A detailed and engrossing account of the final year of fighting in Ukraine during World War II, making use of the extensive memoirs of German and Russian soldiers involved in the fighting, as well as partisans behind the German lines, to bring the story to life.

The protagonists --The Kirovograd encirclement -- Watutin and the Cherkassy-Korsun encirclement -- Another Stalingrad -- Mud, snow and Hill 239 -- Kamanets-Podolski : the encirclement of the First Panzer Army -- Malinovsky's Offensive -- The wandering pocket -- The Crimean Peninsula -- The end of the leash -- Preparing for summer -- The Lviv-Sandomierz Operation -- The disintegrating axis -- The approaching endgame.