Crucible of Combat: Germany's Defensive Battles in the Ukraine 1943-44

In his historical series, Hinze provides the only comprehensive account of events on the central and southern portions of the German Eastern Front during the years of German retreat, with this volume covering events on the southern portion of the Eastern Front from late 1943, in the aftermath of the Battle of Kursk, through to the great Soviet summer offensives of 1943 and 1944. Following the final failure of German hopes in the great Battle of Kursk, the German forces in the Ukraine were forced ever back, losing ground gained in the years of victorious advance. Describing the bitter and eventful battles of German army groups in the Ukraine and the evacuation of the Crimean Peninsula during 1943 -1944, it follows the retreat from the Dnjepr to the Dnjestr rivers, Tscherkassy, Nikopol, Chersson, the fighting around Kriwoi Rog and Kirowograd, the loss of the Dnjepr salient, the breakout from the Tscherkassy Kessel ['pocket'], the battles on the Rumainan frontier around Targul-Frumos and many more, as the cut-off German First Army fought its way as a 'moving pocket' to freedom. Hinze's accounts are indispensable to any study of the collapse of the German central front and the great retreats across the Ukraine to the borders of Hungary and Rumania, containing many maps, photographs, orders of battle and first-hand accounts. Crucible in Combat presents a major breakthrough in the coverage of conflict on the Eastern Front. About the Author Rolf Hinze is an acclaimed World War II historian, focusing primarily on the events and individuals involved in the war on the Eastern Front.