Recommended reading on the minor Axis nations

[Marcus Wendel]

The idea of this sticky is to collect recommandations on good books dealing with Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania or Slovakia.

Please post the title, author and a short (or long) explenation as to why you feel that particular title deserves to be included.

/Marcus


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* AHF Bookstore
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[Horthy68_57]

Awsome idea Marcus.

I am actually trying to find books on bulgaria during WWII. Anybody has any recommendations?

[dibo]

Awsome idea Marcus.

I am actually trying to find books on bulgaria during WWII. Anybody has any recommendations?

In English I presume?

[Horthy68_57]

Yes...

[Ardee]

It's a great topic! I've been looking for books on Hungary and others for quite some time...

The best book I've found about Rumania in the War is:
Third Axis, Fourth Ally : Romanian Armed Forces in the European war, 1941-1945 Authors: Mark Axworthy; Cornel I Scafeș; Cristian Crǎciunoiu. It gives history, several photos/line drawings, good discussion.

Of course, saying it's the best book I've found isn't really saying all that much -- the only other book in English that I've come across was the Osprey publication, which I found to be a little lacking, at least in the type of info I was looking for.

There are also four books on Hungary here: http://www.axiseuropa.com/allied_axis_forces.htm
I've read two of them. They weren't very helpful to me, but others might value what they offer: if I recall correctly, it was mostly OoB stuff, very dry, and not much else Not much in the way of illustrations, either. Since it wasn't what I wanted, I didn't check out the other books they offer.But they list books on Slovakia and Romania...

The Osprey book on Germany's Eastern Allies is way too short, unfocused and generalized for me to recommend anybody wanting detail.

And I think with that, I've mentioned all the books on the topic I'm familiar with....

[Horthy68_57]

Anybody?

[dibo]

Books in English about Bulgarian armed forces in WW2:


Armor
Kaloyan Matev, Equipment and Armor in the Bulgarian Army.Vol. 1 ARMORED VEHICLES 1935 - 1945, Published by Angela, Sofia 2000, ISBN 954-90587-7-8, 127 pages, soft cover. size 24/16 sm. parallel text is in English and Bulgarian. This book is an illustrated (16 color illustrations and 85 black & white pictures) - the best and only study on the subject. Unfortunately out of print. The author plans to publish a new revised edition in the near future.

Aviation
Dimitar Nedyalkov, Peter Skipp
AIR POWER OF THE KINGDOM BULGARIA vol.3 1920-1939
AIR POWER OF THE KINGDOM BULGARIA vol.4 1940-1946
2001.Published by Fark Ood, Sofia, 210x280, ISBN: 9549669793, richly illustrated by photos, maps, tables, schemes, parallel text in English and Bulgarian. 60 pages each.
See:
http://rakovski-defcol.mod.bg/EN/Activi ... b_0504.php

Dimitar Nedyalkov
BULGARIAN FIGHTERS Part 2
Published by 'Propeller' Publishing, Sofia, 2004, ISBN: 954 9669 96 3. 76 pages. richly illustrated by photos, maps, tables, schemes, parallel text in English and Bulgarian.
See:
http://rakovski-defcol.mod.bg/EN/Activi ... kovBF2.php

Decorations
Todor Petrov
BULGARIAN ORDERS AND MEDALS - REFERENCE GUIDE IN ENGLISH
Published in 2005 by Voenno Izdatelstvo. 325 pages, hard cover with dust jacket, Large size 30 x 23 cm. - Luxury edition by the Bulgarian military publishing house, excellent illustrations. See:
http://bulgariana.com/product_info.php? ... 0398400c4b

Petko Pavlov
BULGARIAN ORDERS AND MEDALS
Two editions available. A must have. See:
http://www.bg-ordersandmedals.com/eng/books/pavlov.htm

Navy
Todorov Iliya
SHIPS OF THE BULGARIAN NAVY 1879-2002
Pubished by Air Group 2000, Sofia, 2003, ISBN: 9547520539, 16.50x23.50, 224 pages, B&W illustrations, text in Bulgarian and short summaries in English - the best study in both languages, unfortunately the book is out of print and the quality of the illustrations is not the best.
See:
http://www.airgroup2000.com/eng/index.p ... _kom&id=10

Choni Chonev, Peter Skipp
THE BULGARIAN NAVY - Album book Year of Publishing: 2005 Issued by: Propeller Publishing House ISBN: 954-9367-21-5 Parallel texts in Bulgarian and English languages - rather limited edition, very good quality of illustrations, some mistakes throughout the text. Still available to buy online:
http://bulgariana.com/product_info.php? ... 0398400c4b
http://www.shopbulgaria.com/index.php?m ... &id=35&s=2

