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The Korsun-Shevchenkovsky offensive ended during the liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine
The Korsun-Shevchenkovsky offensive took place from January 24 to February 17, 1944 during the liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine. The purpose of the operation was to destroy the enemy troops in a deep ledge formed as a result of the Zhitomir-Berdichev and Kirovograd operations. It did not allow the flanks of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts to connect, and prevented the advance to the Southern Bug.
The German forces included formations of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein’s Army Group South, which numbered more than 170 thousand people. In preparation for the defence, the enemy built a system of strong points and resistance joints with minefields and wire barriers; however, the work was not completed in all areas. The Soviet command involved in the operation the forces of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts with a total of over 336 thousand people, who were supposed to surround and destroy the German troops with counter strikes under the base of the ledge.
The operation began in the early morning of January 24 with a powerful artillery raid. The offensive developed more successfully in the sector of the 1st Ukrainian Front. At 3 p.m. on January 28, after hard fighting, the 233rd Tank Brigade of the 5th Mechanized Corps joined up in the Zvenigorodka area with the advanced units of the 20th Tank Corps of the 5th Tank Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. This completed the encirclement of the enemy troops. By February 3, a solid internal encirclement front was created, and the second part of the operation to defeat the German forces began.
The German command did not abandon attempts to break through the encirclement. The commander of the 11th Army Corps, General Wilhelm Stemmerman, who led the surrounded troops, was ordered to fight to the last bullet. On January 27, four tank divisions of the 8th Army arrived in Novomirgorod to unblock German units, and two tank divisions of the 1st Tank Army went to the Rizino area. Attempts to break through to the encircled troops were initially carried out in the zone of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, and then were moved to the zone of the 1st Ukrainian Front.
On the morning of February 11, a powerful offensive by German strike units began in the areas of Rizino, Yerki and Steblevo, which met stubborn resistance. At the same time, on the inner front of the encirclement, Soviet troops, with the assistance of partisan detachments, cut off and destroyed individual groups and garrisons of the encircled enemy. On February 12, 1944, Headquarters of the Supreme High Command subordinated the troops involved in the operation to defeat the German forces to the commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Ivan Stepanovich Konev. On February 14, the district centre of Kiev Region, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, was liberated. On February 17, German troops made a last unsuccessful attempt to break out of the encirclement. By the end of February 17, the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky group was liquidated. On February 18, 1944, a celebratory salute was held in Moscow in honour of the successful end of the operation. General of the Army Ivan S. Konev was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
During the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky operation, 10 divisions and 1 brigade of the enemy were defeated, which significantly strengthened the positions of the Soviet command in the southwestern strategic direction. Most of the territory of Ukraine was liberated from the Nazi invaders. Supreme Commander-in-Chief Joseph V. Stalin called the operation “the new Stalingrad”. The success of the operation was largely facilitated by the massive use of tank troops, which ensured a high rate of breakthrough of the enemy’s defence, and the support of aviation, which maintained operational dominance in the air.
Lit.: Великая Отечественная война 1941–1945 годов: в 12 т. Т. 4. Освобождение территории СССР. 1944 год. М., 2015; Конев И. С. Записки командующего фронтом. 1943–1944. М., 1982; Смирнов С. С. Сталинград на Днепре, М., 1958; Хохлов В. Корсунь-Шевченковская наступательная операция // Министерство обороны Российской Федерации. Режим доступа: https://mil.ru/winner_may/history/more.htm?id=11891335@cmsArticle
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: