The Carpathians loomed large — not just a mountain range, but a tomb for an army.
In Carpathian Disaster: Death of an Army, Geoffrey Jukes presents the tragic tale of the Russian campaign through the Carpathian Mountains, where hopes for a strategic breakthrough turned into a march of suffering. Faced with treacherous passes, biting winter cold, overstretched supply lines, and determined Austro-Hungarian defenders, the Russian forces paid a horrifying toll for miscalculation and hubris.
This illustrated classic of the Ballantine’s “Violent Century” series brings together maps, eyewitness testimony, and stark imagery to show how one of the Great Powers stumbled early in World War I — not because of lack of courage, but because nature, logistics, and planning became insurmountable adversaries. It is a story of ambition turned bitter, of leaders forced to choose between retreat and sacrifice, of ordinary soldiers caught in an unforgiving landscape.
For anyone drawn to military history, especially the lesser-told tragedies of the Eastern Front, this volume reminds us that the cost of war is not only measured in victories, but in the silence that follows defeat.