Synopses & Reviews
One nation taking a desperate gamble of war.
Another fighting for survival.
Two armies locked in a bloody cataclysm that will decide history. . .
David L. Robbins has won widespread acclaim for his powerful and splendidly researched novels of World War II. Now he casts his brilliant vision on one of the most terrifying--and most crucial--battles of the war: the Battle of Kursk, Hitler’s desperate gamble to defeat Russia, in the final German offensive on the eastern front.
Last Citadel
Spring 1943. In the west, Germany strengthens its choke hold on France. To the south, an Allied invasion looms imminent. But the greatest threat to Hitler’s dream of a Thousand Year Reich lies east, where his forces are pitted in a death match with a Russian enemy willing to pay any price to defend the motherland. Hitler rolls the dice, hurling his best SS forces and his fearsome new weapon, the Mark VI Tiger tank, in a last-ditch summer offensive, code-named Citadel.
The Red Army around Kursk is a sprawling array of infantry, armor, fighter planes, and bombers. Among them is an intrepid group of women flying antiquated biplanes; they swoop over the Germans in the dark, earning their nickname, “Night Witches.” On the ground, Private Dimitri Berko gallops his tank, the Red Army’s lithe little T-34, like a Cossack steed. In the turret above Dimitri rides his son, Valya, a Communist sergeant who issues his father orders while the war widens the gulf between them. In the skies, Dimitri’s daughter, Katya, flies with the Night Witches, until she joins a ferocious band of partisans in the forests around Kursk. Like Russia itself, the Berko family is suffering the fury and devastation of history’s most titanic tank battle while fighting to preserve what is sacred–their land, their lives, and each other–as Hitler flings against them his most potent armed force.
Inexorable and devastating, a company of Mark VI Tiger tanks is commanded by one extraordinary SS officer, a Spaniard known as la Daga, the Dagger. He’d suffered a terrible wound at the hands of the Russians: now he has returned with a cold fury to exact his revenge. And above it all, one quiet man makes his own plan to bring Citadel crashing down and reshape the fate of the world.
A remarkable story of men and arms, loyalty and betrayal, Last Citadel propels us into the claustrophobic confines of a tank in combat, into the tension of guerrilla tactics, and across the smoking charnel of one of history’s greatest battlefields. Panoramic, authentic, and unforgettable, it reverberates long after the last cannon sounds.
Synopsis
David L. Robbins delivers another "pitch-perfect blend of fiction and history" on the Battle of Kursk: the desperate clash of steel on the battlefield that destroyed Germany's crucial Panzer forces, paving the way for the Russian counteroffensive advance that would end in the fall of Berlin. Peering unflinchingly into the eye of the historical storm, Robbins masterfully weaves impeccable research with a riveting tale of soldiers--Soviet and German--as they prepare for the deadly standoff. In a battle where human faces are shrouded by the protective armor of killing machines, there can be no common ground--beyond the quest for victory at all costs. A remarkable, passionate tale of espionage, deceit, and unprecedented valor, the tension builds to an unbearable degree as each soldier waits for the sun to rise on July 5, 1943, the day that will change history--and their lives--forever. Praise for the novels of David L. Robbins:
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [420]-421).
About the Author
David L. Robbins is the author of Scorched Earth, The End of War, War of the Rats, and Souls to Keep. He lives in Richmond, Virginia, and teaches novel writing at Virginia Commonwealth University.