The fighting around the town of Demyansk was one of the longest encirclement battles on the Eastern Front during World War II, stretching from February 1942 to February 1943. Originally, the German 16. Armee occupied Demyansk in the autumn of 1941 because it was key terrain that would be used as a springboard for an eventual offensive into the Valdai Hills. Instead, the Soviet winter counter offensive in February 1942 encircled the German II Armeekorps and other units, inside the Demyansk Pocket. Yet despite severe pounding from five Soviet armies, the embattled German troops held the pocket and the Luftwaffe organized a major aerial resupply effort to sustain the defenders. For the first time in military history, an army was supplied entirely by air. In February 1943, Marshal Timoshenko was ordered to launch an offensive to cut off the base of the salient and annihilate the 12 divisions. At the same time, Hitler finally came to his senses after the Stalingrad debacle and authorized the 16. Armee to withdraw from the pocket. This volume will conclude with the drama of a German Army-sized withdrawal under fire in winter, under attack from three sides.

After failing to finish off the German Army in the 1941/42 Winter Counter offensive Stalin directed the Red Army to conduct a powerful blow in one sector of the Eastern Front in order to disrupt German plans. The sector chosen was Kharkov. Under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, the Stavka's remaining reserves were assembled and prepared to conduct a breakthrough attack intended to encircle the German Sixth Army near Kharkov. However, Stalin was unaware that the Germans were planning their own riposte at Kharkov, known as Operation Fredericus. When Timoshenko began his offensive in May 1942, he did not realize the limitations of his own forces or the agility of the Germans to recover from setbacks, all of which contributed to one of the Red Army greatest defeats of World War II. This volume will pay particular attention to intelligence and logistics issues, as well as how this campaign served as a prelude to the battle of Stalingrad. It will also focus on the nascent development of the Red Army's tank corps and 'deep battle' tactics, as well as the revival of the German Panzertruppen after Barbarossa.

Osprey's examination of one of the most famous battles of the latter part of the American Indian Wars (1622-1918). With the wars between the US and the Native Americans drawing to a close, one tribe in Eastern Oregon continued to resist. The Nez Perce, led by the "Red Napoleon" Chief Joseph, refused to surrender and accept resettlement. Instead, Chief Joseph organized a band of 750 warriors and set off for the Canadian border, pursued by 2,000 US Army troops under Major-General Oliver Howard. The army chased the natives for three months, fighting 13 actions. Finally, just 40 miles from the Canadian border, the Army ran Chief Joseph to the ground, and forced him to surrender after a five-day battle near Bear Paw Mountain.

Against the wishes of Hitler, German forces under Erich von Manstein were forced to retreat following the failure of their offensive at Kursk in July 1943. The weakened force had only one possible refuge, behind the wide Dnepr River. The race to the natural defensive line was on, with the Soviets launching one of their largest offensives of the war--with over two million men on the move.

Expert Eastern Front historian Robert Forczyk describes the dramatic four-month campaign that saw the Red Army not only succeed in crossing the Dnepr at multiple points, but also liberate Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. Revealing new details about the largest Soviet airborne operation of the war and the increasingly desperate delaying tactics employed by von Manstein as catastrophic casualties mounted on either side, Forczyk charts the course of the battle that confirmed that the relentless Soviet advance westward could not be halted. Berlin would be next.

Mauled at Stalingrad, the German army looked to regain the initiative on the Eastern Front with a huge offensive launched near the city of Kursk, 280 miles southwest of Moscow. Armed with the new Panther tank, Hitler and Field Marshal von Manstein were confident that they could inflict another crushing defeat on the Soviet Union. What they did not know is that the Soviets knew about the coming attack, and they were ready.

This book focuses on the southern front of this campaign, which featured the one of the biggest clashes of armor of the war, as over a thousand tanks clashed in the battle of Prokhorovka. It examines in detail the tactics and mistakes of the army commanders as they orchestrated one of the bloodiest battles in World War II. Using campaign maps, stunning photographs, and vivid artwork, this new study, a companion to CAM 272 Kursk 1943: The Northern Front, examines whether the German offensive was doomed from the start as it takes the reader through this titanic clash of armor.

