Battle of Ukraine on the right bank: changing the situation in the south wing of the Soviet-German battlefield

Battle of Ukraine on the right bank: changing the situation in the south wing of the Soviet-German battlefield

1943 65438+February 24 ~1944 April 17, the Soviet union and Germany carried out a series of offensive and defensive operations in Ukraine on the right bank of the Dnieper River (the west bank), that is, the Ukrainian campaign on the right bank of the Dnieper River. The battle began with the Soviet attack and ended with the crushing of the German eastern front and right wing. In this campaign, among the 86 German divisions, 10 Division and 1 Brigade were completely annihilated, and eight divisions were cancelled due to heavy losses.

Force comparison

Soviet army: Ukraine 1, 2, 3 and 4 armies, with about 2.23 million troops. Equipped with 28,654 guns and mortars, 20 15 tanks and self-propelled guns, and 2,600 aircraft. The representatives of the base camp, GK zhukov and AM Alexander Vasilevsky, are responsible for coordinating the combat operations.

German army: Southern Army Group, "A" Army Group and the 4th Air Force, and Romanian 3rd Army Group and Air Force, 103 Division, with about1760,000 men. Equipped with artillery 16800, tanks and assault guns 2200, and aircraft 1460.

Activity background

1943 10, after the Soviet army won the battle of Dnieper, the base camp decided to expand the results and launch a strategic offensive campaign to liberate the whole territory of Ukraine.

The Soviet attempt was to annihilate the German group in the south wing of the Soviet-German battlefield and liberate the Ukrainian region on the right bank of the Dnieper River with synchronous and continuous fierce attacks, thus creating favorable conditions for later attacking the Balkans and annihilating the German group in Belarus.

The German attempt is: stick to the defense line from Pripyat River to the mouth of Dnieper River, ensure Ukraine, an important economic zone on the right bank of Dnieper River, and cover the approach to Crimea and Balkan Peninsula, so as to stabilize the front and delay the war process.

To this end, the Soviet Union and Germany start from the west of Saarna in the north and reach the mouth of the Dnieper River in the south, with a frontal width of about 1400 km; It is deployed from the Dnieper River in the east to the foothills of Carpathian Mountain in the west, and the combat area is about 450 kilometers deep.

Activity flow

According to the operational development process, the Ukrainian campaign on the right bank of Dnieper River was divided into two stages (* * * carried out nine sub-campaigns). That is, the winter offensive (1943 65438+February 24th to 65438+late February 0944) and the spring offensive (1944 March 4th to April 17).

First stage

The Soviet army attacked five times and defeated 38 German divisions.

(194365438+February 24th to the end of February next year)

At this stage, four Soviet Ukrainian troops smashed the German defense plan in the south-38 German divisions (accounting for 465,438+0% of the defense force, including 7 tank divisions and 3 motorized divisions) were defeated, which created a favorable situation for carrying out long-distance division assault and flank assault and completely smashing the German attack on the right bank of Ukraine.

Battle of zhitomir-Bel Decev

(1943 65438+February 24th to the following year 65438+1October 65438+April)

The Soviet Ukrainian 1 Army launched an attack on the front of 700 kilometers, crushing the German counterattack, crushing its six divisions, advancing 80-200 kilometers, and almost completely liberating Kiev and Zhytomyr, as well as parts of Vinnitsa and Rovno.

Battle of Kilovgrad

(1944 65438+1October 5th to 65438+1October 65438+June 6th)

The Second Army of Ukraine launched an attack on the German group stationed in Kilovgrad, advancing 40-50 kilometers to the west, breaking through the defense of the Eighth Army of Germany and recovering Kilovgrad.

The above two campaigns greatly improved the battlefield situation of the Soviet army and created favorable conditions for subsequent continuous attacks.

Battle of Korsun-Chevchenko-Fusky

(1944 65438+1October 24th to February 17)

17 In February, the Soviet Ukrainian Army 1 and the 2nd Army rushed in from both ends at the bottom of the projection, successfully surrounded the German heavy armed group at the Korsun-Chevchenko projection, hit the German 15 division hard, annihilated 73,000 enemy troops, and weakened the fighting capacity of the German army group in the south.

