September 1941

Eastern Front

Following the fall of Lodenoye Pole, the 7th Army retires behind the line of the Svir, taking up strong positions of the southern bank.

German forces on the Baltic coast begin to bombard Muhu Island, softening the defenses in preparation for their landing.

Slutsk and Pushkin, on the southern approaches to Leningrad, fall to the Germans, while a furious battle rages for control of Krasnoye Selo. On the Duderhof Heights, the 1st Panzer Division gains territory but at considerable cost. Height 167 falls after heavy fighting.

Voroshilov's failure to halt the German attack prompts the Stavka appointment of Gen Zhukov to command the defense of the city. Zhukov will turn around the Soviet fortunes at Leningrad, dismissing weak commanders and using draconian measures to instil discipline into the faltering combat units. At the beginning of his tenure, the Leningrad Front deployed 425,000 men, two thirds of them facing the Germans to the south of the city. To the east the 54th Army has a further 85,000 around Volkhov, behind Antonyuk's badly bruised 48th Army.

In heavy rain the XLVI Panzer Corps reaches Putivl and the XLVII Panzer Corps takes Glukhov.

Budenny and Kirponos again request permission to pull out of the exposed Kiev salient but Stalin insists that Kiev be held and that the Soviet defense should be anchored on the line of the Dniepr.

The Germans begin to deploy the XLVIII Panzer Corps into the Kremenchug bridgehead, the 16th Panzer Division leading the way. Novo-Alexandrovka falls to the 1st SS Motorized Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler as the Germans conquer the Dniepr Elbow.