Darren Baker gets a chance to look at the latest offering from Mark Healey titled ''Zitadelle the German Offensive against the Kursk Salient 4-17 July 1943''.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Thanks Darren, great to see this excellent book reviewed and you certainly did it justice. I would like to add the following comments:

Zitadelle should not be confused with Healy’s much slimmer previous book on the subject published in the Osprey (?) series (from memory in the late 1990’s), I think that one was just called Operation Citadelle. Healy went on to spend several years researching primary sources for Zitadelle, which inform convincing evidence about actual losses on both sides and explode several myths. His primary thesis is that, contrary to some revisionist arguments, the battle(s) of Kursk constituted a proper defeat for Germany and not some kind of draw or moral victory. Zitadelle achieved none of its military objectives, and while the man-power and materiel losses were vastly greater for the Red Army, from that point onwards the Germans were in retreat all the way back to Berlin.

My own hard-back copy of Zitadelle is currently buried in storage but from memory was purchased around 2012 when I think it was first published, so it’s not exactly a new book apart from now being issued in soft cover. Of all the books I read on the subject I found this one by far the best. The number of photos is impressive and my personal view was that maybe a third I’d never seen before. This was useful given I was doing a series of dioramas on the battle, and apart from a couple of those very expensive Fedorowicz unit-history tomes this was my primary image source. However the real value is in Healy’s scholarship, and his presentation/interpretation of facts & statistics in an accessible manner, despite the small font.

So yes I fully endorse your review, Zitadelle would easily occupy an engrossing couple of weeks of self-isolation as well as being a worthy addition to any serious modeller’s reference library. If you’d permit a gentle criticism, the word “offering” appears eight times & for me anyway it grates after the first. Otherwise bravo & thanks again.

Thank you for your input Martin. I do not always pick up on excessive use of certain words as I sometimes take several days to complete a review, this offering falls into that category.

While I do own several of those expensive Fedorowicz tomes i am excited by the prospect of seeing more original photos of this pivotal land battle. One of the few good things that came our way with the fall of the Iron Curtain was never-before-permitted access to State archives and their treasure trove of forgotten photos. Just as we are now finally seeing more personal photos hitting the market from former German soldiers, now we're seeing the same from the former Soviet Union. An exciting time to do primary research!

No worries Darren, I managed to use the word "primary" 3 times in 3 paras so who's calling the kettle black now eh?! Also a self-correction, Healy's first book was just called "Kursk", not Op Cit.

Cheers, Tim

I thought this looked familiar - my own copy came from Spelmount in softback. It's an excellent book, definitely recommended. It certainly rubbishes some of the myths about Zitadelle, especially the number of Tigers involved and German tank losses generally. BTW I always read Darren's reviews, even if they are about a subject I'm not particularly interested in as they are so clear and balanced.

I bought this book in 2011 from Amazon and it is a soft cover.
My book was also published by Spellmount, The History Press. The inside cover stated the book was published 2008 and 2010.