Customer Reviews

Kursk 1943: The Tide Turns In The East (Campaign)

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This book was excellent in terms of its overview of the battle. It has excellent maps of the the individual parts of this battle. Also, the pictures and drawings are excellent. Unfortunately, this book needs to be updated because it refers to Zhukov several times as being undefeated in battle and from recently released information and publications we now know this assertion to be false. Zhukov's operation Mars was a huge military disater for the soviets and Zhukov's part in the planning of the battle was subsequently covered up(see Glantz, Operation Mars). Other than this imperfection, the book is a good source of the nuts and bolts of the battle.

Another fine publication from Osprey, this one is a concise coverage of the battle of the Kursk salient. Strategy of the German offense and the Russian defense are detailed, and colorful "3-D" battle maps are provided for every step of the campaign. There are bios of leaders, archival photos, descriptions of equipment, and color plates of military uniforms and hardware. Kursk has in the past been defined as a German loss rather than a Russian success. Osprey presents it as a definitive Soviet victory, critical to the outcome of the War.

Kursk 1943 : Tide Turns in the East (Osprey Military Campaign Series, No 16) by Mark Healy is a fine short history of one of the critical battles on the Russian front.. Healy's writing keeps the reader centered on the battle and the whys and therefores. What is the strongest part of the book is the discussion of what each participant knew and didn't know. For instance, a critical failure of the Nazi offensive was their failure to realize the depth of the Russian defenses.

Healy's lead up to the battle is compelling. The conflict between the suggested strategy by the German generals of a mobile defense and Hitler's Operation Citadel is another example of Hitler's imposed "strategy" losing the war for the Germans.

This is one of the better books in the Osprey Military Campaign Series. The maps are excellent and after the book is finished one has an appreciation of the climatic battle.

I suppose it kind of depends whether one is a seasoned historian with degrees, an Eastern Front expert, or an amateur student of history merely interested in the material. I am the latter, and I can say without any reservation that this book is absolutely outstanding, for its brief format a fantastic chronicle of one of the greatest battles of all time. In its bare bones, the book is an excellent record of the various operational moves of the forces involved in the Battle of Kursk. If you want to know who did what and when, this is the book to get. This is especially true if, like me, one is a novice to the history of the battle. The Battle of Kursk was a colossal struggle, an extremely complex battle and one not easily comprehensible, between enormous army groups striking each other in a nexus of small villages and winding rivers, which are not in the immediate knowledge base of the average history buff. Healy presents the tactical blueprint and chronology of the battle seamlessly and flawlessly, so that the ordinary reader with a minimum of knowledge about the Eastern Front can readily comprehend the intricate and interconnecting web of thrust and parry between huge Wehrmacht and Soviet forces. Moreover, I must take the opportunity to commend unreservedly the spectacular force distribution maps, which present the various forces making their assaults and defenses over the unfamiliar geography and facilitate as nothing else a true understanding of the battle. Healy also presents decisive "battles inside the battle" in 3-D full color physical maps which emphasize in the reader's memory the vital lynchpin engagements within this mammoth struggle which ultimately helped determine its final outcome--such as the fights for Cherkasskoye, Ponyri, and of course the final denouement at Prokhorovka. I've heard criticism of this book state that Healy uncovers no new information about the battle and only parrots secondhand sources. To be honest, however, I must confess that I can't see how any true student of the Eastern Front or the Second World War could afford not to own it. This is because the book does such a superb job in helping the average reader like myself understand the complicated contest of move and countermove(the Germans did most of the moving while the Russians remained static for the most part) that composed this monumental battle. Healy is not lacking in tactical insight, either--he describes the different tactical approaches of Model and Manstein in their operational assault plans, and describes also the strengths and weaknesses(particularly Vatutin's) of the Russian force dispositions in the salient. He also does an excellent job in placing the Kursk battle within the entire context of the Eastern Front in summer 1943, and describes how German strategic thinking first posited the Kursk battle as a local offensive designed to deal the Soviets a decisive blow which would decimate their strength and demolish the offensive capacity of the Red Army for perhaps the rest of the war. The Germans would then have the free hand to go for the win on the Eastern front or opt for a defensive standoff which would end in a negotiated peace. Healy then explains how this concept of the Kursk offensive in the German mind gathered an irresistible and cataclysmic momentum of its own, sucking in entire army groups and practically two-thirds of the entire Ostheer so that in the end, the whole fate of Barbarossa and even the Second World War would be decided in the salient. I feel that this book, although perhaps not shedding any new information about the battle, nevertheless is a superb work, especially for the novice to the history of the Eastern Front; it facilitates a true understanding of Kursk in depth and some detail, and indeed performs that task, I believe, better than any work in the field yet published.

