DK - World War II Map by Map

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Army Group

North

North-West Front

Kalinin Front

Bryansk

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Center Front

Steppes

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Voronezh Front

South

Front

West Front

Volkhov Front

Leningrad Front

South-West

Front

Army Group

Center

Army Group

North Ukraine

Army Group

South Ukraine Army

Group A

German

17th Army

Novgorod

Leningrad

Maladzyechna

Novorossiysk

Staraya Russa

Novozybkov

Velikiye Luki

Sevastopol

Lubny

Fastov Lyutezh

Michurinsk

Chernobyl

Chernivtsi

Zhytomyr

Mykolaiv

Perekop

Smolensk

Cherkassy

Korosten

Babruysk

Belgorod

Mariupol

Białystok

Konotop

Balashov

Memel Moscow Arzamas

Warsaw

Tarnopol

Helsinki

Bryansk

Vyazma

Grodno

Kharkov

Odessa

Murom

Volkhov

Poltava

Orsha

Narva

Mazyr

Rzhev

Pskov

Kerch

Kursk

Kovel

Sumy

Tartu

Lutsk

Kirov

Brest-Litovsk

Orel

Luga

Kalinin

Kiev

Riga

Tula

Rostov

THE SOVIETS SWEEP FORWARD 181

THE SOVIETS

SWEEP FORWARD

The Soviet victory at the Battle of Kursk handed the initiative to

the Red Army. It was now ready to attack the Germans on a wider

front in order to push them out of the western USSR and Ukraine.

The Germans never regained momentum in the east, and Hitler’s

ambitions for the USSR were crushed.

Following the huge Battle of Kursk

(see pp.178–179), the Germans believed,

despite their losses, that they had

crippled the USSR, rendering it incapable

of launching a counterattack. However,

the Soviets regrouped quickly, and from

summer 1943 German troops found

themselves facing Soviet offensives on

a front that stretched from Leningrad in

the north to Crimea in the south.

In a series of major battles, with only

a few setbacks, the Soviets fought their

way to the western frontiers of the USSR

by May 1944. The German forces on the

Eastern Front were depleted due to the

diversion of troops to Italy following the

Allied landings there (see pp.164–165),

“An extraordinary day. The entire city is waiting ...

any moment now!”

VERA INBER, LENINGRAD CITIZEN, JANUARY 16, 1944

but they nevertheless fought fiercely,

giving ground grudgingly and at

great cost to the enemy. They made

tactical retreats behind new defensive

lines built after the defeat at Kursk,

particularly the Panther–Wotan Line.

Both sides suffered huge casualties,

but the Soviets gained the upper hand:

they lifted the 872-day siege of

Leningrad; liberated Kiev, Smolensk,

and Odessa; and cleared Crimea and its

naval port Sevastopol of German forces.

The way was now open for the Red

Army to launch Operation Bagration

(see pp.182–183) to clear the rest of the

USSR of German troops and allow the

Soviets to head into Eastern Europe.

KONSTANTIN ROKOSSOVSKY, 1896–1968

After serving in World War I, Soviet and

Polish officer Rokossovsky fought for the

Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War and soon

climbed the ranks of the Red Army. He was

imprisoned during Stalin’s purges in the late

1930s, but was released in 1941 so the

USSR could make use of his military skills.

He gained fame for his defense of Moscow

in 1941–1942 and his success at Stalingrad,

where he led the Don Front in trapping

the German 6th Army (see pp.152–153).

He also played central roles at the Battle

of Kursk and in Operation Bagration. It

was Rokossovsky’s army group that ended

the war in north Germany (see pp.242–243).

After the war, he became a member of the

Communist Polish government.

Soviet-held territory by Nov 30, 1943

German counterattacks

OFFENSIVES AND FIGHTBACKS

SEPTEMBER–NOVEMBER 1943

By late September, the Soviet advance captured

Smolensk to the west of Moscow, and forced the

Germans to withdraw along the length of the

Dnieper River behind their Panther–Wotan

defensive line. After overcoming stiff German

resistance, the Soviets then took Kiev on

November 6 and headed west into Ukraine,

fending off German counterattacks.

2

Soviet-held territory by Sep 1, 1943

THE CHARGE FROM KURSK

AUGUST 1943

After their success at Kursk in July 1943, the

Soviets unleashed their counteroffensive by

pushing the Germans out of the Orel and Kharkov

salients to the north and south of Kursk itself.

The Red Army then crossed the Donets River

in August and headed west.

1

WESTWARD ADVANCE

From August 1943, the Soviet Army

began its slow move westward.

It encountered a fierce German

rearguard action as Axis troops

were slowly forced out of the

USSR and Ukraine.

KEY

German forces

AUG 1943 NOV FEB 1944 MAY AUG

1

2

3

4

5

TIMELINE

Soviet forces

Sep 30, 1943

The Soviets begin

to cross the

Dnieper River

along a 500-mile

(800-km) front.

German Panther–Wotan defensive line Soviet advances

Finnish defensive

positions

Siege of Leningrad

relieved

THE RELIEF OF LENINGRAD

JANUARY–JUNE 1944

On January 4, 1944, three Soviet armies launched

an offensive on Leningrad, relieving the city on

January 27. Around one million of its residents

had starved to death during its lengthy siege (see

pp.94–95). Novgorod fell on January 19, forcing

the German Army Group North out of the whole

area east of Lake Peipus. The Soviets then moved

south-west toward Estonia and north against the

Finnish lines, which they eventually crossed in June.

3

US_180-181_Soviets_sweep_forwards.indd 181 22/03/19 2:39 PM