"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Monday, May 01, 2006

Last Citadel: A Novel of the Battle of Kursk (David L. Robbins,

I like Robbins' World War II novels (such as The War of the Rats and The End of War). This one is set in the battle of Kursk, which is described as history's largest tank battle. Hitler was trying to retake initiative after the failure in Stalingrad - effectively his last gasp on the eastern front. Relying heavily on the huge, powerful, but long-delayed Tiger tank; outdone by Soviet T-34s.

Berko family - Cossack father with Communist son man a tank while daughter is a Night Witch. Spanish SS officer comes from Spanish Civil War and fights for Nazis. Breit is working to overthrow Hitler. Partisan fighting.

The Tiger tank stories are interesting - awesome weapon but overdone to the point of impractical.
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