This series, known generically as "Battlefield," isn't easy to evaluate. Seasons I and II are superb, but after that some other organization must have picked up the franchise. The name of the series remained the same, "Battlefield," but most of the later episodes -- El Alamein, Guadalcanal, Okinawa -- are pretty sloppy lash ups.
The Battle for Kursk belongs to the second, decadent period, but of all the later episodes, it resembles the first's winning formula most closely.
It was a monster of a battle. The Germans had been defeated at Stalingrad and withdrew to the vicinity of Kursk, some 300 miles south of Moscow, where they waited for new equipment for two months. The Soviet forces were getting their intelligence through British sources, who had broken the code of the German high command, so the Russians were able to prepare a defense in depth against the coming German attack.
The Germans ran into a brick wall of inexpensive mines, crude but effective armor, and innumerable artillery. The armored units ran into each other and fought at such close range that neither air force could distinguish friend from enemy.
Ultimately the German forces were defeated and from then on the Soviet Union held the initiative in the east. Among the lessons to be learned from the events we see here is that no country the size of Missouri should invade a country the size of the Soviet Union with any hope of winning -- not even when they have some of the best military leaders in the world, like Model, Guderian, and von Manstein.
Western audiences tend not to hear much about Kursk and, for many of them, Stalingrad is just a name. For forty-five years, during time of intense anti-communist sentiment, the battles in Russia, and Russian arms, tended to be overlooked or minimized because the Soviets were led by a murdering dictator. Much of the suffering and achievements of the Russians were disregarded or not spoken about, as in the defacing and destruction of images of Akhenaten.
It's probably a good thing that those impulses are fading into history, and this superior episode is evidence of it.
The Battle for Kursk belongs to the second, decadent period, but of all the later episodes, it resembles the first's winning formula most closely.
It was a monster of a battle. The Germans had been defeated at Stalingrad and withdrew to the vicinity of Kursk, some 300 miles south of Moscow, where they waited for new equipment for two months. The Soviet forces were getting their intelligence through British sources, who had broken the code of the German high command, so the Russians were able to prepare a defense in depth against the coming German attack.
The Germans ran into a brick wall of inexpensive mines, crude but effective armor, and innumerable artillery. The armored units ran into each other and fought at such close range that neither air force could distinguish friend from enemy.
Ultimately the German forces were defeated and from then on the Soviet Union held the initiative in the east. Among the lessons to be learned from the events we see here is that no country the size of Missouri should invade a country the size of the Soviet Union with any hope of winning -- not even when they have some of the best military leaders in the world, like Model, Guderian, and von Manstein.
Western audiences tend not to hear much about Kursk and, for many of them, Stalingrad is just a name. For forty-five years, during time of intense anti-communist sentiment, the battles in Russia, and Russian arms, tended to be overlooked or minimized because the Soviets were led by a murdering dictator. Much of the suffering and achievements of the Russians were disregarded or not spoken about, as in the defacing and destruction of images of Akhenaten.
It's probably a good thing that those impulses are fading into history, and this superior episode is evidence of it.
