David Glantz
Encyclopedia
David M. Glantz is an American
military historian
and the editor of the Journal of Slavic Military Studies
.
Glantz received degrees in history from the Virginia Military Institute
and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Defense Language Institute
, Institute for Russian and Eastern European Studies, and U.S. Army War College
. He entered active service with the United States Army
in 1963.
during the Vietnam War
with the II Field Force Fire Support Coordination Element
(FSCE) at the "Plantation" in Long Binh
.
, Kansas
, from 1979 to 1983 and then Director of Soviet Army Operations at the Center for Land Warfare, U.S. Army War College in Carlisle
, Pennsylvania
, from 1983 to 1986. While at the College, Col. Glantz was instrumental in conducting the annual "Art of War" symposia which produced the best analysis of the conduct of operations on the Eastern Front
during the Second World War in English to date. The symposia included attendance of a number of former German participants in the operations, and resulted in publication of the seminal transcripts of proceedings. Returning to Fort Leavenworth in 1986, he helped found and later directed the U.S. Army’s Soviet (later Foreign) Military Studies Office (FMSO), where he remained until his retirement in 1993 with the rank of Colonel.
and Eastern Europe
as well as the former Soviet Union
.
A member of the Russian Federation’s Academy of Natural Sciences, he has written or co-authored more than twenty commercially published books, over sixty self-published
studies and atlases, and over one hundred articles dealing with the history of the Red (Soviet) Army, Soviet military strategy, operational art, and tactics, Soviet airborne operations, intelligence, and deception, and other topics related to World War II. In recognition of his work, he has received several awards, including the Society of Military History’s prestigious Samuel Eliot Morrison Prize for his contributions to the study of military history.
Glantz is regarded by many as one of the best western military historians of the Soviet role in World War II
. He is perhaps most associated with the thesis that World War II Soviet military history has been prejudiced in the West by its over-reliance on German oral and printed sources, without being balanced by a similar examination of Soviet source material. A more complete version of this thesis can be found in his paper “The Failures of Historiography: Forgotten Battles of the German-Soviet War (1941-1945).” Despite his acknowledged expertise, Glantz has occasionally been criticized for his stylistic choices, such as inventing specific thoughts and feelings of historical figures without reference to documented sources.
Glantz is also known as an opponent of Viktor Suvorov
's thesis
, which he endeavored to rebut with the book Stumbling Colossus.
He lives with his wife Mary Ann Glantz in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
. The Glantzes' daughter Mary E. Glantz, also a historian, has written FDR And The Soviet Union: The President's Battles Over Foreign Policy (ISBN 070061365X).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
military historian
Military history
Military history is a humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, their cultures, economies and changing intra and international relationships....
and the editor of the Journal of Slavic Military Studies
Journal of Slavic Military Studies
The Journal of Slavic Military Studies is a quarterly academic journal that publishes articles relating to military affairs of Central and Eastern Europe. It is published by Routledge....
.
Glantz received degrees in history from the Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Military Institute
The Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...
and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Defense Language Institute
Defense Language Institute
The Defense Language Institute is a United States Department of Defense educational and research institution, which provides linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other Federal Agencies and numerous and varied other customers...
, Institute for Russian and Eastern European Studies, and U.S. Army War College
U.S. Army War College
The United States Army War College is a United States Army school located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500 acre campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks...
. He entered active service with the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in 1963.
Military service
He began his military career in 1963 as a field artillery officer from 1965 to 1969, and served in various assignments in the United States, and in VietnamVietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
with the II Field Force Fire Support Coordination Element
Fire support coordination element
A fire support coordination element is a term used in the US Army to identify an element of military formation or unit organisation in which functions are directly related to positioning weapons and delivering their fire onto targets...
(FSCE) at the "Plantation" in Long Binh
Long Binh
Long Binh is a ward, in District 9 of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.-Long Binh Post:During the Vietnam War, Long Binh Post was located near Bien Hoa, Dong Nai province. Vietnam, 33km from Saigon . The base functioned as a U.S. Army base, logistics center, and major command headquarters for United...
.
Teaching career
After teaching history at the United States Military Academy from 1969 through 1973, he completed the army’s Soviet foreign area specialist program and became chief of Estimates in US Army Europe’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (USAREUR ODCSI) from 1977 to 1979. Upon his return to the United States in 1979, he became chief of research at the Army’s newly-formed Combat Studies Institute (CSI) at Fort LeavenworthFort Leavenworth
Fort Leavenworth is a United States Army facility located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, immediately north of the city of Leavenworth in the upper northeast portion of the state. It is the oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C. and has been in operation for over 180 years...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, from 1979 to 1983 and then Director of Soviet Army Operations at the Center for Land Warfare, U.S. Army War College in Carlisle
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The name is traditionally pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2010 census, the borough...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, from 1983 to 1986. While at the College, Col. Glantz was instrumental in conducting the annual "Art of War" symposia which produced the best analysis of the conduct of operations on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
during the Second World War in English to date. The symposia included attendance of a number of former German participants in the operations, and resulted in publication of the seminal transcripts of proceedings. Returning to Fort Leavenworth in 1986, he helped found and later directed the U.S. Army’s Soviet (later Foreign) Military Studies Office (FMSO), where he remained until his retirement in 1993 with the rank of Colonel.
