Korsun Pocket: The Encirclement and Breakout of a German Army in the East, 1944

During the second half of 1943, after the failure at Kursk, Germany’s Army Group South fell back from Russia under repeated hammerblows from the Red Army. Under Erich von Manstein, however, the Germans were able to avoid serious defeats, while at the same time fending off Hitler’s insane orders to hold on to useless territory.