Customer Reviews

The Battlefield: The Battle of Kursk

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The original series of "Battlefield" dealing with World War II, in addition to "Battlefield Vietnam" are probably the finest film documentaries on these wars ever made. They only deal with the large, strategic view of the war, not involving personal interviews or descriptions of small scale engagements. The idea is to view the major battles of the war as they were seen by the top decision makers. Emphasis is placed on the context of the battle being examined within the entire framework of the war. Thus, they are designed for an audience that has more than just a superficial interest in the subject.

Some years after the original Battlefield series on the Second World War was made, a new series was done, focusing on other campaigns. Unfortunately, it seems they were done on a shoestring because although the general scheme of the series is maintained, it is of generally lower quality. The maps look much more amateurish and there are numerous mispellings present. However, this episode on the epic Battle of Kursk is up to the standards of the originals and it gives a very good view of this battle. As I stated above, it shows how this engagement fits in with the battles that came both before and after, giving its context within the entire Second World War, something other documentaries fail to give.

The Battle of Kursk is one of the only later season episodes of the Battlefield Series that completely lives up to the high standards of the original episodes. The program's organization matches the logical approach used by the first season. The level of detail regarding the battle itself is impressive. Overall, one of my favorite episodes in what is definitely my favorite World War Two series.

Far superior coverage of this battle than any other source material I know of. (Like "The World At War" ) Uses not commonly seen B&W footage of acceptable quality. It covers all aspects of the battle's preparation and development. Such as a rundown on the generals and the armament. Most importantly, it keeps referring to the strategic implications of each main event during the preparation and development of the battle. For instance; it talks about "Lucy" the British intelligence operation that supported this battle. And how the ally invasion of Sicily influenced Hitler's decision to terminate operation "Citadel". Unfortunately, the plastic case has a disgusting smell I have noted in other cheap productions. I had to throw it out immediately! This is why I gave it a 4-stars, instead of a 5-stars.

If you ask most people what the largest land battle in human history was they most likely are to give you a blank stare or guess wrongly with some ancient battle in the past or mention one of the battles from WW1.Suprisingly to some,the largest battle in history was fought in 1943 in Russia at Kursk and this dvd covers the week battle in great detail and footage.This battle is of particulat interest to me as my family fought at Kursk for Germany so to watch it it is almost painful to think of what my grandfather must have experienced trying to push through 7 lines of Russian defenses during the battle.This dvd really tells the story rather well of the largest land battle in history and the most important battle of WW2.Kursk was not a important battle for the chance of a axis victory but the failure of victory at kursk guranteed the end of the Third Reich.After viewing Kursk one is left with such musings not unlike the thought of "What if General Lee had listened to Longstreet about not fighting at Gettysburg"...such thoughts of alternative histories on the Eastern front make interesting musings as Kursk was truly the Gettysburg of the Third Reich.

Kursk is one of the largest, if not the largest battle ever fought. 2,000,000 men, 6000 tanks, 1000's of aircraft.

The defenses around Kursk were 50 miles deep! This was the last major German offensive on the Russian front. It was fought in July 1943.

I learned quite a bit from the video. However, given the scale of the battle much more could have been - should have been presented. The air battles over Kursk lacked depth. The nature of the Russian defense could have been covered in greater detail. Very little is said of the logisitics of moving that many men and tanks and provisions to the battle. As I mentioned in the title, for a battle of this scale - 96 minutes gives a good overview but leaves the viewer wanting more information.

The Ferdinand Porsche-designed Elefant tank destroyer is featured with all its strengths and weaknesses. The epic tank-to-tank engagement at Prokhorovka is featured. The leaders and generals and order of battle and key weapons are featured. Several key generals' profiles are quite interesting. Zhukov, Konev, Rokosovsky, Von Manstein, Guderian, Model and a host of others are named. I still can't figure out if Hoth was intending to lead his tanks through the minefield.

The battlefield series is noted for its in-depth analysis and program structure. This video follows the same pattern as established in the Battlefield series. The narration in this episode seems less intense than others in the series. It also seems to lack the opening introduction and theme music which set the tone for the predecessors in the series.

Despite my criticisms, if you enjoy the series you will enjoy this edition on Kursk.

This is a good report of the development of one of the most important battles of the Eastern Front during WWII.

It is not a riveting narrative,though; in this aspect it is more of an academic explanation, methodic, not an action film.

There is a good description of the weapons and the forces deployed and also several scenes of actual combat operations.

A nice review of the Battle of Kursk.

Mauro Taschner

hey rat breath you can get this for under 15 bucks and your selling it for 49 bucks were you born stupid or did you have to actually learn how? oh and i am thinking your the result of cousins mating.