These are the memoirs of a Red Army officer describing his experiences in the 4th Tank Army from Kursk to the fall of Berlin. – This is an honest account of soldiers at war, a unique view of the Russian soldier in WWII – Highly Recommended.
NAME: Tank Rider, Into the Reich With The Red Army FILE: R2565 AUTHOR: Evgeni Bessonov PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword, Frontline BINDING: soft back PAGES: 254 PRICE: £16.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: WWII, World War 2, World War II, Second World War, Great Patriotic War, armour, tanks, AFV, Armoured Fighting Vehicles, gun tank, flak tank, assault gun, mortar, infantry, Soviet Army, Red Army, T-34, tank riders, Kursk, fall of Berlin
ISBN: 1-47389-788-2
IMAGE: B2565jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/ybhh3cdm LINKS: DESCRIPTION: These are the memoirs of a Red Army officer describing his experiences in the 4th Tank Army from Kursk to the fall of Berlin. - This is an honest account of soldiers at war, a unique view of the Russian soldier in WWII – Highly Recommended. There is a great shortage of accounts by and about Soviet military personnel, equipment, tactics and battles, published in the English language. This is a warts and all memory of life in the 4th Tank Army as it battled at Kursk and then advanced into Germany and on to the fall of Berlin. This is an officer's view that takes no prisoners and recounts the courage, fear, comradeship, bravery, stupidity, horror and pleasure of those in the military community above and below him. All armies have brilliant commanders, idiots at all levels in the chain of command, heroes, cowards, good people, criminals, time servers, politicians, average people. Remarkably little has been known of the Soviet military during WWII. That applies inside the Soviet Union as well as outside. The Soviet elite released to their own people only information that was considered helpful to the Soviet and tried very hard to contain all information from the West. Part of that was due to the plans for what became the Cold War, the take over of democratic neighbours and the first active steps in Greece before the ending of WWII. Churchill appears to be the only western politician to appreciate in advance what would happen in the years following 1945. This book features some interesting photographs and informative maps in support of descriptive text that provides a view of how people from many backgrounds came together in the unfamiliar world of an army at war, living in a closed society that for most would be the most intensive part of their lives and so similar in many respects to life for British, American, Commonwealth, Italian and German soldiers. The photo-plate section shows how the Red Army depended on vehicles provided by the US and the British. This was not acknowledged by the Soviets to their own people. When Red Army and US troops met in 1945, a Red Army officer expressed surprise that the Americans were using Soviet half tracks and even more surprised when a US soldier showed him the original makers plates for the White half track under a crude Soviet plate. The Red Army was not shy in putting captured German vehicles into service which were obviously German, but the many Universal carriers – Bren Gun Carriers – supplied by Britain were favoured vehicles that were not acknowledged as British-built. US trucks, jeeps and towing vehicles were used in large numbers, making the Red Army far more mechanized than the Germans, who still relied on horses to pull artillery and supply carts. This book will provide some many insights of value to historians and enthusiasts alike.