Category World War II

The Battle of Tolstoye Woods will be released 20 October 2026

The book that I call The Battle of Tolstoye Woods will be released by Stackpole book on 20 October 2026. This is the first day of the Fifth HAAC. I doubt if I will have copies of books at the conference.

The title of the book is Turing the Tide at Kursk: The Battle of Tostoye Woods and How the Red Army Thwarted German Tanks West of Prokhorovka. Turning the Tide at Kursk probably is a better title for marketing purposes. This was the Soviet attack on 12 July 1943 that succeeded, completely putting a halt to the XLVIII Panzer Corps advance. 

The Battle of Kursk, in the south, consists of two panzer corps of equal strength advancing side-by-side to the north. The SS Panzer Corps, the Battle of Prokhorovka, the Fifth Guards Tank Army and General Pavel Rotmistrov get all the press. What was going on to the west was equally important, and in the Soviet attack succeeded (unlike Prokhorovka). This was the panzer corps with the bridging assets that was move north to cross the Psel and take Oboyan. This battle was at least as important as Prokhorovka, probably more so. General Paval Rotmistrov, who failed, is famous. General Mikhail Katukov, who succeeded, not as much

Anyhow, the link to Amazon to the book is here: Turning the Tide at Kursk: The Battle of Tolstoye Woods and How the Red Army Thwarted German Tanks West of Prokhorovka: Lawrence, Christopher A.: 9780811778053: Amazon.com: Books

The link to the Fifth HAAC is here: The Fifth HAAC is 20 – 22 October – The Dupuy Institute

Aces at Kursk is now in Paperback in the UK

Aces at Kursk is now in paperback. It has been released in the UK and the paperback version will be released on 30 October in the U.S. Hardback and kindle versions are available in both countries (and probably elsewhere).

I did not do any new revisions to the book. In part because I was in the middle of working on another book and in part because I did not feel there was a need to. I will do a separate couple of posts on this.

Anyhow, get it now. Max insists:



 

 

Major Streit

A Major Streit commanded the Panzer Lehrgaenge “Panther” in Erlangen. This was working with the Panthers in 1943. He is referenced in Thomas L. Jentz, Panzertruppen II on page 96. Does anyone have his full name and bio?

Zentralbild, II. Weltkrieg 19139-45
Der von der faschistischen deutschen Wehrmacht während des Krieges entwickelte neue Panzerkampfwagen Typ “Panther”.
UBz: die Verladung neuer “Panther”-Panzerkampfwagen zum Transport an die Front (1943).

French Air Power: Battle of France

The last of a series of eight presentations on French Air Power 1918 – 1940 by Dr. James Slaughter is this Wednesday, 24 June, 7:00 PM (EST) via Zoom.

The Zoom link is here:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85640643737?pwd=LNPVDrX9gtwOJIGWCDGB1zRq83m7GO.1

We will be posting the entire series to our YouTube channel.

Ms-406 Fighters, Syria July 1941 (Australian troops in picture)

The call for presentations for the Fifth HAAC is here: Call for Presentations for the Fifth HAAC, 20 – 22 October 2026 – The Dupuy Institute

The schedule for the Fifth HAAC is rapidly filling in. Now is a good time to commit: HAAC 2026: Fifth Historical Analysis Annual Conference (HAAC) – The Dupuy Institute

Just email me at LawrenceTDI@aol.com if you want to sign up for a presentation.

The sign-up for Fifth HAAC is here: Fifth Historical Analysis Annual Conference (HAAC) Tickets, Tuesday, October 20  •  8 AM – 6 PM | Eventbrite

More data on Port of Salerno engagements

Now…. the engagement in the last post was from the Combat Data Subscription Service published in 1975. These were the engagements used to create the QJM (@1977) and validate the QJM. They were later assembled into something called the Land Warfare Data Base (LWDB) which was used as the basis of CBD90. It was also used as the basis for a lot of what became our DuWar series of databases, and this engagement is in the DLEDB (Division-Level Engagement Data Base). It has been reviewed and revised. The current database shows:

  1. Engagement: 23003
  2. Port of Salerno Beachhead
  3. 9/9/43
  4. Br 46th Div 
  5. Ger KG Doernemann, 16th PzD
  6. Strength: 12917
  7. Strength: 2,995
  8. Armor: 0
  9. Armor: 0
  10. Artillery: 90
  11. Artillery: 18
  12. Suprise level: Minor
  13. Casualties: 350 (2.71%)
  14. Casualties: 70 (2.34%)
  15. Created 30 October 1998 for EPW study by Richard Anderson

 

 

  1. Engagement: 23004
  2. Port of Slaerno (rev)
  3. 9/10/43 – 9/11/43
  4. Br 46th Div
  5. Ger KG Schmalz, HG Division
  6. Strength: 16,837
  7. Strength: 11,955
  8. Armor: 48
  9. Armor: 72
  10. Artillery: 119
  11. Artillery: 36
  12. Casualties: 1180 (3.50% a day)
  13. Casualties: 300 (1.25% a day)
  14. Extensively revised 30 October 1998 for EPW study by Richard Anderson. Original engagement no. 3950 deleted.

 

Anyhow, there two engagements replaced the original engagement in the QJM validation database and the CBD90. In the DLEDB there are actually 96 fields that describe an engagement. This is an abbreviated list. 

9 Books

Finally here is a picture of all nine of my published books. It includes two copies of The Battle for Kyiv, as one is the hardback and one is the paperback version. The paperback version does have some revisions and an expanded photo section.

We are looking to add two more books to that collection in the next six months. An additional book on the Russo-Ukrainian War should be out in the next 2 to 3 months, and The Battle of Tolstoye Woods should be out hopefully this spring. The editing process on all my books is slow, primarily because the large amount of charts, tables and tabular data in them that are a pain to edit and proof.

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