Battle for Kiev (1943)

Battle for Kiev

Part of: German-Soviet War
( Second World War )

Soviet soldiers prepare rafts to cross the Dnieper .

date	November 3. bis 13. November 1943
place	Kiev , Ukrainian SSR , Soviet Union
output	Soviet victory
consequences	Liberation of Kiev

Parties to the conflict
German Reich 4th Panzer Army	Soviet Union 1st Ukrainian Front
Commander
Erich von Manstein Hermann Hoth	Nikolai Watutin Pawel Rybalko
Troop strength
400,000 men	670,000 men 7,000 guns 675 tanks 700 planes
losses
41,000 killed and wounded	6,491 dead and 24,078 wounded

The Second Battle of Kiev was a battle on the German-Soviet front in World War II between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army over the capital of the Ukrainian SSR Kiev . The battle was part of the second phase of the Battle of the Dnieper and took place in November and December 1943.

prehistory

Army General Nikolai Vatutin , commander of the Voronezh Front (October 20, unnamed in 1st Ukrainian Front), led on 23 and 24 September 1943 about 20 km north and 80 km south-east of Kiev separate operations for recovery of bridgeheads on the Dnieper by . He planned to take the city through a bilateral forceps operation. An airborne operation carried out on September 24, 1943 in the Bend of the Dnieper by Bukrin initially failed in the area of XXXXII. Army Corps of the 8th Army . By September 30, one of the bridgeheads formed in the Bukrin area could then be extended to a depth of 6 kilometers. Counterattacks by the German XXIV Panzer Corps ( 19th Panzer and 10th Panzer Grenadier Division ) were able to contain this danger completely. Compared to the German XIII. Army Corps succeeded the 38th Army (General Tschibissow , later Moskalenko ) on September 26, 1943 began a small advance detachment of the 240th Rifle Division at Lyutesch. The small group of 22 Red Army soldiers, under the command of Sergeant PP Nefedow, crossed over in the early morning hours. The exposed position allowed the soldiers to repel attacks by the Wehrmacht, initially in platoon strength and then in company strength. In the evening the bridgehead crew consisted of 10 men, who were refreshed with 75 men the next morning. After heavy fighting, Soviet troops were finally able to establish themselves on the western bank of the river; after the expansion, the Lyutesch bridgehead was later established here . Watutin soon shifted the center of gravity to the north: The 3rd Armored Guard Army , destined to cross the Dnieper before Bukrin, was relocated to the Lyutesch bridgehead on October 16. After the expansion of the bridgehead from Lyutesch to the Irpen section near Gostomel , the Soviet 60th Army (General Tschernjachowski ) also took this place as a springboard to attack to the southwest. On its right flank, the 13th Army (General Puchow) formed another bridgehead in the area east of Chernobyl . Until the beginning of November, fierce fighting raged over the expansion of the Bukrin bridgehead.

course

General Kirill Moskalenko, commander of the 38th Army

The Khreshchatyk after the liberation in 1943

On the morning of November 3, 1943, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front launched the Kiev Strategic Offensive . Watutin had about 663,000 men, 7,000 artillery pieces and mortars, 675 tanks and self-propelled guns, plus about 700 aircraft. In terms of artillery, Watutin offered the highest artillery density in the course of the Second World War with a pipe at three meters in the Liutesch bridgehead. The German 4th Panzer Army under Colonel General Hoth had the following divisions to defend the area and the city:

• XIII. Army corps with 68th , 208th and 340th infantry divisions
• XXXXVIII. Panzer Corps with 7th , 19th and 8th Panzer Divisions
• VII Army Corps with 75th , 88th Infantry and 213rd Security Divisions
• XXIV Panzer Corps with 34th , 82nd and 112th Infantry Divisions and 20th Panzer Grenadier Division

