Ebook: On a Knife’s Edge: The Ukraine, November 1942–March 1943

Late in 1942, the situation on the Eastern Front underwent a swift and sudden change. Trapped in the ruins of a devastated city, Friedrich von Paulus' Sixth Army faced the prospect of death or imprisonment at the hands of Soviet forces. With such a significant proportion of the Wehrmacht's combat forces isolated in Stalingrad, the German position looked ready to crumble, whilst the powerful Soviet counteroffensive threatened to bring about the collapse of the entire Front. Yet, in a startling recovery led by one of the Wehrmacht's greatest commanders, Erich von Manstein, the German front line was rebuilt, and the weaknesses of the Red Army were revealed under the pressure of an impressively mobile campaign, which played strongly to German strengths. Written by one of the world's leading experts on the Eastern Front, On a Knife's Edge is a story of brilliant generalship, lost opportunities and survival in the harshest theatre of war.