Military Model Scene

Title: Soviet Tanks at Kursk 1943
Author: William E. Hiestand
Publisher: Osprey
ISBN: 978-1-4728-6144-3

New Vanguard number 335, a 48-page soft-cover book from Osprey. Artwork in this one is by Henry Morshead, who did the vehicle profiles and Edouard A. Groult who did the battlescene spread.
A brief introduction to set the scene and then 3 main sections, each subdivided into 3 sub-headings. The first covers the Organisation and Doctrine of Soviet armoured units, including their training, then Technical Factors, which is split across light, medium and heavy tanks, along with Lend-Lease tanks and then Self-Propelled guns. This leads us to the Campaign that not only tackles Operation Zitadelle, which I suspect many of us have heard of, but also 2 other follow-on offensives, Operation Kutuzov and Operation Rumyantsev, before getting to a summary of the Aftermath and a Battle Analysis. While the Soviets were given intelligence that allowed them to prepare for the German offensive, this stage of the war meant the Soviets still operated a large number of AFVs that were outclassed by the latest German AFVs. It was just the beginning of new Soviet equipment coming into service, such as the SU-100, the T-34/85 and the IS-2 among others. With the excellent artwork, plenty of archive photos throughout the book and various tables to indicate Soviet tank strength at various stages, this is a handy reference on the famous Kursk tank battles. Despite the Soviet victory and German losses, the extent of Soviet losses is remarkable, but their ability to provide replacements and new tanks was far greater than the German army could manage at this stage of the war. An interesting read for a good value reference on the battles around Kursk during WW2. I did make me think just how sad it is that the region is going through similar fighting once again, though this time it is Russia doing the attacking and once again Ukrainian families who have to suffer for it all over again.
Thanks to Osprey for the review copy.

Robin