I received this book today and was extremely satisfied with how it describes the battle. Much more than I anticipated is revealed with the turn of each page. Data tables are precise and maps flawless. Especially interesting was the fact the Tigers of Army Detachment Kempf were unable to reach Prohkorovka to help in the outcome.Also, how strong the Soviet defences were and how minefields took a terrible toll on the panzers and just how costly the campain was to both sides.

IN A NUTSHELL: PRESENTED IN A MOST VISUAL MANNER TO AID UNDERSTANDING

Most everything that has a bearing on understanding this enormous battle is enumerated, mapped, graphed and/or illustrated, making this relatively-small book read like a sort of PBS-TV documentary.

THE 1st Chapter ["The Origins of the Battle"] STARTS OUT WITH A MAP OF THE "KURSK SALIENT" followed by a description of the current situation and a discussion of the origins of the battle -- or, more to the point, WHY HERE AND WHY NOW?

The 2nd Chapter ["The Opposing Commanders"] gives brief biographies with pictures of the commanding officers on both sides. This background information aids understanding of some of the actions taken and orders given later when the battle seemed difficult to comprehend.

The 3rd Chapter ["The Opposing Armies"] details the men and machines that were to fight at Kursk. This includes a comparson of the armor and tanks and the Luftwaffe too. Charts and illustrations are used.

The 4th Chapter ["Plans and Preparations"] presents the aims of both armies. Obviously, the Soviet goals and objectives were different than the German. Perhaps, more importantly, the Soviets had a much better grasp of the current situation than the Germans. As a result, they were better prepared for the unexpected contingencies of the battle. This chapter clearly shows how the Germans made a number of errors in judgment, not the least of which was to depend so heavily on a untested tank [the Panther] which still needed some time to work out its kinks. True, the Panther tank was probably the most-advanced and most-formidable medium tank of World War II, but at Kursk, it was to suffer defeat in greater numbers from mechanical failures rather than by Soviet attacks.

The 5th Chapter ["The Battle"] takes up more than half the book. Maps are constantly used to pinpoint the action and the re-actions, which were almost too numerous to track. We are shown where and when strategic actions occurred which greatly impacted both the outcome of the battle and the war. There are numerous battles within the "Battle of Kursk," and many of these are itemized as accurately and comprehensively as possible for an Eastern Front campaign.

In the end, the German losses were greater than the Soviet losses. So began the final battle of attrition for the Third Reich. Just how Operation "Citadel" turned against the Germans is precisely and concisely what this book addresses. In my opinion, the conciseness of this text along with the very helpful graphics make this book a 5-Star pick for anyone interested in the reasons for the outcome of World War II, and particularly in the details of the clash between the Soviet Union and the Third Reich.

Osprey does its usual excellent job in this short manual, an overview of the buildup to the battle of Kursk, the battle itself, and then a short capsule on its meaning and aftermath.

Osprey's long suit has always been outstanding graphics, a wealth of detailed illustrations and pictures, and maps that you can actually use and refer to while reading the text, and this volume is up to that standard. The text itself, though short, is remarkably balanced and sober, and the battle comes to life in an almost day-by-day account once it is kicked off. Meanwhile, we get short looks at the opposing armies, strategies, leaders, and weaponry, as well as the general grand strategic situation during the summer of 1943.

