Kursk, The Greatest Tank Battle

I do love a good tank battle, and they don't come any better than this one, The moment I saw Loyd Clark's name I was pretty sure this was going to be a very good read. Mr Clark has been a senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for some years and is well respected military history author and frequent Television adviser and interviewee.

From the moment I opened this book I knew I was in for a treat, as usual I always start at the back of the book looking at the Index.notes and bibliography, then check maps and photographs, before I start to read. This book was not found wanting in any of these areas.

The Battle of Kursk was the greatest tank battle in history, but most of the histories have been written from the German side, this book gives a good insight to the Russian view of the battle, Because of the complexities of the relationship between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin a great deal of the book explains how this came about and why Hitler found it necessary to invade the Soviet Union in 1941 causing the deaths of a staggering 10 million people in the Soviet Union and 3 million German by May 1945.

And so we come to the 5th July 1943, The German planed a two pronged assault on the Soviet lines at the Salient around the Russian City of Kursk, not knowing that the Soviet leadership had been warned well before by the British through the Enigma intercepts from Bletchley Park which enabled the Russian Army to prepare the most complex defensive lines of the World War 2. with eight defensive belts over 160 KMs in depth. Even so once battle was joined the figures are almost unbelievable, 4 million men, 13.000 tanks, 12.000 aircraft, with casualties to match. The Soviets lost 178.000 men, 1600 AFVs and almost 500 aircraft.The Germans 57.000 men, 252 Tanks and 159 aircraft, looking at these figures it's hard to believe that the battle is considered a Soviet victory, but, as at Stalingrad the Russian Army did not seem to care much about their losses.

The description of the Tank battle Prokhorovka is extremely descriptive, showing the full horror of armoured warfare from interviews of both sides of this amazing, with the Russian T34s charging almost like suicidal 19th century cavalry rather than World war two Armoured formations into the range of the German Tiger and Panther tanks, only to be slaughtered like sheep because their guns lacked both range and penetration power.

Mr Clark has obviously used information sources not previously available and describes visiting the Battle field with an octogenarian survivor of the battle in the first pages of the book and this really draws the reader into what is in my opinion a very, good book indeed, the maps are more than adequate to keep the reader informed of unit locations and movements, and there is even a full Order of battle for both Armies.

I most certainly recommend that anyone interested in Armoured warfare, and World War 2 put this on their "must read "list.

5 out of 5 Mr Mushroom heads.

JIm24



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Title ; Kursk : The Greatest Tank Battle, Eastern Front 1943, Author Lloyd Clark.
ISBN 978 0 7553 3638 8 : Headline Publishing Group, Price £25.00