The author of the book began the Great Patriotic War as commander of the 132nd Infantry Division, heroically fighting in the 13th Army with tank hordes of Gudarian. Then he happened to serve as chief of staff of the 48th and 2nd Guards armies. The latter at that time was commanded by R. Ya. Malinovsky, and a difficult mission fell to her lot - to repel the onslaught of Manstein's group, which was eager to help the Nazi troops surrounded near Stalingrad...