Customer Reviews

Images of Kursk: History's Greatest Tank Battle, July 1943 (Photographic Histories)

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I have been interested in the battle of Kursk for many years. I try to pick up anything I can about the battle hoping to glean some new facts. I ran into this title, Images of Kursk and decided to purchase it due to the interesting photos from the Russian perspective. After reading through the dry text which is really just a rehash or compilation of other books on the subject, I was not impressed. If you really want pictures from the Russian perspective, then this is a book you would want. If you are looking for new photos from the German perspective, dont get it. And if you are looking for interesting facts on Kursk, and dont already have reference material, then this is also a good summary book. But I found most of the text was a quotation from some other source I already had!

The book gives a good introduction too Russian and German artillery and tanks. After that it simply tells you that some corps attacked another with x amount of casualties on so and so day. Without any maps, (the book only has two), this long narrative is quite useless to the reader. Furthermore most of the authors conversions from kilometers to miles and meters to yards are incorrect, I found this quite disconcerting. I still found the book an easy read though, however this is probably because I don't mind reading about one attack after another written in laundry list fashion. Without maps though the reader will never remember any of the tactical situations described in the narrative. It is for these reasons that I gave the book only two stars.

The title of this book is completely misleading. It should be called "Soviet Propaganda Images of Kursk." The book is chock-a-block full of images relating to Kursk, but 80% or more of the pictures are from the Soviet perspective and most of these are obvious propaganda photos of German prisoners, destroyed German tanks and other armored vehicles, dead German soldiers, captured German weapons, "heroic" Soviet soldiers, Soviet partisans, Soviet officers, Soviet T-34s aplenty, etc.

Some of the chapters appear to have no photos at all from the German perspective. Exceptions are a chapter on re-arming the Wehrmacht in preparation for the battle and a chapter on the SS spearhead operations. But this only discloses that the author could have provide a more balanced photographic perspective but purposefully chose not to do so. Oddly enough, there isn't a single photo from the German perspective in the chapter on the great tank battle near Prokhorovka, 12 July 1943.

The book's saving grace is that the Soviet photos were previously unpublished and that does help enlighten the reader about the Soviet forces, particularly the unappreciated widespread use of Soviet women in the Red Army and the underpublicized vast numbers of tanks and other vehicles the Soviets received from the Allies (by mid-1943, the USA alone had shipped over 100,000 military vehicles to the Russians), without which the outcome of this battle (and many others to come) may have changed.

The book even includes photos of the Soviets anti-tank attack dogs, which were armed with bombs and trained, Pavlovian style, to run under tanks looking for food. Unfortunately for the starving dog, as it went under the tank a trip wire exploded the bombs, killing the dog. Unfortunately for the Soviets, the dogs could not be trained to distinquish a German tank from a Russian tank and the dogs often ran back into the Russian lines exploding themselves under Russian tanks, taking out the Soviet tank and crew as well. Because of this, the Soviets eventually gave up on anti-tank dogs.

The book is divided into chapters from the build-up by both sides to the battle, the battle itself, and advances by the Soviets after the battle, when the Germans had to retreat back to their original lines and then beyond them, due in part to Hitler's decision to pull off the attack and transfer divisions to Italy to counter the Allied invasion of Sicily.

The book is well-written to the extent the reader is informed of the deployment of troops on each side during each stage of the battle, but there are only a couple of maps provided in the whole book and unless you're familiar with the battle it is hard to follow along. A map should have been included with each chapter, showing the status of the battle, troop movements, German advances, and the Soviet rings of defense, which were over 100 miles (180 km) deep and contained about 1.3 million soldiers.

The book is also somewhat misleading to the extent the reader is given the impression that the Germans are continuously suffering large losses (true) but the Russians are not (untrue). In fact, it is generally believed that in this battle the ratio of Russians killed to Germans killed was about 4:1. The ratio for Russian tank and other armor losses to German armor losses was even greater, about 5:1. The problem, of course, is that the Germans did not have the resources to replace such heavy losses, while the Russians did.

