December 1943

Eastern Front

With the fighting at Meleni increasingly intense, the XLVIII Panzer calls off its attack. The unexpected German assault has succeeded in severely mauling 4 Soviet corps that had been assembled for the next phase of the offensive in the Ukraine, disrupting the Soviet plans slightly.

Even so, the 1st Ukrainian Front is poised to attack the northern wing of Army Group South once again, the Stavka aiming to turn the left flank of the German southern wing and encircling what is left of it before the Dniestr River. The plan calls for the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts to drive through the 4th Panzer and 8th Armies and reach Mogilev-Podolsky and Pervomaisk while the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts attack on the lower Dniepr, between Nikopol and Krivoi Rog.

For the offensive the Stavka has assembled a force of 2,365,000 men. The 1st Ukrainian has 924,000 ment, the 2nd, 594,000, the 3rd, 337,000 and the 4th, 550,000. All 4 fronts combined include more than 2,000 tanks and Su's, 29,000 arty pieces and 2,360 aircraft in support. Of this number, virtually the entire tank strength is operational and half the infantry are in the combat line. To face this massive force Manstein's Army Group South has 43 infantry, 15 panzer and 7 panzer grenadier divisions, which when combined with Kleist's Army Group A total 1,760,000 men. To support the infantry the army groups have 2,200 panzers and assault guns, barely a third of which are fit for action, and 16,000 arty pieces. Army Groups South and A have 1,400 aircraft on hand to provide aerial support but again many are out of action due to repairs or lack of fuel. In the Crimea and along the southern ben of the Dniepr are the 17th and 6th Armies of Army Group A. The weak Rumanian 3rd Army is also in the Crimea. Army Group A has 8 German infantry divisions, 10 Rumanian divisions and 1 field training division.

The fighting in the autumn of 1943 had proved to be a long string of setbacks for the Ostheer. Forced back across the Dniepr and from Kiev, the German southern wing has been pushed back upon itself. Hitler's insistence that every yard of territory be retained had proved a weight around the German commanders' necks. For the Soviet generals it had been a time to master their art, tank armies and rifle forces learning to operated n conjunction with their resurgent air forces. The renewed Soviet offensive in the Ukraine, and offensives of 1944, would prove the Soviet mastery of the concept of battles of annihilation.

The hard fought battles along the line of the Dniepr had established the Red Army in the Western Ukraine, a position confirmed by the capture of Kiev. There now began a series of operations on the southern wing that would bend the German front back to the Rumanian border and lay the foundations for the defeat of Army Group Center in the summer of 1944.