Customer Reviews

Last Victory in Russia: The SS-Panzerkorps and Manstein's Kharkov Counteroffensive - February-March 1943

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Last Victory in Russia is a well written detail-oriented look at the last great achievement of the German Armed Forces in World War Two  the defense and retaking of the Eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov. *A battle so vicious it produced more casualties than all American losses during the entire Vietnam war *. Knowing how badly he was outnumbered, outgunned and outsupplied, General Manstein assembled 4 of the most battle-worthy and prestigious combat divisions the German Wermacht could field for his operation  the SS divisions Leibstandarte, Das Reich, and Totenkopf, and the elite Army division Grossdeutschland. In February of 1943 General Manstein unleashed the fury of his SS divisions on the 4 massive Russian armies defending the recently captured city of Kharkov. Employing the same rapid-fire, encirclement tactics used to such stunning success in the early stages of the Barbarossa campaign in 1941, Manstein and Haussers SS divisions slashed, stomped and sliced their way through the ocean of Russian defensive works and retook Kharkov. Once the pincer movement of the mechanized battle groups on the outskirts of the battle zone were complete, Hausers SS divisions slowly ground the stunned Russian armies against the waiting Grossdeutschland and Leibstandarte divisions, which acted as an anvil. So complete was the defeat, and carried out with such ferocity, the Soviet high command re-thought the way it conducted both offensive and defensive maneuvers for the entire remainder of the war. The author of Last Victory in Russia, George Nipe, does a brilliant job of detailing the monumental task that faced Manstein and Hausser when it came to organizing the German offensive aimed at retaking Kharkov. With a flare for recreating the moment, Nipe reveals the logistical nightmare that Kharkov was for the Germans, and just how determined the German High Command was to retake the city. Nipes work is at once analytical and detail-oriented, but not so much so that the average history buff will drown in statistics. Nipe brings forth the human element in his work  something many other books in the WWII genre seem to lack. For the battle of Kharkov is really about men, hundreds of thousands of men. The definitive work on this important battle, and absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in military history. The book takes a while to be delivered and is printed in limited numbers, but its worth the wait if Amazon can track down a copy for you!

I'm great fan of Nipe's book. His "Decision in the Ukraine" is another good read.

This is book for WWII buffs, casual reader do not have a chance to finish it ;-) But those interested in history of great struggle in the Donbas and around Kharkow in January-March 1943 won't be disappointed.

The main stress is laid on SS PanzerKorps and its achievements. Soviets and Wehrmacht have been devoted less space , thou it is still unbelivably detailed.

The main weakness of this book (apart from price) is lack of good maps. What we get is reproduction of original german maps. This is unfortunately not enough.

All in all very good book.

Look, the Wehrmacht did win a huge, improbable victory here. I'd suggest getting over it, folks. I also think it's laughable that people consider Soviet sources to be, in any way, reliable. The simple fact is that, division for division, the Wehrmacht was many times more effective than the Soviets ever were.

I consider Glantz to be a historical revisionist with an agenda to "correct" our lack of appreciation of Soviet military prowess. And yet, look at the facts.

1. The Soviets had exactly one enemy to defeat. The Germans: America, Britain, France, Russia. The Germans were fighting a sprawling global conflict and were being bombed day and night. No Lend-Lease. Hugely outnumbered and out-resourced.

2. It took the Soviets from Jan 43 to Mar 45 to accomplish what the Wehrmacht did in 4 months. It would have taken much longer but for the madman Hitler's interference in operational - even tactical - affairs.

3. No amount of propaganda can conceal the facts and figures of the conflict. The Take-Home: The Germans did a lot more with a lot less. Just because that doesn't comply with your version of political correctness ("fairness to the Soviets") doesn't mean I have to suspend my ability to analyze the situation.

4. While the SS officers fit the Nazi stereotype, the enlisted were usually deluded-but-enthusiastic foreign volunteers (since the Heer forbade the SS from recruiting within Germany itself).

5. The Waffen SS was skilled and valorous. Get over it. So was Shaka Zulu, and he was an insane murderer. You don't have to like something to respect it - and most importantly, learn from it.

