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Prelude to Blitzkrieg: The 1916 Austro-German Campaign in Romania
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this ebook
An authoritative study of World War I’s often-overlooked Romanian front.
In contrast to the trench-war deadlock on the Western Front, combat in Romania and Transylvania in 1916 foreshadowed the lightning warfare of World War II. When Romania joined the Allies and invaded Transylvania without warning, the Germans responded by unleashing a campaign of bold, rapid infantry movements, with cavalry providing cover or pursuing the crushed foe. Hitting where least expected and advancing before the Romanians could react―even bombing their capital from a Zeppelin soon after war was declared―the Germans and Austrians poured over the formidable Transylvanian Alps onto the plains of Walachia, rolling up the Romanian army from west to east, and driving the shattered remnants into Russia. Prelude to Blitzkrieg tells the story of this largely ignored campaign to determine why it did not devolve into the mud and misery of trench warfare, so ubiquitous elsewhere.
“This work will stand as the definitive study of the Central Powers part of the campaign for some time to come.” —Journal of Military History
“Barnett’s book is a valuable addition to the field. He writes well and with authority. He has been able to illuminate a little-known corner of the First World War and provide a state-of-the-art operational history combining detailed narrative with prescient analysis.” —American Historical Review
In contrast to the trench-war deadlock on the Western Front, combat in Romania and Transylvania in 1916 foreshadowed the lightning warfare of World War II. When Romania joined the Allies and invaded Transylvania without warning, the Germans responded by unleashing a campaign of bold, rapid infantry movements, with cavalry providing cover or pursuing the crushed foe. Hitting where least expected and advancing before the Romanians could react―even bombing their capital from a Zeppelin soon after war was declared―the Germans and Austrians poured over the formidable Transylvanian Alps onto the plains of Walachia, rolling up the Romanian army from west to east, and driving the shattered remnants into Russia. Prelude to Blitzkrieg tells the story of this largely ignored campaign to determine why it did not devolve into the mud and misery of trench warfare, so ubiquitous elsewhere.
“This work will stand as the definitive study of the Central Powers part of the campaign for some time to come.” —Journal of Military History
“Barnett’s book is a valuable addition to the field. He writes well and with authority. He has been able to illuminate a little-known corner of the First World War and provide a state-of-the-art operational history combining detailed narrative with prescient analysis.” —American Historical Review
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Reviews for Prelude to Blitzkrieg
Rating: 3.9166666666666665 out of 5 stars
4/5
6 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A general account of how Romania brought doom on its head in 1916 by attempting to grab Transylvania from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, only to bring firm German direction to that theater of the war. While I enjoyed reading what is a good campaign history I did find the historical horizon of the author a little constrained. Though this campaign is invoked as precursor to the mobile, all-arms warfare that is usually described as "blitzkrieg," one doesn't get much sense that the author is aware that speed of action and force of will was always a component of the Prussian way of war, and that Erich von Falkenhayn's previous operational behavior at Verdun was the anomaly. Apart from that I suspect that I would have been better off reading Glenn Torrey's general account of Romania in the Great War first.
Book preview
Prelude to Blitzkrieg - Michael B. Barrett
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