August 1943

Eastern Front

Fighting in the Orel bulge sees Snamenskaya fall to the Soviets.

The Red Army is poised to begin its counteroffensive south of Kursk. The Voronezh and Steppe Fronts will unleash Operation RUMYANTSEV against the unsuspecting 4th Panzer Army and Detachment Kempf.

Vatutin's Voronezh Front deploys the 38th Army opposite Sumy, 40th Army southeast of Sumy, facing the left flank of the LII Corps, 27th Army north of Grayvoron, 6th Guards Army north of Tomarovka, 5th Guards Army northeast of Tomarovka, 1st Tank Army in reserve behind the 6th Guards and 5th Guards Tank Army in reserve behind the 5th Guards. Steppe Front deploys the 53rd Army north of Belgorod, 69th Army north and east of Belgorod and 7th Guards Army on the Donets south of Belgorod and north of Volchansk. In addition the Southwest Front will commit its 57th Army directly east of Kharkov and 46th Army around Chuguyev. The 4th Guards and 47th Armies are held in operational reserve.

The aim of the operation is to isolate and destroy the 4th Panzer Army and Detachment Kempf and, driving south, liberate Kharkov before unhinging the German defenses north and south of the city.

The 4th Panzer Army deploys the LII Corps on its center and left, holding a long line from the area south of Sumy to Tomarovka. The XLVIII Panzer Corps is to its right, holding a narrow front between Tomarovka and Belgorod. Army Detachment Kempf faces east along the Donets, its XI Corps being deployed east and south of Belgorod, while the XLII Corps covers the eastern approaches to Kharkov. Mansteins' reserves, the XXIV Panzer Corps and III Panzer Corps, are still south along the Mius and in the Donbas, following the Southwest and South Fronts' diversionary attack which had drawn them away.

The forthcoming offensive in the Ukraine heralded the Red Army's renewed drive for the Dniepr, an advance which had been so devastatingly cut short in the spring. From this day forward, the Soviets would not cease in their efforts to drive the Germans out of their territory and begin the war to liberate Eastern Europe.