The Battle of Kursk
The definitive account of the largest tank battle in history, from both sides' archives.
The Verdict
The largest tank battle in history has been buried under decades of myth, and David Glantz and Jonathan House dig it out using the Soviet records themselves. Their account of Kursk in July 1943 is operational history at its most rigorous — and most bracing, because it dismantles cherished legends, including the famous armoured collision at Prokhorovka, which turns out to look very different in the archives than in the textbooks. Demanding and detailed, it is the book that reset the scholarly understanding of the Eastern Front's decisive summer.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- Kursk rebuilt from the Soviet archives
- Rigorous operational and armoured history
- Myth-busting on Prokhorovka
- Serious study of the Eastern Front
Look elsewhere if you want
- A narrative or human-scale account
- A first book on the Eastern Front
- Story over analysis
Why We Rated It 4.3
Historical Context
The Battle of Kursk (1999) reconstructs the July 1943 German offensive and Soviet defence using Red Army archival sources. Glantz is the historian most responsible for rebuilding the Eastern Front from Soviet records, and the book is a standard scholarly account of the battle.
Criticisms & Debates
The book's central revision — that the legendary tank charge at Prokhorovka was smaller and less one-sided than Soviet accounts long claimed — overturned a popular set-piece of Eastern Front history, and remains a touchstone in the debate over how the battle's myths took hold.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0700613359
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What myth does the book overturn about Kursk?
- Most famously the scale and outcome of the tank clash at Prokhorovka, which the archives show was smaller and less decisive than legend held.
- Is it accessible to general readers?
- It is authoritative but operationally dense; newcomers often start with a narrative history and come to it second.