Matthew Menneke is a military historian and former serviceman in the Australian Army. Matthew is also the founder of On The Front Tours, which is a tour guide company specialising solely in Second World War tours in and around Berlin.
One of the tours Matthew runs is a tour of the Halbe Pocket, so naturally I wanted to hear his views on the battle. We talked about everything from the ethics of warfare and the terrible impact the fighting in the pocket had on civilians, to the politics of remembrance and the way the Halbe area is still feeling the impact of the fighting – 80 years on.
Hi David, in my earlier post on Spotify I mentioned Paul Carroll’s books, it was a typo and should read Paul Carell. I can’t reply on Spotify so I’m replying this way. It seems that I’m only allowed to make one comment on Spotify.
Have you read any of his books? They don’t cover Berlin though, only Barbarossa to Bagration.
Thanks
Stephen
Hi Stephen, thanks for the message. I haven’t read any of Paul Carell’s books and I won’t be reading them as they are commonly viewed as being quite inaccurate and biased regarding the role of the Wehrmacht during the war.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Eastern Front there are a host of great books out there, including the many works of Prit Buttar. I can really recommend Prit’s books if you haven’t read them yet.
Thanks,
David