Red Army Tank Commanders: The Armored Guards

1-198940

Written by a former member of the US Army military intelligence, this book is a lenghty and in-depth analisys of the life and deeds of the Soviet commander who leaded the six Guard Tank Armies: Katukov (1st GTA), Bogdanov (2nd GTA), Rybalko (the 'Soviet Patton', 3rd GTA), Leylushenko (4th GTA), Rotmistrov (commanding the 5th GTA at Prokorovkha!) and Kravchenko (6th GTA).
Except for Rotmistrov (thanks to his involvement in the culminating point of Zitadelle) all the other names are probably unfamiliar to all but few people, even among those interested in the history of the Russo-German war of 1941-45. Recently the situation has somewhat improved, but even today is difficult to dispel the myth that only the Nazi Army had 'real' generals, their Soviet counterparts being skilled only at the very top of the military structure (thus the focus on the 'usual' Zhukov, Koniev and Rokossovsky), while at the operational and tactical level the Red Army was lead by faceless robots alway following orders, and more inclined in launchhing costly human wave attacks than dealing seriously with the art of war.