Tanks in the Kharkov disaster of 1942. "The largest tank battle." Kolomets M.V.

The largest tank battle called the Western press the battle for Kharkov in May 1942, which became the last catastrophe of the Red Army, which lost more than a quarter of millions of fighters and 1250 tanks. It was tank corps that were supposed to become the main trump card of the Red Army in the Kharkov offensive operation. It was the Panzervaffe tank divisions that inflicted fateful counterattacks, turning the course of the battle in their favor and closing the “ring” of the encirclement in the “Barvenkovskaya West”. And late with the entry into battle of Soviet tank reserves was one of the main reasons for the defeat, about which Stalin told the leadership of the Southwestern Front: “Within some three weeks, the Southwestern Front, thanks to his frivolity, not only lost the half-won Kharkov operation , but I also managed to give the enemy 18-20 divisions... If we informed the country in its entirety about the disaster that the front experienced and continues to worry, I am afraid that you would have done very cool... ”

Book of the leading historian armored vehicles sheds light on the role of tanks in the Kharkov tragedy, which ultimately led to a breakthrough of the Wehrmacht into the Caucasus and Stalingrad.

The publication is illustrated by hundreds of exclusive photographs.