Activity after retirement
In 1993, while at FMSO, he established The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, a scholarly journal for which he still serves as chief editor, that covers military affairs in the states of CentralCentral Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
as well as the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
A member of the Russian Federation’s Academy of Natural Sciences, he has written or co-authored more than twenty commercially published books, over sixty self-published
Self-publishing
Self-publishing is the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher. The author is responsible and in control of entire process including design , formats, price, distribution, marketing & PR...
studies and atlases, and over one hundred articles dealing with the history of the Red (Soviet) Army, Soviet military strategy, operational art, and tactics, Soviet airborne operations, intelligence, and deception, and other topics related to World War II. In recognition of his work, he has received several awards, including the Society of Military History’s prestigious Samuel Eliot Morrison Prize for his contributions to the study of military history.
Glantz is regarded by many as one of the best western military historians of the Soviet role in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He is perhaps most associated with the thesis that World War II Soviet military history has been prejudiced in the West by its over-reliance on German oral and printed sources, without being balanced by a similar examination of Soviet source material. A more complete version of this thesis can be found in his paper “The Failures of Historiography: Forgotten Battles of the German-Soviet War (1941-1945).” Despite his acknowledged expertise, Glantz has occasionally been criticized for his stylistic choices, such as inventing specific thoughts and feelings of historical figures without reference to documented sources.
Glantz is also known as an opponent of Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
's thesis
Soviet offensive plans controversy
The Soviet offensive plans controversy refers to the debate among historians on the question of whether Joseph Stalin was planning to invade Germany prior to Operation Barbarossa.-Background:...
, which he endeavored to rebut with the book Stumbling Colossus.
He lives with his wife Mary Ann Glantz in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The name is traditionally pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2010 census, the borough...
. The Glantzes' daughter Mary E. Glantz, also a historian, has written FDR And The Soviet Union: The President's Battles Over Foreign Policy (ISBN 070061365X).
Studies for the US Army
- Air University Review, March-April 1983, Soviet Offensive Ground Doctrine Since 1945
- 1984 Art of War symposium, From the Don to the Dnepr: Soviet Offensive Operations - December 1942 - August 1943, A transcript of Proceedings, Center for Land Warfare, US Army War College, 26–30 March 1984
- 1985 Art of War symposium, From the Dnepr to the Vistula: Soviet Offensive Operations - November 1943 - August 1944, A transcript of Proceedings, Center for Land Warfare, US Army War College, 29–3 May 1985
- 1986 Art of War symposium, From the Vistula to the Oder: Soviet Offensive Operations - October 1944 - March 1945, A transcript of Proceedings, Center for Land Warfare, US Army War College, 19–23 May 1986
- August Storm: The Soviet strategic offensive in Manchuria by David M.Glantz
- August Storm: Soviet Tactical and Operational Combat in Manchuria, 1945 by LTC David M. Glantz
- The Soviet Airborne Experience by LTC David M. Glantz
- Soviet Defensive Tactics at Kursk, July 1943 by COL David M. Glantz
Books
- Soviet Military Deception in the Second World War, Frank Cass, London, (1989) ISBN 0-7146-3347-X
- The role of intelligence in Soviet military strategy in World War II, Presidio Press, Novato, 1990 ISBN 0891413804
- Soviet military operational art: in pursuit of deep battleDeep operationsDeep battle was a military theory developed by the Soviet Union for its armed forces during the 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by a number of influential military writers, such as Vladimir Triandafillov and Mikhail Tukhachevsky who endeavoured to create a military strategy with its own...
