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The Assassins Gallery Liberation Road Last Citadel Scorched
Earth The End of War War of the Rats Souls to Keep |
By July of 1943, Nazi Germany's adventure in Russia no longer bore the opportunity for victory. The best Hitler could do after two winters and two summers campaigning in the Soviet Union, without the Red Army splintering into shards as he'd expected, was a draw, a political accommodation. The third summer offensive in Russia came at a time when Germany's allies were re-inspecting their loyalties. Mussolini had made noises about switching sides even before the invasion of his peninsula by the Americans (which would come a few weeks into July). The Turks were not keeping their promise to invade Russia. The Japanese had their hands full in the Pacific and were demanding Hitler intensify his fronts with the Western allies to ease pressure on them. The Fuhrer's forces had been pushed back out of Stalingrad and west across the steppe all the way to Khar'kov. Russian momentum was building, the Red military gained confidence, Africa was lost, England was not invaded, America was about to enter the war on the continent. Hitler needed a win in the Soviet Union, badly. The place he sought this win was Kursk. A huge bulge had opened into German lines, with the city of Kursk at its center. The obvious summer strategy for Germany was to snip shut this salient, surround five Red front armies, and straighten German defense lines, shortening them and sending the spared men and materiel to Italy to shore up Mussolini. Hitler's generals told him to jump off in April, while the Soviets were still reeling from Manstein's re-conquering of Khar'kov. But Hitler vacillated. He wanted to wait for the latest round of German technology, the new Tiger and Panther tanks, to be completed and delivered to Russia. The untermenschen, he reasoned, would have nothing to counter these newest tanks, with their long barreled main guns, the thickest armor of any battle tanks in any army, their magnificent targeting optics and powerful new Maybach engines. Hitler waited, against the advice of his generals, for these weapons to become available. The wait lasted three and a half months. The Soviets used this time to prepare their defenses inside the Kursk bulge. They knew where the Germans would attack. They simply didn't know when. The battle for Kursk was finally joined on July 5, 1943. It became the single greatest battle in military history in terms of the number of men, armor and planes dedicated to it. The final confrontation of the conflict, the battle of Prokhorovka, has reached legendary status as the largest single engagement of armor on any battlefield in history. Last Citadel will tell the story of the battle of Kursk through the eyes of a Cossack family which has gone to war together, and a Spanish captain serving in the Liebstandarte Division of the Waffen SS. The Cossacks are: Dimitri Berko, a private who drives a T-34 in the Soviet 3rd Mechanized Division; Valentin Berko, Dimitri's son, a sergeant who commands the tank driven by his father; and Katya Berkovna, Dimitri's daughter, a night bomber with the famous all-female bomber squadrons of the Red Air Force, known by the Germans as Night Witches. On the German side is Captain Luis Ruiz de Vega, the son of a renowned Barcelona matador, who has suffered a grievous and disfiguring wound earlier in the war and now struggles to win for himself glory in Russia, to return to Spain the equal of his father. Last Citadel will carry these characters from the initial assault on the southern shoulder of the Kursk bulge through the climactic battle of Prokhorovka. Along the way, each of them fights many wars, for family, for pride, for country and for survival. Click here to read an excerpt. |
David
L. Robbins's Last Citadel| Site design by riverrun enterprises, inc. Copyright 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002 |