Beyond Stalingrad: Manstein and the Operations of Army Group Don

This study aims to fill a void in the military history of World War II by focusing attention upon individual battles and operations on the Eastern Front - basing his study on analysis of contemporary war diaries, the author examines Field Marshall Erich von Manstein’s conduct of operations as the commander of German Army Group Don from November 1942 - March 1943. Sadarananda traces the course of the Winter campaign of 1942-43 - the aftermath of the Soviet counteroffensive that trapped the German 6th Army in the city of Stalingrad - and illuminates the reasons why the Army Group Don was able to achieve a dramatic reversal of fortune and enable the German Army to regain the initiative along the critical Eastern Front. He concludes that the German successes during the period in question were largely due to the perceptive and decisive leadership of Field Marshal von Manstein.