Originally published in 1989, this a volume from the Combat Studies Institute "Leavenworth Papers" series. In the fall of 1944, some 56,000 German troops of the XIX Mountain Corps were occupying a strongpoint line just 70 kilometers northwest of Murmansk, about 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. To clear these enemy forces from Soviet territory, STA VKA ordered General K. A. Meretskov's Karelian Front to plan and conduct an offensive, which was to be supported by Admiral A. G. Golovko's Northern Fleet. This Leavenworth Paper explains the planning and conduct of this offensive, known in Soviet military historiography as the Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation. The Soviet force of approximately 96,000 men was organized into a main attack force of two rifle corps, a corps- size economy-of-force formation, and two envelopment forces, one consisting of two naval infantry brigades and the other of two light rifle corps of two brigades each. The Soviets employed over 2,100 tubes of artillery and mortars, used 110 tanks and self-propelled guns, and enjoyed overwhelming air superiority. Engineer special-purpose troops infiltrated up to fifty kilometers behind German forward positions to conduct reconnaissance before the battle. On 7 October 1944, the Soviets began the offensive with a 97,000-round artillery preparation, followed by an infantry attack.

The Combat Studies Institute provides a wide range of military, historical, and educational support to the Combined Arms Center, Training and Doctrine Command, and the United States Army. The Combat Studies Institute researches, writes, and publishes original interpretive works on issues of relevance to the US Army. The Combat Studies Institute (CSI) publication collection contains reports and books pertaining to American history, military guidelines, foreign affairs, and more. Titles featured in this collection include: Art of War Papers: Protecting, Isolating, and Controlling Behavior, Law of War: Can 20th Century Standards Apply to the Global War on Terrorism? and Traditions, Changes, and Challenges: Military Operations and the Middle Eastern City. This title is one of many in the Combat Studies Institute collection.

Half a century after the end of World War II, many of the important battles of the Eastern Front have not been thoroughly researched by Western military historians. Major James F. Gebhardt, a Soviet foreign area officer, describes a battle that has remained virtually unknown in the English-speaking world. The Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation has remained obscure partly because it was fought on the northern flank of the Soviet German front - away from major centers of population, industry, or government. The German and Soviet generals who fought this battle are also not as well known to the American officer corps as the more famous and fashionable Guderian, Rommel, Manstein, or Zhukov. In Western general histories of the Soviet-German war, this operation normally receives one or two sentences and a single, minuscule map arrow - if it is mentioned at all. The comprehensive accounts of the battle that do exist are principally in Russian-language sources and, therefore, are inaccessible to most Western-readers. Primarily using Soviet sources, Major Gebhardt has written a comprehensive study of the 1944 Soviet offensive conducted to clear German forces from the approaches to Murmansk. Its focus is at the operational level of war, with emphasis on the peculiar demands of arctic terrain on commanders and soldiers. Major Gebhardt also used German war diary reports to add clarity and perspective to the Soviet accounts.This book contains something for almost every reader. It describes the employment on arctic terrain of light infantry, infantry, armor, artillery, engineers, logistic support, air power, naval infantry (Soviet marines), amphibious forces, and special-purpose forces. In three weeks ofoften intense fighting, supported by units of the Northern Fleet, the Red Army inflicted significant personnel and material losses on the German force and drove it from Soviet and northern Norwegian territory. This operational account provides the opportunity to review the lessons

Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitriy Loza has carefully crafted his World War II experiences with U.S.-provided Sherman tanks into a highly readable memoir. Between the fall of 1943 and August 1945, Loza fought in the Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. He commanded a tank battalion during much of this period and had three Shermans shot out from under him. Loza's unit participated in such well-known combat actions as the Korsun-Shevchenkovskiy Operation, the Jassy-Kishenev Operation, and the battles for Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. Following the German surrender, Loza's unit was sent to Mongolia, where it participated in the arduous trek across the Gobi Desert to attack the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria.

This is the first available detailed examination of the Red Army's exploitation of U.S. war materiel during World War II and one of the first genuine memoirs available from the Russian front. Loza also provides firsthand testimony on tactical command decisions, group objectives and how they were accomplished, and Soviet use of combat equipment and intelligence. Only after the collapse of the USSR and concomitant relaxing of prohibitions against publication of materials related to the Lend-Lease Program there could this account be made available.

The collapse of the Soviet Union has opened the history of the Red Army to the West, providing a more complex picture of World War II than was previously available. Details of the struggle between the Soviet forces and the Axis powers can now be seen through the efforts of veterans such as Colonel Dmitriy Loza. Loza draws on his own experiences and those of acquaintances to illustrate particular problems, combat situations, and the functioning of the Soviet army in its struggle with the German and Japanese armies.

Dmitriy Loza is a Hero of the Soviet Union, the USSR's highest designation for bravery, and he was decorated for his role in the capture of Vienna. He served in a brigade that fought in the Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Manchuria. He now resides in Moscow.