In the summer of 1942, the Wehrmacht invaded the Caucasus in order to overrun critical oil production facilities at Maikop, Grozny, and Baku. However, the Red Army stopped the Germans short of their objectives and then launched a devastating winter counteroffensive that encircled them at Stalingrad. Consequently, Hitler grudgingly ordered an evacuation from the Caucasus, but ordered 17. Armee to fortify the Kuban bridgehead and hold it at all costs in order to leave open the possibility of future offensives. On the other side, the Soviet Stavka ordered the North Caucasus Front and the Black Sea Fleet to eliminate the Kuban bridgehead as soon as possible. The stage was set for a contest between an immovable object and an unstoppable force.

With the help of stunning specially commissioned artwork, this book tells the enthralling story of the impressive but strategically foolish German stand at Kuban, which tied down seven Soviet armies in a sideshow battle of attrition, which the Soviets dubbed "the Kuban meat grinder."

Velikiye Luki had been an important Russian fortress city since the 13th century and had become an important rail-hub by the 19th century. In August 1941, the Germans occupied the city of 30,000 during Operation Barbarossa and made it a bulwark on the boundary between Heeresgruppe Nord and Heeresgruppe Mitte. In the winter of 1942-43, while Soviet forces were encircling Stalingrad, the Stavka (High Command) conducted a simultaneous offensive to isolate and destroy the 7,500-man German garrison in Velikiye Luki. After surrounding the city on 27 November 1942, the Soviet 3rd Shock Army gradually reduced the city to rubble, while the German garrison, sustained by Luftwaffe air lifts, hunkered down in the medieval city and awaited rescue.
This illustrated title reveals the full story of the tense seven-week siege of Velikiye Luki, which saw Soviet forces striving to liberate the city in the face of a determined garrison and fierce relief efforts. Detailed analysis by renowned World War II historian Robert Forczyk is complimented by stunning and historically accurate battlescenes, maps, and bird's-eye-views to offer a comprehensive look at this gripping campaign.

After failing to defeat the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Adolf Hitler planned a new campaign for the summer of 1942 that was intended to achieve a decisive victory: Operation Blue (Case Blau). In this new campaign, Hitler directed that one army group (Heeresgruppe A) would advance to seize the Soviet oilfields in the Caucasus, while the other (Heeresgruppe B) pushed on to the Volga River.
The expectation was for a rapid victory - instead, German forces had to fight hard just to reach the outskirts of Stalingrad, and then found themselves embroiled in a protracted urban battle amid the ruins of a devastated city on the Volga. The Soviet Red Army was hit hard by the initial German offensive but held onto the city and then launched Operation Uranus, a winter counteroffensive that encircled the German 6. Armee at Stalingrad. Despite a desperate German relief operation, the Red Army eventually crushed the German forces and hurled the remnants of the German southern front back in disorder.
This first volume in the Stalingrad trilogy covers the period from 28 June to 11 September 1942, including operations around Voronezh. The fighting in the Don Bend, which lasted weeks, comprised some of the largest tank battles of World War II - involving more armour than the tanks employed at Prokhorovka in 1943.

The second in a three-part series examining the Stalingrad campaign, one of the most decisive military operations in World War II, that set the stage for the ultimate defeat of the Third Reich.

In early September 1942, Hitler believed that Stalingrad was about to 6.Armee and 4.Panzer-Armee had reached the outskirts, and they were ordered to conclude the capture of the city as soon as possible. However, this proved easier said than done. On 13 September, the direct German assault was launched on the city on the Volga, already devastated by massive Luftwaffe raids. A protracted urban battle followed amid the ruins. Although hit hard by the initial German offensive, the ruthless and obstinate Red Army was able to hold onto the city through the costly battle of attrition that sacrificed huge amounts of men and materiel. This second volume in the Stalingrad trilogy, written by a foremost expert on the military history of the Eastern Front, brings the fighting in the city to life in full visual detail, including the iconic battles at the Krasny Oktyabr Steel Plant, the Grain Elevator, the Barrikady and STZ factories, the 'Tennis Racquet' and Rynok–Spartanovka. Drawing from sources on both sides, it offers a truly comprehensive account of history's greatest urban battle.

