Casemate UK Operation Bagration - he Soviet Destruction of German Army Group Centre, 1944

[Mike]

Operation Bagration

The Soviet Destruction of German Army Group Centre, 1944

Casemate Publishing

 

 

Operation Bagration was the codename for the immense operation by the Soviet army that sealed the fate of the German forces that were already in retreat after the failure of Barbarossa when the might of the Soviet forces woke up to the danger in the nick of time.  It exacted a heavy price from both sides, with almost half a million dead and a further 300 Germans falling into captivity, from which the majority wouldn’t return.  It began in June 1944 with the mobilisation of 1.2m Soviet troops and armour, and ended with the demolition of the German forces and their removal from all parts Byelorussia, with the Soviet Juggernaut only stopping due to the ever-extending supply lines reaching their limits.

 

This book by Ian Baxter from Casemate Publishing arrives in a stiff card cover with folded fly-leaf and 128 pages of glossy paper inside.  It is a balanced book of text and photos, many of which are unlikely to have been seen by most of us, documenting the rout of the ailing German Central Army throughout the campaign, unable to reverse their fortunes even after the appointment of Hitler’s favourite trouble-shooter General Model.  It begins with a table of contents as follows:

 

  06 Timeline of Events

  08 Prelude to Disaster

  11 German Forces

  24 Soviet Forces

  30 The Eve of Battle

  42 Operation Bagration begins: June 23-28th, 1944

  64 Fighting for Survival: June 29th/July 16th, 1944

  85 Operations in the North: July 7-13th, 1944

  96 Operations in the Centre and the South: July 14-26th, 1944

111 Soviet Triumph

121 Aftermath

126 Further Reading

127 Index

 

 

 

The photos are of excellent quality for the most part, with a few showing their age but that’s down to the performance of the cameras of the day, as well as the size of the original article.  In between the sections are a number of colourful sections showing the uniforms, weapons and equipment carried by the various protagonists, from German Machine-Gunners to female Soviet Snipers.  The various force lists show the huge disparity in numbers between the Germans and Soviets, a situation that grew worse as the campaign progressed.  As well as the staged photos of the generals of both sides, there are a number of pictures that are more candid in nature, showing troops in action, at rest and doing the boring stuff in between the terrifying parts, such as digging trenches, travelling and pushing vehicles out of muddy fields.  There’s a lot of diorama inspiration within the pages, in addition to the text and the captions to the photos.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

The highlights for me were some of the detail photos showing hand-applied mud as camo on a half-track, a close-up shot of some Zimmerit on the side of a Panther, and my personal favourite was a nebelwerfer being towed by an Sd.Kfz.10, then in the process of firing, where you can actually see the blurred outline of the rocket leaving the tube.

 

At time of writing, there’s a discount on the title from the link below.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of