Being there . . . . on July 10, 1943, not so much for the Soviet tank attacks on the southern and
northern faces of the enormous Russian salient west of Kursk in the Ukraine during the greatest
tank battle in history, but more importantly, NAY, critically significant, air battles between July 5
and 23. All World War II buffs, enthusiasts, aficionados know that earlier that year Soviet
successes and German counterattacks had created a huge bulge protruding into German held
territory. Hitler, relying on all his strategic intuition and wisdom, determined regardless of cost
in soldiers and weapons, i.e., tanks, he was going to lop off that ugly salient from the main
Eastern Front line. The protrusion was an unexpected gift from Uncle Joe – – a possible
systematic victory from the smashing annihilation of Stalin’s massive tank armies crowded into
the bulge. To the Fuhrer, it was payback time for the Soviet miracle over his Wehrmacht at
Stalingrad months before. For the pending German victory, his generals assembled 70% of their
tanks and 65% of their aircraft from the entire Eastern Front, from the Baltic to the Turkish
Bosporus Straits. The German forces numbered 900,000 troops, 2,700 tanks and assault guns,
and 1,800 aircraft. When the colossal inferno was erupting, the world stopped spinning. To this
day, there are no established accurate counts of either German or Russian losses. What was
certain, however, was that Stalin’s pilots in all sorts of aircraft shifted the military balance
toward the road to Berlin in favor of the USSR, crushing Nazi Germany’s last chance to win the
war.
FOR DECADES MILITARY HISTORIANS HAVE BEEN ARGUING THAT RUSSIA’S DEFENSE OF
STALINGRAD WAS THE TURNING POINT OF WWII IN EUROPE. LATELY, THE BRIGHTER ONES
HAVE REVISED THEIR THINKING THAT IT WAS THE BITTER TWO-WEEK BATTLE FOR KURSK IN
JULY OF 1943 WHEN 6,200 PANZERS AND SOVIET T – 34s INTERMINGLED TO BLAST EACH
OTHER INTO SMITHEREENS THAT ULTIMATELY CAUSED THE GERMAN RETREAT. NOW,
CASEMATE PUBLISHERS, ONE OF THE WORLD’S THREE BEST MILITARY PUBLISHERS, IN MY
OPINION, HAS BEGUN DISTRIBUTING THE ULTIMATE REFERENCE ON HOW STALIN’S RED AIR
FORCE, THE MASTER OF THE SKIES OVER THE VAST NETWORK OF 7,500 MILES OF KURSK
TRENCHES, 10,000 COMMAND AND OBSERVATION POSTS, AND 47,500 ARTILLERY AND
MORTAR POSITIONS, BLEW THE GERMANS PAST HELL INTO THE OBLIVION STATE OF BEING
FORGOTTEN . . .
Reviewed and highly, highly recommended as a Christmas gift for both you and your buff.
by Don DeNevi
“ACES AT KURSK. – – The Battle for Aerial Supremacy on the Eastern Front 1943”, by Christopher
A. Lawrence of the Dupuy Institute. Air World, an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd, Yorkshire –
Philadelphia: 2024, 399 pages, 6 ½”x 9 ½”, hardcover, normally illustrated with rare, hitherto
unpublished portraits, virtually inundated with maps, graphs, charts, tables, statistics and
summations, biographies of both German and Russian commanders, clean, clear notes, and
undoubtedly the best bibliography ever assembled on the Battle of Kursk subject, 13 pages
thick. The final page, 399, is filled to the brim with scholarly biographical information about the
author, Christopher A. Lawrence, who lives in northern Virginia with wife and son. His brilliant
Prologue is to die for.
“I feel as if I am pushing open the door to a dark room never seen before, without knowing
what lies behind that door”, Adolf Hitler commented to Josef Goebbels and Hermann Goring on
the morning of June 21, 1941, when Germany invaded Russia via his risky “Operation
Barbarossa”.
“Thus, it has been exploded, the legend that the German summer offensives are always
successful and that the Soviet forces are always compelled to retreat”, Joe Stalin, July 24, 1943.
“ACES AT KURSK” – – what a superb, surprise gift for Christmas! A read like no other from the
Eastern Front. Why? First, note the seemingly thousands of friends and scholars Chris
acknowledges he consulted on just the air campaign alone! Enough to fill a football stadium.
Then, note the photos of the German and Russian military stars – – ordinary men like our own
who had been called to duty, almost none relishing death. The book is not just an aviation
story. In this reviewer’s opinion, it is the most investigated, thought-provoking compendium,
treatise ever assembled about who owned the air over the bloody battlefields, i.e., who really
was responsible for turning the tide of the invader juggernaut on the Eastern Front. Thanks,
Christopher Lawrence, for your splendid knowledge and erudition, with a special nod of kudos
for Air World, Pen & Sword books, and, of course, Casemate. Chris, you really don’t need any
special glory for your natural resoluteness in research and scholarship and gift for narration.
You know who you are. For us, just announce when your next project will be in our hands.
