Feldgrau.net

Do not be mistaken by my epidermic answer. I have the greatest respect for George Nipe and his book "Decision in the Ukraine" is a masterpiece in my opinion. I am sure his work will be worth to be acquired. I was just elevating myself against the term "explosive new book" to qualify the "find" that Prochorowka was not a massive tank battle. This, of course, had long time ago being treated correctly by non English or non American writers, in particular by French historian Jean Lopez in his book "Koursk".

Well, the book's revelations will certainly be "Explosive" in the American and UK historical communities, since not many of its members speak French or have heard of Jean Lopez. No offense to Mr. Lopez, but unless the book has lots of neat pictures, if the book is in French not many people are going to purchase it. To their detriment, most Americans don't speak a foreign language and are rather insular, as Mr. Alexis de Toqueville pointed out over 150 years ago. And not much has changed since then, either!

Yes, this a point which is certainly true but many members from this forum come from foreign countries and particularly from Europe.

I do not want to dampen the excitement building here but wont this be the 100th book that Shatters the 'Kursk Myth'?

Well, it would be if it wasn't for the fact that there hasn't been one yet that shatters the myth that has gone mainstream - let's face it, the readership of Feldgrau and a few others like it is infinitesimally small, compared to the folks who watch history channel, military channel et al and who read WWII magazine. So while the denizens of this website, whether you live in the US, UK, or Europe (or even in the Peoples Republic of China, which is beginning to get an appetite for miltiary history) may be clued in to what really happened, most people aren't. And while we have the option of writing off the vast majority of "buffs", I think we do have a certain duty to educate the public as much as possible. Too often mainstream crap has gone unchallenged while we sit and contemplate our navels. While that's all well and good, our hobby/vocation/Steckenpferd is meaningless & sterile if we can't pass it on to the next generations. And Nipe is pretty passionate about the subject - he's a schoolteacher in rural Virginia and has seen a couple of generations of knuckleheads pass through his classroom that had no concept of history or didn't even care (and if any of them had heard about Kursk at all, he would have been amazed). But he tries as best he can to awake some interest in this students about history and has enjoyed some success. We can't all be George Nipe, but he's a good example of what we ought to strive for.

Well said Doug!! I couldn't agree with you more.

John

Hi,
Do the book be printed or published? I could not find it in RZM"S website as I am eagerly to know how "explosive"' it was.

Remy just posted on the Wehrmacht Awards forum that the book will be out hopefully by July.

Ok - I was first told May but he's now working in some new photos into the text from the Bundesarchiv, so that would explain the extra time needed - better take the extra time in order to maintain the high RZM standards. I know what that's like but it will be well worth the wait (though it's hell on the author).

You can find the preview on the Casemate website, RZM's distributor, at http://www.casematepublishing.com/title ... 0974838946

Dear Dong Nash and Krichter33,
Thank you so much for making swift reply about the latest progress of the book.Well.I hope RZM would keep a promise that the book will be available very soon.

All these exploding books make me nervous.

Mad Dog

As well they should! But would an exploding IPad?

Thanks for the discussion on this. Sounds like an excellent new book and one that is long overdue!

Gee, I've never been happier that I chose to ignore Kursk all these years. I never bought into it's strategic significance, regardless of the famous tank battle.

So if we take away the big tank battle at Prokhorovka, what does this do to the big picture of how we should view the battle & outcome of Kursk? Is that discussed in the upcoming book or any of the others that dismiss Prokhorovka?