Review: The Korsun Pocket

[sniper1shot]

Title: The Korsun Pocket
Author: Niklas Zetterling & Anders Frankson
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 978-1-932033-88-5
Stars 4.5 (out of 5)

Picked up this book and had it sitting on my 'To Read' pile and finally got around to finishing it off. Not disappointed at all.
This book is on the German forces that were surrounded by the Soviets around Cherkassy. The chapters start off with the Soviet & German forces build up and how they were organised. On the German side, not so much as a build up, but how the forces were organized and who was facing who. All the major unit commanders are identified for both forces. The chapters continue with the Soviet pincer assaults and then what happens to both the Germans and Soviets once the pinchers are closed.
On the German side the relief on both the land and in the air begins and on the Soviet side which forces were getting reinforced and which were not. The book describes how the German air force continued to land and supply the trapped forces and take out the wounded. Chapters also describe the land forces break down of where the tanks went and who led them and when the battles commenced with the Soviets that were encircling the trapped forces.
The final chapters describe the German breakout along 3 different routes. Describing how some routes met with little Soviet resistance and how some routes were blocked by Soviet forces or by natural barriers (rivers). Though the exact numbers are hard to be known there are some very well documented sources that the authors have used that have come pretty close to the number of Germans that escaped the pocket.
I did get the impression though of the authors trying to level off the book....for each description of a bold or "good" move the Germans did they immediately had to make a statement of a Soviet move.
The book has a lot of maps that make it easy to follow along how the 'pocket' looked during certain phases of the battle. There are only a few photos, and there are some charts too. Recommend the book!

[Robert Rojas]

Greetings to both cousin Sniper-One-Shot and the community as a whole. Well sir, in light of your introductory posting of Sunday - October 24, 2010 - 11:27pm, old Uncle Bob would like to recommend the following thread for your perusal. The thread in question is entitled as WHAT IS EVERYONE READING ON WORLD WAR TWO? and it is also located within the REFERENCE MATERIAL section of the forum. Like yourself, old yours truly also posted an impromptu "review" on THE KORSUN POCKET. The time stamp of my installment is Thursday - July 01, 2010 - 9:27am. You might OR might not find my commentary on THE KORSUN POCKET of some interest to your historical pursuits. ENJOY! Well, that's my initial two cents, pfennigs or kopecks worth on this literary topic of interest - for now anyway. In anycase, I would like to bid you an especially copacetic day up in your corner of the GREAT WHITE NORTH that is Canuckdom - EH!?

Best Regards,
Uncle Bob

[Cult Icon]

I have read this book and Hell's Gate. The two books complement each other as they focus on different things and are both worth reading. I read about Korsun to learn more about encirclement operations and how the forces inside/outside interact with each other.

Zetterling's book has a lot of research done on German unit strengths and focuses a lot on the panzer operations outside of the pocket. It has good coverage of the air-lift operation. Everything else is general. This is its main utility.

Hell's Gate is a much more complete account of the battle and much more vast in overall content than this book. It is a result of a tremendous research project. However, Zetterling adds a lot more to the panzer and airlift element of the battle. So Zetterling's book should be seen as a complement to Nash's Hell's Gate, not a stand-alone.

Both books, as usual, are focused mostly on the German POV and german research. Zetterling's book is about 10:90 (soviet/german) while Nash's is about 20:80 (soviet/german).

What both books do not answer in detail is why the Soviets had so much trouble stopping Breith's second big push.

[mars]

I would say Nash's book is about 0.1:99.9, he knew next to nothing relate to Soviet material