Overview

From critically acclaimed Eastern Front expert Prit Buttar, this is the engrossing story of the often-overlooked German counteroffensive post-Stalingrad, and how it prevented the whole Axis front line from collapsing. The battle of Stalingrad was the turning point of World War II. The German capture of the city, their encirclement by Soviet forces shortly afterwards, and the hard-fought but futile attempts to relieve them, saw bitter attritional fighting and extremes of human misery inflicted on both sides. The war was not over. The surrender of General Friedrich von Paulus’s army left Germany’s eastern armies severely weakened, but the Red Army had suffered enormous losses as it overreached itself in trying to exploit its great victory. Germany would continue the fight, and the battles that took place in the winter of 1942/43 would show the tactical and operational skill of Erich von Manstein and the Wehrmacht as they attempted to avert total disaster. Drawing on first-hand accounts, On a Knife's Edge is a story of brilliant generalship, lost opportunities and survival in the harshest theatre of war.

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9781472835000

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Reviews

Although it's only part of the story, it's a richly detailed history worth reading for any student of the Eastern Front. * The Armourer, January 2019 * This is another impressive work from Buttar, who is one of my favourite authors currently writing on the Eastern Front of both World Wars. -- Dr John Rickard * historyofwar.org *

Author Information

Prit Buttar studied medicine at Oxford and London before joining the British Army as a doctor. After leaving the army, he worked as a GP, first near Bristol and then in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. He appears from time to time on local and national TV and radio, speaking on a variety of medical issues. He contributes regularly to the medical press. An established expert on the Eastern Front in 20th-century military history, his previous books include the critically acclaimed Battleground Prussia: The Assault on Germany's Eastern Front 1944–45 (Osprey 2010) and Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World War II (Osprey 2013) and a definitive four-part series on the Eastern Front in World War I which concluded with The Splintered Empires: The Eastern Front 1917–21 (2017). He lives in Kirkcudbright, Scotland.

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