6. BTW, this is a great book. :-)

Lastly, two quotes:

Fas est et ab hoste doceri (It is right to learn, even from the enemy). - Ovid

There are two differences between the IDF and the Wehrmacht: We will not persecute Jews, and we will not lose. - Ariel Sharon

Unlike 'a customer', I love this book. It gives the Waffen-SS due credit for their part, beginning at Kharkov, in preventing Stalin's armies from getting to the Atlantic coast in 1944 and therefore rendering any Western invasion pointless.

Any fool can blather about SS Totenkopf and the camps-not many point out that, without the efforts of the SS divisions in Russia from 1943 onwards, the Red Army and the NKVD that accompanied it would have been occupying Europe and would have been busy killing and 'Gulaging' most of Europe that didn't agree with them. Hitler killed 6 million and perhaps SS Totenkopf did play a part, but how many of the opposing NKVD troops participated in the 40 million killed by Stalin?

Leave the politics out and concentrate on enjoying some of the best Russian Front military history around from a German perspective-it is worth it, and George Nipe is a genius.

The fighting around Kharkov in February-March 1943 provided one of the most dramatic but least well-known campaigns of the Second World War. After Stalingrad, the Soviets pushed westward and came very close to winning the war in the southern Ukraine in the opening months of 1943. However, the German Wehrmacht, under the leadership of Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein, demonstrated an amazing ability to recover from disaster and mounted an amazing counteroffensive of its own - immortalized as the famous `backhand blow' - that turned the tables and regained the initiative. The centerpiece of von Manstein's counteroffensive was the SS-Panzerkorps, comprised of the three `classic' Waffen SS Divisions - Leibstandarte, Das Reich and Totenkopf. Last Victory in Russia is primarily based on captured German operational documents from the National Archives (NARA) in College Park, but does include some other material from German veterans' accounts. Throughout, the author's narrative is meticulous, describing actions on a day-to-day basis. Overall, this book fills a crucial niche in Second World War history and it does it fairly well, but it still falls considerably short of what it could have been. The two largest problems with this book are lack of balance and lack of adequate maps to follow the author's combat narrative.

Basing a book about the East Front strictly on German sources was how history used to be written in the 1970s, but that method is becoming outdated, particularly with the opening of some Soviet archives. The failure to include any real material (or even photos) from the Soviet side makes this a very one-sided account. Books like this can easily fall into the trap of carrying the water for wartime propaganda by presenting an idealized view of `heroic' Germans fighting faceless Bolshevik hordes. Indeed, the book is replete with one photo after another of handsome young SS officers, looking dashing with all their medals and deaths head insignia. The only photos of Soviets in the book are of dead bodies or knocked out T-34 tanks. After awhile, it gets pretty sickening, because you can almost hear the author cheering the Waffen SS on. The author also goes out of his way to point out Soviet atrocities against prisoners, but when he must mention that SS troops routinely executed prisoners he excuses them by saying that there was no other choice for fast-moving mobile troops and that, "Allied soldiers shot unarmed German prisoners at times." The fact is that the Third Reich deliberately embarked upon a war of extermination in the Soviet Union and its standard bearers, the Waffen SS, butchered millions of its citizens, so its is pretty asinine hearing SS veterans complain about Soviet troops refusing them quarter.

The second major problem with this book is the maps, or lack of. First, there is no strategic orientation type map and no effort to show the objectives of the twin Soviet offensives, Star and Gallop, that Manstein was trying to stop. Readers will simply have to purchase David Glantz's From the Don to the Dnepr to fill in those gaps. Indeed, the first map does not appear until page 74, which will certainly help to confuse any reader who is not intimately familiar already with this campaign. The author also made the poor choice to use only German period maps and only from the SS-Panzerkorps; these maps do not generally show non-SS German units, or any Soviet units and have no scale. Unless you are up on German WW2 map symbology, these maps won't help much. Furthermore, much of the printing on these maps is so tiny that I had to use a magnifying glass to read the names of towns. For the general reader, the maps are totally inadequate to follow the author's campaign narrative, which although very good at points, quickly becomes an opaque mush of German units moving here and there. Along the way, lots of T-34s get shot up.

