Armor and Blood

^{Cigarette break at Prokhorovka}

^{Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-219-0553A-10 / Koch}

^{Panzer III crew rests during a halt}

^{Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1981-143-14A / Friedrich Zschackel}

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has been a long time coming. I wish to thank my family, my colleagues at Colorado College, and my students for putting up with me during its gestation. Particular thanks to Gretchen Boger, whose professionalism and enthusiasm during her two years with the History Department reminded me why I chose that profession; and to our office coordinator, Sandy Papuga, for her goodwill and common sense.

I am grateful to Random House for its patience while the book was in progress and for its expertise once the manuscript was submitted. The copy editor deserves special praise—I would not have believed I could make so many errors of fact and generate so many clumsy sentences! The errors that remain are my responsibility several times over.

I also wish to acknowledge the staff of Tutt Library, especially Diane Armock, the interlibrary loan coordinator. Kathy Barbier and Rob Citino generously shared their knowledge of the subject and provided welcome encouragement. And Sam Lerman was during his Colorado College career a valued associate in a course on terrorism that became a joint enterprise. Sam, this book’s for you. May you write a better one.

GUIDE TO FURTHER READING

This is not a formal bibliography, but instead a guide incorporating some of the material I have found useful and interesting. It is meant to be reader-friendly and is correspondingly weighted toward works in English, written or translated.

The best general introduction is M. K. Barbier, Kursk: The Greatest Tank Battle, 1943 (London: Amber Books, 2002). Noteworthy alike for accuracy, balance, and readability, it presents a seamless overview of Citadel. Will Fowler, Kursk: The Vital 24 Hours (London: Amber Books, 2005), uses a similar format. Despite the title, it is a well-written survey with excellent graphics and useful sidebars. Time-challenged readers may prefer Geoffrey Jukes, Kursk: The Clash of Armour (New York: Ballantine Books, 1969); and Mark Healy, Kursk 1943: The Tide Turns in the East (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1992). Each is part of a distinguished series: Jukes in Ballantine’s Illustrated History of World War II and Healy in Osprey’s Campaign Series. Both books are well written. Both were state-of-the-art scholarship when published. Both are refreshingly brief. Both remain useful, with Healy’s graphics complementing the text.

Outstanding among Kursk’s recent general histories is Lloyd Clark, The Battle of the Tanks: Kursk, 1943 (London: Headline Reviews, 2011), structured heavily around interviews and narratives. Among older works with similar formats, Robin Cross, The Battle of Kursk: Operation Citadel 1943 (London: Penguin Group, 2002), remains a useful narrative, informed by combatants’ accounts. A good balance is the operationally focused Walter S. Dunn Jr., Kursk: Hitler’s Gamble, 1943 (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1997).

Still dominating the scholarly field is the brilliant overview by David M. Glantz and Jonathan M. House, The Battle of Kursk (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999), which broke new ground with its sophisticated use of previously unavailable Soviet archives. Its presentation and analysis continue to challenge modification. Its emphasis on numbers and statistics can be a weight, but never a burden. Mark Healy’s Zitadelle: The German Offensive Against the Kursk Salient, 4–17 July 1943 (Stroud, UK: History Press, 2008) offers a German perspective that balances the Soviet emphasis of Glantz and House.

French military historians have shown recent and worthwhile interest in Kursk. Jean Lopez, Koursk: Les quarante jours qui ont ruine la Wehrmacht (5 Juillet–20 aout 1943 (Paris: Economia, 2011) is an excellent analysis by a leading French scholar of the Eastern Front. And the high-end, general-audience periodical Champs de Bataille: Seconde Guerre Mondiale published in 2012–2013 a series of three special issues on Koursk 1943. Even for those blind of their French eye, the graphics, tables, and illustrations make their acquisition worthwhile.

Citadel is best understood in the general context of events in 1943 by Robert M. Citino’s The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2012). The author’s reference apparatus is almost as useful as his text. Citino’s work is buttressed by Die Ostfront 1943/44, edited by Karl-Heinz Frieser, volume 8 of Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg (Munich: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2007). It is also one of the best contributions to the series and arguably the most informative source on the lost year on a neglected front. Boris V. Sokolov, “The Battle for Kursk, Orel, and Charkov: Strategic Intentions and Results,” in Gezeitenwechsel im Zweiten Weltkrieg?, edited by Roland Foerster (Hamburg: Verlag E. S. Mittler & Sohn, 1996), 69–88, is worth accessing for its post-Soviet critique of the regime’s falsifications.

For traditional studies from the perspective of the participants, see Ernst Klink, Das Gesetz des Handelns: Die Operation “Ziti-delle” 1943 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1966); and the translated official The Battle for Kursk, 1943: The Soviet General Staff Study, edited by David Glantz and Harold S. Ornstein (London: Frank Cass Publishers, 1999).

In the front rank of specialized works on Kursk itself stand Valeriy Zamulin, Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative, translated and edited by Stuart Britton (Solihull, UK: Helion & Co., 2011); and George M. Nipe, Blood, Steel and Myth: The II.SS-Panzer-Korps and the Road to Prochorowka, July 1943 (Stamford, CT: RZM Publishing, 2011). Each is a mine of detail based on previously unfamiliar material. The extensive translations of archival material in Zamulin make the work especially valuable. Steven H. Newton’s Kursk: The German View (New York: Da Capo Press, 2002) is an equally valuable anthology of postwar reports by senior officer participants, with excellent archivally based editorial commentary. Niklas Zetterling and Anders Frankson, Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis (London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2000), provides numbers and a useful bibliography. David Porter, Das Reich at Kursk: 12 July 1943 (London: Amber Books, 2011), and Fifth Guards Tank Army at Kursk (London: Amber Books, 2011), are parallel works whose texts and graphics provide a coherent overview of these formations that can be applied to their counterparts as well. Roman Toppel, “Legendenbildung in der Geschichtsschreibung—Die Schlacht von Kursk,” Militargeschichtliche Zeitschrift 61 (2002): 369–401, is the best analysis of the origins and refutations of Kursk’s major myths.

In the second tier of specialized material, Antonius John, Kursk ’43: Szenen einer Entscheidungsschlacht (Bonn: Konzept Verlag, 1993), has useful primary material from Model’s sector during Citadel and the shift to the Orel salient. Silvester Stadler, Die Offensive gegen Kursk 1943: II.SS-Panzerkorps als Stosskeil im Grosskampf (Osnabruck: Munin Verlag, 1980), reprints many orders and reports. Didier Lodieu, Ill. Pz. Korps at Kursk, translated by Allan McKay (Paris: Histoire & Collections, 2007), makes good use of archival material and unit histories. Volume 2 of Helmuth Spaeter, The History of the Panzerkorps Grossdeutschland (Winnipeg: J. J. Fedorowicz, 1995), and Hans-Joachim Jung, Panzer Soldiers for “God, Honor, Fatherland”: The History of Panzerregiment Grossdeutschland, translated by David Johnston (Winnipeg: J. J. Fedorowicz,