Glantz, David. Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War, 1941-1943. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2005

ISBN 0-7006-1353-6
xix + 807 pages

Introduction; maps; photos; tables; Endnotes; Selected Bibliography; Index

   In 1998 UPK published Stumbling Colossus by David Glantz, a solid and well-received survey of the Soviet armed forces on the eve of the Great Patriotic War. In it, Glantz carefully tabulated, described, and quantified more aspects of the Soviet military, and in more detail, than any previous historian working in English. At over 370 pages, Stumbling Colossus was packed with information and cogent analysis.
   Seven years later UPK has published what might be a considered a sequel, taking up as it does the story of the Red Army from the opening of Operation Barbarossa in 1941 through 1943. Those were the years in which Stalin's forces suffered endless defeats and staggering losses before transforming into a weapon that could stand up to the vaunted Wehrmacht. Leaving no stone unturned—and many examined more than once—Glantz devotes to Colossus Reborn more than twice as many pages as he expended in the very dense Stumbling Colossus.
   Although the new book is even thicker, the basic approach is much the same. The first sixty pages or so in this volume deal with campaigns of the Great Patriotic War from June 1941 through December 1943; that's a bit of a change, because Stumbling Colossus concluded before the outbreak of Russo-German hostilities. The bulk of the work (about 560 pages), covers Soviet forces, troops, and leaders in remarkable detail with paragraph after paragraph of text, just as in the earlier book. Along the way, most topics are also illuminated by tabular data. The balance of the tome comprises extensive endnotes, a bibliography, and a thorough index. (A companion volume contains an even greater treasury of charts, tables, OB information, statistics, and documents.)
   Here's a sample of how Glantz approaches one of many topics within the context of how the Soviet armed forces were organized and utilized, and how they evolved, through 1943:

Destroyer Forces

   In addition to its standard rifle divisions and brigades and their numerous variants, the Red Army also fielded formations such as "destroyer" (istrebitel'nye] divisions and brigades, fortified regions, and airborne corps and brigades, which were responsible for performing more specialized combat missions in the front lines. Although categorized officially as rifle forces, destroyer divisions and brigades were combined-arms formations, which possessed stronger than normal antitank capability, whose mission was to combat enemy armor forces.
   As originally configured, destroyer brigades consisted of: one antitank artillery regiment consisting of four batteries with four 76m guns each, three batteries with four 45mm guns each, and one battery with four 37mm anti-aircraft guns; two antitank rifle battalions, each with of three companies fielding 24 antitank rifles each; one engineer-mine battalion with three companies; one tank battalion consisting of two medium companies with 10 T-34 tanks each and one light company with 11 T-40 or T-60 light tanks; and one mortar battalion consisting of two batteries with 4 82mm mortars each and one battery with four 120mm mortars.
   So configured, the strength of the destroyer brigade was 1,791 men, and it fielded sixteen 76mm guns, twelve 45mm guns, four 37mm guns, four 120mm mortars, eight 82mm mortars, 144 antitank rifles, 21 medium tanks, 11 light tanks, 177 vehicles, and 20 motorcycles.
   Destroyer divisions consisted of two destroyer brigades, a separate signal company, a separate medical battalion, and a separate auto-transport company for an overall strength of almost 4,000 men, 56 antitank guns, eight antiaircraft guns, 24 mortars, and 64 tanks.
   Although destroyer divisions and brigades were primarily responsible for combating enemy armor, they also performed a wide array of offensive missions, including protecting mobile exploitation echelons (mobile groups) while they were operating in the depth of the enemy defense, defending against counterattacking enemy tank formations, and protecting Red Army tank formations during meeting engagements.
   After forming its first destroyer formations in April and May 1942, the NKO fielded a total of three destroyer divisions and 13 separate destroyer brigades throughout the remainder of the year. However, since these forces proved largely ineffective against enemy armor, the NKO abolished all of these divisions and brigades by the end of 1943.

