What is the significance of the Battle of the Dnieper?

In August 1943, after the defeat of the German army in the Battle of Kursk, in order to stop the offensive of the Soviet army, it organized a defense in the Dnieper region with about 1.24 million people in five army groups. The Soviets launched an offensive against the German defenses with about 2.63 million troops on five fronts. By the end of September, the armies of all fronts had advanced to the Dnieper River and captured part of the landing grounds.

In October, the 1st Ukrainian Front twice carried out unsuccessful campaigns to liberate Kyiv. Subsequently, its main forces were transferred to the landing site of Lyutezh to carry out a surprise attack, and in November Kiev was liberated, and a strategic landing field was established in this area. The Belorussian Front launched the Battle of Gomel Lietsitsa, seizing a large landing ground south of Zhilobin with a depth of 100 km.

Ukraine. II. The Third Front liberated Zaporozhye and other places and created a second combat-ready landing ground on the Dnieper. The Ukrainian Fourth Front advanced to the lower reaches of the Dnieper and blockaded the German forces on the Crimean Peninsula. Through this battle, the Soviet army regained a large part of the country, creating favorable conditions for driving the German army out of the Soviet Union.

During the years of World War II, the experience of the British and American troops in forcibly crossing the Rhine could not be compared with the forced crossing of the Dnieper. The forced crossing of the Rhine was carried out under favorable conditions: the weak German army group barely put up resistance.

Everything was as in the demonstration exercises, that is, the so-called forced crossing of the Rhine turned into an ordinary river crossing. "The military history of the US 9th Army points out that this campaign was mainly engineering support, not tactical maneuver. "Only the U.S. 3rd Army, commanded by General Patton, crossed the Rhine by force while fighting on the march.

2,438 local soldiers, military officers, officers and generals of all branches of the Soviet Army who participated in the war were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Many units and corps received honorary titles such as "Kiev", "Poltava", "Chernihiv", "Dnepropetrovsk", "Zhytomyr", "Fastov", "Kremenchug", "Lisichansk", "Gorlovka", "Mariupol", "Melitopol" and others.

The Battle of the Neper River ended at the end of 1943. After this battle, the Soviet army inflicted heavy losses on the basic strength of the German Army Group South and the first part of Army Group **. After four months of offensive, the Soviets eliminated the German defense forces near the Dnieper, cleared all the German bridgeheads on the left bank, and established two strategic landing fields and dozens of tactical landing fields on the right bank, crushing the German army's attempt to resume defense along the Dnieper.

If the Battle of Kursk completely buried Hitler's offensive strategy, then the Battle of the Dnieper crushed the attempts of the German high command to establish a strong defensive position and hold an important economic zone in this direction. The victory of the Soviet army in the Battle of the Dnieper also laid the foundation for the subsequent offensive in Belarus and the complete liberation of Ukraine on the right bank of the Dnieper, as well as the expulsion of the invaders.

The Battle of the Dnieper River was a series of offensive campaigns conducted by the Soviet Army in August and December 1943 in order to liberate Ukraine, Donbass, Kiev on the left bank of the Dnieper River and seize the strategic landing sites on the right bank of the Dnieper River during the Great Patriotic War. Participating in the battle of the Dnieper were: ** Front, Voronezh Front, Steppe Front, Southwestern Front and Southern Front.

In parallel with the attack of the Southern Front on Melitopol, the offensive of the main forces of the Southwestern Front on the Zaporozhye region on the lower Dnieper salient also began. In addition to the 8th Guards Army of Chuikov, which served as the main attacker, the 3rd and 12th armies cooperated on the left and right flanks. At dawn on October 1, 1943, the assault officially began.

But by the 11th, the 8th Guards Army and its flanks still had not completed the set tasks for the capture of Zaporozhye.

To this end, Vasilevsky instructed Malinovsky to personally go to Chuikov's command post to study whether night battles could be used to achieve the suddenness and effectiveness of the offensive. Later, after many studies and demonstrations, the plan of the night assault was formed.

At 21:50 on the 13th, the largest night battle in the entire history of the Soviet-German war, in which 3 army groups, 1 tank corps and 1 mechanized corps participated, began. By the 14th, Zaporozhye was recaptured.

At this point, the entire battle of the Dnieper ended victoriously.