The first volume of a detailed and well-researched history of the important but neglected operation that was to be the beginning of the liberation of western Ukraine On 24 December 1943, the Red Army launched the first of a series of winter offensives against the German Army Group South under von Manstein, the overall object of which was to liberate western Ukraine from occupation. This first offensive is known to Soviet historians as the Zhitomir-Berdichev operation. Based on the unpublished records of the German 1st and 4th Panzer Armies, and supplemented by comprehensive mapping and order of battle data, this book provides an authoritative, detailed, day-by-day account of German operations as they developed in response to the Soviet offensive. It also gives a vivid insight into the planning and decision-making of the German Army field commands in conducting not only a mobile defence, but also a series of counterattacks which, in the final analysis, could do little more than provide a temporary respite in the face of the growing strength and skill of the Red Army. Eventually being published in two separate volumes, this first volume describes events until 9 January 1944, during which period the German forces were pushed back forcibly under the weight of the Soviet offensive, and includes 140 detailed daily situation maps in colour to allow the reader to follow operations as they developed day by day, presented in a separate mapbook to aid the reader's use of the study. Volume two will cover the period from 10 to 31 January 1944 and will describe the series of counterattacks undertaken by the Germans as they tried desperately to stabilise a situation that had already slipped beyond their control. Together this two volume set comprises a groundbreaking survey which is likely to set a new standard for future studies of operational combat on the Eastern Front.
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