Atlas of the Eastern Front: 1941–45 (General Military)

NEEDED: MASSIVELY EDITED ***REVISED EDITION*** TO CORRECT **NUMEROUS ERRORS**

This large-sized book is physically well made with a posh slipcase and it is visually beautiful, a masterpiece of lavish format presentation. It aims to fill in an enormous gap in English-language scholarship about World War II as fought between the Germans and the Russians, a gap that cries out desperately to be filled. But the magnificent promise of this book is negated by the way in which it is riddled with errors. Here follows a list of the errors I have caught *so far*:

Map 9:

This map has a symbol for the 29th Panzer Division, a unit which never existed. What is shown as 29th Panzer Division should be 20th
Panzer Division. Similarly, the northerly pair of symbols for the German 29th Motorized Infantry Division should be symbols for the 20th Motorized Infantry Division. The southerly symbols for the German 29th Motorized Infantry Division are correct.

Map 41:

The city of Izyum is depicted as a German strongpoint. It shouldn’t be.

Map 43:

The symbol for the Soviet 47th Army has three “x’s” on top. It should have four “x’s”.

Map 51:

The map has a symbol for the XLIV Panzerkorps when it should be the symbol for the XLIV Gebirgskorps.

Map 56:

A unit sector boundary incorrectly shows the Romanian 3rd Army as being contiguous with the Italian 8th Army. It should be Group Hollidt instead of the Romanian 3rd Army.

Map 57:

The map shows a symbol for the 387th Panzer Division, a unit which never existed. Perhaps it is supposed to be the symbol for the 387th Infantry Division.

Text, Page 158:

The text on this page incorrectly states that over 500 German tanks, including more than 100 Tigers, fought at Prokhorovka, near Kursk, on 12 July 1943. These numbers are pure Soviet-era propaganda fairy tale B.S. These numbers have been debunked by recent scholarship for a few years now. The consensus of current scholarship is that the Germans had 294 tanks and assault guns at Prokhorovka of which only fifteen (yes, 15) were Tigers. The Soviet myth making machine wildly inflated the number of German tanks at Prokhorovka, Tigers especially, in order to explain away the near-annihilation of the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army.

Map 80:

The map shows a symbol for the 231st Panzer Division, a unit which never existed. Perhaps it is supposed to be the symbol for the 23rd Panzer Division or the 231st Infantry Division.

Map 87:

A sector boundary incorrectly shows the German 6th Army to the north of the German 3rd Panzer Army. It should be 16th Army north of 3rd Panzer Army. A sector boundary incorrectly has four “x’s” Between Army Group Nord and Army Group Mitte when it should have five “x’s.”

Map 90:

The symbol for the German 14th Infantry Division is shown in two different locations in the same shade of ink and with no “(-)” modifier on either. If the map intends to show a change of location over time by the 14th Infantry Division, the two symbols for it should be different shades of ink.

Map 100:

The textual commentary for this map talks about an XVIII Panzerkorps but no such unit shows on the map, though there is a symbol for XXVIII Panzerkorps.

Map 102:

The box for the map key in the lower left corner of the map incorrectly lists the year of the events depicted as 1943 and it does so four times over. The year should be 1944.

Map 118:

This map shows a symbol for the 101st Jäger Panzer Division, which is of course absurd.

Text, Page 246: The text incorrectly mentions a "Kurland Panzer Division" when it should read "Kurmark Panzer Division." The map on the opposite page, Map 119, depicts the Kurmark Panzer Division correctly.

I have the impression that I will discover more errors with the passage of time.

FRIENDS, let’s keep each other informed of errors as we find them. LET’S petition Osprey Publishing to pull this book back for some massive editing and the release of a revised edition.

I hate to say this, but this is not as sophisticated as I thought. All the maps this book contains are campaign-operational level with the time period of at least a whole month which makes it impossible to bring out the details of the units and their complicated movements of course, and inevitably I found many mistakes on its maps. It's definitely not accurate. After all, the maps themselves give very little information about the terrain and the cities, towns and minor rivers.

In attempting to increase my knowledge of World War II's Eastern Front, I obtained a slightly used volume of John Erickson's "The Road to Stalingrad." As I got into this highly rated book, I found it basically unreadable as it had no maps. I have a need to place friendly and enemy units, cities, and land features in relation with each other in reading about campaigns and battles. Kirchubel's "Atlas of the Eastern Front" met this need admirably. The book contains 122 maps covering overviews, campaigns, and battles in some cases (e.g., Stalingrad) down to urban combat detail. Military units are clearly depicted, generally at the army, corps, and division level, and are depicted in color to quickly tell friend from foe. The atlas contains some narrative text to assist those readers unfamiliar with the Eastern Front . The book is well constructed, the maps lay flat, and it comes in a slipcase. It is a good compliment to those maps included in relevant history books. I recommend this atlas for anyone interested in the subject, and I am pleased that I bought mine.

Excellent book that is a must for all interested in WW2 on the Eastern Front. High quality maps with excellent descriptions. This is a very valuable reference work that is easy to follow.Thoroughly recommended

If you are a fan of the Eastern Front, which I am, you will love this book.

An easy to follow and beautiful atlas!

Despite the errors some have identified, I found I could not do any kind of study of the Eastern Front without this book. The campaigns are a bear to truly understand, of course, but this helped me make a lot of headway. There's just no other comparable set of maps that help you do this. A black and white in whatever book you are reading just doesn't bring it alive like this atlas does. If you're studying the Eastern Front, it's just plain essential.

Errors/inaccuracies abound! How does something so flawed even make it to print?!? Pathetic!

The first page I turned to (78; Map 34) shows the “Soviet Winter Counteroffensive” being from “4 to 15 January, 1941” (should be 1942). Also, the “Legend to Maps” page (9) does not have a symbol for panzergrenadier divisions, such as those represented by the three SS divisions on page 157.

Hello,this book is great anybody that is in military history Must have this book,great read,the Best I have seen in a long time,

I like it, but wish it had more detail with topography and smaller Russian villages. On the positive side the quality couldn't be better.