24.8. 1943 Battle of the Dnieper

The Battle of the Dnieper was a gigantic battle of the Great Patriotic War that had been going on since August 24, 1943. The Soviet army formed five fronts that operated along the river in an area approximately 1,400 kilometres wide.

Despite behind-the-scenes efforts by German commander Franz Hadler to mount a quick attack on the Moscow Line, Hitler remained loyal to the original idea of Operation Barbarossa to destroy the Red Army on the battlefield, while presciently demanding the acquisition of Ukrainian resources for the German economy. After the first month of fighting, the advance was halted due to inclement weather, allowing the army to be logistically secure, Hadler's rebellion was sparked, and the Germans conducted their largest encirclement operation east of Kiev in September.

German generals could not agree on priorities at the time. General Alfred Jodl considered the deployment of the 2nd Panzer Group to carry out von Rundstedt's request to be "perfectly timed". At the end of July, Zhukov lost his post because he considered it impossible to continue defending Kiev. In August, Soviet aerial reconnaissance found that Guderian's tanks were heading south, but the weak 40th Army did not have the strength to stop them.

The headquarters tent did not realize the impending trap until early September, and could no longer decide quickly on a further advance. Although the German command in this case was delayed by a full month, the Soviet delay in decision-making was even greater. "This battle had a total of four phases. During the first, bridgeheads were secured on the Dnieper and Desna rivers (21 August to 9 September). In the second, two German groups advanced towards Lochwitz (4 to 16 September). In the third phase there was a direct battle for Kiev (13 to 19 September. And the fourth phase saw the encirclement and destruction of the Soviet forces (14 to 27 September)," writes Robert Kirchubel in Operation Barbarossa 1941 - Army Group South.

And the aforementioned Battle of the Dnieper was the gigantic battle of the Great Patriotic War, which took place from August 24 to December 23, 1943. The Soviet army formed five fronts that operated along the Dnieper River over an area approximately 1,400 kilometres wide.

"Among the Soviet troops was also a Czechoslovak military unit led by Ludvík Svoboda. The Soviet partisan units operating in the rear of the enemy also brought significant support to the combat operation. Although the Soviet side had a considerable numerical superiority over the enemy both in the number of soldiers and in the number of combat equipment, the Battle of the Dnieper broughtThe Military History Institute points out.

Thanks to this operation, Kiev was liberated and the rest of right-bank Ukraine was also liberated. The persistent Red Army and the partisan movement also complicated the situation for the Nazis on the railroad. But the fighting claimed over a million dead, wounded or captured on both sides.

Sources: Robert Kirchubel, OperationBarbarossa 1941 - Army Group South, www.vhu.cz
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