Author: Robert Forczyk
Illustrated by: Howard Gerrard
Softback
ISBN: 978-1-78096-157-6
Review by Bill Curtis
Our thanks to Osprey Publishing for supplying our review copy. Get this good reference book here now at: www.ospreypublishing.com
Initial assessment
This is another of the Campaign Series (254) which covers an important battle which has had little coverage to my knowledge and was probably the greatest defeat of the Soviet Army in World War Two.
The book follows the now standard format in size, 96 pages and lay out of this series with maps, colour plates, photographs and text. The book has twelve sections including the index which are as follows:
1. Origins of the campaign
2. Chronology
3. Opposing Commanders
4. Opposing forces
5. Opposing plans
6. The Soviet Offensive 12-16 May 1942
7. The German Counter Offensive 17-23 May 1942
8. The End Game 24-29 May 1942
9. Aftermath
10. The Battlefield today
11. Further Reading
12. Index
After failing in their attempt to finish off the German Army during the counter attack in the winter of 1941/42, Stalin directed that an attack would be made to disrupt the planned German Spring Offensive and this would be made at Kharkov under the command of Marshall Semyon Timoshenko with all the remaining Stavka reserves. This attack was intended to punch a hole through the German lines and allow for the Sixth German army to be surrounded. Unknown to the Soviets the Germans were also planning their attack to take place in the same location in an operation code named Friderius.
Timoshenko began the offensive in May and didn’t realise his forces limitations or the ability of the Germans to regroup so rapidly from early setbacks, which in the end contributed to a massive defeat for the Soviet Army.
This volume is interesting for its coverage not only of the battle covered on a daily basis but also the role of intelligence, logistics and the two combatants’ role of armour, with an emerging Soviet tank force pitted against a renewed German force.
This book fills an important place in the history of the Ost Front as it sits between the winter battles of 1941/2 and the Battle of Stalingrad and is recommended reading for anyone interested in the period.
Highly Recommended
Bill C.