
The Reckoning
The Defeat of Army Group South, 1944
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Narrated by:
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Richard Trinder
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By:
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Prit Buttar
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents The Reckoning by Prit Buttar, read by Richard Trinder.
'The Reckoning is vivid history, the tragic Eastern Front brought to life through the widest range of Russian and German sources I've ever read. Bravo.' – Peter Caddick-Adams, author and broadcaster
From critically acclaimed Eastern Front expert Prit Buttar, The Reckoning is a masterful re-evaluation of the fateful year of 1944, and how the Red Army irrevocably turned the tide of war until the final defeat within the heart of Germany itself was guaranteed.
The fighting throughout the Ukraine and Romania was brutal, with the German defence dogged and desperate. But for too long the Wehrmacht had relied on the superior combat prowess of its fighting men. What had not been taken into account, however, was that the Red Army would not only rely on its sheer size, but would fine-tune its fighting performance from its senior commanders right down to the individual soldier battling both fear and the elements to take each line, each trench, each inch of land.
Ultimately it is a story not of how the Germans lost, as is all too often told, but of how the Russians increasingly learned how to win.
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-
Story
The terrible months between the arrival of the Red Army on German soil and the final collapse of Hitler's regime were like no other in the Second World War. The Soviet Army's intent to take revenge for the horror that the Nazis had wreaked on their people produced a conflict of implacable brutality in which millions perished. From the great battles that marked the Soviet conquest of East and West Prussia to the final surrender in the Vistula estuary, this book recounts in chilling detail the desperate struggle of soldiers and civilians alike.
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WW II Battleground Ignored by Western Historians
- By AJC on 12-16-19
By: Prit Buttar
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Hero City
- Leningrad 1943–44
- By: Prit Buttar
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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At the height of World War II the people of Leningrad endured a bitter 900-day siege. Prit Buttar tells the story of how the siege was finally broken. The Red Army had suffered multiple setbacks in the preceding two years but achieved a partial success by breaking the blockage in early 1943. However, this was followed by further failed attempts to lift the siege completely. This compelling history uses original Russian source material to vividly describe the deprivations visited upon those trapped. But it also details the tactical successes and strategic failures of both sides.
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Another great Prit Buttar book
- By Gary on 10-13-24
By: Prit Buttar
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To Besiege a City
- Leningrad 1941–42
- By: Prit Buttar
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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At a huge cost, the Red Army and the civilian population of Leningrad ultimately endured a bitter 900-day siege, struggling against constant bombing, shelling, and starvation. Throughout the siege, Soviet forces tried to break the German lines and restore contact with the garrison. To Besiege a City charts the first of these offensives which began in January 1942 and was followed by repeated assaults.
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Outstanding
- By E. Ronakov on 09-30-23
By: Prit Buttar
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Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front, 1941-1942
- Schwerpunkt
- By: Robert A. Forczyk
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Forczyk's incisive study offers fresh insight into how the two most powerful mechanized armies of WWII developed their tactics and weaponry during the early years of the Russo-German War. He uses German, Russian, and English sources to provide the first comprehensive overview and analysis of armored warfare from the German and Soviet perspectives.
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An impressive, unbiased account of German superiority on the eastern front in 1941 to 1942.
- By Anonymous User on 11-30-23
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Victory '45
- The End of the War in Eight Surrenders
- By: James Holland, Al Murray
- Narrated by: Al Murray
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In May 1945 and then again in August and early September, the seemingly endless World War II finally came to a close in eight dramatic surrender ceremonies, six in Europe and the last two in Japan. On the 80th anniversary of those historic moments, celebrated historians James Holland and Al Murray chronicle these momentous events in turn, focusing especially on the human dramas behind each surrender and relating stories and perspectives on the end of the war that have not previously been told.
