In the summer of 1944, the Russians launched a series of offensives, under the code name Operation Bagration, that would take the Red Army from the fields and villages of Byelorussia and the Ukraine to the streets of Berlin. Forced onto the defensive, the Germans employed their armored units as fire-brigades, shuttled from one sector to another in an effort to halt, or at least slow, the Soviet juggernaut.

The Panther tank and Jagdpanther tank destroyer were two of the most potent weapons in the Wehrmacht's inventory and both are examined in this book by Dennis Oliver and Stephen Andrew, their first for Bookworld Publishing. Following on from an earlier title by ADH Publishing's Firefly Collection series, this volume concludes the unit histories of the army's Panther battalions and chronicles the service of the Jagdpanther units on the Eastern Front.

Complemented by 13 pages of painstakingly researched, exquisitely presented color illustrations, black and white archive photos, detailed orders of battle, organizational charts and campaign maps, this book provides a superb reference for the military enthusiast, modeller and general reader.

A further volume will cover the Panther units of the named formations, the Waffen-SS and the Luftwaffe.