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Where the Iron Crosses Grow
- The Crimea 1941-44
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Categories: History, Europe
Non-member price: $41.73
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Needs Maps!
- By bishr on 11-07-2019
Publisher's Summary
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.
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What listeners say about Where the Iron Crosses Grow
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- abe mckinnon
- 21-01-2021
Diligently Researched
This book can be quite dry as the author uses wartime records to assemble a statistics heavy account of war in the Crimea. That said, it is comprehensive and fascinating if you are passionate about the subject. The postscript is perhaps the most passionate passage of the book and can be read on its own as a primer for 21st century Russian history. Overall very good. I learned a lot.
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- Anonymous User
- 15-08-2020
historical/ political context leading up to WW2
Worth it if you like this stuff. Well narrated, be ready for plenty of detail as you would expect from a book like this. Seems very well resaerched, comming from a novice such as myself and it will take me a while to process a lot of information.
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- ryan j diamond
- 17-06-2016
Superb History
Sure h a great and informative piece of work, I found many facts that I had not previously known, and the narrator kept me engaged in the story throughout, highly recommended.
3 people found this helpful
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- MDockus
- 07-11-2018
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.
1 person found this helpful
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- Hein Du Plessis
- 13-05-2016
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.
1 person found this helpful
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- lrbell
- 19-04-2015
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.
3 people found this helpful
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- richard
- 19-02-2015
names, places,troop strength and commanders
This book is for the hardcore military historian who enjoys reading the statistics of a military campaign. It start with interesting overview of the regions history with an enticing nod to what happening there today, but quickly, or too quickly for me, became a monotonous compilation of what battalion was where, how many and what kind of weaponry they had and who commanded them. Mr Pritchard did a fine job in my opinion, but given the material I had to give up on this one.
6 people found this helpful
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- Jose
- 07-10-2016
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.
2 people found this helpful
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- JT Hope
- 23-11-2015
Might be a good book...
Hard to tell, because of the ridiculously horrid narrator. Absolutely pitiful. Painful to listen to. Gonna try to read the book. Don't buy this audiobook.
5 people found this helpful
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- carol
- 28-03-2015
Too dull don't recommend
This sounded like a text book. There was almost no sense of the people or there ordeals. Just too dull
3 people found this helpful
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- Arjay
- 04-12-2020
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.
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- Jeffrey Fuller
- 04-09-2019
Boring
I gave it a shot. I, painfully, listened for a couple of hours. Its seems forced and monotone. There are so many Infantry Divisions doing this or that.... that I cannot continue to listen.
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- jules
- 18-12-2016
should have bought the actual book
This book is a fascinating read full of well researched facts however the robotic style of the narrator seriously detracts from the books merits.
2 people found this helpful
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- Border Collie
- 09-08-2016
Interesting theater of WW2
What did you like best about Where the Iron Crosses Grow? What did you like least?
I was occasionally confused by following the ebb and flow of the campaigns.
What about Michael Prichard’s performance did you like?
What I liked best was the excellent pronunciation of Russian and German places, equipment and names. It makes such a difference to enjoyment of an audible book. I speak fluent German and the German was all perfect.
2 people found this helpful
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- PD
- 20-08-2016
Worst Audiobook Ever
Any additional comments?
The narration of this book is so bad I could not listen to it. I've come back to it 3 times but it sounds like it's being read by a Robot. An awful performance that's ruined what is probably a good book.
4 people found this helpful
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- R J Moore
- 04-03-2017
Not for my "read again list."
What disappointed you about Where the Iron Crosses Grow?
the lack of feeling
What didn’t you like about Michael Prichard’s performance?
Any additional comments?
This book is historically correct and extremely detailed.
Every engagement noted with the exact name and number of the units engaged being entered in the text.
Unfortuantely, the incessant repeatition of unit Id's detracts so much from the narrative, it's like reading a table of football scores.
A book for the "train spotters" rather than for those wishing to read about the actions of the decorated soldiers.
1 person found this helpful
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- H J ADES
- 17-02-2020
Excellent
Well written and most enjoyable, the narrator really does a excellent job. I will have to read more books by this author.
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- Panayot
- 26-06-2017
Very academic military work
Extremely in depth and well researched, a good geographical familiarity with Crimea is an absolute must before you start listening
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- phphoto
- 08-05-2017
Story suffered.
Interesting story but overfilled with too much tech detail about weapons and formations which I think took something away from the storytelling of the events.
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- Scott Sibbald
- 08-06-2015
Good listen and history repeating itself again?
The pronunciation of artillery and infantry in dialogs is really old school out dated but otherwise a good listen
2 people found this helpful
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