Product Description

During the second half of 1943, after the failure at Kursk, Germany's Army Group South fell back from Russia under repeated hammer blows from the Red Army. Under Erich von Manstein, however, the Germans were able to avoid serious defeats, while at the same time fending off Hitler's insane orders to hold on to useless territory.

Then, in January 1944, a disaster happened. Six divisions of Army Group South became surrounded after sudden attacks by the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts under command of generals Nikolai Vatutin and Ivan Konev around the village of Korsun (near the larger town of Cherkassy on the Dnieper). The Germans' greatest fear was the prospect of another Stalingrad, the catastrophe that had occurred precisely one year before.

This time, though, Manstein was in control from the start, and he immediately rearranged his Army Group to rescue his trapped divisions. A major panzer drive got underway, led by General der Panzertruppen Hans Hube, a survivor from Stalingrad pocket, which promptly ran up against several soviet tank armies. Leading the break-in was Franz Baeke with his Tiger and Panther-tanks. Due to both weather and ferocious resistance, the German drive stalled. Ju-52s still flew into Korsun's airfield, delivering supplies and taking out wounded, but it soon became apparent that only one option remained for the beleaguered defenders: breakout.

Without consulting Hitler, on the night of February 16 Manstein ordered the breakout to begin. Led by the strongest formation within the pocket, SS Wiking, the trapped forces surged out and soon rejoined the surrounding panzer divisions who had been fully engaged in weakening the ring.

When dawn broke, the Soviets realized their prey was escaping. Although the Germans within the pocket lost nearly all of their heavy weapons and left many wounded behind, their escape was effected. Stalin, having anticipated another Stalingrad, was left with little but an empty bag, as Army Group South-this time-had pulled off a rescue.

In The Korsun Pocket, Niklas Zetterling, a researcher at the Swedish Defense College since 1995 and Anders Frankson, have provided a highly detailed and often breathtaking account of one of the most dramatic battles of World War II. From grand strategy to soldiers' voices on the ground, including expert statistical analysis, the action, and the stakes, of the battle at Korsun are made vividly clear.

REVIEWS

"...compelling prose, abundant tactical detail, lots of maps, a clear narrative of events and running analysis of the battle as it unfolds. If you're hungering for a good WWII East Front battle book, look no further... It's very well done." Magweb.com, 10/2008

"...provides a fascinating insight into a little known event within the vast Eastern front conflict... those who read this book will discover something they have not read about before."Military Modeling.com, 11/2008

"..a story well told...maintains a level of observation at the human scale and is packed with detail...Highly recommended..."Play History, 11/2008

"Military history at it's very best. The quality of research undertaken is very impressive... very readable and fascinating."War Books Out Now, 12/2008

"...loaded with lots of fascinating detailed accounts of the grim realities of East front combat...This behind the spearhead detail is truly interesting. ...packed with good legible maps that help the reader immensely in following the action."AMPS, 1/2009

"The authors have provided a highly detailed account of one of the most dramatic battles of World War II. From strategy to soldiers' voice on the ground, all aspects of the battle at Korsun are made vividly clear." Military Scale Modeler International, 01/2009

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #283584 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

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Customer Reviews

Detaild Tactical Review
This book deals with the Eastern Front battle of the Korsun Pocket, known to the Germans as the Cherkassy Pocket. The book is a tactical level history of the battle that occured in late 1943, early 1944. The Korsun battle was the second major encirclement (Stalingrad being the first) of German troops by the Red Army. In this case the encirclement was ultimately unsuccessful due to strenuous efforts by the Germans to relieve the encircled troops, though it was a close run affair and the Germans in the pocket lost almost all their heavy equipment during the breakout. The battle is interesting as it is one of the last times on the Eastern front that the Germans were able to muster sufficient forces to launch a major attack on terms that gave them a reasonable chance of success.

The book is generally well written and is based on a great deal of research in both German and Soviet sources. The authors admit that German sources tend to predominate as they are more easily verifiable than Soviet sources. The latter tend to be tainted by the needs of the political climate of the time. There are plenty of maps to assist the reader but few illustrations. The appendices contain a lot of additional data useful to the more serious student of the Eastern front. My major complaint is that key places mentioned in the text often do not appear on the maps and some of the maps lack any indication of scale.

Good presentation of the Cherkassey Pocket & Breakout, Could use more 1st Person Narrative
This is a good book, well written, and gives the reader a somewhat sanitized description of German pocket battles, the problems of relief, wandering the pocket to the West, and breakthrough to the relieving forces. The authors stopped their narrative following the breakthrough, but the troops experienced more tribulations and escapes afterwards from the Red Army before they were relatively safe. The research is excellent and the presentation of casualties and statistics from the German side is well done. The Soviet side is subject to some speculation, but Glantz and House reported 80,188 killed and wounded, and the tank losses are generally given as about 700.

The pocket was formed due to Hitler's intransigence towards retreating and his fantasy of maintaining the salient on the Dnieper River as a jumping-off place for an offensive. To the Soviets, the salient was ripe for being nipped off and the two corps of German troops contained therein to be annihilated. This was in January and February of 1944, rather late in the war, and German strength on the Eastern Front was stretched to the breaking point, but their superior tactics and unit cohesion could still punish incautious Soviet movements when allowed.

The Korsun or Cherkassey pocket was one such battle, where Field-Marshal Manstein committed himself to saving the encircled troops and generally fulfilled his promise. In doing so, however, he used up his armoured reserves, and after his sacking by Hitler after the Soviets pushed through to the Hungarian border, Army Groups Center and North could no longer win battles above the battalion level.

Both the Soviet and German troops fought bitterly. The Germans were fighting for their lives, and being wounded was nearly a death sentence. The Soviets massacred the German wounded they captured (along with the medical personnel), and only walking wounded able to cross the swollen and freezing Gnily Tikich (river) or those flown out earlier were saved.

The Germans that did escape generally did so without weapons, and in many cases without clothes having swum the river to safety. That the hardships were unbelievable goes without saying. On the Soviet side the elements breaking through to form the pocket were decimated by German attacks, and their situations were often as difficult as the Germans'.

At any rate, this work goes far to illustrate to the reader the conditions of battle on the Eastern Front from the Battle of Kursk to the assault on Berlin. Other pockets were wiped out by the Soviets, and the spectacle of troops returning through Soviet lines became commonplace on the Eastern Front.

I recommend this book, but would also recommend two other works to readers interested in this battle:
"Hell's Gate" by Donald Nash provides more photos, maps and 1st person accounts; and
"Campaign in Russia" by Leon Degrelle, a Belgian SS volunteer who commanded the Walloon brigade inside the Cherkassey pocket for more descriptive accounts of the fighting.

Good account of the battle.
I feel that this is a very good work on the Korsun (also known as the Cherkassy) Pocket. Makes good use of archival sources to help understand the motivations and actions of commanders on both sides (author makes a correct observation that Soviet accounts must be viewed through a lens of propaganda). The first-person accounts are useful.

The author makes the reader aware of the the effects of weather and terrain on the course of the battle. The Russian mud bogs down movement to such an extent that reserves and reinforcements arrive late and understrength on both sides due to the effects of the strain it causes to man, animal, and machine.

The reason I gave it four instead of five stars was the clarity of the maps. I would read that a unit was moving from place "A" northward to place "B" when it was engaged in action with an enemy unit. I would then look on the map in that chapter and couldn't find place "A" or place "B"!

On the whole, I found this work to be a very good treatment on the subject.