دانلود کتاب Siege of Kustrin 1945 - Gateway to Berlin

The unexpected arrival of Soviet troops at the end of January 1945 at the ancient fortress and garrison town of Küstrin came as a tremendous shock to the German High Command-the Soviets were now only 50 miles from Berlin itself. The Red Army needed the vital road and rail bridges passing through Küstrin for their forthcoming assault on the capital, but flooding and their own high command's strategic blunders resulted in a sixty-day siege by two Soviet armies which totally destroyed the town. The delay in the Soviet advance also gave the Germans time to consolidate the defenses shielding Berlin west of the Oder River. Despite Hitler's orders to fight on to the last bullet, the Küstrin garrison commander and 1,000 of the defenders managed a dramatic breakout to the German lines.The protracted siege had an appalling human cost - about 5,000 Germans were killed, 9,000 wounded and 6,000 captured, and the Russians lost 5,000 killed and 15,000 wounded. Tony Le Tissier, in this graphic and painstakingly researched account, has recorded events in extraordinary detail, using the vivid eyewitness testimony of survivors to bring the story of the siege to life.========REVIEW:Kustrin, at the confluence of the Oder and Warthe Rivers and gateway to Berlin, has been an important communication junction for centuries. This book is a verbal history of the people encircled in this crucial gateway in 1945.This book is largely based on the memoirs of Fritz Kohlase and Hermann Thrams and other members of the doomed city.While Zhukov and his 1st BRF approached the Oder, encircled the city in January and would nibble away at it with daily air raids, artillery barrages and the occasional probing attack, the main assault would not take place until early March. It would take the Soviets a month to secure the fortress city. Suburbs of Neustadt, Altstadt have the spotlight in this struggle but nearby Kietz, Gorgast, Vorlut Canal, and the Oder River crossing is also covered.During these three months, the author describes the happenstances of the garrison and civilians, from the mundane to the life threatening, in a doomed situation that Hitler created. He wanted to hold the city at all cost but couldn't supply it with heavy weapons or ammunition or sufficient men and other supplies. You will read about individual soldiers in their front line trenches facing superior forces and T34s attacking them. There is also coverage of the local Nazi Party trying to keep the city under control while the citizen's fears escalate.While the portrait of the trapped lives is good, the operational coverage of the assault, while having some interesting details, is sadly overall anemic. In fact the chapter on Kustrin in the author's "Zhukov at the Oder" presents a clearer picture of the battle.There are eleven maps and they're pretty good but you'll have to invest some time to understand them. These maps are the same maps in the author's other book just mentioned.There is a Notes section and a Bibliography but the list is mostly German so its usefulness, at least for some of us, will be limited. There is also a small but interesting gallery of photos of the key sites of the city. The extensive Appendix presents letters and action reports showing the desperation in the city.I gave this book three stars for two reasons: First, though the operational aspects were never meant to be the main theme, the author should have still developed the operational aspect fuller in order to support the anecdotes better and to allow the reader to have a better understanding of the siege.Secondly, while the author does as good a job as anybody in lacing the available anecdotes together, it still wasn't enough along with the little operational aspects, to gleam a solid appreciation of the siege. Perhaps its the scale or intensity that's different but reading about the siege of Stalingrad and Leningrad was more thought provoking and stirred greater compassion for the people.