The Battle for Kharkov 1941 - 1943

by Anthony Tucker-Jones

Overview

The four battles fought for Kharkov during the Second World War are often overshadowed by the battles for Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, yet they were critical stages in the struggle between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army for control of the southern Soviet Union.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, in this volume in the Images of War series, offers a visual record of the dramatic and bloody conflict that took place there, showing every grim aspect of the fighting. Kharkov became one of the most bitterly contested cities during the war on the Eastern Front, and this book presents a graphic overview of the atrocious conditions the soldiers on both sides had to endure.

In 1941 Kharkov fell to Hitler’s Army Group South. In 1942 the Soviets tried and failed to retake it, losing 240,000 men in the Barvenkovo Bulge. Then, in 1943, the control of the battered city changed hands twice before the Soviets liberated it for good. The fate of Kharkov during the war reflects the history of the wider struggle between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781473827479
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	04/25/2016
Series:	Images of War
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	808,500
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Anthony Tucker-Jones is a former defense intelligence officer and a widely published expert on regional conflicts, counter-terrorism and armored and aerial warfare. He is the author of over thirty books, is security and terrorism correspondent for intersec – The Journal of International Security, and has freelanced for Channel 4 News.

Table of Contents

Introduction 6

Photograph Sources 8

Chapter 1 Kharkov: City of the Tractor 9

Chapter 2 Stalin's Soviet 38th Army 23

Chapter 3 Hitler's Army Group South 39

Chapter 4 First Battle for Kharkov - October 1941 57

Chapter 5 Second Battle for Kharkov - May 1942 77

Chapter 6 Third Battle for Kharkov - February 1943 96

Chapter 7 Final Battle for Kharkov - August 1943 115

Chapter 8 The Aftermath 132

Editorial Reviews

"The black and white photographs in The Battle of Kharkov are more illuminating than in Tucker-Jones's Riviera book, perhaps because the brutality of the fighting on the Eastern Front was much more evident. Tucker-Jones's selection of photographs and accompanying text bring out the peculiarly bleak nature of this conflict."

Wargames Illustrated

"I highly recommend this book for modelers interested in the Russian front in general and Kharkov sector in particular."

Great Models