Zhukov's Greatest Defeat: The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942 (Modern War Studies)

David Glantz has written a great account of Operation Mars one of the many forgotten battles of the Eastern Front 1941-45, its sheer magnitude makes it actually one of the biggest battles in WW2, it was a failure of Zhukov and Red army high command of epic proportions in the aftermath the Soviets tried and pretty much succeeded in covering up their fiasco and incompitance in leadership over the backs of their own Red Army Soldiers who fought and fell heroicly for their country but where then scraped of the history books by their own government, their story was never told until now with Mr Glantz his true work of Scholarship, recommended and inadmisable for everyone interessted in the German-Russo war 1941-45!

Another great book by the master of the history of the eastern front,he shows in great detail the absolute slaughter the Russian leaders inflicted on thereown soldiers i.e. Zhukov in keeping the offensives going long after there was nopoint whatsoever in victory, No doubt to appease Stalin, great book buy it.

OK

This is a far easier book to get into than the Kharkov one. A great deal of effort has been made to humanise this account of a mindbendingly massive loss of life. There is a lot of map referencing as you would expect. The maps are clear and without any major flaw. Although sometimes, the places and villages referenced to have their names on the maps obscured by other details. Say the 150RB fought for village X. You may find, on the map, 150RB is right where the name of said village should be so that you have to search for a later or earlier map after the action has passed over it in order to find village X. Every map page had its corner bent over eventually, so that was no biggie.Occasionally the attempts to lend a human angle to the commanders thoughts are a bit syrupy, but they are trying to convey and bring together details from other sources into a whole in order to convey personalities that affect crucial decisions and inform us as to why these decisions were taken. A very good strategy that works well.Less plain repetition of primary and secondary sources and more narrative act as a great vehicle for the tons of details in this book. A great work, unbiased and very sobering.

When at school i was studying the battle of Stalingrad, I have never understood why, for the operation of relief of the encircled units there, the Wehrmacht used so few divisions; at the same time I was not able to understand why and when the salient of Rzhev disappeared.Colonel Glantz gives , with this book, the answer to both these questions from my childhood. It existed a very large operation, named Operation Mars/Jupiter, started at the same time with the Operation Uranus/Saturn (Stalingrad) destined to destroy the Army Group Center. This operation ended with a huge defeat for the Red Army and that's why the historiography of the winners obliterated it until now.The book contains a ultra-complete Order of battle and all the comunications between the staff of the Stavka (High Soviet command) and of the Fronts/Armies involved; from all of these the truth comes out on a very definite way.I like very much the Glantz's way of writing and of documentating, because without a preconceived idea, but with a huge flow of informations makes you understand what had really happened.For the passionate of the Eastern Front of the WWII, a book that you can't miss.

Having a interest in military history and having read one battle after another you always find references to other theatres outside the one your reading. I've read the period of summer through to Winter 1942 in the East and it always heads south to Karkhov and straight to that City on the Volga with sub notes to supposedly lesser strikes in the North to alleviate pressure on the southern front. A way of drawing off the reserves of your attacker.Now when you look at the rise of Field Marshall Model from commander of 3rd Panzer Division in 1941 to the ''fuhrer's fireman'' by 1944 you kind of get the impression that Model's 9th Army was not just defending against minor and secondary attacks attacks prior to the withdrawal from the Rzhev salient to the North of Kursk around Orel. That's another story, both before and after the Battle of Kursk. here we have Mars.The entire summer of 42 around Rzhev area is a very large Red Army graveyard pock marked with German Crosses. Come the winter and we have the big hits of the North and South. This was one big hit and if it had worked Red banners would have been flying over Berlin come summer 1944 as Army Group Centre would have collapsed in the storm Jupiter would put forth post Mars and Uranus with Operation Saturn following up Uranus in the South. Manstein Counterstroke at Karkhov would have been a stabilising operation on a potential retreat to the Dneiper instead as the Army Groups South and Centre fought for there lives. Lets face it the Southern strikes got as far North as smashing up the 2nd German army, would 3rd Panzer and 4th have faired any better? post he loss of the 9th Army.This is one very good read, highly detailed and in depth about a defensive victory and a offensive failure. The ramifications speak for themselves. Just open up and start reading and see what you think, the guns are not silent and the pressure is relentless. I Recommend.