The third chapter follows this same formula for 1942, ending with a brief overview of the disposition of the involved formations and a snapshot of the tactical, operational, and strategic picture of the Eastern front in December 1942. There are small subsections that bring the narrative focus onto individual unit actions and tactical movements in each of the theaters major actions. The next chapter proceeds through a montage of the various tank battles of the first year of the Eastern front, stopping to detail various strategic and tactical factors as they influence the operational situation. This discussion provides a foundation for the detailed examinations of the major armored battles that follow.
The first chapter gives a solid start to the book, detailing the formations, equipment, and commanders of the opposing forces at the outset of the campaign. The book suffers somewhat from this broad chronological organization, making it hard to find places to rest and digest the information presented. The conclusion is short and focuses on recapping the 18 months of lessons and patterns that had taken shape. The next 230 pages are organized into a mere 3 chapters: a scene setting overlay discussing the opposing forces in early 1941, followed by a chapter each for operations in 19. Background information is laid out here, outlining the standing misconceptions he is choosing to address and outlay the scope of the book ahead. Robert Forczyk starts his introduction with the popular mythology of “quantity over quality” and proceeds with a thorough detailing of how this particular fable misses key factors that, when assembled, paint a more complex portrait of the war. Few, if any, other authors bring this combined understanding to the topic. Department of Defense white papers, and an inherent understanding of tank operations, borne of experience, to do this. The author uses unit records, previous scholarship, U.S. This is the standout feature of this book, as it is one of the first to delve into these sources and elucidate the fog of war that clouds historical perception of the war on the Eastern front. This new understanding is beneficial to more than just the historians of the Second World War, giving a wider audience a chance to get a clear and comprehensive background of tank warfare in general and the specifics of the Eastern front based on primary Russian and German sources. This serves as a focal point as it consistently works to shed light on the armor campaigns of 19. Forczyk avoids the pitfalls of the surrounding myths by choosing to address them through a well written chronological history with consistent analysis of individual actions and the larger operational and strategic pictures. Tank Warfare illuminates the failures and successes of the German and Soviet approaches as the war progressed. This myth busting is part and parcel of the motivation behind this book.
Other myths include the technical superiority of German war machines ( Death Traps) and the genius of certain commanders, Soviet and German, with the memoirs of Generalfeldmarschall Manstien being among the most famous examples of these, along with much of the early post-war work by Sir B.H.
SOVIET TANK FORCE JUNE 1941 ARMORED PROFESSIONAL
Some of these, such as the “endless hordes” of the Soviet Army overwhelming the professional and competent Wehrmacht through sheer numbers, border on myth, if not outright fabrications. Glantz's work is essential to understanding the Eastern front and his work, in particular Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941, remains relevant to the current discussion.įor decades, popular history has perpetuated misunderstandings about the Eastern Front of the Second World War. This account differs from previous work primarily through its wide-ranging use of primary sources from Russian and German records, in addition to leaning on the excellent groundwork laid by David M. Robert Forczyk’s Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941-1942: Schwerpunkt is an excellent analysis of the first 18 months of armored warfare on the Eastern front during the Second World War.
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