The third volume in Nik Cornish's photographic history of the Second World War on the Eastern Front records in vivid visual detail the sequence of Red Army offensives that pushed the Wehrmacht back across Russia after the failure of the Operation Citadel, the German attack at Kursk. Previously unpublished images show the epic scale of the build-up to the Kursk battle and the enormous cost in terms of lives and material of the battle itself. They also show that the military initiative was now firmly in Soviet hands, for the balance of power on the Eastern Front had shifted and the Germans were on the defensive and in retreat. Subsequent chapters chronicle the hard-fought and bloody German withdrawal across western Russia and the Ukraine, recording the Red Army's liberation of occupied Soviet territory. Not only do the photographs track the sequence of events on the ground, they also show the equipment and the weapons used by both sides, the living conditions experienced by the troops and the devastation the war left in its wake. AUTHOR: Nik Cornish is a former head teacher whose passionate interest in the world wars on the Eastern Front and in Russia's military history in particular has led to a series of important books on the subject. SELLING POINTS: ? The first volume in a four-volume photographic history of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union ? Rare photographs of all the key episodes in the opening campaign, including Operation Barbarossa and Operation Typhoon ? Photographs of the German and Soviet troops and the civilians caught up in the fighting ? A graphic introduction to the war on the Eastern Front 175 photographs
