Battle of the Lower Dnieper
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The World War II Battle of the Lower Dnieper of 1943 is considered to be one of the largest battles in world history, involving almost 4,000,000 troops on both sides and stretching on a front 1400 kilometers wide. During this four-month campaign, the left bank of the Dnieper was liberated from the Nazi occupation by Soviet forces, who crossed the river in force and created several bridgeheads on the right bank as well liberating Kiev in the process.
It is considered one of the bloodiest recorded battles, with estimates ranging from 1,700,000 to 2,700,000 casualties on both sides. Since the area involved was huge, some historians do not consider it a discrete "battle," and grant the Battle of Stalingrad the title of the bloodiest battle in history.
Prelude
After the end of the Battle of Kursk, the Wehrmacht lost all hope of regaining the initiative. Losses were considerable, and, worse, its army as a whole was less experienced than before, as many of its best men had fallen in the Battle of Stalingrad. Therefore, despite considerable numbers, the Wehrmacht could only react and defend.By mid-August, Hitler understood that the Soviet offensive could not be contained - at least, not until some internal disagreement broke out within the Allies. He decided to buy time by constructing a series of fortifications to slow down the Red Army, and he demanded the Wehrmacht to defend its positions on the Dnieper at all costs.
On the Soviet side, Stalin was determined to pursue with the recovery of the occupied territories, started at the beginning of the year. The Ukrainian industrial region was the first priority, since it was a densely populated area and its coal mines and other ores would provide precious resource for the Soviet state. Therefore, the main axis of the attack was in a southernly direction; the northern regions would be neglected in this offensive.
The Start
German defense setup
The order to construct the Dnieper defense complex, known as "Eastern Wall", was issued on 11 August 1943 and immediately executed.
All over Dnieper, fortifications were erected. However, there was no hope to achieve such a huge defense setup in such a short time. Therefore, the "Eastern wall" was not uniform. In areas where Soviet force-crossing was most likely, such as near Kremenchug, Zaporizhzhia and Nikopol, the defense was the heaviest, whilst being lighter in other areas.
Additionally, on 7 September 1943, the SS forces and the Wehrmacht received an order to thoroughly pillage areas they had to retreat from to slow down the Red Army and to try and create supplies issues for Soviet forces.
Soviet offensive on the left shore
Main article: Battle of Ukraine (1943)
On 24 August 1943, the Soviet divisions started moving on a 1400 kilometer front stretching between Smolensk and the Azov Sea. The operation staged was huge, mobilizing 2,650,000 men, 51,000 guns, 2,400 tanks and 2,850 planes, and involving 5 fronts:
- Central Front (known as the Bielorussian Front after 20 October 1943)
- Voronezh Front (known as the 1st Ukrainian Front after 20 October 1943)
- Steppe Front (known as the 2nd Ukrainian Front after 20 October 1943)
- Southwest Front (known as the 3rd Ukrainian Front after 20 October 1943)
- South Front (known as the 4th Ukrainian Front after 20 October 1943)
Despite a great superiority in numbers, the offensive was by no means easy. German opposition was ferocious and fight raged for every town and city. One tactic widely used by the Wehrmacht was leaving some troops in each city and on each hill, slowing down the Soviet offensive.
Three weeks after the start of the offensive, and despite heavy losses on the Soviet side, it became all too clear that the Wehrmacht could not possibly hope to contain the Soviet offensive in the flat, open terrain of the steppes, where the Red Army's numerical strength would prevail. Manstein asked for as many as 12 new divisions in hopes of containing the Soviet offensive – but German reserves were perilously thin. Years later, Manstein wrote in his memoirs:
- "After analysing this situation, I concluded that we can't keep the Donbass with the forces that we already possess, and that even a greater danger for the whole Eastern Front is being created on the north flank of the group. The 8th and 4th armies won't be able to contain the Soviet offensive for very long".
The fight for city of Poltava was especially bitter. The city was heavily fortified and its garrison ready. After a few inconclusive days that greatly slowed down the Soviet offensive, Marshal Konev decided to bypass the city and rush towards the Dnieper. After two days of violent urban warfare, the Poltava garrison was overcome.
