7538
March 18th, 1943
Spring awakening
The weather is starting to deteriorate, making motorized travel and aviation interventions more and more difficult.
.........
Berlin - Eager to prove the value of his units and to outdo Gœbbels and Himmler, who seem to him to take too much importance lately, Göring proposes to the OKH to send one of his Luftwaffen-Feld-Divisionen (LFD) to reinforce the strength of the 6. Armee in front of Kiev.
The idea of such a deployment arouses mezzo voce jeers from the German high command, especially from von Kluge, who does not consider the LFDs to be valid front-line formations. Hitler is less demanding and accepts the offer of the Luftwaffe commander. The 4. LFD thus receives during the day its transfer order for Novograd-Volynski.
.........
Medzhibozh-Derazhnya pocket -Manstein has a good vision of his opponent's device. The arrival of the right wing of the 2nd Ukrainian Front reveals that the Soviets are fully aware of the precariousness of the situation of the 1st Front ...and offers very interesting prospects for the continuation of operations. Annihilating the bulk of two Soviet fronts could not only destabilize this entire portion of the front, but perhaps even clear the road to Kiev. However, the Führer does not see it that way: before any breakthrough, it is necessary to annihilate once and for all the enemy concentrations.
North of the pocket, Schmidt relaunches his attack. Goloskov falls in the middle of the day, opening two roads to Medzhibozh and Derazhnya. The 2. Panzer moves to the second one, the 4. Panzer to the first. The German intentions are to push east of Medzhibozh these two armored divisions (the 7. Panzer waiting in the north) in order to cut the retreat of the garrison. But the Soviet resistance and the rise in temperature which thaw the Buzhok marshes, north of the city, slow down the German progression and allow most of the threatened soldiers to flee. The fall of Medzhibozh, reported during the evening briefing in the Kremlin, causes a black anger of Stalin, but Shapochnikov manages to convince him that the city was in any case indefensible.
In the south, the remnants of the 58th Army are now surrounded in and around Derazhnya. At nightfall, Shcherbakov takes it upon himself to allow the volunteers to attempt a sortie, but the Germans are on the lookout. Under the fire of the German artillery, the evacuation turns into a disaster and only a few hundred men, isolated or in small groups manage to reach the Soviet lines after days, even weeks of wandering.
In the city itself, equipment and supplies are destroyed. Confident in his forces, Kempf takes advantage of the situation to redeploy the 24. Panzer to the east: the unit captures Volkovintsy [Vovkovyntsi], eighteen kilometers east of Derazhnya.
2nd Ukrainian Front
Battle of Kamenets-Podolski
Passages of the Dniester - While the left wing of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (16th and 59th Armies, Bogdanov's armored corps) is trying to build bridges over the river (the Luftwaffe, which did not have enough means, did not intervene) and organizes the first crossings, Bagramyan receives Stalin's approval for his operation against Kamenets-Podolski.
His two armies have to march on each side of the Dniester by bad roads - the region being singularly devoid of really passable axes - to get closer to the city. The 59th Army will advance south and take Khotin, while the 16th Army and Bogdanov's armor will go north. Once reunited north of the Dniester, the two armies attack Kamenets-Podolski from the east and south. The German garrison, occupying the citadel built in a meander of the river, will have to choose between flight and annihilation.
Spring awakening
The weather is starting to deteriorate, making motorized travel and aviation interventions more and more difficult.
.........
Berlin - Eager to prove the value of his units and to outdo Gœbbels and Himmler, who seem to him to take too much importance lately, Göring proposes to the OKH to send one of his Luftwaffen-Feld-Divisionen (LFD) to reinforce the strength of the 6. Armee in front of Kiev.
The idea of such a deployment arouses mezzo voce jeers from the German high command, especially from von Kluge, who does not consider the LFDs to be valid front-line formations. Hitler is less demanding and accepts the offer of the Luftwaffe commander. The 4. LFD thus receives during the day its transfer order for Novograd-Volynski.
.........
Medzhibozh-Derazhnya pocket -Manstein has a good vision of his opponent's device. The arrival of the right wing of the 2nd Ukrainian Front reveals that the Soviets are fully aware of the precariousness of the situation of the 1st Front ...and offers very interesting prospects for the continuation of operations. Annihilating the bulk of two Soviet fronts could not only destabilize this entire portion of the front, but perhaps even clear the road to Kiev. However, the Führer does not see it that way: before any breakthrough, it is necessary to annihilate once and for all the enemy concentrations.
North of the pocket, Schmidt relaunches his attack. Goloskov falls in the middle of the day, opening two roads to Medzhibozh and Derazhnya. The 2. Panzer moves to the second one, the 4. Panzer to the first. The German intentions are to push east of Medzhibozh these two armored divisions (the 7. Panzer waiting in the north) in order to cut the retreat of the garrison. But the Soviet resistance and the rise in temperature which thaw the Buzhok marshes, north of the city, slow down the German progression and allow most of the threatened soldiers to flee. The fall of Medzhibozh, reported during the evening briefing in the Kremlin, causes a black anger of Stalin, but Shapochnikov manages to convince him that the city was in any case indefensible.
In the south, the remnants of the 58th Army are now surrounded in and around Derazhnya. At nightfall, Shcherbakov takes it upon himself to allow the volunteers to attempt a sortie, but the Germans are on the lookout. Under the fire of the German artillery, the evacuation turns into a disaster and only a few hundred men, isolated or in small groups manage to reach the Soviet lines after days, even weeks of wandering.
In the city itself, equipment and supplies are destroyed. Confident in his forces, Kempf takes advantage of the situation to redeploy the 24. Panzer to the east: the unit captures Volkovintsy [Vovkovyntsi], eighteen kilometers east of Derazhnya.
2nd Ukrainian Front
Battle of Kamenets-Podolski
Passages of the Dniester - While the left wing of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (16th and 59th Armies, Bogdanov's armored corps) is trying to build bridges over the river (the Luftwaffe, which did not have enough means, did not intervene) and organizes the first crossings, Bagramyan receives Stalin's approval for his operation against Kamenets-Podolski.
His two armies have to march on each side of the Dniester by bad roads - the region being singularly devoid of really passable axes - to get closer to the city. The 59th Army will advance south and take Khotin, while the 16th Army and Bogdanov's armor will go north. Once reunited north of the Dniester, the two armies attack Kamenets-Podolski from the east and south. The German garrison, occupying the citadel built in a meander of the river, will have to choose between flight and annihilation.