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 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 Previously unpublished images show the epic scale of the build-up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, the recovery of key
cities like Orel, Kharkov and Kiev, the raising of the siege of
Leningrad and the advance to the borders of the Baltic states.
Not only do the photographs track the sequence of events on the ground,
they also show the equipment and weapons used by both sides, the living
conditions experienced by the troops, the actions of the Soviet
partisans, the fight against the Finns in the north, the massive
logistical organization behind the front lines, and the devastation the
war left in its wake.