This is not to say that this is a bad book - in many senses it is well-researched and events are laid out in great detail. The escape of the German 320. Infanterie Division and the exploits of Kampfgruppe Peiper are superbly told and very gripping. However, the centerpiece action, the recapture of Kharkov by the SS-Panzerkorps, is a bit boring and the failure to provide any maps showing the fighting inside the city will make the reader wish this section would just end. The author provides a short conclusion, which discusses casualties a bit then his assessment that the role of the SS-Panzerkorps in this battle was "the crowning achievement of the Waffen SS" in the Second World War. Applause please. Historical writing is supposed to be as dispassionate and objective as possible but this author's obvious intent to lionize the SS-Panzerkorps makes that impossible, which reduces this well-researched book to hagiography rather than history. It may not be clear to many readers, but since I also use the archives at NARA, it is clear that the author primarily skimmed the operational records (Kriegstagebuch and Ia records), but really didn't include anything from the intelligence or quartermaster records. Since he keeps mentioning SS units running out of fuel and ammunition, it would have been great to see some details on how they kept this offensive going. Likewise, the Ic (intelligence) records could have revealed what the Germans knew about their opponents and some of the POW interrogations in these records are quite good. Overall, this book is a welcome addition to any East Front library, but it should be read in conjunction with David Glantz books in order to avoid a skewed view of events.

The fact that there is no real competition in English for the subject of Nipe's hefty tome makes it difficult to criticize this book too much. It is a masterful though very detailed account of the events immediately following the fall of Stalingard, leading to the retreat of the German Army and their counterattack (the famous "backhand blow" of Manstein) that recaptured Kharkhov and smashed Stalin's abortive effort to end the war in one fell swoop. The parts I enjoyed the most were when Nipe departed from discussing how SS regiment XX attacked YY Guards batallion in some obscure Russian village and instead talked about local tactics, comparative strengths v weaknesses of the opponents and their weapons and the tension between the various commanders and, of course, the Big Kahuna from Austria. My biggest gripe is the lack of sufficient and adequate maps to follow Nipe's recounting of every unit's movements; the old German maps he provides are to few and hard to discern who's where. In these days of Osprey books 3D color maps with topographical depiction, military history geeks want clear and concise ways of tracking each side's movements on the battlefield. Having said that, Osprey needs to add Kharkhov to their famous campaign series. But for any Eastern Front aficionado who is not conversant in either of the protagonists' tongues, Nipe's book is a must have and at a reasonable price.

This is the best operational book on Kharkov 1943 that I've found and though its not "perfect", I couldn't' give it less than 5 stars. After the losses at Stalingrad and after three months of AG Don, AG B, and AG A being pushed back from either the Don River or Volga River or from deep into the Caucasus and incurring heavy casualties, Manstein institutes a clever counterattack that practically destroys 3rd Guard Tank Army as well as the 40th, 69th, 6th Armies, retakes Kharkov, Belgorod and the surrounding sector.
Manstein's lead unit was the SS PzC which consisted of the Das Reich, LAH and Totenkopf Divisions but Grossdeutschland, the remnants of 2nd Army to the north,4th PzA, 1st PzA and Groups Lanz, Raus and Kempf assisted in a coordinated orchestration of deployments that was brilliant that ended the Soviet offensive.
The first half of the book covers the hard fought offensive of the 40th, 69th, 3rd Tank Army and the 6th Guard Cav Corps in clearing the Donets River line and capturing Belgorod and Kharkov. In the last half of the book Mr Nipe covers Manstein's impressive counter-attack that recaptures the river line and these important cities. Some of the passages are difficult to wade through with all the detail but with this detail it can be clearly seen how the Russians slowly but surely surrounded and then captured Kharkov and how it was lost again by the clever counter-attack.
Its really surprising that more books haven't been written on this critical sector and time; Mr Nipe has done a true service for the history community by writing this book.

In the first couple chapters, Mr Nipe sets the stage by discussing Operation Gallop which started in late January in the south and Operation Star which started in early February and was directed to the north in the Kharkov, Kursk, Orel area. These Soviet offensives, which followed Little Saturn, were successful, reaching the Donets River line and taking the ruined city of Kharkov that Stalin was obsessed to liberate but the warm glow of Soviet victory didn't last long for by mid March Manstein had retaken Kharkov, Belgorod and much of the Donets line.
The level of detail, which was on a daily basis, is very impressive and succintly presented and since the main theme of the book is the German counterattack, its written from a German perspective using mostly German primary sources. Some may disagree with this technique; it may be said that it will slant the story to the German side but the author didn't abuse the process. If after reading the account, you feel otherwise, reading David Glantz's fine book "From the Don to the Dnepr" will give you more of a Soviet bias and between the two books you should have a more balanced understanding of the planning, battle action and post action analysis.

