Velikiye Luki 1942–43

Author: Robert Forczyk
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472830717
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97

Book Description
Velikiye Luki had been an important Russian fortress city since the 13th century and had become an important rail-hub by the 19th century. In August 1941, the Germans occupied the city of 30,000 during Operation Barbarossa and made it a bulwark on the boundary between Heeresgruppe Nord and Heeresgruppe Mitte. In the winter of 1942–43, while Soviet forces were encircling Stalingrad, the Stavka (High Command) conducted a simultaneous offensive to isolate and destroy the 7,500-man German garrison in Velikiye Luki. After surrounding the city on 27 November 1942, the Soviet 3rd Shock Army gradually reduced the city to rubble, while the German garrison, sustained by Luftwaffe air lifts, hunkered down in the medieval city and awaited rescue. This illustrated title reveals the full story of the tense seven-week siege of Velikiye Luki, which saw Soviet forces striving to liberate the city in the face of a determined garrison and fierce relief efforts. Detailed analysis by renowned World War II historian Robert Forczyk is complimented by stunning and historically accurate battlescenes, maps, and bird's-eye-views to offer a comprehensive look at this gripping campaign.

Stalingrad 1942–43 (2)

Author: Robert Forczyk
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472842707
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97

Book Description
The second in a three-part series examining the Stalingrad campaign, one of the most decisive military operations in World War II, that set the stage for the ultimate defeat of the Third Reich. By early September 1942, 6.Armee and 4.Panzer-Armee had reached the outskirts of Stalingrad, and Hitler believed it was about to fall. He ordered for the capture of the city as soon as possible, but this was easier said than done. On 13 September, a direct German assault was launched against the city on the Volga and a protracted urban battle followed amid the ruins, already devastated by massive Luftwaffe raids. Although hit hard by the initial German offensive, a ruthless and obstinate Red Army was able to hold onto the city through a costly battle of attrition that sacrificed huge amounts of men and materiel. This second volume in the Stalingrad trilogy, written by a leading expert on the military history of the Eastern Front, brings the fighting in the city to life in full visual detail, including the iconic battles at the Krasny Oktyabr Steel Plant, the Grain Elevator, the Barrikady and STZ factories, the 'Tennis Racquet' and Rynok–Spartanovka. Drawing from sources on both sides, this book offers a truly comprehensive account of history's greatest urban battle.

Stalingrad 1942–43 (1)

Author: Robert Forczyk
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472842669
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97

Book Description
After failing to defeat the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Adolf Hitler planned a new campaign for the summer of 1942 that was intended to achieve a decisive victory: Operation Blue (Case Blau). In this new campaign, Hitler directed that one army group (Heeresgruppe A) would advance to seize the Soviet oilfields in the Caucasus, while the other (Heeresgruppe B) pushed on to the Volga River. The expectation was for a rapid victory – instead, German forces had to fight hard just to reach the outskirts of Stalingrad, and then found themselves embroiled in a protracted urban battle amid the ruins of a devastated city on the Volga. The Soviet Red Army was hit hard by the initial German offensive but held onto the city and then launched Operation Uranus, a winter counteroffensive that encircled the German 6. Armee at Stalingrad. Despite a desperate German relief operation, the Red Army eventually crushed the German forces and hurled the remnants of the German southern front back in disorder. This first volume in the Stalingrad trilogy covers the period from 28 June to 11 September 1942, including operations around Voronezh. The fighting in the Don Bend, which lasted weeks, comprised some of the largest tank battles of World War II – involving more armour than the tanks employed at Prokhorovka in 1943.

Demyansk 1942–43

Author: Robert Forczyk
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780964420
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
A highly illustrated account of the battle for the Demyansk Pocket on the Eastern Front in World War II. The fighting around the town of Demyansk was one of the longest encirclement battles on the Eastern Front during World War II, stretching from February 1942 to February 1943. Originally, the German 16. Armee occupied Demyansk in the autumn of 1941 because it was key terrain that would be used as a springboard for an eventual offensive into the Valdai Hills. Instead, the Soviet winter counteroffensive in February 1942 encircled the German II Armeekorps and other units, inside the Demyansk Pocket. Yet despite severe pounding from five Soviet armies, the embattled German troops held the pocket and the Luftwaffe organized a major aerial resupply effort to sustain the defenders. For the first time in military history, an army was supplied entirely by air. In February 1943, Marshal Timoshenko was ordered to launch an offensive to cut off the base of the salient and annihilate the 12 divisions. At the same time, Hitler finally came to his senses after the Stalingrad debacle and authorized the 16. Armee to withdraw from the pocket. This volume will conclude with the drama of a German Army-sized withdrawal under fire in winter, under attack from three sides.

