The author, Igor’ Sdvizhkov, takes a close look at the attempt by the Briansk Front’s Operational Group Chibisov to collapse the northern shoulder of the German drive to the Caucasus - north-west of Voronezh - in July 1942. Using both previously classified Soviet documents and German documents, Sdvizhkov focuses in particular on General A.I. Liziukov’s role in the counteroffensive as commander of the 2nd Tank Corps after his 5th Tank Army was disbanded following failed counterattacks in early July. The Soviet attacks led to nine days of heavy see-saw fighting involving tens of thousands of men and hundreds of tanks and guns on both sides, and threatened to isolate the German forces holding Voronezh. Sdvizhkov also describes the German reaction to the initial penetration made by Operational Group Chibisov’s offensive: a counterattack primarily with the forces of the 9th Panzer Division, which at the time of the new Soviet offensive, was in a reserve position - serving as a fire brigade. The German riposte blunted the Soviet attacks and encircled elements of Operational Group Chibisov, and ultimately stabilized the tottering German front north-west of Voronezh for the time being. General Liziukov would go missing during the 2nd Tank Corps’ attack, and the author discusses why the Briansk Front and Operational Group Chibisov Command initially made little or no effort to find the General, Stalin’s suspicions surrounding General Liziukov’s disappearance and the results of the official wartime investigation of the matter. Sdvizhkov also addresses the numerous controversies that later ensued due to erroneous and/or misleading recollections, as well as the total inability to locate General Liziukov or his remains. Carefully examining the available evidence, Sdvizhkov offers a cogent and persuasive explanation of what happened.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Photographs
• List of Maps
• Instead of a Prologue
• 1 And once again into battle …
• 2 The start of the operation: 21 July 1942
• 3 The enemy’s situation: 21 July 1942
• 4 The night of 21-22 July 1942
• 5 22 July 1942
• 6 The 148th Tank Brigade in the enemy rear
• 7 The fighting on the evening of 22 July 1942
• 8 The 2nd Tank Corps, 23 July 1942
• 9 23 July 1942 on the front of Operational Group Chibisov
• 10 Operational Group Chibisov’s reserve enters the fighting
• 11 At the command post of the 2nd Tank Corps on the night of 23/24 July 1942
• 12 A review of the enemy’s actions on 22 and 23 July 1942
• 13 24 July 1942
• 14 25 July 1942
• 15 A review of the enemy’s actions, 24-25 July 1942
• 16 26 July 1942
• 17 A review of the enemy’s actions on 26 July
• 18 27 July 1942
• 19 The end of the operation
• 20 Liziukov’s Fate
• Conclusion
• Afterword
• Appendices
  • I Documents relating to 24 July 1942
  • II Summary protocol of the interrogation of 11 prisoners of the 5th Company of the 9th Panzer Division’s 10th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, captured on 25.7.42
  • III Lieutenant Shuklin’s exploit: fact and fiction
  • IV A veteran tanker’s recollections of the fighting on 25 July 1942
  • V Excerpts from documents
  • VI The recollections of local residents
  • VII Order of the USSR People’s Commissar of Defense On measures to strengthen discipline and order in the Red Army and to forbid the voluntary retreat from combat positions
  • VIII The formations and units of Briansk Front’s operational group under the command of Lieutenant General Chibisov that took part in the operation
  • IX German formations and units of the VII Army Corps that took part in the battles with units of Operation Group Chibisov
• Bibliography
• Plate section