Across the Dnepr (September 1943)

The Soviets conducted their last major operational level airborne assault in September 1943 during the general Soviet advance to the Dnepr River. After repulsing the last major German offensive of the war, at Kursk in July 1943, Soviet forces launched a strategic counteroffensive in mid-July and August. The counteroffensive ultimately developed into the summer-fall campaign, which engulfed the Eastern Front in flame from the Smolensk region to the Black Sea coast. Operation Kutuzov, launched in mid-July against German forces in the Orel salient, by mid-August had reduced that strategic salient. The second offensive, Operation Rumiantsev, which commenced in early August against German forces defending Belgorod and Khar’kov, smashed German Fourth Panzer Army and Operational Group Kempf, and severely mauled critical German mobile operational reserves. ¹ By late August, the Soviets had captured Khar’kov. In early September the Soviet Central Front pierced German defenses north of Sumy and plunged deep into the German rear toward Chernigov, precipitating a German decision to withdraw to the Dnepr River line. There the Germans hoped to erect an impenetrable ‘Eastern Wall.’