Where the Iron Crosses Grow

The Crimea 1941-44

By: Robert Forczyk

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

The Crimea was one of the crucibles of the war on the Eastern Front, where first a Soviet and then a German army were surrounded, fought desperate battles, and were eventually destroyed. The fighting in the region was unusual for the Eastern Front in many ways, in that naval supply, amphibious landings, and naval evacuation played major roles, while both sides were also conducting ethnic cleansing as part of their strategy - the Germans eliminating the Jews and the Soviets purging the region of Tartars.

From 1941, when the Soviets first created the Sevastopol fortified region, the Crimea was a focal point of the war in the East. German forces under the noted commander Manstein conquered the area in 1941-42, which was followed by two years of brutal colonization and occupation before the Soviet counteroffensive in 1944 destroyed the German 17th Army.

©2014 Robert Forczyk (P)2015 Tantor

Good but wordy

The story and the region are great. What should be left out was the spelling out of each and every title, caliber of gun, and affiliation to platoon, company, regiment, or battalion. A nice map as well.

An informative work!

This book centers on the little discussed Crimean front during the also under studied, in the West, Russian Front of the Second World War.

I would say this is not for someone just beginning to study this subject, but for someone with a decent grasp on the history already. This work expands one's knowledge on the subject.

One might say overly detailed and perhaps tedious at times, however, I didn't think so.

Besides the general WWII aspects covered, some general history of the region is also discussed.

Hard work

80% Of the book is like a dump of a detailed event log of the Crimean wars. Hard to get through. Very few stories of what happened on the ground, earning those iron crosses.

Very detailed

It is a very thorough historical account. It would benefit from supporting maps and tables, because it can be tough to process statistics and events for places you are not intimately familiar with.

Hoping for more..

Great WWII campaign that should have had many personal stories instead of all the stupid and inane facts. The narrator would have been fine but he kept saying “In-fan-te-ree instead of saying “In-fan-tree”. It drove me crazy and almost prevented me from finishing the book.
There should have been dozens of great personal accounts of who won “those iron crosses” instead of all the bullshit...

Fascinating, if dry, look at little known campaign

I liked it. loved the rich history of the Crimea area and how that was woven into the story. only caution is the perspective is taken mostly from post battle reports and is kinda lacking the "human" story. didn't bother me but it is a dry listen for some

Could have been a great story - But wasnt

Half the book is just numbers and the narrator is horrible, it's like the book had no editor.

Oustanding historiography!

Exceptional detail. Does an excellent job of putting events in context. Strongly reccomend this to anyone interested in WW2 and/or the Ostfront.

Excellent

Fills the history buff with the lacking knowledge of the Crimea in the 20th century

Better and Worse Than I Thought

I had an idea what this book would be about from the title. I was wrong. This is a grand-strategy view of the Crimean campaign in WWII. I still don't know why it occurred. Instead of showing the individuals involved (hence the iron crosses reference) the author bombarded us with a huge amount of statistics and unit numbers. I have run into this type of book before and have been unable go go very far into them. The narrator, Michael Prichard, kept the pace up and gave the story as much life as could be given. I did finish it and I learned some things I never knew before or things I did know were put into context, so I'm glad I lasted. The narrator deserves the credit for this.