Towards the end of September 1943, Soviet forces reached the lower part of the Dnieper. The hardest part was still to come, though.
Dnieper airborne operation
In order to soften the defenses on Dnieper's right shore, the Soviet command decided to attempt a paradrop on the right shore. On 24 September 1943 the Dnieper airborne operation was launched. The Soviet paratroopers' objective was to secure a bridgehead until the reinforcements could arrive.The operation turned out to be a complete failure. Because pilots were completely unfamiliar with the area, the first wave of paratroopers was dropped on Soviet lines or in the Dnieper, while the second wave of 5,000 troops got scattered over several dozen square kilometers. Moreover, because of a poorly performed reconnaissance that failed to spot German mechanized forces, most troops, lacking anti-tank weapons, were overwhelmed shortly after their landing. The others, having lost all radio link with their HQ, tried to attack German supply depots or joined the partisan forces.
Despite heavy losses, it is estimated that the Dnieper airborne operation, which attracted the attention of a significant number of German mechanized troops, allowed a force-crossing in better conditions. Nevertheless, after the failure of Vyazma and Dnieper paradrops, the STAVKA refused to use massive airborne operations again.
Force-crossing the Dnieper
Choosing the scenario
Dnieper is the third largest river in Europe, second only to Volga and Danube. In its lower part, its width can easily reach 3 kilometers, and the fact that it was dammed in several places made it even larger. Moreover its right shore —the one still to be retaken— was much higher and steeper than the left one, thus complicating the offensive even further. In addition, the opposite shore was transformed into a vast complex of defenses and fortifications held by the Wehrmacht.
In front of such a situation, the Soviet commanders had two options. The first would be to give themselves time to regroup their forces, find a weak point or two to exploit (not necessarily in the lower part of Dnieper), stage a breakthrough and encircle the German defenders, rendering the defense line next to useless (very much like German Panzers bypassed the Maginot line in 1940). This, however, would give Germans time to get more reserves and futhermore, would expose Soviet troops to flank mechanized attacks, every Soviet commander's nightmare since 1941.
The second option would be to stage a massive assault without waiting, and force the Dnieper on a large front. This option left no additional time for the German defenders, but would lead to much larger casualties. For political reasons (Stalin wanted Kiev to be retaken on 7 November), the second option was chosen.
The assault would be staged on a 300-kilometer front almost simultaneously. All available means of transport would be used to transport the attackers to the opposite shore, including small fishing boats and improvised rafts of barrels and trees (like the one on the photograph). The crucial issue would obviously be heavy equipment. Without it, the bridgeheads would not stand for long.
The crossing
The first bridgehead on Dnieper's right shore was established on 22 September 1943 at the confluence of Dnieper and Pripyat rivers, in the northern part of the front. On 24 September, another bridgehead was created near Dneprodzerzhinsk, another on 25 September near Dnepropetrovsk and yet another one on 28 September near Kremenchug. By the end of the month, 23 bridgeheads were created on the right shore, some of them 10 kilometers wide and 1-2 kilometers deep.
By all accounts, the crossing of the Dnieper can be described as an "attack rage". Soldiers used every available floating device to cross the river, under heavy German fire and taking heavy losses. After that, Soviet troops had to basically dig themselves into the clay ravines composing Dnieper's right shore.
Securing the bridgeheads
German troops soon launched heavy counterattacks on almost every bridgehead, hoping to annihilate them before heavy equipment could be transported across the river.
For instance, the Borodaevsk bridgehead, mentioned by Marshal Konev in his memoires, was under a heavy armored and air assualt. Bombers were everywhere, bombing both the bridgehead and the reinforcements crossing the river. Konev complained at once about a lack of organization of Soviet air support, set up air patrols to prevent bombers from approaching the bridgeheads and ordered forward more artillery to counter tank attacks from the opposite shore. When Soviet aviation became more organized and hundreds of guns and Katyushas started firing, the situation started to improve and the bridgehead was eventually preserved.
Such fights were commonplace on every bridgehead. Even if all bridgeheads were preserved, losses were terrific – at the beginning of October, most divisions were at only 25 to 50% of their nominal strength.
Right shore campaign
