Library Journal
Citino (European history, Eastern Michigan Univ.; The German Way of War) deconstructs the fateful year that marked the end of the German army's long tradition of flexibility, independence, and technical superiority. Did Hitler's meddling doom a great tradition of independent command, or was it new radio capabilities, allowing higher command to reach farther and farther across the battlefield? Either way, 1942 was the turning point for the Wehrmacht as it began to retreat in the East and evacuate from Africa. A fine choice.
—Edwin B. Burgess
From the Publisher
"This book is a winner across the board. . . . Citino’s concept of Bewegungskrieg (mobile war), elegantly defined and convincingly demonstrated, should become the new benchmark for analysis. . . . Citino’s clarity and perception, his understanding of the operation level of war, informs this work from first page to last."—Historian
"Citino’s well written and thoughtful study will be of great value to experts and novices alike."—NYMAS Review, New York Military Affairs Symposium
"Citino writes well and makes a persuasive case. Those new to the campaigns of 1942 will find an education in this book. Those familiar with Irwin Rommel’s exploits in Libya and Egypt or Fedor von Bock’s drive to the Volga will find a challenging new interpretation of these famous operations."—Military Review
"[This book] establishes Robert Citino as a major figure in the history of the German army in World War II."—Military History
“A winner across the board by one of the masters of operational history. The capstone to a four-volume study on modern mobile warfare, it solidifies Citino’s position among the very best scholars who have written on the ‘German way of war.’ In particular, his treatment of the 1942 Russian campaigns is fully level with the best of David Glantz’s work from the Soviet perspective and restores both Stalingrad and El Alamein to their rightful status as major turning points in the war.”—Dennis Showalter, author of Patton and Rommel
“There is no better examination of German operations during the crisis year of 1942.”—Geoffrey P. Megargee, author of Inside Hitler’s High Command
“It is only fitting that the scholar who has traced the distinctive manner in which first Prussia and then Germany fought its wars should now offer a carefully researched and lucidly written account of how that way of fighting led to and ended in disaster in World War II.”—Gerhard L. Weinberg, author of A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II
Journal of Military History
An engagingly written and thoughtful study that will be of great value to experts and novices alike.