Jagdgeschwader 51 ‘Mölders’

Author: John Weal
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782005803
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
JG 51 were one of the Luftwaffe's top wartime fighter units, yet their story has never been told in English, until now. The unit's history encapsulates the fortunes of the Luftwaffe's fighter arm as a whole - the heady successes of the early months, the steady attrition and the growing strength of the opposition during the mid-war years, and the final chaos and collapse of the last days. But it is perhaps the details of the pilots who served with the unit that sets JG 51 apart. During the course of the war it numbered more Knight's Cross winners among its ranks than any other. And it is their stories – their successes, exploits and eventual fates – which brings this history to life.

Meat Grinder

Author: Prit Buttar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472851838
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 474

Book Description
An engrossing history of the desperate battles for the Rzhev Salient, a forgotten story brought to life by the harrowing memoirs of German and Russian soldiers. The fighting between the German and Russian armies in the Rzhev Salient during World War II was so grisly, so murderous, and saw such vast losses that the troops called the campaign 'The Meat Grinder'. Though millions of men would fight and die there, the Rzhev Salient does not have the name recognition of Leningrad or Moscow. It has been largely ignored by Western historians – until now. In this book, Prit Buttar, a leading expert on the Eastern Front, reveals the depth and depravity of the bitter fighting. He details how the region held the promise of a renewed drive on Moscow for the German Army – a chance to turn the tide of war. Using German and Russian first-hand accounts, Buttar examines the major offensives launched by the Red Army against the salient, all of which were defeated with losses exceeding two million killed, wounded or missing, until eventually, the Germans were forced to evacuate the salient in March 1943. Drawing on the latest research, Meat Grinder provides a study of these horrific battles but also examines how the Red Army did learn from its colossal failures and how its timely analysis of these failures helped pave the way for the eventual Soviet victory against Army Group Centre in the summer of 1944, leaving the road to Berlin clear.

World War II Soviet Armed Forces (2)

Author: Nigel Thomas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1849084211
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 49

Book Description
In this second volume of a three-part series on the Soviet Armed Forces in World War II, author Nigel Thomas turns his attention to the mid-war period. Focusing on the uniforms and organization of Soviet troops during the campaigns of the Caucasus, Stalingrad and Kursk, this book offers a detailed breakdown of all the armed forces which conducted the valiant defensive campaigns, including the army, air force, paratroopers, navy and NKVD troops. It also covers equipment and insignia and the changes brought about by the new regulations of 1943.

Deliberating War

Author: Patricia Roberts-Miller
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031606728
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description

Siege of Budapest 1944–45

Author: Balázs Mihályi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472848373
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97

Book Description
A gripping and detailed study of the brutal urban battle for Budapest, which saw German and Hungarian troops struggling to halt the joint Soviet-Romanian offensive to take the key city on the Danube. The 52-day-long siege of Budapest witnessed some of the most destructive urban fighting of the war. The Transdanubia region was strategically vital to Nazi Germany for its raw materials and industry, and because of the bridgehead it allowed into Austria. As a result, Hitler declared Budapest a fortress city in early December 1944. The battle for the city pitted 90,000 German and Hungarian troops against 170,000 Soviet (2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts) and Romanian attackers. The operations to take the city ran across several phases, from the initial Soviet approach to Budapest commencing in late October 1944, through the encirclement of city first on the Pest side of the Danube, and then on the Buda bank, and on to the savage urban fighting that began in December 1944 for the Hungarian capital. This superbly detailed work analyses the background, chronology and consequences of the siege from both a military and political perspective, and documents the huge losses in military and civilian casualties and material damage.

The Axiz Force 1

Author: Massimiliano Afiero
Publisher: Soldiershop Publishing
ISBN: 8893271990
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 89

Book Description
April 1941: SS motorcyclists in Belgrad, SS cavalry units on the Eastern Front, Autumn-Winter 1941-42, Laurits Jensen - Free Corps Denmark, The French volunteers of the N.S.K.K. Motorgruppe Luftwaffe, The SS-Division Wiking in the Caucasus: Autumn 1942, Foreign volunteer legion stamp propaganda in the third reich.