When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (Modern War Studies) Paperback – Illustrated, October 16, 2015

David Glantz is the foremost historian when it comes to the history of the Eastern Front of the Second World War. All I can give him and Jonathan House is nothing but praise for their work. A youtuber by the username of TIK (whose extensive World War Two videos inspired me to buy this book) said “We are living in the age of Glantz”, and that would be true. I have not read any other comprehensive books that cover the Eastern Front in depth like Glantz; I have yet to read any of Anthony Beevors or James Hollands’ work (I will in the future), but I am someone who likes the nitty gritty details when it comes to military history, and Glantz satisfies me in this regard. This man deserves a lot more credibility, respect, and wider awareness from the general public, the historical academia & from any historical documentaries that will be made in the future on the Second World War! What I learned from this book is so applicable to my knowledge of history, and now I feel I have a greater understanding of the eastern front than I did before.Here in America, we really don’t give much credit to the Soviet Union for its help in defeating Nazi Germany; and while I am not supportive of the political ideology known as Communism (I don’t believe in Statism), I think without Zhukov, Vasilevsky or Rokossovsky, we would’ve seen the third Reich victorious in the east. The western allies would’ve either had to have sued for peace, or would’ve fought a long and costly war against a strong Third Reich that would’ve had the full might of its armed forces ready to defeat whoever stood in its way. I have always had an interest in the Red Army, and the Wehrmacht, because both were unique, and it seems that the roles reversed for both armies in 1943. As Glantz noted the Wehrmacht in 1944-1945 switched its roles with the Red Army of 1941-1942, while the Red Army was vice-versa. This is not to say the Red Army copied the Wehrmacht largely, but it learned a lot from them, and they learned the art of defense in depth, heavy artillery barrages, multiple wave attacks, and leadership that was left to its own devices for the most part by Stalin after 1943.I would recommend this book to everyone who is interested in History, specifically the Eastern Front, and especially those who are like me, in that History is their greatest love of all time.A big thank you to the Youtuber “TIK”, he shouts the highest praises for David Glantz, and his work on Youtube bridges the gap for the world when it comes to the eastern front! If it wasn’t for him, I possibly would’ve never have bought this book.

Glantz really does seem to know his stuff. Chock full of fascinating details. I have read a ton of military history, especially about WW2 (because my father and father-in-law were in it) and this is one of the best I have read. Be warned, it is a horror story (what else could it be?); I don't recommend reading it as you get ready to sleep. I knew it would be good because I had watched some youtube videos of Glantz lecturing on the Eastern Front. One particularly valuable part of this read is that it uses more recently obtained reports, etc., released since the fall of the Soviet Union. Corrects a lot of misconceptions.

Probably the finest single-volume book on the on the subject of the military history of the Eastern front (and I have read dozens).Glanz spent 30 yrs in the U.S. Army, and taught at West Point, The Combat Studies Institute, and the U.S. Army War College. He has written more than half a dozen studies for the U.S. Army and over thirty books on WWII's Eastern front. Essentially, the man needs a suitcase just to carry around his credentials.He is, indeed, the world's foremost authority on the German-Soviet war. This book is well-written, meticulously researched, documented, and footnoted. It is a model of modern, informed scholarship.My only quibble is this: Though it is a common -- almost universal -- failing with scholarly books nowadays, the index is sadly skimpy, which degrades its usefulness as a reference volume. Having previously worked as the managing editor of a university press, I know this, of course, is not the fault of the author but of his publisher-- who either could not or would not pay the money to hire a skilled professional indexer.The type is, as Mr. Glusman stated, is not particularly large, especially in the ancillary materials, but the book is already 557 pages long, plus front matter, so an increase in type size (and, by necessity, leading) would create an unwieldy tomb of over 700 pages.Personally, I am 65 and have no trouble reading the text (and footnotes) at all. But in the off chance that you do, my advice is to invest in a magnifying lens.The book is well worth it

Just the facts, ma'm. Well not really and by that i do not mean the authors were lying but this is a very dry recitation. It includes hardly any personal obersavations or remembrances, but it never said it was a popular history. Still, a little something, now and then about the higher ups at least would have been nice. (I know some authors of war books like to set themselves up on some sort of moral superiority pedestal and call that 'war porn'.) When you look at the numbers of divisions the Red Army was fighting compared to those of the Western Allies, it is beyond a doubt the USSR bore the brunt of the fighting, but there was very little on Lend-Lease (when someone else is building your trucks you can devote more of your resources to building tanks) and militarily the Western Allies were presented as almost negligible contributors. I understand, the authors were writing a war about the war on the Eastern Front and they only had so much room.What this book is, is a clear distillation of what happened militarily on the eastern front. It covers every major campaign, and does not waste a lot of space with the pre-war years (not the Purges - again!) and I doubt I will have a better one-volume military history of the war that covers both the earlier and later battles with equal attention. Several one volume histories I have read seem to stop somewhere right after Stalingrad, Kursk get a little, and then next thing you know (20 pages later, it seems) the Russians are raising the flag over the Reichstag. I finally got to read about Operation Bagration, and what happened in the Baltic States. Maps were good enough. Well written.

Not for the historical novel buff. The detail is, well, very detailed; more of a chronicle of fact followed by fact followed by fact followed by fact.