union-he did such a good job of placing me in the moment that I almost expected they would.

BTW-The Soviet's strongest forces were much farther south than you might expect. They were placed that way to cut off Germany from their Romanian oil supplies at Ploesti in a Soviet offensive.

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