Decision In the Ukraine, Summer 1943, II. SS and III. Panzerkorps | George M., Jr. Nipe

Decision In the Ukraine, Summer 1943, II. SS and III. Panzerkorps | George M., Jr. Nipe | Putting History Right

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Decision In the Uk...

	Decision In the Ukraine, Summer 1943, II. SS and III. Panzerkorps George M., Jr. Nipe Fedorowicz (J.J.),Canada, 1996 - 390 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Decision in the Ukraine (George M. Nipe, Jr.) Hard cover, small format (9"x6"), 390 pages, 75 photographs and 29 maps and orders of battle. For the first time in English, the full story of the crucial battles on the Mius River by the 6. Armee and the successful counterattack spearheaded by the II. SS-Panzer-Korps, consisting of "Das Reich" and "Totenkopf". Also covered in detail are the offensives after Kursk in July/August 1943. The author uses many primary sources and conveys the action in vivid detail.

Battle of Kursk as it really was

George Nipe has writeen yet another supelative book that debunks all the nonsense about the Kursk battle, as told by Soviet Communist propaganda or crypto-communist historians like David Glantz, recounting all the losses suffered by the Germans, and the heroics of the Russian peasant soldiers in the Great Patriotic War.

Working from unit war diaries and daily returns on losses, Nipe comprehensively proved that the SS were tops in battle, whichever way you look at it. And that by a SS Panzer Korps that received no preferential treatment in equipment ( the much vaunted Ferdinand tank destroyer, and the Panther tanks were both issued to Heer units, whose leadership incompetence and lack of elan resulted in grievious losses, especially in abandoned tanks), was relatively outdated in amour compared to its Russian adversary, yet beat the latter in every encounter.

Compared the SS Panzer Korps singular achievements in the South of the Kursk salient to the miniscule gains made by Walter Model's
armies in the North (spearheaded by Heer units), you notice why the SS was head and shouders above Heer and the Russians in battlefield performance.

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Putting History Right

This book examines Operation Citadel and the linked battles for the Mius and August battles around Bogodukhov. The book is extremely well researched and this research throws serious doubts over Russian claims in regards to the battle of Kursk and especially the confrontation of armour at Prochorovka. Studies of SS records do not substantiate Russian claims of 400 German tanks destroyed at Prochorovka, however a single Panzerkorps effectively annihilated the armour of the 5th Guards Tank Army where between 600-650 tanks were destroyed.

The author points out at least partial victory may have been acheived by the Germans at Kursk, but Hitler lost the will to continue the battle at the critical moment and his attention focused on the Soviet build up at Izyum and Mius river threatening the Ukraine and the Allied landings in Sicily. However, the Soviet moves were a deliberate deception to distract German armour from the Kursk area when Russian reserves were almost spent in the southern sector. The German reserve of XXIV Panzerkorps was transferred to meet these new threats and subsequently any opportunity to exploit the advantage gained in the southern sector at Kursk was lost. Having lost the initiative, German forces were constantly engaged in trying to counter attack Soviet thrusts and SS Panzer Divisions were effectively used as mobile 'fire brigades'.

The author makes the point that the Germans may have been the masters on the tactical battlefield but the Russians and Stalin were strategically superior and ensured strategic goals were obtained no matter the cost. The last chapter is an excellent summary and review of the previous chapters analysis with conclusions drawn.

This is highly recommended reading

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First class military history!

This is an excellent book for the military history buffs and it's also very useful for anyone who wants to thrive into the details of the terrific battles of the Eastern Front in the summer of 1943. Mr Nipe's fine historical research and his vast archical references prove beyond doubt that "the (German) losses at Prokhorovka are a myth, and in fact, the Waffen SS divisions retained sufficient fighting power to destroy Tolbukhin's Mius bridgehead in July and later help III Panzerkorps fight the Soviet 1st and 5th Guards Tank Armies to a standstill at Bogodukhov". Although the first 68 pages are devoted to the great tank battle of Kursk and the damage that the Germans inflicted to their enemy, the most interesting part (and that which is most analytically presented) is the Mius campaign, where the weak 6th Army with the help of II SS Panzerkorps smashed the Soviet South Front after grevious battles which lasted for 16 days. The details are abundant and it is clear that the author has a perfect grasp of his subject. The book has many black and white maps (and some very good b/w photos also) which may be not of the finest quality but give the reader a comprehensive picture of the action. The story of battle of Kharkov begins on page 259 and is also extremely interesting. With this book Mr Nipe has covered a little known period of the Great Patriotic War which is usually overshadowed by the Kursk and Dnieper battles and is often less than a paragraph long in other books. Despite its volume this book is easy to read and the chronological presentation of the action, as well as the informative chapter and paragraph titles help a lot! A very highly recommended book!

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my thoughts about the chance of german partial vicotry in the south wing of kursk

I just want to point out that field marshal von manstain really mistakenly evaluated the situation.

1. The whole German offensive in the north became defensive, and later on model have to abandon Orel which threaten Moscow for two years.
2. Manstain believed USSR depleted all of their reserve, actually soviet still have a complete "grass army" in reserve, the soldier's number change from
1.35 million to some what 2.2 million in the end(stalin even transfer troops who gonna liberate Leningrad to Kursk front).
3. German troops were extremely exhausted and outnumbered. As you described, they had so few tanks in hand and how could they encircle the red army which is sever times greater in manpower, weapons.
4. soviet can produce 1200 tanks during 1943 and they can quickly refit and regroup their amour division while German's factory were bombard by USA, it can't
Recover from the heavy loss to Kursk at all.

My conclusion is: Von manstain never can have a chance in the south wing even if Hitler won't halt the action.
Actually in fact, Hitler allowed him to advance, and most the unit can't transfer to Italy due to the soviet's attack.

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Very good book.

I think that this is very good book.
1. Author style is really good, the narrative is gripping.
2. There a lots of maps, which is so material in such type of books that even rather poor quality of them almost isn't a problem.
3. Operations described in "Decision..." are very important in eastern conflict - Nipe did a great job in describing them without all that propaganda stuff met elsewhere.
4. Photos are great.

Now, the dark side (or why I subtracted one star):
1. Maps are of low quality
2. Russians are shown as amorphous mass - which is not true - and sources for them are easily accessible (Glantz, Ericsson etc)
3. Appendices are of no value. I expected some real data, tables, OdBs unfortunately I found almost none. This is I think main weakness of the book. With such effort put in writing "Decision..." I hoped that Nipe would give the reader some hard data in the form of appendicies.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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