Showing results by author "Robert Forczyk" in All Categories

Bloomsbury presents Generalship on the Eastern Front, 1941–45: A Study in Command by Robert Forczyk, read by Elliot Chapman A comprehensive evaluation of generalship on the most important front in World War II. The war on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 was the largest sustained air-ground...

The Crimea was one of the crucibles of the war on the Eastern Front, where first a Soviet and then a German army were surrounded, fought desperate battles, and were eventually destroyed. The fighting in the region was unusual for the Eastern Front in many ways, in that naval supply, amphibious landings, and naval evacuation played major roles, while both sides were also conducting ethnic cleansing as part of their strategy - the Germans eliminating the Jews and the Soviets purging the region of Tartars.

The German invasion of Poland on 1 September, 1939, designated as Fall Weiss (Case White), was the event that sparked the outbreak of World War II in Europe. The campaign has widely been described as a textbook example of Blitzkrieg, but it was actually a fairly conventional campaign as the Wehrmacht was still learning how to use its new Panzers and dive-bombers. The Polish military is often misrepresented as hopelessly obsolete and outclassed by the Wehrmacht, yet in fact it was well-equipped with modern weapons and armor.

Robert Forczyk covers the development of armored warfare in North Africa from the earliest Anglo-Italian engagements in 1940 to the British victory over the German Afrikakorps in Operation Crusader in 1941. The war in the North African desert was pure mechanized warfare, and in many respects the most technologically advanced theatre of World War II. It was also the only theatre where for three years British and Commonwealth, and later United States, troops were in constant contact with Axis forces.

By 1943, after the catastrophic German defeat at Stalingrad, the Wehmacht's panzer armies gradually lost the initiative on the Eastern Front. The tide of the war had turned. Their combined arms technique, which had swept Soviet forces before it during 1941 and 1942, had lost its edge. Thereafter the war on the Eastern Front was dominated by tank-led offensives and, as Robert Forczyk shows, the Red Army's mechanized forces gained the upper hand, delivering a sequence of powerful blows that shattered one German defensive line after another.

Even after the legendary evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940 there were still large British formations fighting the Germans alongside their French allies. After mounting a vigorous counterattack at Abbeville and then engaging a tough defense along the Somme, the British were forced to conduct a second evacuation from the ports of Le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest, and St. Nazaire. Case Red captures the drama of the final three weeks of military operations in France in June 1940.

Richard Freiherr von Rosen was a highly decorated Wehrmacht soldier and outstanding panzer commander. After serving as a gunlayer on a Pz.Mk.III during Barbarossa, he led a company of Tigers at Kursk. Later he led a company of King Tiger panzers at Normandy and in late 1944 commanded a battle group (12 King Tigers and a flak company) against the Russians in Hungary in the rank of junior, later senior lieutenant (from November 1944, his final rank). Only 489 of these King Tiger tanks were ever built. 

Robert Forczyk's incisive study offers fresh insight into how the two most powerful mechanized armies of WWII developed their tactics and weaponry during the early years of the Russo-German War. He uses German, Russian, and English sources to provide the first comprehensive overview and analysis of armored warfare from the German and Soviet perspectives.

This is the little-known story of Heavy Panzer (Tiger) Battalion 507 told through the recollections of the men who fought with the unit.   

Bloomsbury presents Where the Iron Crosses Grow: The Crimea 1941-44 by Robert Forczyk, read by Mark Meadows. The Crimean Peninsula was the setting for the destruction of a number of armies in World War II, both Soviet and German. When the Soviets fortified Sevastopol in 1941 it heralded the...

Bloomsbury presents We March Against England: Operation Sea Lion, 1940-41 by Robert Forczyk, read by Dugald Bruce Lockhart. We March Against England tells the thrilling tale of Operation Sea Lion, Hitler's plan to invade Britain and end its involvement in World War II. In May 1940 Nazi Germany...

Bloomsbury presents Case Red: The Collapse of France by Robert Forczyk, read by Christopher Ragland. Case Red tells the often overlooked story of the fall of Metropolitan France from the evacuation of the BEF at Dunkirk through to the eventual collapse and armistice in June 1940. Even after the...

This fascinating new study from renowned historian Robert Forczyk tells the story of the Wehrmacht from its birth in 1935 through to the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933 on the back of a populist agenda, and a promise to lead the nation back to...

Bloomsbury presents Osprey Campaign Series: Stalingrad 1942-43 (2): The Fight for the City by Robert Forczyk, read by Phillipe Bosher The second in a three-part series examining the Stalingrad campaign, one of the most decisive military operations in World War II, that set the stage for the...

In May 1940, Nazi Germany was master of continental Europe. The only European power still standing was Great Britain - and the all-conquering German armed forces stood poised to cross the Channel. Following the destruction of the RAF fighter forces, the sweeping of the Channel of mines, and the wearing down of the Royal Naval defenders, two German army groups were set to storm the beaches of southern England.

Bloomsbury presents Osprey Campaign Series: Stalingrad 1942-43 (1): The German Advance to the Volga by Robert Forczyk, read by Phillipe Bosher The first in a three-book series examining the Stalingrad campaign, one of the most decisive military operations in World War II that set the stage for...

A fully illustrated study of the defensive struggle for the Kuban bridgehead on the Eastern Front of World War II, where the Red Army repulsed a series of ferocious German offensives in the Caucasus. In the summer of 1942, the Wehrmacht invaded the Caucasus in order to overrun critical oil...

Bloomsbury presents Osprey Campaign Series: Stalingrad 1942-43 (2): The Fight for the City by Robert Forczyk, read by Phillipe Bosher The final part in a three-book series on the Battle of Stalingrad, examining the Soviet encirclement, German relief efforts, and the final surrender of Paulus’...

A highly illustrated account of the race for the River Dnepr in 1943, one of the major campaigns on the Eastern Front in World War II, written by one of the pre-eminent historians of Eastern Front military history. Against the wishes of Hitler, German forces under Erich von Manstein were forced...

"A well-written and rewarding memoir that provides keen insight into the mindset of a patriotic young man willing to make sacrifices for his country." —Robert Forczyk In this masterful two-volume account, Prussian solider and officer Karl Knoblauch draws on his wartime diaries to detail his...