I. Konev (1897–1973)

Ivan Stepanovich Konev was the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front during the final years of World War II. The 1st Ukrainian attacked along one of the main axes of battle, just south of the main Berlin axis, from Byelorussia all the way to Germany and from there south to Prague. Konev is considered one of the three or four best generals fielded by the Soviet Army during the Second World War. This short volume is his reminiscence of that final year of war against Hitler.

Rather than trying to write a comprehensive history of the closing campaigns of the war, Konev chooses, instead, to tell the story as he experienced it. Rather than using external sources to present what was really happening, he tries to present the story to us in the same chaotic atmosphere in which he had to operate. The pretension is that we must only know what he himself knew in order to understand how he arrived at his decisions. As a result, we see the war not from above, with its broad horizons and clear view, but embedded deep within the command structure with its narrow focus and cacophonous din. Once the command to attack is given and the tanks roll forward, the army and its commander become separated in space and time.

The book begins with the break out from the Sandomierz bridgehead on the Vistula River in Poland on January 12, 1945. By this time in the war, the Russians had amassed overwhelming quantities of material. Their men were well trained and battle hardened. Brimming with confidence, they were sure of their victory.

In contrast, the German Wehrmacht was a pale shadow of its former self. Their personnel losses had far exceeded the rate at which the natural maturation of the population could replenish their ranks with new cohorts. Instead, to fill the gaps they were recruiting both the young and old. Out gunned and out manned, the Wehrmacht was beyond salvation, but fought on bitterly to the end. When the 1st Ukrainian reaches Berlin, Konev recalls, "There were all sorts of people on the Teltow Canal, especially in the Volkssturm battalions, which consisted of regular soldiers, old men and adolescents who wept but fought on, and with their panzerfausts set our tanks on fire."

Marshall Konev is not a deep or reflective thinker. There is no room for moral insight beyond the mechanical anti-American denunciation of the bombing of Dresden, which seems hypocritical given the Soviets' own bloody record at Budapest. Where the book shines is in its depiction of a commander's eye view of modern warfare. Whether he is detailing the careful preparation and planning for the break out at Sandomierz or recounting the vertiginous Berlin Operation, you feel as though you have entered his world for a moment.

During that last mad rush to reach Berlin before the Americans, I. S. Konev and G. K. Zhukov seem to be tempting fate, pushing their armies to the limit, improvising a vast, chaotic operation. Rather than systematically crushing the German army, they force their way through weakness in the German lines, sweeping around stronger pockets of resistance to stab at the heart of Berlin. But leaving such strong pockets of organized resistance in your rear areas just results in an unfocused, 360 degree brawl. While Konev is trying to force the Teltow Canal to reach Berlin from the south, he directing a dizzying array of operations in all directions to contain the armies he has bypassed. In the end, you are left with the feeling that the Soviets were dancing on the edge of a precipice in that final assault. Only their massive force of arms and the exhausted nature of the Wehrmacht saved them from catastrophe.… (mere)