   Packed as it is with incredible amounts of information, readers will not mistake Colossus Reborn for casual reading. The text proves in many instances enlightening and revelatory, but it's still going to be a long, tedious slog for anyone who tries to assimilate the entire 800 pages from front to back. Most readers will want to pick and choose digestible chunks and work their way gradually through the whole. In whatever manner it's approached, this book is an absolute must-have for anyone with any interest whatsoever in the Russian Front. Highly recommended as one of the best WWII titles we've seen so far this year.

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Wilson, Kevin. Bomber Boys: The RAF Offensive of 1943. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005

ISBN 0-297-84637-X
479 pages

Photos; maps; Endnotes; Acknowledgements; Glossary; Bibliography; Index

Appendices:

   Bomber Boys by Kevin Wilson should not be confused with Bomber Boys by Mel Rolfe which, although not terribly dissimilar, doesn't quite measure up to this work. There have been plenty of other books about Bomber Command aircrew, but Wilson's work possesses a certain extra quality that definitely causes it to rise above the crowd.
   In the first place, the book focuses rather narrowly on Bomber Command's operations during 1943, at which point—with four-engine bombers filling the order of battle—the force had moved far beyond its meager beginnings but had not yet reached the full extent of its strength and capabilities. Having interviewed "hundreds of former airmen," the author has assembled a large and detailed human back drop for the ongoing campaign. While Wilson follows that campaign in chronological sequence (his chapters are grouped into sections titled Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and—again—Winter) and takes note of the comings and goings of squadrons, the evolution of tactics and techniques, and the neck-and-neck battle of electronic measures and counter-measures, the author keeps his eyes always on the men themselves, so that this book is through and through an account of men during war as well as men at war.
   A significant but not overwhelming proportion of the book is given over to the words of the Bomber Command veterans themselves. Wilson, however, brings together some interesting and enlightening thoughts from the vets—not always an easy task given that some aging veterans can prove unable or unwilling to offer much more than comments such as "the flak was thick enough to walk on." Wilson shows great skill in mostly avoiding those kinds of quotes while stringing together memories so that the airmen's voices complement each other and highlight the points made in the author's narrative. In other words, the stories become organic to the book as a whole rather than just appearing as a hash of unconnected remembrances spilling out at random.
   Here's a brief excerpt:

   The Main Force which flew out over the North Sea that night was entirely composed of Lancasters after the heavy losses among Stirling and Halifax squadrons. It did reduce the attrition, 22 failing to return from 316 and showed the lowest loss rate of the three operations. However, it was still 7 per cent—a rate no military commander could sustain.
   There had been various new elements in the planning which it was hoped would make this op a success where the previous two had largely failed at great cost. The bombers would sweep in for 350 miles from the Dutch coast on an almost straight line, a risk the planners considered worth taking now that the Germans seemed to be concentrating most of their night fighters over the actual target.
   After the bombs had started to fall it was hoped to fool the alerted Luftwaffe by departing almost due north to Sweden and in fact invade Swedish air space before turning beyond the tip of Denmark for the North Sea. Four Mosquitos would drop spoof fighter flares on a false route out of the target, demonstrating how quickly Bomber Command's experts had responded to the Luftwaffe's full-scale introduction of such flares only three nights before. The extended route to save casualties would mean extra fuel, reducing the bomb load in each aircraft by approximately a ton.
   For once the weather worked in the bombers' favour. Thick cloud over the route in prevented the night fighters assembling, yet it cleared near the target to allow the Pathfinders to use ground markers. One load went down almost on the aiming point, the others a couple of miles to the west. The raid had been planned to take sixteen minutes only instead of the forty-five of the previous two, so only slight creepback occurred and the industrial area of Siemenstadt was badly hit.
   The city's defenders had laid dummy fires on the route in, but few crews were fooled. Flight engineer Sgt Barry Wright was on his second operation with 103 Sqn in a tour that would end with a CGM. He remembers:

   The defences were very heavy, lots of searchlights and lots of flak. I remember it particularly for the dummy fires. You could tell they weren't from bombs because they were such a pale colour, like sodium and in little spots, obviously separate pieces. We could see them from 50 or 60 miles away the same time as we saw the searchlights weaving and the flak bursting ahead. We thought: 'How on earth are we going to get through that?'