The main attack on Kiev was carried out by the Soviet 38th Army (General Moskalenko) from the Lyutesch bridgehead from the north and was able to break 5 to 12 kilometers deep into the German lines by evening. On the right wing, the Soviet 60th Army was initially unable to overcome the positions of the 208th Infantry and 8th Panzer Divisions on the Dymer- Ostomel line . On the evening of the first day, the 240th Rifle Division, reinforced by units of the 7th Artillery Corps, had reached the northern Kiev suburb of Pushcha-Wodice. The Soviet 40th Army ( General FF Zmatschenko ) and 27th Army (Lieutenant General Trofimenko ) also had to attack from the Bukrin bridgehead in order to bind and divert the XXIV Panzer Corps . Air support was provided by the 2nd Air Army under Lieutenant General SA Krassowski . The massive attack on Kiev could the divisions of the German XIII. and VII. Army Corps did not hold out for long. On November 4, the 3rd Guards Panzer Army was introduced into the battle, the 7th Guards Panzer Corps (Major General KF Sulejkow) broke through in battle with the German 7th Panzer Division ( von Manteuffel ) to the south on Svyatoschino and cut on the next day the road between Kiev and Zhitomir. The Soviet 51st Rifle Corps under Major General Avdejenko , together with the 5th Guards Panzer Corps under General Kravchenko , penetrated Kiev from the north, cutting off large parts of the 75th and 88th Infantry Divisions in the city. Parts of the 1st Czechoslovak Brigade (Colonel Svoboda ), equipped by the Red Army , which had already occupied the city's railway station, reached the Dnieper on the morning of November 6th.

After several days of fighting, Kiev was completely taken with heavy losses on November 6th. Liberated from German occupation after 778 days, the city suffered severe damage. In 1943 around 80,000 people lived here, which was 20% of the pre-war population. 7,000 buildings, including 1,000 factories, were looted or destroyed.

In the pursuit of the retreating German troops, Fastow was on November 7th by the 6th Guards Panzer Corps (Major General Panfilow ) and Shitomir on November 12th by parts of the 38th Army (23rd Rifle Corps) and by the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps recaptured under Lieutenant General Viktor Baranov. On November 8 launched the 20th Panzer Grenadier Division an unsuccessful counterattack at the line Tripolje -Fastow- Kornyn opposite the now on the western bank of the Dnieper-established Soviet 40th Army. On November 11th, Korostyshev were liberated by the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps and Radomyshl by the 30th Rifle Corps (Major General Gregori S. Lazko), on November 12th Malin and on November 17th Korosten by troops of the 60th Army. In the north of Vatutin Front succeeded the 13th Army on November 16, with the 15th Rifle Corps (Major General Ljudnikow ) the city Chernobyl take while the 18th Guards Rifle Corps (Major General Afonin ) to 18 November Ovruch reached and occupied.

German counter-offensives in the Fastov-Zhitomir area

Field Marshal Erich von Manstein convinced Adolf Hitler that the XXXXVIII was reinforced by the arrival of the 1st Panzer Division (General Krüger ) and the 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte" . Panzer Corps to counterattack immediately in order to restore the front that had collapsed at Fastow. The German VII Army Corps, holding between the Irpen and Wassikow rivers with the 82nd , 198th and 75th Infantry Divisions, was reinforced by the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" .

First phase from November 13th

Hermann Balck (1943)

On November 13, the attack by five German armored divisions under the command of General of the Armored Troop Balck began from the Fastov-Pavolotsch-Kasatin line . At the same time the battle for Zhitomir raged west of it, which the 7th Panzer Division was able to recapture on the night of November 17-18. Between Fastov and Belaya Tserkov , the 25th Panzer Division brought up from France was unloaded and immediately deployed. The General Command XXXXII was activated on November 12th as Army Department Mattenklott (General of the Infantry Mattenklott ) in order to manage the separately operating corps groups of the XIII. and LIX. AK between Korosten and Belaja Zerkow to be able to lead uniformly. The Soviet 94th Rifle Corps of the newly established 1st Guard Army in the area north and east of the small town of Brusiłów was thrown back by action. Under the pressure of the XXXXVIII. Panzer Corps also had to withdraw the 38th Army to the north, thereby endangering the left flank of the 60th Army, which had advanced far to the west. Soviet counter-attacks, which began on November 26th in the Raewka-Borowka area with three rifle corps, prevented further German successes in the south. In late November, the front stabilized for the time being to the west of Teterev -Abschnitts on the line Tschernjachow - Radomyshl - Stawischtsche - Jurowka . The 1st Ukrainian Front strengthened the area to the west of Kiev, which was already 180 kilometers wide and 75 kilometers deep, with troops from the 18th Army.

