The story revolves around the pivotal battle in July 1943 for the Soviet city of Kursk. Around two million soldiers were arrayed against each other, along with the largest collection of tanks ever seen. A German offensive, code named "Citadel", was an attempt by Hitler to create a breakthrough in Russia before he would be forced to reallocate troops and tanks to deal with the impending American invasion of Italy. The protagonists are a Spanish SS Panzer officer and a Russian family, two of whom serve in the same T-34 tank. The Spaniard is the son of a famous Barcelonan bullfighter and is part of the "Blue Division" sent by Franco to fight with the Germans. A sniper shot outside Leningrad took him out of action for almost a year and turned him into a pale, shriveled shell of what he used to be. Now he's back, escorting a final shipment of Tiger tanks to the front lines, and looking for revenge, honor, and glory to sustain the rest of his years. If this isn't cheesy enough, we have on the opposite side, the Berko family. Of Cossack linage, the cartoonish father is a tank driver for his son, a serious and distant Communist, while the daughter is a fearless member of an all-female night bomber unit. Supporting cardboard-thin characters include a gung-ho SS tank commander, a series of Ukrainian partisans, a noble Russian pilot, and a German intelligence officer spying for the Russians.

On the German side, the story mostly consists of Vega safeguarding the transport of a final shipment of Tiger tanks to the front and eventually being assigned to command one of them in the battle. On the Russian side, we have the two Berko men in their latest T-34, dealing with two new recruits and preparing for the battle. Their daughter/sister, meanwhile, is engaged on nightly bombing runs. However, when her male pilot friend gets shot down, she naturally tries to rescue him, resulting in her getting absorbed into a partisan unit with a traitor in its midst. Naturally, by the end, Vega and the Berkos will meet on the field of battle and dance their inevitable dance. Many of the story elements are poorly handled and are utterly lacking in drama or tension, such as the woman's love interest, the subplot about the traitor, and most especially the German officer spy. In contrast, the actual tactical and technical details come across rather well. Robbins does a very clear job of explaining the relative strengths and weaknesses of every tank. Similarly, he does a very good job of recreating the noise, smells, and confusion of simply driving a tank. The battle scenes are very capably handled, and one gets a reasonable impression of what it might have been like. The problem is that none of the characters are compelling or convincing, and therefore it's impossible to care very much about what happens to them.

This is military and historical fiction at its most mediocre, it's not awful, just not good. It's the kind of book I might have liked a lot when I was 16 or 17, but seems awfully thin as an adult. To be fair to Robbins, I'm not really sure how you could really make a massive tank battle that compelling to begin with. If one really is really interested in the battle, I'd suggest skipping this and checking out a decent web resource called "Battle of Kursk On the Web" that has tons of links.

It's July 1943, and Hitler throws one last roll of the dice against the USSR with a major armored offensive designed to capture the city of Kursk. America is about to invade Italy, and Germany must knock the Soviets out of the war, or at least stabilize that front, before having to withdraw some of its forces from the East to reinforce the Mediterranean theater.

Whereas in THE WAR OF THE RATS, the confrontation in Stalingrad's rubble was between two master snipers, one German and one Russian, the LAST CITADEL evolves into the ultimate confrontation in a field of sunflowers between two tank crews, one German in the awesome Tiger tank and one Russian in the smaller but faster T-34.

The Tiger is commanded by SS Captain Luis Ruiz de Vega of the 1st SS Panzergrenadiers, one of three SS armored divisions spearheading the German assault. De Vega originally came to fight for the Nazis with the Spanish Blue Division, lent to Hitler by Franco in 1941. Having lost half his stomach to a Russian sniper during the siege of Leningrad, de Vega was rewarded with a commission in the SS. Now, bitter, constantly hungry, increasingly emaciated, and emotionally dead, Luis dreams only of returning to Spain a war hero.

The T-34 is commanded by Sgt. Valentin Berko, but its soul is its driver, Cpl. Dimitri Berko, Valentin's father. Dimitri is an old Cossack who's fought against the Czar, Trotsky's Red Army, and now the Germans. The elder Berko loves his son dearly, but is disgusted with the latter's unquestioning dedication to Communism. But the two together make a formidable fighting team.

In THE WAR OF THE RATS, a five-star novel, subplots added to the overall storyline, especially as military sniping involves a lot of waiting for the perfect shot. In contrast, several subplots in LAST CITADEL only serve as unnecessary distractions. Dimitri's daughter, Katya, is a bomber pilot attached to the Night Witches, who fly biplanes so slow and flimsy that they can only operate at night. Her boyfriend, Leonid, also a pilot, but in a modern squadron, is shot down. Attempting a landing behind enemy lines to rescue him, Katya crashes, and subsequently falls in with a group of Russian partisans, which has an unidentified traitor in its midst. In the meantime, SS Colonel Abram Breit, is spying for the Soviet's Lucy network.

Had Robbins focused entirely on the tank engagements of the Kursk battle, his book, in my opinion, would have been leaner, meaner, and better. In any case, his description of going to war in the Tiger and T-34 makes for an absorbing and informative read.

Worth reading, but could have been so much better if more rigorously edited. A good primer on WW2's Battle of Kursk, but as fiction flawed.