Product Description

The Battle of Brody ranks as one of the key tank battles in World War II, yet is woefully unknown. For the first time, there is a detailed, well-researched history of this key tank battle around Kiev and the Dnieper River. The fiercest battle of Operation Barbarossa - including a four-day battle between the 1st Panzer Army, and the Soviet Mechanized Corps - this included 3,000 armored vehicles in both armies, plus air support from the Luftwaffe.For a week, the two sides fought each other continuously: the Soviets with tenacity, determination, and courage, the Germans with regimented disciple and tactics that proved superior. Full battle plans are given, along with forces strengths and biographies of key commanders, so the reader can follow combat history, and the author examines the decisive German victory, yet shows how these few days proved invaluable to the Soviet Union, when the Whermacht attack stalled at the gates of Moscow in the dead of winter, foreshadowing the end for the Germans. Showing this battle from both sides, this is a book bound to appeal to any tank enthusiast and military historian.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63043 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Review
Little reported, rarely written about, the Bloody Triangle formed by Ukrainian towns of Lutsk, Dubno and Brody, was scene of what became the second largest tank battle of Operation Barbarossa. Between June 24, to July 1, 1941, some 2500 tanks, tank destroyers and artillery face each other, the Russians losing. The German Panzers moved on to the siege of Leningrad, the bloodletting at Stalingrad to end at the battle of Kursk, where the Germans were defeated in the largest tank battle in history. Author Kamenir has taken on a large topic for his first book, an important battle which helped the Russians gain time to gather forces to eventually defeat the Germans at Kursk. He writes with clarity, keeping me on task and reminds me occasionally that I need help keeping the units and geography straight and the dates in order. The Germans did not learn from their victory at the triangle, and the Russians began recognizing weakness and produced a large armored force, capable of holding at Stalingrad and winning at Kursk. The research was admittedly weighed toward the Russians so we see a bit different picture of the Operation. Victor J. Kamenir, I look forward to your next book. Hopefully you will take us further on the war on the Eastern front --MidWest book review

Customer Reviews

organisation versus numbers
Kamenir describes the first large scale armoured clash on the eastern front in WW2. While unsuccessful from the Soviet point of view, it certainly gave the Germans pause for thought and a few anxious moments. The clash was between Army Group South's schwerpunkt based around 1st Panzer Group and the South-West Front's (the pre-war Kiev Special Military District) main armoured force.

This is an interesting book that gives a lot of detail about a relatively obscure part of the second world war (albeit in occasionally awkward English). Most histories just describe the opening stages of Barbarossa as an almost monotonous series of German encirclement operations resulting in enormous numbers of Russian POWs.

There is a lot of information on the state of the Soviet mechanised forces, rather less on the ordinary infantry units and the Germans. This is a minor criticism though, given the wealth of information contained here, especially as information on the German forces is easily found.

I'd recommend this as a very useful study of a not very well known part of WW2. It's certainly of great interest to the wargamer interested in operational level combat with some very useful maps, but that's not the only audience. This book helps to explain why things went so wrong for the Red Army in 1941, but also that the summer campaign wasn't quite as one-sided as is often portrayed.

Detail, but loses the big picture
I bought this with high expectation of getting a better insight into the topic, but it loses its way badly. The writer concentrates on lots of personal memories to the exclusion of a lucid picture of the operational situation, and the maps (inconveniently placed at the end of the book) are at too great a scale to be anything other than general references. There is also minimal tactical analysis of why the Germans performed better on the battlefield.

It is page 125 (of 260 pages, excluding appendices) before we finish with the first day of the war (Jun 22nd). This first half includes excessive anecdotes and lots of unnecessary detail - for example about the tribulations of the Kiev District air commander's difficulties in getting to his HQ. The second half is not much better. At the end of the book I didn't feel that I was at all enlightened about the principal reasons for the destruction of the soviet armour, other than what I knew already.