"Eastern Front. Where to begin?" Topic

I know my D-Day to Fall of Berlin history pretty well, but I think I'm finally ready to tackle the eastern front. I'm considering painting up some Soviets and Germans in 10mm or 15mm, but other than reading Anthony Beevor's "Stalingrad" and watching "Enemy at the Gates", my knowledge of the Russian campaign is woefully shallow.

I'm considering picking up one of the Flames of War supplements (even though I don't play those rules) just for an overview of the campaign, painting and modeling guides and eye candy. Is there one or two in particular I should pick up? Any other suggestions on books / films that gives a toehold into the campaign? I'm also considering the Winter War. Is there an FoW supplement for that?

Actually, what I would recommend is picking up a used copy of Close Combat III "Russian Front" for the PC!

It allows you to play both sides from the beginning of Barbarossa to the fall of Berlin!

See the old Finnish movie Winter War- it is awesome even with sub titles.
I love 10mm, but you might have more options in infantry with 15mm. You can also probably pick up some 15mm cheap as the FOW craze has subsided.
Also CC III is a pretty good game (solo) you don't need opponents, but I don't think it would be much help for anything gaming research related.

The FoW craze has not subsided. Just local pockets that don't play as much. I can assure you that here in Central Texas, the turnouts for tournaments is quite high. There will always be people that sell off their stuff no matter what genre or rules are played.

FoW is trucking along just as strong in my area. KY/IN/TN

Nashcon had 36 players
Thunderbolt had 22 players
and these were just in the past two weeks.

My own group's getting ready to start a FoW campaign and we've had two new players and one "returning" player bolster our numbers in just this past month. If there's a slow down it ain't around here.

The game group in Lexington powered down a bit with FoW but others are taking up the slack and then some.

Back to the OP. I think the FoW book you may want is "East Front" its Mid-war and you specifically mention Stalingrad, but honestly these FoW books are not the best overviews of the for history, but the eye candy and paintg guides will be there with some very light history and a whole lot of army lists.

Good Luck,

VB

World at War episodes on the Eastern Front (dated but superb)

Osprey titles, although derided by some I have found them an excellent toehold in areas I knew little about. They often have a good reading list and the older versions a wargaming section.

A big coffe table book from the library, full of pictures, some will be incorrectly captioned but they will give you a sense of the brutality of the conflict. They also have readable maps in full colour and a competent summary of the conflict (the book I'm thinking about has a colour photo of a swastika drapped Pz IV in the winter). Browse the bargain bins and you will often find them at very reasonable rates.

There are many good books on the Eastern Front War, it depends on what you are looking for or enjoy? But if your looking for coverage/commentary of the entire war, Prof John Erickson The Road To Stalingrad: Vol 1 and The Road To Berlin: Stalin's War with Germany Vol 2, these are slightly more Soviet inclined in view but still very good reads. there is also Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War by Chris Bellamy which is filled with maps and tables of information. Alan Clarks Barbarossa is a very good german perspective on the conflict. There is plenty of coverage on individual battles and campaigns as well such as David Glantz's series of books, these are excellent.

I always thought starting with 22 June 1941 a good start LOL. But as others have stated there are a few good sources out there both in book form and online. You might find these of help,

PDF link

CSI Research Survey No. 5:
Standing Fast: German Defensive Doctrine on the Russian Front During World War II: Prewar to March 1943
PDF link

CSI Report No. 11: Soviet Defensive Tactics at Kursk, July 1943
PDF link

Leavenworth Papers No. 5:
Fighting the Russians in Winter: Three Case Studies
PDF link

Robert

Well, the war on the Eastern Front can be simply broken down into Early, Mid, Late like other theaters -- 1941-1942 (Barabossa to Stalingrad), 1943-1944 (Kursk to Bagration), and 1944-1945 to the Fall of Berlin. Each part of the war will have different equipment, units, and likely scenarios. Early in the war, as the Soviet player you'll be on the defense a lot, vs Germans primarily on defense later in the war. Unlike the ETO, you also have a lot of minor Axis allies involved -- Italy, Romania, Hungary and Finland. Lots of choice, from Italian Savoia Cavalry to Soviet Aerosans!

From a gaming standpoint, where you start can be effected by what scale you want to game.

For operational games (Battalion ->Division), Panzer Korps and Spearhead, etc., have good materials.

For company+ sized games, the FOW books are good, as are materials from Rapid Fire, Command Decision, etc.

For skirmish gaming (squad=>platoon) you have the Skirmish Campaigns books, and the NUTS Clash of Titans and Stalingrad books.

Here's a resource link for 28mm gaming:
link

What kind of gaming are you mostly interested in??

The irony about the Eastern Front is that the most interesting periods had some of the more limited vehicles. For example, the summer of '42 campaign, the vast majority of the tanks the Soviets were using were T34, KV1, and T60. That's it. Lend-lease makes it a bit more interesting (add Valentines, Matildas and Grants).

So the scenarios with the more varied and interesting vehicles (Hummel, Wespe, Nashorn, Elefant etc etc for the Germans) and assault guns and advanced tanks for the Soviets, only are feasible after the pendulum of success has swung towards the Soviets, from about Spring '43 on.

This issue aside, you can still do Kursk if you like heavy metal, or scenarios from the first year if you can balance out tank quality with troop quality.

(Note: Command Decision has two excellent books on the Soviets (Red Steel for armor, and Red Tide for infantry), but no Eastern Front campaign books yet. I offered to do a Stalingrad campaign book, but they weren't interested. Jack Radey is supposedly working on a Barbarossa campaign book, but it's still in the works.)

