anyone intrested in reading a book about kursk

read the tigers are burning. its great. read it for my english class and loved it.

 

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Caidin's "The Tigers are Burning" is a very dated book, wastebasket material. Full of lies and bad propaganda.

I'd suggest David Glantz "Clash of Titans" for a first read...

 

Or Kursk a statistical analysis. So far, my favourite read on the subject



Cheers...

 

Too heavy for a first book on the subject.

Rather "The Battle of Kursk" by Glantz. Still too heavy for a first book, all description, no heroics/histrionics. But one has to start reading serious history at some point if one likes to be taken seriously.

 

I second "The Battle of Kursk" by Glantz. It's considered one of the most accurate books on the subject.

Actually, Glantz's stuff on the Red Army are all amazing. Tons of archive stats.

 

Hadn't known of this title but sounds good. I think i'll snag a copy from Amazon.

 

Glantz seems to be active again...hopefully new data included.

Stone & Stone: News and Information

7 January 2009

University Press of Kansas previously announced volume one of the new Stalingrad trilogy by David Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad: Soviet-German Combat Operations, April-August 1942, for publication in April. Now our informants tell us volume two, Armageddon in Stalingrad, September-November 1942, is scheduled for release in October

 

Hi;
Glantz is rather dry but the Colonel has had access to the documents for quite some time and has a historical grasp. Glantz's "Kursk" is the most accurate to date-though I do recommend Xeroxing off some maps so as to better follow the blow by blow action. "Red Storm Over The Balkans"-about the failed Soviet invasion of Romania in early Spring of 1944-is also an excellent read. How the retreating Germans were able to turn on and stymy the Soviet pursuit speaks volumes on their military prowess. This was one formidable force and you often hear it likened to a tiger. Von Manteuffel led the Germans to this defensive victory; http://www.islandfarm.fsnet.co.uk/General der Panzertruppe Hasso von Manteuffel2.htm
JeffinMNUSPS. An interesting aside; Eric Von Manstein on Himmler being "a deadly enemy of the army"; http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-21/tgmwc-21-199-10.shtml

 

I didn't know he was doing a trilogy--this I will get as well. Thanks Kai ;-))

 

One thing I really appreciate about Glantz, he is a soldier. It is harder for people who are "just" historians to dissect a battle in an analytical perspective and high light the essentials of an operation. He understands war and conveys it well. He is the person who gets me to read the details--not the histronics as Za put it, but the things that mattered: terrain, logistics, timing. Those are things that distinguish the amatuer from people who does it for a living.

 

Precisely CCC.

 

A good companion to Glantz's book is the one he and Harold S Orenstein translated & edited.

The Battle of Kursk 1943 The Soviet General Staff Study.

 

I agree with the others - anything by Glantz is a great starting point on Kursk, or the Soviet-Nazi War in general for that matter.

 

tigers are burning should be thrown away into the fireplace or used as an old door stop

suggest reading the old Munin Verlag title by Sylvester Stadler as it would be an I opener for all of you

" Die Offensive gegen Kursk 1943 "

this I believe was also translated into English ? 19 wonderful maps included, 78 photos which have been used in nearly every English book on the topic since who knows when

 

III.Pz Korps at Kursk by Didier Lodieu is well worth looking out for - excellent 'new' Bundesarchiv photo selection..English translation is a bit clunky though..

 

Caidin is the Karl May of the East Front ;for Kursknly one source ,and I don't mean Glantz ,:THE DUPUY INSTITUTE ,but ,for us amateurs ,ai ai.

 

In my opinion the fairly recent book Zitadelle by Mark Healy (ISBN: 978-1-86227-336-8) is probably the best book written about the battle. Well written & not a dry read like Glantz's books. And I believe it was one of the first books that destroyed the myths surrounding the clash at Prokhorovka.

This is what I wrote on another thread on this site after I had just started the book...

The Zitadelle book is a very good book so far and one that reads easily. I am on Page 142 (of 371 pages, not including Appendix 1-5) and while the actual offensive doesn't begin until page 198 so far it has just the right balance of background narrative - tank production, delays, the state of the two opposing armies, intelligence build up, how each sides command saw the coming battle, tactics, terrain, weather etc. Plenty of photos throughout and also a center section of colour plates. Appendix 1 & 2 have a comprehensive Order Of Battle for the German & Soviet Forces involved in Zitadelle. So far, so good and a thumbs up from me.

...and having finished it I can only add that the thumbs stayed up for the duration of the book. It belongs to that recent well received group of books (such as the works of Michael K Jones, Jason D Mark & the book Voices From Stalingrad by Jonathan Bastable) which are written in a reader friendly style and which sheds new light on battles that have been amply covered in the past. Read this and you won't be disappointed.

 

Very interesting, I will be looking for this book then.

Thank you.

 

Paid a call to one of my favourite London secondhand bookshops today and was very pleased to find a cheap copy of 'The Battle Of Kursk' by Glantz & House. It looks very interesting and comprehensive, as per the many recommendations on this Forum.

I see that it was produced in the 'good old days' of the 1990's when the Soviet archives were open to historians, so this is probably as good as we're going to get for a long time.....