Book: Kursk: The Battle of Prokhorovka - Chris Lawrence

[Pangu]

Book: Kursk: The Battle of Prokhorovka - Chris Lawrence

Heya Armor enthusiast,

I want to introduce what some would consider to the the definitive book on the Battle of Kursk, by Chris Lawrence. This book has been in the making for long, long time way back in the 90s when the dissolution of USSR allowed The Dupuy Institute access to Soviet docs. The book is close to 1700 pages & will surely be a treasure trove of the armor battle of mythical proportion. As an ex-armor guy, I'm really excited to dive into it. But the price is a little scary to be honest. Maybe the book will interest you guys too!

Preorder location:

Aberdeenbookstore - Coming Soon! Kursk: The Battle of Prokhorovka

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Kursk-Battle-Prokhorovka-Christopher-Lawrence/dp/0971385254/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441144463&sr=8-1&keywords=Kursk: the battle of Prokhorovka&pebp=14411444

RZM - RZM.com- Your online source for WWII books & more!

 

[Gauss]

must be a fantastic book but we know the decisive factor: the soviets were too well prepared. i wonder what will the soviet docs reveal that will be of decisive importance other than details of what is already known in outline.

 

[Pangu]

must be a fantastic book but we know the decisive factor: the soviets were too well prepared. i wonder what will the soviet docs reveal that will be of decisive importance other than details of what is already known in outline.

Indeed, hopefully the book will answer the lingering questions from Soviet actual accounts & record. Should be fun for data crunchers dealing with the attrition rate of Soviet formations in that faithful battle. BTW, the book is 6" thick & weigh 11.5 pounds!

Some questions answer by the author on dupuyinstitute forum - Kursk Book - The Dupuy Institute Forum

- Does the book contain detailed tactical/operational analysis (as opposed to mere description of the fighting)....

Yes, but not in depth on every subject you listed, and not always with a clear conclusion. In many cases we have made observations, and I leave the conclusions to the readers. In some cases, we provide the observations from people who were present, and leave the conclusions to the readers. I even included Col./Dr. Fyodor Sverdlov's rather caustic comments on Zhukov, even though they were probably not intended for publication.

But there is a clear combat performance difference between the German and Soviet forces, and we do address this. We also did an analytical comparison between the performance of the 48th Panzer Corps and the SS Panzer Corps.

On the other hand, the book is not an analysis of the difference between the German and Soviet armies, and this is not a prominent part of the book. It is a history of the battle. Still there is probably more analytical and statistical material in this book than in most military histories.

- Does the book contain detailed tactical maps, e.g. divisional or corps sectors, day-by-day (I would guess yes, based on just the number of maps mentioned in the teaser)?

We ended up using their maps. So inserted into the book and scattered throughout the text are the maps done by the two Germans armies, the 48th Pz Corps, the daily maps for the SS Panzer Corps and Corps Raus. We also obtained the situation maps from many of the Soviet tank and mechanized corps. These are also liberally inserted into the text. Finally, we put in as fold-outs 24 1:50000 scale topo maps from 1942. So, if one wants to actually follow the narrative from village to hill to gully, the maps are there to do that.

Even then, there are a few gaps. There is a shortage of maps for the fighting in the III Panzer Corps are as we did not have good maps from the Germans and there were no Soviet tank corps in the area. There is also a shortage of maps that address combat below the division level, as simply, no one created such maps.

(Though not specifically mentioned in your post, am I right in guessing you compare Soviet armour losses to German claims as well?)

We do report for each day the losses suffered by each side in each division-level fight, including the armor losses. The German armor losses are derived from German records, the Soviet armor losses are derived from Soviet records. We also do some direct comparisons of Soviet armor kill claims to German armor losses and both German and Soviet air claims to Soviet and German air losses. We also tried to check the air claims of individual aces to the actual air losses. We did have access to Soviet unit records.