The Wehrmacht Retreats

Fighting a Lost War, 1943

Robert M. Citino

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English

University Press of Kansas
15 September 2016

History; European history; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Second World War

Series: Modern War Studies

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.

By: Robert M. Citino
Imprint: University Press of Kansas
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 226mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 590g
ISBN: 9780700623433
ISBN 10: 0700623434
Series: Modern War Studies
Pages: 440
Publication Date: 15 September 2016
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Robert M. Citino is professor of history at the University of North Texas, USA and author of eight books, including Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942; The German Way of War: From the Thirty Years' War to the Third Reich; Quest for Decisive Victory: From Stalemate to Blitzkrieg in Europe, 1899-1940; and Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm: The Evolution of Operational Warfare, which won both the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award and the American Historical Association's Paul Birdsall Prize.

Reviews for The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943

Citino has something interesting and original to say about every campaign. . . . A major contribution of great value for specialists but also highly attractive to the general reader. --<b>Evan Mawdsley</b>, author of <i>World War II: A New History and Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941-1945</i>