For a short treatment, this volume does an excellent job of getting the reader to understand generally what went on, and why.

Kursk was one of the major deciding battles along the Nazi Eastern Front in World War II. many books have been written about Kursk, and one who approaches the subject for the first time can get overwhelmed. This book is a great "first introduction" to the battle. It's wonderfully illustrated, has succinct but thorough discussions or the key leaders, the strategy and the size and composition of the opposing forces,and some nicely detailed maps. In the ninety pages of applicable discussion there is a wealth of photographs of both equipment and personnel of both sides. My one complaint is that the maps aren't uniformly oriented toward north: it takes a while to reorient from one map, showing Nazi force deployment to another map, showing Soviet force deployment. To make it more interesting, no orientation is shown on any of the maps: I had to spend quite a bit of time chasing down rivers and towns to try and understand what was happening where. However, that's part of the learning exercise.

Healy's book is like most others in the Osprey series: it is a bland, uneven overview of the battle, and contains several important errors. Healy includes some "thumbnail sketches" of the German and Soviet commanders (including the erroneous assertion that Zhukov was undefeated). He also includes a broad overview of the forces involved, offering much more detail for German units than Russian (indicating a lack of effort on Healy's part to do research). The description of the battle is so brief that many of the important features (the German lack of infantry, the Soviet elastic defense, the German decisions during the battle, and the Soviet counteroffensive on the flanks) go untouched. The reader thus gets a very narrow perspective, which is even more focused by the highlighting of three clashes (at Ponyri on the north face, the Grossdeutschland break-in with its ill-fated Panthers, and the clash at Prokhorovka). The rest of the battle of Kursk gets very short shrift, and thus the three highlighted battles are completely without context. Further, it is apparent that Healy relied on Caidin's "The Tigers are Burning" to describe the events at Prokhorovka, and much of the information provided is thus incorrect. This causes a curious contradiction, as Healy correctly identifies tank strengths for the Germans early in the book, yet massively overstates those strengths later.

Despite these problems, the "3D" maps that are the selling point of this series are quite good. Further, my comments above may not be completely fair, as this book (and the series as a whole) is aimed at wargamers. For the purposes of setting up scenarios and games of the three highlighted battles, the book will do an adequate job. The 3D maps will provide information for creating a battlefield on the tabletop, and the orders of battles will provide opposing forces to "duke it out". Beyond this, however, the book is of marginal utility, and wargamers should not rely on it to provide historical information and analysis.

I bought this book for the maps, hoping to get a better visualization of the in depth lines of defenses dug in by the Soviets. In this, I was somewhat disappointed. There are three 3-D maps which help show the terrain, but with red (Soviet) and blue (German) arrows or lines representing the positions, it was not as helpful as I wished. Perhaps cut-aways would have been better, or close up drawings of a soviet defensive position showing the mines, AT guns, infantry trenches and dug in tanks.

However, the rest of the book does make up for this. There are some very nice color drawings of the Tiger tank (taken from the old Vanguard series), Panther, KV-1 tanks, infantry from both sides and even planes showing camouflage schemes used. Some of the photos are grainy, but give you a pretty good idea of what was happening. Many data tables help the reader see the sizes and numbers of troops, weapons deployed by each side.

The narrative is brief, but covers both sides reviewing the pre battle planning, execution and what went wrong for both sides. I agree completely with the author's conclusion that Kursk was not a battle lost by the Germans, but absolutely preordained by the vast Soviet quantitative and in many cases, qualitative superiority in numbers, tanks, artillery and planes.

The last chapter is almost as historical as the battle - it describes board games (that's what war gamers used before the internet and computer games). How to organize, run them, use of the telephone(!) in running multiplayer games. Published in 1993, more has since been written about this battle, indeed, it was even on the History Channel not long ago. This is a very good book on an extremely important battle of WW2. Kursk was the last offensive ever launched by the Germans against the Soviets; it was Germany's death ride from which they would retreat all the way back to Berlin.