Intermingled with the operational coverage, the author includes some experiences of indiviuals in the action on the ground, giving the book more appeal. Photos of many of the people discussed are included. Some of the people mentioned are in other books but it was the first time for me of seeing their portraits which was interesting. The whole narrative was very well done.
There are 12 full page maps to assist the story but I found them disappointing. The maps were authenic German war maps but were imprecise and not that helpful in following the narrative. For me, this was the only feature that would detract from a five star rating but not enough to give the book only 4 stars. The maps in "From the Don to the Dnepr" helped me follow the action in "Last Victory" and having the two books side by side made it easier to align the right map with the dialog throughout the book.
There were also many battlefield photos which were very good and will add to the reader's experience. An Order of Battle is included for the SS PzC and the book closes with an extensive Index.

The operational detail of battle and the coverage of the German commanders and soldiers was greatly appreciated but a casual reader may find it a little too heavy and the book is therefore recommended for serious students of the Eastern Front.

"Last victory in Russia" is a very comprehensive and amazing book about the winter 1943 Harkov counteroffensive (also known as 3rd Battle for Harkov).

The book starts with the actual front situation at the beginning of 1943 and the conditions which led to this operation. (Battle of Stalingrad, the destruction of the Hungarian and Italian armies) and continued with the chapter dedicated to the creation of the SS Panzerkorps.

The author made an extensive research and showed in full detail the skilful mobile operation orchestrated by Manstein which destroyed/crippled four soviet armies, regained much of the territory lost during previous months (including Harkov) and restored the front line almost as it was almost a year ago before operation Blau.

The book is from a clear German perspective and focuses mainly on 2nd SS Panzerkorps actions, which despite being newly created; having an HQ which lacked the experience to perform several operations; and had recently arrived on Eastern Front managed, in only three months, to stall the Russians. The operations of the adjacent units (GD mainly) are also presented, but less detailed.

Several German commanders' command decisions and orders were researched, discussed and presented with accuracy for the reader.

The book is heavily illustrated and I found almost 200 interesting photos with the main German commanders and equipment. One error: on pages 68 and 153 the same photo showed an SS officer with different names.

Even the SS operational maps are quite remarkable. The SS Divisional structure and commanders are presented in a comprehensive appendix.

One thing is debatable: Harkov was and it is a Ukrainian town. At that time the name of the country was USSR, not Russia (Ukraine and Russia were one of the 15 republics of the USSR), so the book should be named "Last victory on Eastern front/USSR/Soviet Union".

Definitely a very good study authored by an historian who knows how to write a book and who composed a book with a surgical precision and accuracy as Manstein's counteroffensive.
In spite of the price, it really deserved all the money.

As mentioned by several previous reviewers, this book is more for those who enjoy history, especially military history. As the title states it centers on the counteroffensive around the Soviet city of Kharkov with a focus on Nazi Germany's elite SS panzer divisions led by Field Marshall Manstein, who ranks up among the great strategist and tacticians of World War 2. The author, George M. Nipe Jr., goes into extreme(some may say too much) detail for the primary units involved in Manstein's master counter-offensive. Although I found them hard at times to use, the reproductions of the original German tactical maps aided in overall understanding of the narrative. In this book, the reader was able to see what the unaware Soviets forces ran into when Manstein unleashed the pride of the German military at the time, four SS Panzer division, in a classic military maneuver. Manstein does not get publicity of a Patton, Montgomery or Rommel when it comes to military commanders, but he ranks up there in my opinion as one of the best and this volume shows what he was able to do with limited, albeit elite, resources against an enemy far greater in number and during the brutal conditions of a Russian winter.

Those who feel they might be overwhelmed by the extreme details described by Nipe may prefer "Beyond Stalingrad" which gives an overall account of the situation on Kharkov front, going into detail when needed(but nowhere near the level in this volume)

For those students of military history, this book would be a welcome addition

This is a day to day account of the German Armies retreat after Stalingrad and the SS counter attack. Very detailed day to day unit to unit action. The only thing that lets the book down is the lack of detailed maps. Those provided are wartime copies but its hard to follow the action and the accounts from the GD and other army that also took part are not provided any maps so its hard to follow where they fought. This is worth the money and time to read it. Some people like a brief account of a battle and others like plenty of detail - this is of the latter and should be added to any collection on this battle