Second phase from December 6th

On December 6th, a new German counterattack started from the area north of Zhitomir with the 1st and 7th Panzer Divisions from the Trostyavitsa section between Chernyakhov and Drobyn to the east to recapture the lost Teterew section between Radomyshl and Weprin. The 7th Panzer Division reached the Irscha section on the right by December 15 and, after taking Malyn, cut off the railway line between Korosten and Kiev. In the middle the 1st Panzer Division, which had taken up between Kamenka and Federowka, reached the Teterew River near Weprin after reinforcement by parts of the SS Leibstandarte division, while on the left the 68th Infantry Division tried in vain to join the positions of the Soviet 1st Guard Army To break through Radomyshl. The 1st Panzer Division was pulled out around the LIX, which had been pushed back in the Korosten area, on the northern bank of the Irscha sector. Reinforce army corps . From the bridgehead held by the 291st Infantry Division at Sloditsch, the union with the 7th Panzer Division at Malin was to be established and large parts of the Soviet 60th Army were to be cut off.

On December 20, the Soviet 3rd Guards Panzer Army resumed their offensive from the Brusilow area to the west and broke through the connections of the XIII. and XXXXVIII. Corps. General Krüger's troops still reached the Stremigorod and Kosinowka line, but had to break off the planned encirclement immediately on December 23 because they threatened to be cut off. The attack of the XXXXVIII. Panzer Corps on the north bank of Irscha and a simultaneous attack by the XIII. Army corps with the 2nd Paratrooper Division from the east on Radomyshl threatened briefly to enclose three Soviet tank and four rifle corps southeast of Korosten in the Meleni area. With the addition of the 1st Panzer Army and the 18th Army , however, the Soviet leadership succeeded in stopping the German offensive and averting the danger. After the general German retreat on Zhitomir and the major Soviet offensive that began on December 24th, the 1st Panzer Division was only concerned with fighting a way back for the 8th Panzer Division , which had already been cut off in the Korostyshev area .

output

Kiev, liberated on November 6, was clearly asserted by the Red Army. Several attempts by General von Manstein to recapture the city by the Wehrmacht failed in November and December. On December 10, 1943, the commander of the German 4th Panzer Army, Colonel General Hoth, fell out of favor with Hitler (transferred to the Fuehrer's reserve) due to the loss of Kiev and was replaced by General Raus . On December 24, the battle in the Zhitomir-Berdychev operation was successfully continued by the 1st Ukrainian Front. The Soviets captured Kasatin on December 28th, and Zhitomir finally fell into Soviet hands on December 31st. By December 30, the Soviets extended the breakthrough to the new line Rowno - Shepetovka - Shmerinka - Vinnitsa - Hristinovka - Uman .

literature

• Kirill S. Moskalenko : In the south- west direction, Volume 2 (1943–45), GDR Military Publishing House, Berlin (East) 1975.

Web links

Commons : Battle for Kiev (1943)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Manstein's last victory and the trap in front of Kiev in Welt.de from December 12, 2013
• The liberation of Kiev on WWII soldier (Russian)
• Москаленко: На Юго-Западном направлении, Moscow 1973 (Russian)
• https://w.histrf.ru/articles/article/show/kiievskaia_nastupatielnaia_opieratsiia_1943

Individual evidence

1. ↑ When the Eastern Front almost collapsed in 1943 in Welt.de of December 2, 2013; accessed on December 27, 2015.
2. ↑ KIEV strategic offensive operations 3 to 13 November 1943 ( Memento of 21 December 2008 at the Internet Archive ) on soldat.ru; accessed on December 27, 2015.
3. ↑ The Second World War, Volume 18: The Advance of the Red Army , Time-Life, Amsterdam 1982, ISBN 9-06-182-440-0 , p. 65
4. ^ Karl-Heinz Frieser : The retreat operations of Army Group South . In: The German Reich and the Second World War - Volume 8: The Eastern Front 1943/44 - The War in the East and on the Side Fronts . Deutsche Verlagsanstalt Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-06235-2 , situation map p. 352.
5. ↑ Battle of Kiev on ww2db.com; accessed on December 27, 2015.