War on the Eastern Front

James Sidney Lucas is an author who seems to be fond of writing about World War II. However, he does seem to also have trouble thinking about World War II. Were he to "think" about it, he might have written a book that was more politically correct by acknowledging at some point that the Germans were invaders, that instead of being conquering heroes they were seen in many quarters to be murderers and assassins. Of course, Lucas can always use (as he apparently has) the Eichmann defense and say he was just presenting opinions and not drawing conclusions.

We are told that he was in the British military and served in the Tunisian front. We are also told that he is somewhat of an expert on German armament and German military tactics. This book is designed to give a new slant to the war, and to show it from the point of view of the German soldier.

The challenge in such a task is avoiding making the German soldiers seem heroic. Mr. Lucas fails in that challenge, although he does spend a lot of time trying to make us feel and empathize with the problems that the foot soldiers had to face.

One of the reasons that he fails is that such a goal requires a writer who has a good way with language. In fact, the only readable parts of the book are when he is quoting someone else. There is a pomposity to the prose that sinks every paragraph. Consider this at the beginning, when he is setting the stage.

. . .
fact, however, Stalin is given short shrift in the book with singular references on pages 3, 35, 45, 47, 57, 58, 181, 185, 189, 191 and 194. Altogether, there are about 300 words devoted to Stalin, who was, of course, a major player. Lucas likes to find people to quote who cite the high standard of training as the key to German success. In terms of military hardware, much German equipment was run of the mill and there were relatively few Panzer and mechanized divisions in the Wehrmacht, although a large part of this book is devoted to the armament. It is apparent that the people who are quoted by Lucas ignored other realities, such as the necessity for spreading German forces across the Mediterranean, the Battle of the Atlantic, and occupation duties in Western Europe (Encarta, 2002). Much is also made of the fact that Hitler's forces, also known as the German soldiers, managed to capture thousands of square miles of Soviet territory during the opening months of the war and by November 1941 reached the suburbs of Moscow. Lucas' Biases Lucas, first of all, was not in the Eastern front, and so his selection of observations from people who were are colored by how he himself feels about the war. He chooses people who seem
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Red Army, War II, Western Europe, Empire Conquered, Osama Hitler, Germans Russians, Russians Eastern, Bonaparte Russian, Lucas Eastern, Europe Encarta, red army, eastern front, world war, germans russians, german soldiers, hitler master continental, throughout book, foot soldiers, british military, course lucas, western europe, war eastern front, world war ii, master continental europe,
Approximate Word count = 1779
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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