From the Don to the Dnepr: A Study of Soviet Offensive Operations December 1942-August 1943 (Soviet Military Experience)

by David M. Glantz

Release Date: January, 1999

Edition: Paperback

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A balance of detail and readability unsurpassed

Glantz draws extensively, but not exclusively on Soviet sources, and gives detailed strategic and operational overview of the fighting in the Don area after Stalingrad. What I appreciated most was the detail in the perspective of situations facing the Germans and Russians, and where their planning differed in both time scale and flexibility. How Manstein managed to achieve a counteroffensive move whilst STAVKA still interpreted the moves as a withdrawl to the Dnepr is instructive.

The style used in this work is slightly less exhaustive than that used in Kursk and the better for it. Best estimates for the ground forces of both sides are given, but it would have been desirable to mention air assets and sortie information also (this is hardly a criticsm as this information is almost never included in WW2 studies).

Overall one of the best works on the development of operations on the Eastern Front showing understanding of the problems facing both sides.

A very good and detailed account of Russian Front operations

"From the Don to the Dnepr" is a very detailed operational account, primarily from the Russian point of view, of offensive Soviet operations on the Southern Front in the period after the encirclement of Stalingrad to the post-Kursk offensive to retake Kharkov.

As usual in Glantz's books the level of detail is very impressive, especially when one considers that, due to the age of the book, it was written with relatively less access to Soviet sources. The OBs presented, for instance, lack the thoroughness that one has come to expect in his latest books.

On the other hand, it is drier and more "professional" in approach, without the somewhat irritating flights of rethoric or use of hackneyed expressions that sometimes afflict his latest work, in special "Operation Mars" and "The Battle for Kursk". Maps are somewhat rudimentary, but much more plentiful and easier to read than in the books mentioned above.

The book is esential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Russian Front, especially as it covers in great detail a period that tends to be overshadowed by Stalingrad and Kursk.

Incidentally, it is worth mentioning that Operation Rumyantsev, the Soviet counterattack after the defeat of the German offensive at Kursk, is covered in far greater detail in this book than in his subsequent work.