January 1944

Eastern Front

The fighting in the Leningrad sector has carried the 2nd Shock Army and 42nd Army to the Luga River north and south of Kingisepp.

Heavy fighting rages east of Krivoi Rog and around Nikopol as the German 6th Army is crushed by the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts.

In the Crimea the Germans have erected strong defensive positions. The XLIX Mountain Corps deploys 1 infantry division on the Perekop Isthmus and 1 infantry and 2 Rumanian divisions on the Zivash coast facing the 51st Army. The V Corps is near Kerch with 2 infantry and 1 Rumanian cavalry division facing the Independent Coastal Army. In the Jaila Mountains is the I Rumanian Mountain Corps, fighting Crimean partisans, while in operational reserve is another infantry division, Mountain Regiment Krym and the 9th Flak Division. The 17th Army has a total strength of 235,000 men.

1 panzer division, 1 infantry and 2 Luftwaffe field divisions have been struck off the German order of battle during January but in return 1 SS motorized division, 1 infantry and 1 ski division are commited, bringing the total German commitment to 23 panzer, 10 panzer grenadier and 139 infantry divisions. The Luftwaffe has 1,800 aircraft against 8,500 Soviet planes.