OOB
George F, Nafziger
BULGARIAN ORDER OF BATTLE IN WORLD WAR II
Published by the Nafziger Collection Inc., Ohio, 1995, ISBN 1-58454-020-0, Size: 9" x 11", No illustrations, 75 pages - An Organisational History of the Bulgarian Army 1939-1945 compiled on the basis on American army intelligence data from the WW2. The overall picture is correct, but the devil is in the details, where there are numerous mistakes and omissions. Nevertheless there is no other study on the subject so far.
See:
http://home.fuse.net/nafziger/WW2_ARMY.HTM


Vehicles:
Kaloyan Matev, Equipment and Armor in the Bulgarian Army Vol.2 "TRUCKS, TRACTORS AND AUTOMOBILES 1935 - 1945" ISBN 954-90587-8-6 , Published by Angela, Sofia, November 2001. 128 pages, soft cover, size: 24 x 16 cm, parallel text in English and Bulgarian. Another good eichly illustrated study, although not as comprehensive as the one on the armor. Nevertheless a must have. It is still available for orders online.
See:
http://bulgariana.com/product_info.php? ... 0398400c4b

P.S. If I find another book in English I'll put it above. So far the list is not impressive I'm not mentioning any Osprey titles, because so far there is not a single book from any of their series dedicated solely to Bulgaria and the sparse references found throughout their books (e.g. Axis Forces in Yugoslavia) about Bulgaria are at best dubious. I believe they simply think the topic is not interesting enough to be sold on the market...

[Horthy68_57]

Thank you.

[Ryan81]

I would also add "War and Collaboration" by Jozo Tomasevich. Massive book but brilliant.

[Andreas]

Here is an article on the foreign contribution to the campaign in the Soviet-Union, in German:

http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/top ... _rein.html

All the best

Andreas

[KACKO]

Website about Slovakia during in inter war period and WWII.
http://www.druhasvetova.sk/

And link to the English part of the website:
http://www.druhasvetova.sk/search.php?r ... &rstema=14
Idea to make English section started to be realized this week so so far only 2 articles are ready. We hope to translate soon more.

[Patzinak]

Two books on military collaboration inside the Axis:

Müller-Hillebrand, Burkhart
GERMANY AND ITS ALLIES IN WORLD WAR II: A RECORD OF AXIS COLLABORATION PROBLEMS. Classified Studies in Twentieth-Century Diplomatic and Military History. Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1980. ISBN 0890932042.

This is a valuable overview of the subject from the German perspective. Müller-Hillebrand himself was on OKH (1942–44), and cited among the contributors are German officers directly involved in working with their Axis partners, like Beust, Friessner, or von Rintelen. It's been long out of print, but it's worth reading if you can find it, not only for what it tries to say, but also for the occasional slips which speak volumes about the preconceptions of its German authors. (E.g., In spite of constant effort and a diligent application of good will, [...] the Slovakian officers in key positions [...] remained pro-Slavic [sic!] at heart." -- p. 187)

DiNardo, Richard L.
GERMANY AND THE AXIS POWERS: FROM COALITION TO COLLAPSE. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005. ISBN 0700614125.

DiNardo's study brings more depth, and, in many ways, it is a necessary corrective to Müller-Hillebrand's. A detailed review is available here
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=7211160422131

--Patzinak

[borsod]

This is my website. At the moment just hungarian, but the english version is under contruction.
http://kpzaszloalj.com/

[tonycorkovic]

Does anybody have recommendations for Croatia during WWII. Specifically Ustase and Crna Legija. Thank you.

[SteveWR]

On Hungary:

One is "The Siege of Budapest" by Ungvary; it was published in part earlier but the whole work came out in the US in about 2006; the ISBN number is 0300104685. It gives some good hsitorical background but might be confusing for someone unfamiliar with the general idea of what happened. It sometimes gets confusing whether so-and-so's 5th army is on the Russian side or the German, and sometimes is lacking in the map department, but it's otherwise a valuable book on a much-neglected topic.

"Memoirs" by Horthy - hear what spin Horthy himself puts on events. Must be read with a grain of salt, as with any other autobiography. He portrays himself as being reluctant to go to war with Russia, and as a Schindler-like figure who saved many Jews from certain death; both of these are only partly true. He tries to "humanize" himself by referring to the "port" and "starboard" sides of an automobile, and stresses his affinity for the Emporer Franz Joseph (and in fact mentions the old Emporer when he made his decision not to oppose by force the German takeover which was his own overthrow). The 2001 version has an interesting Epilogue.