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.
