The latest volume in the magisterial Germany and the Second World War series, volume VIII deals with one of the most eventful phases of the Second World War: the battles on the eastern front in 1943 and 1944. In no other period of the war, apart from its concluding phase in 1945, did the Wehrmacht suffer such enormous losses. The land battles of those years, first and foremost the battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943, were among the biggest in world history. In the winter of 1943/44 the Red Army showed itself for the first time capable of conducting large-scale offensives against all German army groups simultaneously. It was no longer a matter of isolated flare-ups: the whole eastern front was in flames. The dramatic climax was reached in the summer of 1944, when the collapse of Army Group Centre led to what was then the heaviest defeat in German military history. It was nevertheless overshadowed by events on the western front, with the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. And it is that which dominates perceptions in western societies to this day and has relegated the catastrophe in the east, despite its unprecedented proportions, to the rank of an almost "forgotten war."

Karl-Heinz Frieser was a Colonel in the Bundeswehr. He studied political science and mediaeval and modern history at Wurzburg. From 1985 to 2009, he was a research associate at the MGFA, becoming head of research on the world war era. His publications include Krieg hinter Stacheldraht: Die deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in der Sowjetunion und das Nationalkomitee 'Freies Deutschland' (1981); Blitzkrieg-Legende: Der Westfeldzug 1940 (3rd ed., 2005); Ardennen - Sedan: Militarhistorischer Fuhrer durch eine europaische Schicksalslandschaft (2nd ed., 2006). His main area of research is in the operational history of the Second World War.

Introduction
PART I: From Stalingrad to Kursk Bernd Wegner
1. Basic Problems in German Conduct of the War after Stalingrad
2. German Alliance Policy and the Question of a Separate Peace
3. The Genesis of the Battle of Kursk
PART II: The Battle of the Kursk Salient Karl-Heinz Frieser
1. The Hopeless German Starting Position
2. The Failure of Operation Citadel
3. Operation Citadel - A Turning Point?
4. The Soviet Counter-Offensives
PART III: The Perplexities of War: The Soviet Theatre in German Policy and Strategy from the Summer of 1943 Bernd Wegner
1. The Soviet Theatre of War in German Policy and Strategy From the Summer of 1943
2. From the Setbacks in the Summer of 1943 to a Permanent Crisis of Leadership
3. The Abandonment of Foreign Policy and the Isolation of Germany
4. Withdrawal from the East? 'Fortress Europe' and the Dilemma of Interconnected War
PART IV: The Swing of the Pendulum: The Withdrawal of the Eastern Front from Summer 1943 to Summer 1944
Prologue: The 'Forgotten Year', Karl-Heinz Frieser
1. The Withdrawal of Army Group North from Leningrad to the Baltic, Karl-Heinz Frieser
2. The Withdrawal of Army Group Centre to Belorussia up to the Spring of 1944, Karl-Heinz Frieser
3. Army Group South's Withdrawal Operations in the Ukraine, Karl-Heinz Frieser
4. The Withdrawal of Army Group A through the Crimea to Romania, Klaus Schonherr
PART V: Collapse in the East: The Withdrawal Battles from the Summer of 1944
1. Errors and Illusions: The German Command's Miscalculations in the Early Summer of 1944, Karl-Heinz Frieser
2. The Collapse of Army Group Centre in the Summer of 1944, Karl-Heinz Frieser
3. The Defensive Successes of Army Group Centre in the Autumn of 1944, Karl-Heinz Frieser
4. Army Group North's Withdrawal Battles to Courland, Karl-Heinz Frieser
5. The Battles for Galicia and the Beskid Mountains, Klaus Schonherr
6. The Withdrawal Battles in Romania and Transylvania in the Summer and Autumn of 1944, Klaus Schonherr
7. The Hungarian Theatre of War, Krisztian Ungvary
PART VI: The War on the Neighbouring Fronts
1. The End of the War in Scandinavia, Bernd Wegner
2. The Yugoslavian Theatre of War (January 1943 to May 1945), Klaus Schmider
3. The Withdrawal from Greece, Klaus Schonherr
4. The End of the North African Campaign and the War in Italy 1943 to 1945, Gerhard Schreiber
PART VII: Germany on the Brink of the Precipice Bernd Wegner
1. Waging war 'as if ...': Germany's Strategic Position from the Spring of 1944 onwards
2. Orchestrating the End
Concluding Summary