Download or read book Waffen SS Tiger Crews at Kursk written by French L. MacLean and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 2020-10-28 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kursk is often labeled the "Greatest Tank Battle in History". The Wehrmacht fielded a total of just 120 Tiger tanks during the engagement, including 35 from the 2nd SS Panzer Corps. This corps comprised of the three most controversial divisions of the Second World War: Leibstandarte, Das Reich, and Totenkopf. The war crimes committed by these units (at places like Oradour, Malmedy, and Le Paradis) remain contentious topics of discussion to this day, and their fighting qualities have been analyzed for decades. By examining a focused group of men in great detail, specifically the 226 Tiger crewmen at Kursk, the author provides an insight into the sprawling and enigmatic organization that was the Waffen-SS. This project aims to scrape away the mythology surrounding the most feared soldiers, who crewed the most iconic tank, at one of the most vicious battles of the Second World War.
Download or read book The Fifth Field written by French L. MacLean and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Fifth Field reveals one of the final secrets of the war: how 96 American soldiers in Europe and North Africa were tried by American General Courts-Martial, convicted by military juries, sentenced to death, executed and buried in an obscure, secret plot at an American military cemetery in France"--Author's website.
Download or read book The Battle of the Tanks written by Lloyd Clark and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2011-11-04 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A comprehensive analysis of WWII’s greatest land battle and one of history’s greatest armor engagements.” —Publishers Weekly On July 5, 1943, the greatest land battle in history began when Nazi and Red Army forces clashed near the town of Kursk, on the western border of the Soviet Union. Code named “Operation Citadel,” the German offensive would cut through the bulge in the eastern front that had been created following Germany’s retreat at the Battle of Stalingrad. But the Soviets, well-informed about Germany’s plans through their network of spies, had months to prepare. Two million men supported by six thousand tanks, thirty-five thousand guns, and five thousand aircrafts convened in Kursk for an epic confrontation that was one of the most important military engagements in history, the epitome of “total war.” It was also one of the most bloody, and despite suffering seven times more casualties, the Soviets won a decisive victory that became a turning point in the war. With unprecedented access to the journals and testimonials of the officers, soldiers, political leaders, and citizens who lived through it, The Battle of the Tanks is the definitive account of an epic showdown that changed the course of history. “A stellar account of the Battle of Kursk in 1943.” —Booklist
Download or read book Armor Battles of the Waffen SS written by Will Fey and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-08-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Waffen-SS were considered the elite of the German armed forces in the Second World War and were involved in almost continuous combat. From the sweeping tank battle of Kursk on the Russian front to the bitter fighting among the hedgerows of Normandy and the last great offensive in the Ardennes, forever immortalized in history as the Battle of the Bulge, these men and their tanks made history.
Download or read book Sledgehammers written by Christopher W. Wilbeck and published by Aberjona Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Although much is available about Tiger tanks' technical details and some of the most famous soldiers and units that employed them, until now, there has been little concerning the organization and tactical use of heavy tank battalions across the theaters in which they were employed. [Wilbeck] provides an in-depth look at heavy tank battalions' organizations and tactics, including the tactical doctrine by which these elite units were supposed to fight and case studies to illustrate how they were actually employed on the battlefield"--Page 4 of cover.
Download or read book The Battle of Prokhorovka written by Christopher A. Lawrence and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-06-01 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle of Kursk was one of the defining moments of World War II. In July 1943, German forces under Erich von Manstein--one of Germany’s best generals--launched a massive attack in an offensive code-named Citadel. A week later, the Soviets counterattacked, sparking a huge clash of tanks at Prokhorovka, the largest armor battle in history, pitting more than 600 Soviet tanks against some 300 German panzers. Though the Germans gained a tactical victory, destroying huge numbers of Soviet tanks, they failed to achieve their objectives, and in the end the battle marked a turning point on the Eastern Front. The Red Army gained the strategic initiative and would not lose it.