Filled from cover to cover with black-and-white photographs, Images Of Kursk: History's Greatest Tank Battle, July 1943 by Nik Cornish is a gritty, compellingly accurate, point-by-point dissection of the pivotal tank battle of World War II, between Russian and German forces from beginning to end. Vivid details, sobering statistics, and personal eye-witness testimonies enhance the text of this unforgettable and very highly recommended study of a crucial piece of World War II military history.

This was my first reading of the battle of Kursk. Most of my preconceptions about the battle was that it was a running series of tank battles over the Russian steppes. I was amazed that it was really about German attacks over pre-dispositioned Soviet defenses and then counterattacks. Okay, what little I knew was run over (pun intended). For most of the text I believe that the photographs were very appropriate. At the very least plausible. I bought this book because I wanted to know more about "the battle" and I gained a lot of perspective about it. The pictures are worth a thousand words and more. You don't have to be an expert to gain some of the "experience" these pictures have to tell.

Ultimately this book is about geography. Pictures are wonderful, but unless they are from satellites, they don't do much for placing you there. Maps with the PLACE NAMES and the inevitable broad arrows would be extremely wonderful and informative for this particular book. Did I enjoy it? Yes. No doubt. Did I wind up with a good idea of how the battle took place? No. I was so lost I thought I was in Los Angeles. The book is not misleading, it is about images, but in my mind it is written for geography, and a revision is needed with maps (and arrows).

This book is fundamentally successful because it creates a hunger to know more.

The title of this book says what it is, pictures from the battlefiend at Kursk. We have all heard of Kursk, the biggest tank battle ever, the fact that the Germans, more or less had to attack this bulge in their lines, and the Russians knowing they were coming fortifying the area up to a depth of a hundred miles.

What has been difficult to find was pictures of what was going on there at the time. And this book provides those pictures, and in spades. I don't have a count but guess that there are 300 pictures, almost none of which had I seen in other books. These pictures show what could not really be described

a unit of Russian women soldiers marching somewhere with all of their rifle receivers covered with an obviously specially made canvas guard, to keep out the rain I suppose.

a knocked out T-34 right next to a German Mk IV, both of them showing a lot of twisted up metal that indictes the relative forces being used in the fighting.

Shot up equipment by the ton.

Soldiers, of both sides, glad to still be allive.

This book is only a couple of hundred pages long, but if each picture is worth a thousnd words, it is a huge volume. Fascinating photographs.

"Images of Kursk: History's Greatest Tank Battle, July 1943", by Nikolas Cornish, provides over 300 pictures about the build-up, the battle of Kursk itself, and aftermath of the battle (also known from the German side as Operation Citadel). Additionally, the author provides a good summary of the German and Soviet sides, along with covering the battle itself. The text isn't detailed enough to replace the books on the battle by other authors, such as David Glantz or Mark Healy, but it does a good job as a companion to the pictures.

The majority of the pictures are from the Soviet side ... I'd guess about three-quarters. This is a good thing, mind you, as most works on Kursk are heavily tilted toward photographs taken by the Germans. While many are the typical posed shots, there are also many excellent spontaneous pictures of soldiers and equipment. Most interesting to me were several shots of the tank dogs that the Russians trained to wear an explosive harness and run under a tank (while looking for food), at which point the explosives would detonate with deleterious effects to both the tank and the dog.

My only problem with the book is that there were no maps to accompany the textual descriptions of the battle, so it's a bit hard to follow along. While this is not a fatal flaw, it detracts a little from the book. However, I would not let that lack keep you from buying the book if you have an interest in the Battle of Kursk, particularly if you want to see new images from the Soviet Side.

Lot of photograph very good quality but many are some soviet propaganda!Not real!
If you like the soviet army.

Images Of Kursk was never intended to be a detailed comprehensive account of the Famous battle, it is primarily a photographic reference with a general overview of the battle. It is well worth the price of admission, and a worthy addition to any WWII library, especially for those who are interested in the Russian-German conflict.

If you are interested in WWII tank battles on the Eastern Front, this is a must have book. There are pictures here, descriptive maps and accounts not to be found elsewhere. Highly recommended reading and collecting.