   Flak and fighters over the target accounted for most of the bombers lost. The thick cloud had saved all but five on the way in and the unusual routeing and spoof flares prevented interception on the way out. However, the percentage loss rate on Lancaster squadrons was much higher than it had been on the previous two Berlin raids when Halifaxes and more particularly Stirlings had been present to take the fury of the defences.

   Bomber Boys can't be considered a breakthrough work which brings out never-before-told facts, illuminates an unknown campaign, or unlocks great secrets of the war, but Wilson has succeeded nicely in making one chunk of the air campaign very understandable from the vantage of the men in the bombers. Crisp and well-written, without beating the reader over the head with heavy-handed dramatics, the author makes it obvious that every flight over the continent relied on huge, sustained doses of quiet heroism. Recommended.

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Ungvary, Krisztian. The Siege of Budapest: One Hundred Days in World War II. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005

ISBN 0-300-10468-5
xxvii + 475 pages

Foreword; Preface; photos; maps; Endnotes; Bibliography; Index

Appendices: Tables of units, manpower, weapons, and casualties

   Originally published in London by I.B. Tauris in 2003 as The Battle for Budapest and (so it seems) briefly distributed in the US as an import, earlier this year Yale University Press released a retitled American edition which has, fortunately, gained much wider circulation and recognition. Had this book been more accessible in the US in 2003, it would have almost certainly scored near the summit of our annual Top Ten voting and Editor's Choice awards.
   While not quite reaching the epic status of the Battle of Stalingrad, the fighting in and around Budapest at the end of 1944 and beginning of 1945 nevertheless exemplified the brutal nature of urban warfare on the Russian Front. Furthermore, with the battle fought on Hungarian territory and engulfing thousands of helpless civilians, additional political factors came into play. Ungvary's book by far exceeds any previous English-language rendition of the campaign around Budapest, and it dramatically links the military campaign with the lives of Hungarian civilians.
   The book unfolds in nonlinear fashion, with the first chapters covering the siege of the city through final capitulation in Buda on 11 February. Ungvary then offers a brief chapter (twelve pages) on unsuccessful relief attempts launched by German forces during the siege. The next chapter (about fifty pages) returns to February 1945 and covers the bloody effort by the German defenders to break out of Buda on the night of the 11/12th, an action the author considers "...one of the most futile enterprises of the Second World War"—of 44,000 German troops, about 700 managed to reach friendly lines while about the same number successfully hid themselves in the city. The following chapter (roughly 120 pages) circles back to the beginning to allow the author to explore the fate of the population of Budapest during the duration of the siege.

   During the Second World War several capitals suffered sieges, but the tragedy of the siege of Budapest was second only to those of Warsaw and Stalingrad. In Warsaw, though, the greatest devastation was caused by the 1944 Polish uprising and the 1943 uprising of the Jewish ghetto; in Stalingrad the Soviets had been able to evacuate the majority of the civilian population. Later, in Berlin and Vienna, the civilians were not evacuated, but the fighting was brief. In contrast, the inhabitants of the encircled Hungarian capital had to endure one of the longest and bloodiest sieges of the war. The experience was shared by several generations, and almost every family living there at the time can tell stories connected with it. Just how alive the events are in the memories of eyewitnesses is demonstrated by the almost weekly letters I have been receiving since this book was first published in Hungarian in 1998, not only from people who remained in Budapest but also from some of the thousands who escaped to the West from the Hungarian communist dictatorship after the war or during the 1956 revolution. Although the damage caused by the siege is rarely visible today, the broken marble staircases of some houses in central Buda, the bullet holes in the wooden paneling inside others, and the regular discovery of infantry and artillery ammunition on building sites still bear witness to what happened in Budapest.
   As the front drew closer to the city in the autumn of 1944, no political decision was taken about the fate of the population. The Hungarians would not have been able to carry out an evacuation, and the Germans were not interested in helping. The million inhabitants were therefore initially invited to leave voluntarily. Posters to that effect were appearing by 7 November 1944. At the same time the evacuation of schools began but made slow progress. Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szalasi originally intended to leave the capital with his entire government, changing his mind only when Edmund Veesenmeyer, the German envoy, informed him on 8 November that the German embassy would stay in Budapest even if the Hungarian leaders departed.
   As an "overture" to the siege, at 2 P.M. on 4 November, a section of Margit Bridge, between Pest and Margit Island, was blown up. Although the guns could not yet be heard in the city, the explosion stunned the inhabitants. Miklos Kovalovszky writes in his diary:

   When we arrived in front of the Comedy Theater, we were shaken by a tremendous explosion.... I ran back to the Danube embankment, where a huge crowd had gathered. It was a terrible sight. On the Pest side two arches of the bridge had collapsed. Streetcars, cars, and hundreds of people had fallen into the river. Two shattered number 6 streetcars jutted out of the water, and the moans of the injured could be heard. Bodies were hanging from the railings, and in the swirling water there were dead and wounded. Ships, boats, and police craft were trying to save whomever they could. About 800 people had been on the bridge at the time of the explosion.

   The exact number of victims is still unknown: a contemporary inquiry cites some 600. According to the same inquiry, the blast occurred because the Germans had been installing primed charges on the bridge as an exercise and the fuse had been ignited by a spark from a passing vessel. The dead included 40 German pioneers fitting the charge.

   Ungvary handles his subject deftly and the translator, Ladislaus Lob, makes the text smooth and accessible for readers of English. While the military operations could easily stand on their own—bloody, dramatic, and featuring Hungarian forces fighting on both sides of the battle—the extra attention given to the plight of civilians adds another dimension that carries the book beyond mere fire and movement. Good maps and much tabular data on units, manpower, weapons, and casualties.
   Although technically not a new book (having been originally released in Hungary in 1998 and in the UK in 2003), the Yale edition nevertheless must qualify as one of the best books of the year. Like the new tome from David Glantz, The Siege of Budapest is not to be missed by anyone with an interest in the Russian Front.

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Jones, David and Peter Nunan. U.S. Subs Down Under: Brisbane 1942-1945. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2005

ISBN 1-59114-644-5
xv + 297 pages

Foreword by Maurice Rindskopf; Foreword by Max Shean; Preface and Acknowledgements; Introduction; Conclusion; Endnotes; Bibliography; Index

Appendices: American submarines using Brisbane submarine base; Enemy shipping sunk by submarines of TF42 and TF72

   Although substantially slimmer than the other books on this page and not quite in the same league as Clay Blair's classic Silent Victory—still the best book every written about the American submarine war against Japan—Jones and Nunan have produced an engrossing and informative account of one part of that campaign. Their book focuses on the USN submarine base in Brisbane, the men, support vessels, and subs stationed there, and the patrols conducted by those subs.
   Information provided about the patrols is not especially new or noteworthy, but the authors add a few embellishments. For example, during the first patrol from Brisbane made by Mush Morton's Wahoo, Jones and Nunan naturally cover the sinking of Buyo Maru and the subsequent machine gunning of Japanese troops in the water. They mention in passing that Morton's "...decision [to kill the troops in the water] remains controversial" without delving into other incidents, such as Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, U-852, and the Peleus. On the other hand, the authors quote a description of the shooting from the diary of a Wahoo sailor named John Clary, and they go on to discuss (using Unrestricted Warfare by James DeRose as the source) how Buyo Maru was carrying 1126 people (versus Clary's estimate of 7000 in the water and lifeboats, although these figures are never reconciled), almost half of them were Indian POWs being transported to Rabaul, and "[a]ltogether, 87 Japanese and 195 Indians died in the incident."
   The authors also describe other notable patrols and events such as the rescue of nuns from Buka by Nautilus, Dace and Darter attacking IJN cruisers during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and the well-known emergency appendectomy performed aboard Silversides by a pharmacist mate.
   Lifting the book beyond merely rehashing patrols, Jones and Nunan devote many pages to the story of the Brisbane base and duty there for the American sailors. This includes daily life in the city, training, consumption of Australian beer, R and R centers, and various interactions with the locals, such as the so-called Battle of Brisbane:

   "The Creek Street Brawl" was the name one Brisbane policeman gave to the events of Thanksgiving night, 26 November 1942. It was also known to some Americans as the "Thanksgiving Day Riots' or the "Cigarette War." But to most it is the more colorful "Battle of Brisbane," and erupting just seventeen days after their arrival, it affected Fulton's crew.
   There are almost as many accounts of the incident as there were participants. It was a brawl, one of many that occurred in wartime Brisbane. Mary K. Browne, observing from her American Red Cross Center across the road, described it as "a riot of about two thousand" that "steadily grew in size and seriousness." The name "Cigarette War" refers to one precipitating factor: the banning of sales of American cigarettes to Australians. Another factor was resentment by Australian troops, after three years of war, at their glamorous, better-paid American counterparts monopolizing the girls and taking over the cities. "Battle" is a little dramatic. An American MP's weapon killed one Australian and wounded some others. But all the remaining injuries incurred that night and the next were from fists and boots. The participation of men from the submarine base was minor, reflecting their small numbers in the total of Brisbane servicemen.
   A report of the events appeared in the Fulton Bow Plane, an annual survey of the ship's activities exclusively for circulation to the crew, The Bow Plane's 1943 issue referred to the incident in a cryptic style: "Do you remember...the Battle of Hush Hush Number Four [Brisbane] [and]...shore patrol duty—how fast the sailmakers and carpenters turned out shore patrol gear—how a handful of shore patrol stopped a riot by just holding their ground—the Tulsa's landing force—how the movies cleared out when the call for volunteer shore patrol went over the loud speaker system?"
   Chuck Meyer, who had joined Fulton nine months before, recalled the incident and the events leading up to it. He noted that American sailors, in their distinctive white uniforms, were rarely harassed when on leave. Most of the friction that occurred was between American and Australian soldiers, easily identified in their different khaki uniforms. Yet in the two weeks between Fulton's arrival and the "Battle of Brisbane," one sailor found with an Australian's wife was "severely beaten," and others began wrapping lead strips in their neckerchiefs to use as defensive weapons. Then, on 25 November, a sailor's body was found floating between Fulton and the wharf. Officially the cause of death was "accidental drowning in line of duty." Rumor had it that he had been beaten and thrown into the river.
   On the first night of the "battle" the shore patrol rounded up sailors from theaters and dance halls for transport straight to the ship. The next evening, angry Australians were in the streets looking for trouble, and they chased some Americans into the Roma Street police station. As Meyer recalled, "They surrounded the buildings and began throwing missiles at the police, MPs, and shore patrol. ... It was a very noisy, violent, and disorderly crowd that swelled to thousands in minutes.... Calls went out to the U.S. ships (Fulton and Tulsa) for reinforcements."

   Although perhaps a bit of a stretch in the context of a book about submarines based at Brisbane (especially when the title explicitly refers to "U.S. Subs"), the penultimate chapter deals with British midget subs that ported there briefly before moving on with their depot ship, HMS Bonaventure, to conduct operations against the Japanese at the tail end of the war. XE4 cut the underwater communications cable off Saigon, XE5 did the same job on a cable at Hong Kong, and XE1 and XE3 attacked Japanese cruisers at Singapore. The stories of these adventures turn the chapter into one of the highlights of the book.
   Subs Down Under sometimes seems fairly derivative, and much of the material will be familiar to anyone who has already read about the US sub campaign, but there's enough new information here to make this a worthwhile book.

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