Download or read book Michael Wittmann the Waffen SS Tiger Commanders of the Leibstandarte in WWII written by Patrick Agte and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 2006-08-25 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: German Panzer ace Michael Wittmann was by far the most famous tank commander on any side in World War II, destroying 138 enemy tanks and 132 anti-tank guns with his Tiger. In this continuation of his story, Volume Two follows Wittmann and his unit into Normandy to defend against the Allied invasion and provides maps, official documents, newspaper clippings, and orders of battle. A week after D-Day, Wittmann achieved his greatest success. On June 13, 1944, near Villers Bocage, the panzer ace and his crew attacked a British armored unit, single-handedly destroying more than a dozen tanks and preventing an enemy breakthrough. The exploit made Wittmann a national hero in Germany and a legend in the annals of war. He was killed two months later while attempting to repulse an Allied assault, but the book continues beyond his death until the Leibstandarte's surrender.
Download or read book The Battle for Kursk 1943 written by David M. Glantz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-04-14 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers detailed information about the Red Army's preparation for and conduct of the Battle of Kursk, the nature of the war on the German Eastern Front, and on the range of horrors that have characterized warfare in the 20th century.
Download or read book Kursk 1943 written by Ian Baxter and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2019-07 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This highly illustrated record reveals in detail the largest tank battle of World War Two, the battle of Kursk.
Download or read book Kursk written by Lloyd Clark and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On July 5, 1943, the greatest land battle in history began when Nazi and Red Army forces clashed near the town of Kursk, on the western border of the Soviet Union. Code named "Operation Citadel," the German offensive would cut through the bulge in the eastern front that had been created following Germany's retreat at the battle of Stalingrad. But the Soviets, well-informed about Germany's plans through their network of spies, had months to prepare. Two million men supported by 6,000 tanks, 35,000 guns, and 5,000 aircraft convened in Kursk for an epic confrontation that was one of the most important military engagements in history, the epitome of "total war." It was also one of the most bloody, and despite suffering seven times more casualties, the Soviets won a decisive victory that became a turning point in the war. With unprecedented access to the journals and testimonials of the officers, soldiers, political leaders, and citizens who lived through it, The Battle of the Tanks is the definitive account of an epic showdown that changed the course of history. Show More Show Less.
Download or read book Grenadiers written by Kurt Meyer and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint of the classic World War II memoir German General Kurt "Panzer" Meyer's autobiography is a fascinating insight into the mind of one of Germany's most highly decorated and successful soldiers of World War II. If you love small-unit actions, this is the book for you. Follow Meyer with the 1st SS-Panzer Division "Leibstandarte" and the 12th SS-Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend," from the first day of the war in Poland, through service in France, Russia, and Greece, up until his capture in Normandy in 1944 and his postwar trials and tribulations.
Download or read book Soldiers of Barbarossa written by Craig W.H. Luther and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-11-15 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The scope and scale of Operation Barbarossa—the German invasion of the Soviet Union—make it one of the pivotal events of the Second World War. Yet our understanding of both the military campaign as well as the “war of annihilation” conducted throughout the occupied territories depends overwhelmingly on “top-down” studies. The three million German soldiers who crossed the Soviet border and experienced this war are seldom the focus and are often entirely ignored. Who were these men and how did they see these events? Luther and Stahel, two of the leading experts on Operation Barbarossa, have reconstructed the 1941 campaign entirely through the letters (as well as a few diaries) of more than 200 German soldiers across all areas of the Eastern Front. It is an original perspective on the campaign, one of constant combat, desperate fear, bitter loss, and endless exertions. One learns the importance of comradeship and military training, but also reads the frightening racial and ideological justifications for the war and its violence, which at times lead to unrelenting cruelty and even mass murder. Soldiers of Barbarossa is a unique and sobering account of 1941, which includes hundreds of endnotes by Luther and Stahel providing critical context, corrections, and commentary.
Download or read book Kursk 1943 written by Roman Toeppel and published by Helion. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943 was one of the greatest battles in military history involving more than 3 million soldiers, 10,000 tanks and 8,000 aircraft. While many books have been written on this allegedly most decisive battle of the Second World War, many legends live on, above all because of misleading information that recur in most publications - even in the most recent ones. Based on almost 20 years of research reassessing the primary sources, Roman Toeppel sheds light on the phase of decision-making, the preparations and the development of the battle in an engaging style that grips the reader's attention from the first page on. The author concentrates on little-known developments and events leading the reader to astonishing results. He also gives entirely new insights into the historiographic appraisal of this battle, putting thoroughly researched facts against erroneous popular beliefs, myths and legends that have been passed down among historians for generations.
