Against the wishes of Hitler, German forces under Erich von Manstein were forced to retreat following the failure of their offensive at Kursk in July 1943. The weakened force had only one possible refuge, behind the wide Dnepr River. The race to the natural defensive line was on, with the Soviets launching one of their largest offensives of the war—with over two million men on the move.

Expert Eastern Front historian Robert Forczyk describes the dramatic four-month campaign that saw the Red Army not only succeed in crossing the Dnepr at multiple points, but also liberate Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. Revealing new details about the largest Soviet airborne operation of the war and the increasingly desperate delaying tactics employed by von Manstein as catastrophic casualties mounted on either side, Forczyk charts the course of the battle that confirmed that the relentless Soviet advance westward could not be halted. Berlin would be next.