By: James Holland, and others
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Blood, Dust and Snow
- Diaries of a Panzer Commander in Germany and on the Eastern Front
- By: Friedrich Sander, Robin Schafer - editor translator, Roger Moorhouse - foreword
- Narrated by: Stephan Goldbach
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The war on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 was the bloodiest combat theater in the bloodiest war in history. Oberleutnant Friedrich Wilhelm Sander experienced this bloodshed firsthand when serving with the 11th Panzer-Regiment. This regiment made up the core of the 6th Panzer-Division, one of Hitler's top armored formations, which was involved in most of the major campaigns on the Eastern Front; campaigns such as Operation Barbarossa and Operation Winter Storm.
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Great account of a light tank commander during WWII, BUT
- By William T. on 09-16-23
By: Friedrich Sander, and others
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Operation Typhoon
- Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941
- By: David Stahel
- Narrated by: Philip Battley
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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David Stahel's groundbreaking new account of Operation Typhoon captures the perspectives of both the German high command and individual soldiers, revealing that despite success on the battlefield the wider German war effort was in far greater trouble than is often acknowledged.
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Exhausting the Blitzkrieg
- By Rodney W. Schmisseur on 05-19-24
By: David Stahel
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Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front, 1943-1945
- Red Steamroller
- By: Robert A. Forczyk
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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By 1943, after the catastrophic German defeat at Stalingrad, the Wehmacht's panzer armies gradually lost the initiative on the Eastern Front. The tide of the war had turned. Their combined arms technique, which had swept Soviet forces before it during 1941 and 1942, had lost its edge. Thereafter the war on the Eastern Front was dominated by tank-led offensives and, as Robert Forczyk shows, the Red Army's mechanized forces gained the upper hand, delivering a sequence of powerful blows that shattered one German defensive line after another.
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Detailed staff study, Tedious listening. Brush up on your German and military acronyms.
- By Kindle Customer on 04-06-25
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Retreat from Moscow
- A New History of Germany’s Winter Campaign, 1941-1942
- By: David Stahel
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Germany's winter campaign of 1941-1942 has commonly been seen as its "first defeat". In Retreat from Moscow, David Stahel argues that, in fact, it was its first strategic success in the east. Though the Red Army managed to push the Wehrmacht back from Moscow, the Germans lost far fewer men (one to six), frustrated their enemy's strategic plan, and emerged in the spring unbroken and poised to recapture the initiative.
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Nothing new on the Eastern front basically!
- By philippe jacob on 03-28-20
By: David Stahel
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Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East
- By: David Stahel
- Narrated by: Stewart Crank
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Using archival records, in this book, David Stahel presents a history of Germany's summer campaign from the perspective of the two largest and most powerful Panzer groups on the Eastern front. Stahel's research provides a fundamental reassessment of Germany's war against the Soviet Union, highlighting the prodigious internal problems of the vital Panzer forces and revealing that their demise in the earliest phase of the war undermined the whole German invasion.
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Best book on Operation Barbarossa so far
- By Amazon Customer on 09-14-21
By: David Stahel
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Between Giants
- The Battle for the Baltics in World War II
- By: Prit Buttar
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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During World War II, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia found themselves trapped between the giants of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Over the course of the war, these states were repeatedly occupied by different forces, and local government organizations and individuals were forced to choose between supporting the occupying forces or forming partisan units to resist their occupation. Devastated during the German invasion, these states then became the site of some of the most vicious fighting during the Soviet counterattack and push towards Berlin.
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Great listgen
- By Michael Blount on 07-09-20
By: Prit Buttar
Exceptional
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Engaging narrative, solid history.
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Prit Buttar at his best
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A Great Look for Road to the End of The War
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I like war history giving one a feel for the lived, subjective experience.
Lots of numbers. Lacking “lived experience.”
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It’s decent
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The author's emotional involvement in the material, lack of objectivity, and opposition to established history slather the pages with the black (or red) mark of postmodern revisionism.
I wouldn't recommend this book to people interested in objective history but if you want to read about the glorious Red Army liberating Europe you may enjoy it.
Pro-Soviet Revisionism
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No maps!
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