Eastory
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08.09.1943.
🕑 Added 2018-11-20 10:51:36 +0000 UTC After the German attack at the battle of Kursk was defeated, the Red Army began an offensive of its own. It resulted in a series of attacks in different parts of the front. For a time the Germans attempted to contain these offensives with conducting tactical retreats and regrouping their forces.In the first half of September, however, they began to realise they lacked the troops to stop the Soviet advance unless they pulled their front line back to a more defensible position. As a result they decided to conduct probably the largest planned retreat of the German forces during the entire war and take army groups Center and South to the Panther-Wotan line, that ran mostly on the Dnieper river and its tributaries (Blue line on map).
Unit symbol explanations: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WN22bJq3tw6yW-kj0X5PM-fEK-ukgpxh/view?usp=sharing
Comments
YW
Hope this gets you close enough - in the book 'Panzer operations - the Eastern Front Memoir of General Raus 1941-1945' Edited by Steven H. Newton (2003), pp. 265-6 - It says that at the end of December 1943, 24th Pz Korps was transferred west (in the sector of 4th Pz. Armee) to replace 47th Pz Korps which was taken out of the line. In its place, 42 Korps was brought in (and thus was encircled in January 1944)
Headshotkill
This reminds me of Germans retreating to the Hindenburg line in WW1; keep up the good work, I love watching your video's and have done so many times again and again already!
Headshotkill
The lower amount of troops in sovjet formations made it easier for the commanders to handle, as most experienced commanders had been purged and replaced with fresh recruits who lacked the skill to command large groups.
Eastory
At this time the Soviets had about 1:2 superiority over the Axis on the Eastern Front and this is the first reason, why they have more Corps. The second reason, why they have more units is due to the fact that the Soviet units of similar level had less men than the German ones and they were generally smaller. Traditionally one Soviet Army has been depicted as equivalent to one German Corps. I don't know exactly, what was the reason behind this difference in organisation.
Martin Raadik
Visually - yes
Louis Burke
In this image there just seems to be way more Soviet Corps?
Martin Raadik
A quick question. German units seem to be divided into larger groups than Russian units, just considering the number of units marked on the map. Is there a particular reason for that?
Eastory
Yep, the 11th is indeed missing. I had it on the map, but had accidentally set it to invisible. It has to wait a bit until the Korsun pocket.
YW
Thanks! You have BTW a missing German Korps - the 11th (XI), near Kharkov (between the 52nd and the 3rd Panzer). See german Lage Ost maps here - <a href="https://files.secureserver.net/0ffVDAlm5aBa0P" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://files.secureserver.net/0ffVDAlm5aBa0P</a>
