ISBN 0-7643-1186-7
368 pages

Preface; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Notes on sources; SS ranks and equivalent ranks; photos; maps; Sources; Index

Appendix: SS Divisional Structure and Commanders

   George Nipe proved with his very well received Decision in the Ukraine: Summer 1943, II SS and III Panzerkorps (a Top Ten winner for 1997) that he knows how to research a battle and produce a meticulously detailed account of combat and maneuver. Nipe's latest book shows that his skills are only improving.
   While his earlier book delved into careful analysis of opposing strengths and losses at Prokorovka during the Kursk operation in summer 1943, it was mostly a straight-ahead account of front-line action as seen from the perspective of German tankers and panzer-grenadiers. The new book takes much the same approach. If anything, it is even less encumbered by background information, command decisions at the highest levels, and comparisons of opposing forces and their strengths and doctrines. In a sense, this is almost the kind of book that might have been written by a war correspondent who travelled with the front line troops, grew to know the individual soldiers and officers, and observed their actions under fire. Indeed, the action is almost non-stop.
   Which is not to say this is an unthinking regurgitation of "mud and blood" war stories. Nipe has painstakingly exhumed the war diaries of almost all the relevant German units and carefully painted a panorama of some of the wildest and most decisive operations on the Russian front. As his book opens, the German 6th Army is encircled in Stalingrad and Soviet tank formations see Rostov as their ultimate objective for entombing not just a single army, but an entire Axis army group. The Soviets failed to achieve their goal mostly due to the brilliant generalship of Erich von Manstein and the sacrifices of his shock troops, the newly formed SS-Panzerkorps. This campaign became known as the famous "Back-hand Blow," one of the cornerstone's of Manstein's reputation as the best of the German field generals.
   Decision-making at the army group and army level is not ignored, but for the most part Nipe concerns himself with the SS-Panzerkorps headquarters and even more so with the divisions, regiments, and battalions actually fighting the battles. One of the more important and more thoroughly considered controversies at the upper levels of command is the decision by SS Obergruppenfuehrer Paul Hausser to abandon Kharkov in direct contradiction of orders issued by Hitler. Nipe examines the circumstances closely and—although he recognizes there is no hard evidence to support the conclusion—he speculates that Hausser and his superior, General Hubert Lanz, had reached an off-the-record agreement to evacuate the city and save the SS defenders while simultaneously constructing a paper trail designed to "prove" that Lanz had dutifully insisted that Hausser follow the Fuehrer's instructions.

   Lanz's clearly stated transmission of Hitler's orders to Hausser could have been intended to provide evidence that Armeeabteilung Lanz and its commander had done their duty to the Fuehrer. Lanz was providing a documented record of his own actions while Hausser chose to suffer the consequences of acting contrary to a direct order from Hitler, regardless of how militarily correct that act might have been. Of course, it can be assumed that Lanz knew he would ultimately be held responsible for the actions of his officers. It can be speculated that Lanz intentionally delayed countermanding that order because he knew that withdrawal was the militarily correct decision and that once begun, a pull back conducted under close contact with an aggressive enemy could not be stopped without undue danger to the withdrawing force. This might explain Lanz' delay in responding to Hausser's 1630 hour deadline and suggests that Lanz may have tacitly agreed with Hausser's action and allowed events to take their own course. If that were so, it can be speculated that during Lanz's visit to Hausser the generals worked out their strategy to save the army but of course no documentation exists to even suggest that this was so. However, such a scenario could perhaps explain why Lanz waited for such a long time before dutifully reminding the SS commander of Hitler's order.

   As mentioned above, however, Last Victory in Russia tends to be more of a record of fire and movement than an analysis of strategy or an evaluation of generalship. More typical of Nipe's narrative is this account of a dawn attack by an SS battle group against Soviet troops in a Ukrainian village.

   The Russian troops that were in the village disintegrated and panic stricken groups of Soviet soldiers fled in all directions. A hail of 2cm and mortar shells showered debris along the entire length of the muddy streets, flinging shards of shrapnel in every direction. The German vehicles raced into the village, careening down narrow lanes which ran between the Soviet huts. SS Grenadiers fired automatic weapons from all side [sic] of the vehicles and tossed hand grenades into houses. A few of the Soviets took shelter in buildings and attempted to fight back, while others fled in disorder across the snow covered fields. Many of the Russian soldiers who ran across the snow were pursued by SS SPWs and mowed down by machine gun fire. The rear half of the column recoiled from this violent assault.
   Exploiting the chaos that resulted when the reconnaissance troops assaulted the column, the SS tanks rolled down the hill toward the rear half of the column. A number of anti-tank guns and artillery pieces were still hooked up to teams of horses or oxen, having been abandoned by their crews. Here and there a crew tried to get its gun into action, while all around them pandemonium reigned. Terror stricken horses raced wildly up and down the road, dodging the SS half tracks and SPWs that charged through the village. Before most of the Russian guns could be put into action, their crews were shot down or run over by SS tanks, the tracks grinding gun and crew into piles of bloody, twisted metal.
   The rear section of the column tried to make an orderly withdrawal to the east. However, Meyer quickly regrouped his men and while the last Russians were still being cleaned out of buildings and houses, the battalion sped off in pursuit of the retreating Russians. Wunsche's tanks roared down the ridge and moved along both sides of the road. The tank gunners methodically slammed shell after shell into the mass of Soviet infantry. Faced with a wave of tanks moving toward them, discipline evaporated in the Russian ranks and the infantry and gun crews fled in panic as the SS Panzers rolled toward them. Those in the rear ranks were engulfed by the mob of running men, as officers vainly tried to stem their flight. The SS tanks and SPWs caught the horrified Russians from behind, knocking them into the snow with machine gun fire or running them down as they fled. The Soviet battalion was destroyed as a fighting force and nineteen anti-tank guns were destroyed or captured. Meyer received the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross for leading this attack.

   Although written mostly from the German perspective, this is far and away the best English-language account of the battles for Kharkov at the beginning of 1943. Nipe has done a fine job of researching the campaign among German primary sources, and he supplements the war diaries with an assortment of unit histories and memoirs. Of the material covering the Soviet side of the campaign, much comes from Col. David Glantz's ground-breaking work. The whole is liberally illustrated with good photos of the German commanders (many of these are courtesy of Mark Yerger's impressive collection of photographs of SS officers) and black-and-white shots of typical scenes—shattered tanks, burning villages, haggard fighting men—from the battle. The images have been carefully selected, limited to a reasonable number, and placed to complement and reinforce the narrative rather than overwhelming it. Nipe also makes effective use of reproductions of German maps to chart the progress of operations.
   On the down side, the book could have been improved by tighter editing and proofing to standardize some inconsistent usages (for example, "Lanz'" vs "Lanz's" and "SS-Panzer-Korps" vs "SS-Panzerkorps") and clean up some nagging typographical errors.
   All in all, however, this is a nicely done volume which deals very effectively with an interesting subject about which there has previously been relatively little detail available in English. Recommended. Fans of the Russian Front and serious students of the SS in particular will be extremely happy with Nipe's work. Expect this one to follow in the footsteps of Nipe's earlier book and make a strong run at Top Ten honors.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Schiffer Military History.
   Thanks to Schiffer for providing this review copy.