The Soviet Juggernaut

By Time Life Books World War II series

Both The Soviet Juggernaut and Red Army Resurgent dealt with the battles between the Nazi’s and the Soviet Union along the Easter Front. The first volume was more about the Nazi push that ended at Stalingrad while the second profiled the Soviet push to drive the Nazi’s back and then in towards Germany. Even flipping thought the books I remembers bits of each but I thought it would be easier on me to just give a few comments of both together.

I was left with a wonder for the Soviet capacity for loss after finishing these volumes. They threw so many men at the war, millions died in battles, and still men were rushed to the front. You got to wonder what the hell Hitler was thinking taking on the world with only 2 other countries to back him.

There were photo essays that showed the staging of the material leading up to some of the offensives. It was amazing to see pictures of vehicles all neatly lined up that stretched to the horizon. Besides increasing their production, the Soviets also benefited from the lend-lease agreement with the Allies, who sent them planes, truck, tanks, and other supplies.

You always hear about how before the invasion is to begin the invading army would soften up the defenders by shelling them. Either by aircraft, ship or ground fire. Before a few of the offensives mentioned in the books they talked about how in one hour 50,000 shells were fired at the city they were going in to. It’s mind numbing what that must have been like. On New Years my neighborhood goes crazy with the fireworks and for the 10 minutes prior to midnight and about 30 minutes after it gave me the impression of what this might have sounded like. Now the ground wasn’t shaking but there were multiple explosions of fireworks going off at the same time and they were coming from houses all around us. My heart was racing and I wasn’t even worried about getting killed, well I’m always waiting for a fire to start and burn all the houses down but that’s a personal problem.

In Poland the books talked about how after all the park and yard space in the city had been dug up and used as graves, the people started to dig up the sidewalks to bury the dead. This was made easier as most of the sidewalks were cratered from shells anyway.

What more can I say about this volume? I’m left with on more thought. What I love is how when your own civilians are helping to sabotage the enemy in occupied territories they are freedom fighters partisans, guerrillas, home town heroes. But if they are against you - terrorists. WTF? I guess it just goes to show you that everything - even history - is all relative.