Scorched Earth was translated by Paul, a senior translator of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Schmidt (Paul? Karel), written in 1967, tells the story of the Soviet-German war that lasted for three years from194/kloc-0 to June 22, 1944, when Germany launched Barbarossa to plan the Soviet-German war. Karel inserted the perspective of ordinary soldiers and junior officers in the macro-global war, which made the characters in the book jump to the page, made the whole book have a good image, and the battle course was hearty, as if it were there.
Early westerners knew little about the Soviet-German war, basically only a small amount of materials, and the details described in this book are amazing. Generally speaking, the war situation in 42-43 was basically around the southern line, and there were many things about the central line and the northern line, such as the first Lezhev offensive, the Battle of Daluji, the Spark Action in 65438+October in 43, and so on. The materials in this book are almost unique.
One of the great advantages of this book is that it basically covers the important battles on the Eastern Front, has no major factual errors, is highly readable, and its literariness is first-class in the history of World War II. For the failures and mistakes of the Germans, they can basically admit them generously. A big misunderstanding of many people is that the significance of the Moscow campaign stays on the failure of the German offensive, and there is not enough understanding of the heavy losses caused by the Soviet counterattack. 194 1 The Battle of Belarus, the Battle of Tikhwin, the Battle of Rostov, the Battle of Holm of 1942, Timoshenko's pig attack on Kharkov, and Manstein's defeat in Ukraine are all points that have a far-reaching impact on the war situation, but are easily overlooked by ordinary military fans. This book includes them. It can be said that after reading this book, ordinary military fans can sort out the overall context of the Soviet-German war and get rid of their understanding of the "three major battles" of the Soviet-German war.
As for the shortcomings, in addition to the defects in historical materials and the common faults of German perspective books (T34 is like locusts and Soviet infantry is like ants), this book seriously exaggerates the role of the Soviet intelligence network "Red Orchestra". Judging from the declassified data at present, there is no evidence to prove that the "spy network" of the Soviet Union has played much role. The Great Patriotic War also mentioned that at that time, the occupied areas of Germany exceeded the coverage of radio stations, so many intelligence personnel lost contact with Moscow during the war. In fact, in modern wars, the artificial intelligence obtained by spies is a thing with low signal-to-noise ratio. Unless you are a spy of Guo Ruhuai's level, it is difficult to really influence the decision.
This book was written by the Nazis and adopted the German perspective, so when you read it, you will probably be moved by the bravery and risk one's life of German officers and men. If you don't think about it and read it carefully, you are likely to become the kind of German stick ("Germany has never been defeated!") ) "There are many Soviets!" )。
Of course, in all fairness, this book does not deny the failure of the Germans, but uses some techniques to make the failure look less miserable. The typical representative is the battle of Cherkasser in scorched earth. It is true that the Soviet army did not achieve the expected results, but the German army did not retreat after the successful breakthrough.
In addition, considering the time when this book was written, around the 1960s, many German officers and men published their memoirs at the same time, which was of great help to those who studied the history of war, and also met the needs of the United front of the western camp, that is, to whitewash the national defense forces and fight against the Soviet Union. As for the technique of washing white and black, this book is very representative.
For the recommended crowd, I recommend young people with a certain historical background. Because reading rashly without this knowledge may be biased by the author's position and become the kind of German stick mentioned above. Also, although you will encounter a whole article in documentary language when reading, please read it with the idea of documentary literature. After all, this is a real practical literary text. For example, you are reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, not the History of the Three Kingdoms.
Finally, I quote Comrade Newton's evaluation as the final conclusion: Karel's works, although widely read by oriental lovers and war game players, are always ignored by academic circles. The reasons for this situation are not only the poor personal quality hidden behind the author's pseudonym, but also three points: First, the author's undisguised pro-German tendency. When the motorized infantry division arrived in astrakhan in 16 (marking the peak of the expansion of the Third Reich), Karel wrote, "My heart is full of pride for the children of these empires"; In addition, Karel's lively news style, although holding the reader's breath, has made historians underestimate the value of this book; Finally, the worst problem: all Karel's works lack footnotes. However, the evaluation of Karel's book has improved recently. David Glunk mentioned in the article "American Perspective" that Karel's works "collected a large number of records of frontline officers and soldiers" and "contained more and more information about the Soviet Union". In fact, Karel's works refer to almost all accessible Soviet books and articles in many Soviet military journals in the early 1960s. Of course, in the era of Karel's writing, no western historian had access to Soviet archives. In addition, when I was studying this book, I found that Karel was extremely strict with his own reference materials. As an author, Karel tried to add elements of life and drama to his war narrative, but his reference materials were accurate.