Book review: The Brusilov Offensive

[Poliorketes]

Today i finished Timothy C. Dowlings new book onb the Brusilov Offensive


The book deals with Bruisilovs carreer, a synopsis of the fighting on the eastern front in 1914/15 and then goes in depth into the planing of the russian offensive, the central powers counter mesures and trhe offensive itself. The book ends with a summry of the desaster in Romania as a result of the Brusilov Offensive.

I give it 4 out of 5 points due to the very bad maps. These are lacking town and river names and the frontlines shown differ chronologically from the frontlines in the text.

[janner]

Yep, I was reading the one and same book last weekend after much anticipation - what a let down 

It's a campaign guide of the 'old sort' - lots of big hand, small map type of descriptions but lacking in any interesting details, no human interest whatsoever and a tendency to making statements that seem to reflect the opinions of the time without foundation.

The analysis is unoriginal largely because, whilst well researched from archives in Austria and Hungary, it doesn't bring anything fresh to light on the Russian side. 80%+ of the material could already be gleaned from existing open sources. His understanding of the Austro-Hungarian Empire seems solid but the book displays a weakness when it comes to Imperial Russia and some of the translations of Russian units are just plain wrong.

Worth a look but don't take everything stated as read.