Rovno-Lutzke Battle

(1944 65438+1October 27th to February 1 1)

1 February, 1 Two right-wing army groups of the Ukrainian army captured Shchepetov Card, advanced to Manevich, Lutzke and Shchepetov Card, annihilated the Germans in this area, and occupied important transportation hubs and support points, thus achieving the expected purpose of the campaign.

Battle of nikopol-kriwog

(1944 65438+1October 30th to February 29th)

At the end of February, the 3rd Army and 4th Army of Soviet Ukraine cooperated to destroy the landing point occupied by the Germans on the left bank of Dnieper River, the enemy troops defending in this area, and went out to the Inguletz River to seize some landing points on the west bank of the river, which created favorable conditions for the liberation of Crimea and the development of attacking Odessa.

stage Ⅱ

The four Soviet attacks shattered Germany's defense.

(1944 March 4 ~ April 17)

At this stage, the Ukrainian Fourth Army of the Soviet Union further dealt a heavy blow to the heavily armed group facing the German army, and finally achieved the campaign goal of crushing the German defense attempt.

Proskurov-chernov mining campaign

(1944 March 4 ~ April 17)

The battle was carried out by the Ukrainian 1 Army. Before the end of March, the German "South" Army Group Tank 1 Army was encircled (***23 divisions, including 10 Tank Division). Although the remnants of the tank group 1 broke through on April 7, the left and middle forces of the "South" group army were shattered. During the battle, the Soviets dealt heavy blows to the two German armored army groups, causing 20 German divisions to lose more than half of their personnel and most of their technical weapons. The main horizontal traffic lines of the German army were cut off, and its strategic defense line was split in two. The army marched 80-350 kilometers out to the foothills of Carpathian Mountain, liberating part of Ukraine's territory on the right bank.

Battle of Uman-Bo Tossani

(1944 March 5 ~ April 17)

The battle was carried out by the Second Army of Ukraine. On March 26th, the army reached the border to the north of Wenger, crossed the Prut River in March, and for the first time during the war, it moved its operations to the enemy country-Romania. By mid-April, the army marched with the right wing into the Carpathian Mountains. In the middle, the troops went out to the ground near Yaxi, left wing, and went out to the east of Dniester River, Kolnikov. During the battle, the Soviet army split the defense line of the army group in southern Germany, causing its 10 division to lose 50% ~ 75% of its personnel and almost all its heavy equipment; The army advanced 200 ~ 250 kilometers, liberated large areas of Ukraine and Moldavia on the right bank and entered the northeast of Romania.

Battle of Bereznigova-Snigirev

(1March 6 ~ March 944 18)

The battle was carried out by the Third Army of Ukraine. In the battle, the Soviet army was blocked because it failed to cross the Nanbuge River successfully, which enabled the German army to establish an organized defense in the favorable area on the other side. The army advanced 140 km.

aodesa zhanyi odessa,battle of

(1944 March 26th to April 14)

During the campaign, the Ukrainian 3rd Army hit the German 6th Army and Romanian 3rd Army hard, liberated most areas of nikolayev, Odessa and Moldavia, and created favorable conditions for marching into Romania.

Activity review

The battle of Ukraine on the right bank of Dnieper River was a strategic offensive battle, one of the largest battles in the Second World War, and the only battle in which six Soviet tanks participated in the war at the same time. The battle front is 1300 ~ 1400 km long. The two sides participated in the Ukrainian campaign on the right bank with about 4 million troops, 45,400 artillery and mortars, 4,200 tanks and self-propelled artillery, and more than 4,000 aircraft. In this campaign, the Soviet army carried out a large-scale split assault, advancing 250-450 kilometers, crushing the German counter-assault, liberating millions of Soviet people, most of Ukraine on the right bank of Dnieper River and parts of Moldavia, and heading for the Soviet-Romanian border, completely changing the operational situation in the south wing of the Soviet-German battlefield.