Eastern Front · Soviet Union vs Germany
Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket
24 January 1944 – 16 February 1944
Two Soviet fronts cut off around 60,000 German troops holding a salient on the Dnieper at Korsun. A relief attempt was stopped short by mud and Soviet armour, and the pocket broke out towards Lysyanka with heavy losses in men and all its equipment.
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Day by day
— The salient
Two German corps still hold a bulge that reaches the Dnieper at Kanev, the last German ground on the river and the last hope of a counter-stroke towards Kiev. Konev's 2nd Ukrainian Front attacks its south-eastern face this morning with the 4th Guards and 53rd Armies, and puts Rotmistrov's 5th Guards Tank Army through the gap the next day.
— Zvenigorodka
Kravchenko's 6th Tank Army drives in the western face from Tinovka and meets the 5th Guards Tank Army at Zvenigorodka this evening. Some 60,000 men of XI and XXXXII Corps are inside, under General Stemmermann: two corps headquarters, six divisions and the Belgian volunteers of SS Wallonien.
— The relief
The thaw has turned every road to porridge and the pocket is being supplied by air onto a strip at Korsun. Breith's III Panzer Corps, with the heavy Panthers and Tigers of Schwere Panzer-Regiment Bake, attacks from Rizino towards Lysyanka; Stemmermann is told to fight west to meet it. The two forces end up eleven kilometres apart across the Gniloy Tikich.
— The Gniloy Tikich
Manstein authorises the break-out on his own account at eleven this morning. The column marches out of Shanderovka after dark in a blizzard, is caught in the open by tanks and cavalry at Zhurzhintsy, and reaches the Gniloy Tikich to find no bridge; men swim it in February water and climb the far bank at Lysyanka before dawn. Some 35,000 come out, without a gun or a vehicle; Stemmermann is killed covering the rear.
