Military Model Scene

Title: Meat Grinder
Author: Pat Buttar
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-4728-5181-9

The Battles for the Rzhev Salient, 1942-43, a new book from Osprey Publishing. A 464-page hard-cover book, though also available in e-book formats. To the West of Moscow, the Rzhev salient remained a potential threat to the Russian capital even after the initial German advances were stalled.
This is a hefty book but makes for interesting reading. As the author suggests, while many elements of the war on the Eastern Front are quite well know, perhaps that is less true of these battles involving Army Group Centre around Rzhev. It was a major advance for the invasion of 1941, and the German forces were halted just west of Moscow. For roughly 18 months the salient remained there, a constant threat to the Soviet capital, even if they had lost the impetus to actually advance that bit further. Multiple attacks by multiply Soviet armies attempted to push the Germans back. Over 16 chapters this tells the story of those battles in great detail, and includes a great number of extracts of personal accounts from officers and troops on both sides. There is so much in the story, including a major offensive by the Russians involving armour, infantry and cavalry, even with a significant parachute drop where a lack of suitable transport aircraft meant it was spread over several days, and the number of available aircraft decreasing each day (sound familiar?). That whole group was cut off, and eventually operated behind German lines, along with partisans, before the survivors were finally able to break out. The weather, the lack of good roads and the vast area of terrain involved brought many problems to both sides. Even Russian troops had problems with a lack of winter uniforms and difficulty with supplying their units once they started their attacks. Later in the year there is mention of intelligence sources for both sides (including spying), the influence of both Stalin and Hitler on operations, and the work of leaders such as Zhukov. Eventually Hitler gave permission for a German withdrawal, to shorten the lines and release units for re-allocation elsewhere. At the some time, events in Stalingrad were also going on so the links between the two operations are included. The story is rounded off by looking at the lessons learnt by both sides and how they were applied (or not), and some conclusions on Remembering the Past. Some question raised that I felt left some space for the reader to form their own views on particular points. The number of casualties given are horrendous and I think you can't help but ask whether it was all worth it, for territory that was eventually abandoned. The author has done a great job of this, and it is well worth reading.
Thanks to Osprey for the review copy.

Robin