, (1991) ISBN 0-7146-4077-8 - From the Don to the Dnepr: Soviet Offensive Operations, December 1942-August 1943 (1991) ISBN 0-7146-3350-X
- The Military Strategy of the Soviet Union: A History (1992) ISBN 0-7146-3435-2
- The History of Soviet Airborne Forces (1994) ISBN 0-7146-3483-2
- Soviet Documents on the Use of War Experience: The Winter Campaign, 1941-1942 (Cass Series on the Soviet Study of War, 2), David M. Glantz (Editor), Harold S. Orenstein (Editor)
- When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (1995) ISBN 0-7006-0717-X
- The Initial Period of War on the Eastern Front, 22 June - August 1941: Proceedings of the Fourth Art of War Symposium, Garmisch, October, 1987 (Cass Series on Soviet Military Experience, 2), edited by Colonel David M. Glantz, Routledge, (1997) ISBN 978-0714642987
- Stumbling Colossus: The Red Army on the Eve of World War (1998) ISBN 0-7006-0879-6
- Kharkov 1942: Anatomy of a Military Disaster (1998) ISBN 1-885119-54-2
- Reviewed by John EricksonJohn Erickson (historian)John Erickson was a British historian who wrote extensively on the Second World War...
in The Journal of Military History, Vol. 63, No. 2 (April, 1999), pp. 482–483
- Reviewed by John Erickson
- Zhukov's Greatest Defeat: The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942" (1999) ISBN 0-7006-0944-X
- Foreword to Forging Stalin's Army: Marshal Tukhachevsky And The Politics Of Military Innovation by Sally Stoecker
- The Battle of Kursk (1999) ISBN 0-7006-0978-4
- Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941 (2001) ISBN 0-7524-1979-X
- Captured Soviet Generals: The Fate of Soviet Generals Captured by the Germans, 1941-1945, Aleksander A. Maslov, edited and translated by David M. Glantz and Harold S. Orenstein, Routledge; 1 edition (2001), ISBN 978-0714651248
- The Siege of Leningrad, 1941-1944: 900 Days of Terror (2001) ISBN 0-7603-0941-8
- Belorussia 1944: The Soviet General Staff Study, Soviet Union Raboche-Krestianskaia Krasnaia Armiia Generalnyi Shtab, Glantz, David M. (Editor), Orenstein, Harold S. (Editor), Frank Cass & Co, 2001 ISBN 978-0714651026
- The Battle for Leningrad, 1941-1944 (2002) ISBN 0-7006-1208-4
- Before Stalingrad: Barbarossa, Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941 (Battles & Campaigns), Tempus, 2003 ISBN 978-0752426921
- Battle for the Ukraine: The Korsun'-Shevchenkovskii Operation (Soviet (Russian) Study of War), Frank Cass Publishers, 2003 ISBN 0714652784
- The Soviet Strategic Offensive in Manchuria, 1945: August Storm (2003) ISBN 0-7146-5279-2
- Atlas and operational summary : the border battles, 22 June-1 July 1941; daily situation maps prepared by Michael Avanzini, Publisher: David Glantz, 2003
- Hitler and His Generals: Military Conferences 1942-1945: The First Complete Stenographic Record of the Military Situation Conferences, from Stalingrad to Berlin, Helmut Heiber and David M. Glantz editors (English edition), Enigma Books; (2005) ISBN 978-1929631285
- Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War, 1941-1943 (2005) ISBN 0-7006-1353-6
- Companion to Colossus Reborn: Key Documents and Statistics (2005) ISBN 0-7006-1359-5
- Red Storm Over the Balkans: The Failed Soviet Invasion of Romania, Spring 1944 (2006) ISBN 0-7006-1465-6
- Stalingrad: How the Red Army Survived the German Onslaught, Casemate Publishers and Book Distributors, Jones, Michael K. (Author), Glantz, David M. (Foreword) 2007 ISBN 978-1932033724
- To the Gates of Stalingrad: Soviet-German Combat Operations, April-August 1942 (The Stalingrad Trilogy, Volume 1) (Modern War Studies) with Jonathan M. House, University Press of Kansas, 2009
- Armageddon in Stalingrad: September-November 1942 (The Stalingrad Trilogy, Volume 2) (Modern War Studies) with Jonathan M. House, University Press of Kansas, 2009
See also
- Operation BarbarossaOperation BarbarossaOperation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
- Soviet offensive plans controversySoviet offensive plans controversyThe Soviet offensive plans controversy refers to the debate among historians on the question of whether Joseph Stalin was planning to invade Germany prior to Operation Barbarossa.-Background:...
- Eastern Front (WWII)
- Siege of LeningradSiege of LeningradThe Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...
- Red ArmyRed ArmyThe Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
- Battle of KurskBattle of KurskThe Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...
- SlavisticsSlavisticsSlavic studies or Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, Slavic languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was primarily a linguist or philologist who researches Slavistics, a Slavic or Slavonic scholar...
External links
- Interview with David Glantz
- The Journal of Slavic Military Studies
- http://www.mpr.co.uk/archive/schedule/JSMS.HTM - Archived contents of Journal of Soviet Military Studies 1988-92
- http://www.strom.clemson.edu/publications/sg-war41-45.pdf - Myths and Realities paper by David Glantz