Winner of the Arthur Goodzeit Award Throughout 1943, the German
army, heirs to a military tradition that demanded and perfected
relentless offensive operations, succumbed to the realities of its
own overreach and the demands of twentieth-century industrialized
warfare. In his new study, prizewinning author Robert Citino
chronicles this weakening Wehrmacht, now fighting desperately on
the defensive but still remarkably dangerous and lethal. Drawing on
his impeccable command of German-language sources, Citino offers
fresh, vivid, and detailed treatments of key campaigns during this
fateful year: the Allied landings in North Africa, General von
Manstein's great counterstroke in front of Kharkov, the German
attack at Kasserine Pass, the titanic engagement of tanks and men
at Kursk, the Soviet counteroffensives at Orel and Belgorod, and
the Allied landings in Sicily and Italy. Through these events, he
reveals how a military establishment historically configured for
violent aggression reacted when the tables were turned; how German
commanders viewed their newest enemy, the U.S. Army, after brutal
fighting against the British and Soviets; and why, despite their
superiority in materiel and manpower, the Allies were unable to
turn 1943 into a much more decisive year. Applying the keen
operational analysis for which he is so highly regarded, Citino
contends that virtually every flawed German decision-to defend
Tunis, to attack at Kursk and then call off the offensive, to
abandon Sicily, to defend Italy high up the boot and then down much
closer to the toe-had strong supporters among the army's officer
corps. He looks at all of these engagements from the perspective of
each combatant nation and also establishes beyond a shadow of a
doubt the synergistic interplay between the fronts. Ultimately,
Citino produces a grim portrait of the German officer corps,
dispelling the longstanding tendency to blame every bad decision on
Hitler. Filled with telling vignettes and sharp portraits and
copiously documented, The Wehrmacht Retreats is a dramatic and
fast-paced narrative that will engage military historians and
general readers alike.
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