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The Russians have fought in the Ukraine before. 77 years ago, during the period 1943-4, the Russian Red Army began the task of driving the occupying German army out of the Ukraine.

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WW2 : Liberation Of Ukraine
The Russians have fought in the Ukraine before. 77 years ago, during the period 1943-4, the Russian Red Army began the task of driving the occupying German army out of the Ukraine.

The Germans had invaded the Ukraine during the first stage of 'Operation Barbarossa' in 1941.

The Dnieper–Carpathian offensive, also known in Soviet historical sources as the liberation of right-bank Ukraine, was a strategic offensive executed by the Soviet 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Ukrainian Fronts, along with the 2nd Belorussian Front, against the German Army Group South, Army Group A and elements of Army Group Center and fought from late December 1943 to early May 1944.

The battles on the right-bank Ukraine and in the Crimea were the most important event of the 1944 winter-spring campaign on the Eastern Front.

Consisting of a whole series of closely linked operations, the goal of this offensive was to split Wehrmacht's Army Group South and to clear the German-Romanian-Hungarian forces from most of the Ukrainian and Moldavian territories, which were under the Axis forces. 

It was one of the biggest offensives of World War II, stretching over a 1,200 km (745 mi) front, to a 450 km depth (280 mi) and involving almost 3,500,000 troops from both sides.

In the course of the operation, 20 Wehrmacht divisions were either destroyed, disbanded or required major rebuilding, while another 60 divisions were reduced to 50% of their establishment strength.

Even worse were equipment losses, with thousands of precious tanks, assault guns, artillery and trucks being lost, principally through their abandonment in the spring mud.

According to German General Kurt von Tippelskirch, this was the biggest Wehrmacht defeat since Stalingrad.

As a result of this strategic offensive, Wehrmacht's Army Group South was split into two parts- north and south of the Carpathian Mountains. 

The northern portion was pushed back into Galicia (Poland), while the southern portion was pushed back into Romania. 

The northern portion was renamed to Army Group North Ukraine, while the southern portion to Army Group South Ukraine, which was effective from 5 April 1944, although very little of Ukraine remained in German hands. 

It was during this offensive that the Red Army for the first time reached the pre-war June 1941 state border of USSR, after which they transferred the combat into Polish and Romanian territory.

For the Wehrmacht defeat, the commander of Army Group South Erich von Manstein and the commander of Army Group A Ewald von Kleist were dismissed by Hitler and replaced by Walther Model and Ferdinand Schörner respectively. 

This offensive marked the end of Manstein's and Kleist's career in the Wehrmacht.

In order to save its southern sector from complete collapse, the German high command was forced to transfer 8 divisions in January- February and another 26 German divisions as reinforcements between March - May from across France, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Balkans, Army Group Centre and Army Group North to the crumbling front of Army Group South. 

This amounted to a total of 34 divisions, 550,000 men and at least 1,850 tanks, assault guns, and self-propelled anti-tank guns.

As a result, the Soviet Dnieper–Carpathian offensive played a key role in influencing the future successes of Allied D-Day landings and Soviet Operation Bagration, as German forces stationed in France and belonging to Army Group Centre were critically weakened by those transfers.

All told, during the major crisis in the Western Ukraine, the German forces stationed in France were deprived of 45,827 troops and 363 tanks, assault guns, and self-propelled anti-tank guns on 6 June 1944.

Meanwhile, Army Group Center was deprived of a total of 125,380 troops[37] and 552 tanks, assault guns, and self-propelled anti-tank guns on 22 June 1944.

The Soviet success during this operation has led the German High Command to conclude that the southern sector of the Eastern Front would be the area where the main Soviet summer offensive of 1944 would take place.

For this reason, the German forces in the south, especially the crucial panzer divisions, received priority in reinforcements. 

The weakening of Army Group Centre during the spring of 1944 and German anticipation that the southern sector of the Eastern Front would be the place of the main Soviet summer offensive of 1944, had catastrophic consequences to the Germans during Operation Bagration.

This Soviet offensive had a major military-political effect on Germany's Axis allies, Hungary and Romania.

The Soviet approach to Hungarian and Romanian borders during this offensive had prompted the leaders of both countries to seek peace with the Allies and leave the Axis.

The Germans were aware of this and with the Soviets approaching the borders of these two countries, the German side suspected that both countries would follow Italy's example.

To prevent this, Hitler ordered Operation Margarethe, a codename for German occupation of Hungary in March 1944. 

While both countries were already in negotiations with the Allies, they also began mobilizing an entire army each to face the approaching Soviets.

As the Soviets approached the borders of Hungary and Romania, both countries had mobilized their full resources and had committed a combined total of 25 fresh divisions.

While these Axis reinforcements are often overlooked, they nevertheless represented a significant reinforcement.

This was the offensive in which for the first and only time in the history of the entire Soviet-German War all 6 Soviet tank armies, the elite of the Red Army's mechanized formations, had participated at the same time.

Similarly, most of the German Army Group South's panzer divisions stationed in the East were deployed in Ukraine 

Out of 30 panzer and panzer-grenadier divisions available in late 1943, 22 were stationed in Ukraine.


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