Four books on Kursk
I have three books published on the Battle of Kursk and one coming out next year (The Batte of Tolstoye Woods).
The Battle of Kusk was the largest battle of World War II. You would not get that sense from the military history section of most bookstores. Anyhow, there were four parts to the battle. The German offensive in the south from 4 to 24 July 1943, the German offensive in the north for 5 – 12 July 1943, the Soviet counteroffensive around Orel from 12 July to 23 August and the Soviet counteroffensive around Kharkov from 3 August to 23 August. My books are mostly about the German offensive in the south. I have consider doing one or two about the Battle(s) of Kharkov, but I have been distracted by the war that started in that same area in 2022.
I do have a fourth book coming out next year called The Battle of Tolstoye Woods. This one actually covers the Soviet counterattack that actually worked and stopped a German panzer corps. Everyone tends to focus on the Battle of Prokhorovka, but there were three German armored corps attacking in the south, and they all had to be stopped. This book is about the Red Army halting the 48th Panzer Corps, which was as large as the SS Panzer Corps.
Anyhow, not sure if I will get around to a fifth Kursk book. Might.
P.S. I do think my original book is the largest history book ever written: Did I Just Write the Largest History Book Ever? — History News Network
I have not submitted it to the Guinness World Records.
P.P.S. Here is the link to the “Other Battle of Kursk” which has been posted to Amazon.com (UK). It will be The Battle of Tolstoye Woods: The Other Battle of Kursk: Lawrence, Christopher A.: 9780811773737: Amazon.com: Books and The Other Battle of Kursk: Amazon.co.uk: Lawrence, Christopher A.: 9780811773737: Books
“The Battle of Kusk was the largest battle of World War II. You would not get that sense from the military history section of most bookstores.”There is nothing surprising about this. Firstly, German losses were around 200,000 people, nothing special compared to the battles of the First World War on the Western Front against the British and French. The Stalinists’ losses were enormous, somewhere around 1,000,000 people, that’s true, considering that the Russians counted their losses in manpower terribly. They valued equipment much more, so the losses of 6,000 irrecoverably destroyed tanks can be believed. On the German side, laughably small forces of fighters participated in the battle; in the Mediterranean and in the West, the Germans had more fighters. Kursk is an ordinary battle, it’s just that the Stalinist troops’ losses were enormous. But that doesn’t mean Kursk decided anything. In the summer of 1943, Hitler had 10 million people in the armed forces, of which just over 3,000,000 were in the East. So Hitler was fighting Stalin with just one hand, or rather, with three fingers of one hand.
By the way, I read your book “Aces in Kursk.” What I want to say is that in reality, in the summer of 1943, on the Eastern Front, approximately 10 German fighter groups were fighting against approximately 200 Soviet fighter regiments. The Germans had a group of about 40 fighters according to the table of organization, a Soviet regiment 32. But in terms of serviceable fighters, Soviet regiments, as a rule, outnumbered German fighter groups. There is nothing surprising about this. Firstly, Soviet aircraft factories were, compared to German ones, close to the front, which made it possible to repair planes more quickly; secondly, the Western Allies were bombing German factories and the Germans had problems with spare parts for their equipment. In general, reading your book, I did not see anywhere that, in fact, the ratio of forces in fighters on the Eastern Front was 1 to 20 in favor of the Stalinists (of course, the composition of Soviet fighter aviation must include the fighter regiments of the Air Defense Forces and the fighter regiments of the Navy, that’s about 50 regiments).
Busybeaver,
Thanks for the comments. Looks like “The Battle of Tolstoye Woods” will be out this fall (10/20/26), under the title “Turning the Tide at Kursk”