Publisher Description

In the wake of the Red Army's signal victory at Stalingrad, the Soviet High Command expanded its counteroffensive into a full-fledged winter offensive which nearly collapsed German defences in southern Russia. History has recorded the many dramatic triumphs the Red Army achieved during the initial phases of this winter offensive, culminating with its rapid advance deep into the Donbas and Khar'kov regions in February 1943, but as is so often the case, history has misled its audience for several cogent reasons. On the one hand, the Soviet Union historians, anxious to conceal the ambitiousness of its offensive, willfully avoided describing the offensive's true scope and the many shortcomings the Red Army experienced during its conduct. On the other hand, German and other Western historians, frequently basing their accounts on inaccurate Soviet sources, focused only on the most dramatic aspects of the offensive, ignoring much of their adversary's actions and missing his intent. This volume restores the lost and concealed to the historical record. Exploiting newly-released Russian archival materials, it reveals the unbounded ambitions that shaped the Stavka's winter offensive and the full scope and scale of the Red Army's many offensive operations. For example, it reflects on recently-rediscovered Operation Mars, reexamines the Red Army's dramatic offensive into the Donbas and Khar'kov region during February and describes how the Stavka expanded the scale of its offensive in mid-February 1943. AUTHOR: Colonel David Glantz served for over 30 years in various field artillery, intelligence, teaching, and research assignments in Europe and Vietnam. A member of the Russian Federation's Academy of Natural Sciences, he has written or co-authored more than 60 books.

Author Biography

A graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College, Defense Language Institute, Institute for Russian and Eastern European Studies, and US Army War College, before retiring from the U.S. Army in December 1993, Colonel David M. Glantz served for over 30 years in various field artillery, intelligence, teaching, and research assignments in Europe and Vietnam, taught at the United States Military Academy, the Combat Studies Institute, and Army War College, founded and directed the U.S. Army's Foreign (Soviet) Military Studies Office, and established and currently edits The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. A member of the Russian Federation's Academy of Natural Sciences, he has written or co-authored more than 60 books and self-published studies and atlases, as well as hundreds of articles on Soviet military strategy, intelligence, and deception and the history of the Red (Soviet) Army, Soviet (Russian) military history, and World War II. In recognition of his work, he has received numerous awards including the Society of Military History's prestigious Samuel Eliot Morrison Prize for his contributions to the study of military history.

Review

"...sheds new light on not only events in Southern Russia during the winter of 1942-43, but also the fierce combat that took place across the German Eastern Front during the same period. Glantz has mined newly revealed primary source material from the Russian archives to produce a fresh look at this important time in the war. Most importantly, Glantz helps clear up past myths by showing the reader the incredibly ambitious strategic intent behind Stavka's 1942-1943 winter campaign... prepare to have your pre-existing vision of the Second World War's Eastern Front challenged and be ready to reappraise what you thought you knew about the war. "-- "Globe at War"

Review Quote

"...sheds new light on not only events in Southern Russia during the winter of 1942-43, but also the fierce combat that took place across the German Eastern Front during the same period. Glantz has mined newly revealed primary source material from the Russian archives to produce a fresh look at this important time in the war. Most importantly, Glantz helps clear up past myths by showing the reader the incredibly ambitious strategic intent behind Stavka's 1942-1943 winter campaign... prepare to have your pre-existing vision of the Second World War's Eastern Front challenged and be ready to reappraise what you thought you knew about the war. "

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