The Battle for Moscow by Albert Seaton, first published in 1971! Hardly cutting edge, but I thought it was worth a re-read. It is very much of its time, however Seaton was one of the first people to dig through the German archives rather than rely on the rather unreliable interviews and memoirs of the various German Generals published through the 1950s and 60s. Prior to Seatons books the best we could hope for were Mellenthins ‚Panzer Battles‘, Guderians ‚Panzer Leader‘ and Mansteins ‚Lost Victories‘ etc.

It is still a very German pov, but hopefully more balanced than the memoirs. This isn’t actually a bad book, it is well written, probably more readable than John Erickson or even David Glantz and covers the major events well although it is maddeningly vague about actual Russian strengths. It does give formation counts (brigades, divisions) by Army which is good enough for what I need.

Like so many military history books, the maps are sparse and not hugely helpful being very high level. They are also all hand drawn, a symptom of its age, but they give a reasonable idea of where the major formations were and when. I’ve got a copy of ‚Panzergruppe Guderian‘ so I can always look at that for more detailed maps if needs be.

I was pleasantly surprised and came away with a few ideas  for representative actions in the snow which will no doubt appear here in due course. 

The first of Seatons books I bought was this one, ‚The Russo-German War 1941-45‘, oddly also published in 1971. Given its age this is one of the best single volume histories of the Eastern Front I’ve ever read, and it includes neglected subjects like the naval war. It is certainly better than Glantz’s ‚When Titans Clashed‘ even if the latter has more up to date research on both the Soviet and German sides.

Given the publication dates, I suspect Battle for Moscow is a sub volume of The Russo German War, they certainly cover a lot of the same ground about the background to Operation Barbarossa etc.

Anyway, Glantz’s ‚Barbarossa‘ also has a decent section on the Battle for Moscow, which gives a more Soviet centric view and more importantly, lists some of the formations which made up the various Soviet armies in more detail. Coupled with some snippets from John Ericksons ‚Road to Stalingrad‘ I’ve got enough to work up a few scenarios with the historical units. I am determined to get my scratch built Soviet 85mm AA guns into action around Tula!