Download or read book The Cruel Hunters written by French L. MacLean and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 1998 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a brutal story - but, from the safety of fifty years distance in time - it is an extremely compelling one. It is also an enduring lesson that a military unit, formed under an evil ideology, led by a social outcast and composed of vicious criminals, will sink to its lowest common denominator - hate. The Dirlewanger Battalion, also known as "Sonderkommando (special commando) Dirlewanger" was perhaps the least understood, but at the same time the most notorious German SS anti-partisan unit in World War II. German propaganda correspondents and wartime photographers did not follow them in action. And for good reason. Wherever the Dirlewanger unit - named for and led by Oskar Dirlewanger - operated, corruption and rape formed an every-day part of life and indiscriminate slaughter, beatings and looting were rife. Formed as a battalion of convicted poachers in 1940, the unit operated in Poland until 1942, guarding Jews in forced labor camps and making life miserable for Poles in Lublin and Cracow. From there Dirlewanger spent two years combating partisans in central Russia, giving no quarter and expecting none in return, during vicious fighting against an elusive foe in the midst of inhospitable swamps and dismal forests. In 1944 Dirlewanger savaged Warsaw during the Polish Uprising, before moving to Slovakia to crush another rebellion there. The end of the war saw the unit, which was now a division in size, fighting for its life south of Berlin against the Soviet Army. Medieval in their outlook on war and certainly not indicative of many German military formations, this unit none-the-less remains a reflection of a segment of mankind gone mad in the inferno of World War II on the eastern front. Size: 6" x 9" over 50 b/w photographs, maps, fully annotated
Download or read book The Tigers are Burning written by Martin Caidin and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The story of the Battle of Kursk - the greatest single land-and-air combat engagement in military history"--Dust jacket.
Download or read book Waffen SS Armour on the Eastern Front 1941 1945 written by Ian Baxter and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2022-01-31 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated history of Nazi Germany’s Panzer units along the Eastern Front during World War II. Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, codename Operation Barbarossa, was arguably the pivotal moment of the Second World War. Initially the onslaught was staggeringly successful with, as the superb contemporary images in this book show, Waffen-SS armored divisions leading the charge. But the Nazis had underestimated the Russians’ determination to defend their homeland and the logistical problems compounded by the extreme winter weather conditions. After early victories such as the recapture of Kharkov in early 1943 and the Kursk offensive, commanders and crews of armored vehicles such as Pz.Kpfw.I, II, III, IV, Panther, Tiger, King Tiger, assault and self-propelled guns had to adapt their tactics and equipment to what became a desperate defensive withdrawal eventually back across a scarred and devastated Eastern Front. Even during the last months of the war as the Panzers withdrew through Poland and into the Reich, these exhausted elite units, broken down into small battle groups or Kampfgruppen, fought to the bitter end. With authoritative text supported by a plethora of rare fully captioned photographs, this classic Images of War book informs and inspires the reader revealing the key role played by Waffen-SS Panzer units in this most bitter campaign.
Download or read book The Planning and Preparations for the Battle of Kursk Volume 1 written by Valeriy Zamulin and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-30 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this first volume of a planned two-volume set, Zamulin takes a close look at the condition of the German and Soviet forces following the winter campaign. Analyzing first the German side, the author demonstrates that the Germans were in a woeful condition, especially with respect to the number of serviceable armored vehicles and the lack of infantry. However, Hitler was determined to regain the initiative in the East, though some German commanders expressed concerns. Zamulin then looks at the German plans for the summer of 1943 and the process of rebuilding its forces. As he shows through data, the Germans struggled to replenish Army Group South and Model's Ninth Army in the north, and the latter was hampered almost right up to the launching of Operation Citadel by the need to conduct a major anti-partisan operation in the woods and thickets in the German rear, using panzer and infantry divisions that had been earmarked for Citadel.Zamulin next examines the Soviet side, and discusses the planning for the summer campaign, including the decision to adopt a pre-meditated defense of the Kursk salient and to create a multi-echeloned system of defense (though incomplete in depth). The author demonstrates that the Red Army was able quickly to replenish its forces and also create a large mobile reserve, the Steppe Front. Thus, the delay in launching Citadel was not the fatal German error, and it would have failed even if launched earlier.