Some books mentioned here,
link
I do recommend Glantz's Slaughterhouse.
Robert

To add to the booklist, see this small Australian publisher:
link

Very detailed information. And hopefully the book that gave this publisher its name will be reprinted !

I second Alan Clark's Barbarossa – it was written in the 60's I think and post-Cold War scholarship has the benefit of access to scads of Russian material Clark didn't but it's a ferocious book, he could really write.

Pendraken have a huge choice of 10mm stuff if you go that way, I had a load and sold it all off (fool) – cheap too.

For a good, modern single volume campaign overview. I'd go with David Glantz's 'Clash of Titans', for an older more Germanocentric view than Albert Seatons 'Russo-German War 19145-45' which also includes a good chapter on the naval war.

Personally I think the Eastern Front is more suited to meglomaniac grand tactical/operational gaming. TAC Publications do a good book of 1944 regiment/brigade/divison sized eastern front scenarios including a 'Siege of Tarnopol' mini campaign.

If you want something more low level then the Skirmish Campaigns books are a good start.

The biggest decision you have to make is grey German Tanks vs yellow German tanks… (41-early 43 vs mid 43-45)

You have read Beevor's Stalingrad why not start there? That way you can focus on collecting only the troop and vehicle types needed for that battle.

This is an excellent start:

link

Glantz's writing can be dry as dust, but his books with House as co-author are generally very good.

For an "unbiased" perspective, read Guderian's memoirs.

I was going to say June 22, 1941, but Kaoschallenfed beat me to it. Guess I said it anyway.

I like it all, but some reading lately makes the intrigued by the 44-45 events in Rumania and Hungry.

Thanks all. This is a huge help. I was thinking of playing at a scale in which the smallest element on the board would be a platoon (which would make this battalion scale, right?)

I also contemplated focusing on cold weather forces (infantry in winter gear, snow bases, white washed armor), and use them to play out everything from the Winter War to winter fighting in Stalingrad to Battle of the Bulge (well the Germans at least). From your few comments it sounds like there's such a change in force makeup that the only elements that could be used across all of those scenarios would be the infantry.

Are there any other winter battles close enough chronologically that I could use the same vehicles in several scenarios, or am I stuck modeling "just" Stalingrad or "just" the Bulge?

Also, I'm on a bit of an armor kick at the moment. Does late war allow the widest variety of potential vehicles? Not necessarily tanks… I actually quite like armored cars, tankettes, half-tracks, etc.

Go for a core of PzIV and or StugIII's then a platoon or so of Panthers and you've got the core for a ton of mid to late armies.
Then you can buy some armoured cars or Tigers or whatever as you need em.

Late war in theory allows all the super heavy tanks etc, but I find it somewhat a-historical to have 15 odd panthers in the field at the same time.
I imagine it depends what rules set you use. I'm on flames of war (Cassino) and even in that I can field tigers, panthers, and even remote controlled Tigers for late war.

I've got a bunch of Eastern Front, but '41 is my favorite. Between all the wierd Russian tanks (T35's anyone?) and all the different types of troops you can paint and build for a year and never make the same thing twice. You can use the more common types until Stalingrad, and the ordinary infantry can often be used throughout the war.

Only Warlock@ I'm a big Close Combat Russian Front Fan,

Great link Porthos! I have "Island of Fire". Not a cheap book mind you, but it is one of those books you could read and seriously come up with 100 scenarios.

Paul

Watch Stalingrad, Winter War, and Downfall.

Read The Last Battle, The Red Army in WWII.

Check out

english.battlefield.ru

o5m6.de

That should get you started.

Mike "Bunkermeister" Creek

bunkermeister.blogspot.com
sgtsays.blogspot.com

"Are there any other winter battles close enough chronologically that I could use the same vehicles in several scenarios, or am I stuck modeling "just" Stalingrad or "just" the Bulge?"

Lots and lots of winter battles… Kholm pocket, Vyazma pocket (Cavalry, SS, Lufwaffe field divisions, mountain troops, militia!).

A really neat campaign imho, would be the late '44 advance of the Soviets along the Finnish/Norwegian coast. Amphibious invasions, elite troops.

Gaming east front is also a change in that you can have a variety of axis forces, against one allied faction (usually the reverse in most other theaters)

Go for a core of PzIV and or StugIII's then a platoon or so of Panthers and you've got the core for a ton of mid to late armies.
Then you can buy some armoured cars or Tigers or whatever as you need em.

Well, maybe in '45. In '44, you would be far more likely just to have the Stugs and Panzer III's or IV's. IIRC, Army Groups North and Centre had only 1 tiger bn each in mid '44.

Once you go North of Kiev, the Ostfront is about German infantry bunkered down in close country with little armour support.

Don't play it like Normandy with umpteen SS panzer divisions.

Well, maybe in '45. In '44, you would be far more likely just to have the Stugs and Panzer III's or IV's.

Unlikely to see any Panzer III's in '44. Most had been withdrawn and issued for training or converted to Stug's.

IIRC, Army Groups North and Centre had only 1 tiger bn each in mid '44.

AGC had a number of PD's attached at various times and the number of Panther battalions attached to those divisions rose staedily through '44. By the autumn the Panther outnumbered Pz IV's in the Panzer regiments. Typical makeup was a battalion of Panthers and a mixed battalion of Pz IV's and either Stugs or Jagdpanzer IV's.