The final part in a three-book series on the Battle of Stalingrad, examining the Soviet encirclement, German relief efforts, and the final surrender of Paulus' 6.Armee.
Having fought hard just to reach the outskirts of Stalingrad, the Axis forces found themselves embroiled in a protracted urban battle amid the ruins of a devastated city on the Volga. The Soviet Red Army was able to hold onto the city then mount a surprise winter counter-offensive known as Operation Uranus, which succeeded in encircling the German 6.Armee at Stalingrad. Despite a desperate German relief operation, the Red Army eventually crushed the 6.Armee and hurled the remnants of the German southern front back in disorder.
This third and final volume in the Stalingrad trilogy begins just after the German 6.Armee has been isolated at Stalingrad, and covers the period from 24 November 1942 to 2 February 1943. The specially commissioned maps and 3D diagrams guide the reader in step-by-step, easily to follow detail through the German relief operation (Wintergewitter), the fighting on the Chir River, and the Soviet operations Koltso and Little Saturn, and are complimented by the battlescene artworks that vividly depict the harsh conditions experienced by the common soldiers fighting on both sides.

A gripping, illustrated narrative of the longest and most brutal land battle of the 1904–05 Russo-Japanese War.
Growing rivalry between Imperial Russia and Imperial Japan over territorial control in China and Korea led to the outbreak of war in February 1904. Japan struck the first blow with a surprise naval attack against the anchored Russian Pacific Fleet at its base in Port Arthur. Once the fleet had been neutralized, the Japanese landed their Second Army on the Liaotung Peninsula in May 1904, in order to besiege Port Arthur. The fighting that followed has become legend in military history.
Respected military historian Robert Forczyk describes the Russian relief operation towards Port Arthur (the Battle of Telissu), and the lengthy siege of the Russian-held town and harbour. The initial Japanese attempts to capture the port by assault are documented in detail, together with the Japanese progress through the heavily fortified lines protecting Port Arthur.
Specially commissioned artworks bring to life in vivid detail the Battle of Nanshan Hill, the Japanese assault on the Wantai Heights, and the bombardments of the Russian forts. Maps and diagrams explore the strategic situation and tactical progress of the fighting in step-by-step detail, and over 60 period photographs reveal the appearance and weaponry of the opposing forces and the terrain around Port Arthur.

A detailed exploration of a critical month-long battle, which set the stage for German strategic-level defeats on both the Eastern and Western fronts.

In February 1944, 1st Panzer Army (under Generaloberst Hube) played a major role in the relief operation that saved part of the German forces trapped in the Korsun Pocket. However, the losses suffered in that effort left Hube's forces materially weakened, exhausted and with vulnerable flanks. Unexpectedly, Zhukov's 1st Ukrainian Front and Konev's 2nd Ukrainian Front attacked on 4 March, conducting a huge pincer operation against 1st Panzer Army. Within three weeks, Hube's 200,000-strong army was isolated, with its back to the Dniester River. The destruction of Hube's army would doubtless precipitate a rapid German collapse on the Eastern Front – two months before the Allied invasion of France.

In this work, Eastern Front expert Robert Forczyk presents a superbly illustrated examination of the initial Soviet encirclement operation, Hube's full-scale breakout operation to save his army, and the relief operation by 2nd SS-Panzer Corps (redeployed from the West) in April 1944. Although Hube's army managed to escape Zhukov's trap, it lost most of its equipment and was no longer fully combat capable. The German Army in the East had been seriously weakened, and the amount of German armour deployed in the West to counter any Allied landings in France had simultaneously been reduced.

A comprehensive evaluation of generalship on the most important front in World War II.
The war on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 was the largest sustained air-ground conflict in military history and played the decisive role in the defeat of the Third Reich. This new study seeks to analyse the command and generalship of the combatants.
The scale of the conflict was immense. Lasting over 46 months it involved over 10 million combatants at its peak, and resulted in roughly 15 million military deaths, as well as about 20 million civilian deaths. More than 50 percent of all German military fatalities in 1941–45 occurred there, and by the time the Western Allies invaded France in June 1944, the Wehrmacht was already decimated.
Who were the generals who led these campaigns on the Eastern Front? The standard historiography of World War II tends to focus on a few prominent leaders while ignoring the mass of commanders and operational-level military staffs who actually fought most of the war and this new study by renowned Eastern Front historian Robert Forczyk seeks to redress the balance.
Generalship on the Eastern Front offers an objective analytic framework for assessing the senior German and Soviet commanders on the Eastern Front through the lens of generalship and battle command, examining a total of 54 German and 140 Soviet officers.