#the eastern front

[andromeddog]

a total solar eclipse occurred on august 21st, 1914

[captain-price-unofficially]

Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II. She is credited with 309 kills.

[theworldatwar]

Soviet soldiers use a ruined building for cover as they attempt to defend Stalingrad -1942

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

The Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre, Ukraine during the Nazi invasion and the russian invasion. X

[cid5]

German soldiers laden with ammunition for their MG42 prepare to take up positions against the Soviet winter 1943 offensive.

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Wednesday 5 June 2024

Visiting a local farm I saw this wonderful double flowered form of Papaver orientale (oriental poppy, eastern poppy) in the front garden. This perennial poppy is covered with beautiful silvery hairs and will become naturalised in grassy embankments.

Jill Raggett

[vladdyissues]

They could have been BFFs

[deutschland-im-krieg]

Russian T-26 light tank knocked out on the Eastern Front in 1941

[carbone14]

Equipage d'un char Joseph Staline IS-2 à Breslau (aujourd'hui Wrocław)– Siège de Breslau – Offensive de Basse-Silésie – Allemagne – 27 avril 1945

Photographe : Anatoly Egorov

[scavengedluxury]

Drachen type observation balloon of the Austro-Hungarian army during inflation, Ukraine, 1917. From the Budapest Municipal Photography Company archive.

[masonjarhead]

Entering service in February of 1944, the T-34-85 was the first large modification to the T-34 tank, adding an 85mm gun designed to counter the German Tiger, and an improved, widened, three-man turret. The design would further be developed and perfected over time, but the original T-34-85 variants would always be the most crucial. The widening of the Turret helped with on of the T-34 main issues, how cramped it was. The T-34 was incredibly tightly packed on the interior, with very little room to work. While not entirely solving this issue, the larger three man turret certainly reduced the strain on tank crews. The larger gun however, was the main selling point of the 34-85. Able to penetrate the frontal armor of a Tiger I at 1,000 metres. It would be the tank that pierced the heart of Berlin, and would lead the invasion of South Korea by the North Koreans, beginning the Korean War.

[6thofapril1917]

6thofapril1917's Eastern Front Reading List

So, you're an HBO War fan who wants to learn more about the Eastern Front. Maybe you, like me, wanted to know why Masters of the Air's depiction of the Nazis was so much darker than in Band of Brothers. Below is a list of books on the topic that I've been assigned during my time studying Eastern European and Soviet History. Most of these are scholarly monographs, not pop history, but I found them gripping regardless. I've provided Internet Archive links when available, and links to booksellers when not. If anyone else has suggestions, feel free to add them in reblogs - I focus primarily on Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.

The Eastern Front, 1941-1945, German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare; 2nd edition by Omer Bartov (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001). Available on Internet Archive.

Originally published in 1985. The first book in English to comprehensively challenge the Clean Wehrmacht myth. Examines the experiences, indoctrination, and crimes of Wehrmacht soldiers.

Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945 by Catherine Merridale (Picador, 2007).

Looks into the day-to-day life and experiences of soldiers in the Red Army. Probably the most accessible of the books on this list in terms of writing style.

A Writer at War: A Soviet Journalist with the Red Army, 1941-1945 by Vasily Grossman, trans. Anthony Beevor and Luba Vinogradova (Pantheon, 2007).

A collection of primary sources and writings from Soviet journalist Vasily Grossman, who was embedded with the Red Army.

Russia at War, 1941-1945: A History by Alexander Werth (Barrie & Rockliff, 1964).

Similar to Grossman, Werth was a British journalist for the BBC and the Sunday Times during the war. Details his experiences while embedded with the Red Army.

The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky (Random House, 2017).

Originally published in the USSR in 1983. Nobel Prize winner Alexievich's Groundbreaking oral history of women who served in the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. One of my personal favorites.

Last Witnesses: an Oral History of the Children of World War II by Svetlana Alexievich, trans. Pevear and Volkhonsky (Random House, 2019).

Originally published in the USSR in 1985. Covers the experiences of Soviet children on the Eastern Front, soldier, partisan, and civilian alike.

Marching into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belarus by Waitman Wade Beorn (Harvard University Press, 2014).

Examines the Wehrmacht and its crucial role in carrying out the Holocaust in Belarus.

Fortress Dark and Stern: The Soviet Home Front during World War II by Wendy Z. Goldman and Donald Filtzer (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Comprehensive overview of the Soviet home front over the course of the war, including the mass evacuations of people and industry into Siberia and Central Asia. An absolutely fascinating read.

The Myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular Culture by Ronald Smelser and Edward J. Davies II (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Available on Internet Archive.

Analyzes the creation of the Clean Wehrmacht myth by German war veterans, the myth's popularization in American culture, and its impact on Americans' understanding of the Eastern Front. Spoiler: Band of Brothers does not come out of this unscathed.

[captain-price-unofficially]

An officer congratulates a Red Army fighter pilot who has returned from a combat sortie after downing a plane. The name of the photo is “Another fascist was shot down over the Ukrainian land. 1943"

[theworldatwar]

A Soviet soldier hides in the ruins of a house awaiting any signs of the enemy - Stalingrad 1942

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

The post office at 20-22 Khreshchatyk Street, Kyiv, Ukraine after being blown up by the Soviets as part of the Kremlin's scorched earth plans for the city. 1941.

[cid5]

Soviet soldiers at Stalingrad during a short rest after fighting.