The Red Army's Donbas Offensive (February–March 1942) Revisited: A Documentary Essay.

MILITARY science; ARMIES; VON Manstein, Erich; MARSHALS; BATTLE of Kursk, Russia, 1943; MILITARY history

Based on extensive archival documents, this documentary essay provides fresh details on the Red Army's offensive operation against German forces in the Donbas region during February and March 1943, which occurred in the immediate wake of the Red Army's victory at Stalingrad. After Red Army forces recorded spectacular territorial gains, a counter-offensive by German forces led by Field Marshall Erich von Manstein defeated and halted the Soviet thrust, setting the stage for the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943. After concealing this Soviet offensive from public eyes for an extended period because it failed, Soviet and, more recently, Russian military historians have reluctantly described the offensive, but limited their coverage only to the role of the Red Army's Southwestern Front's role in the failed offensive. This article exposes the extensive but tragic involvement of the Southern Front in the same operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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