The Soviet winter offensive began on December 24, 1943 on either side of the Kiev-Zhitomir road and within a few weeks involved the whole of Army Group "South” which, at that time, stretching as it did between the estuary of the Dniepr and the Mozyr’ region, comprised the 6th Army (General Hollidt), the 1st Panzerar-mee (General Hube), the 8th Army (General Wohler), and the 4th Panzerar-mee (General Raus). The entire group, commanded as before by Field-Marshal Erich von Manstein, was made up of 73 of the 180 understrength divisions that were then engaged on the front between Kerch’ Strait and the Oranienbaum bridgehead on the Baltic.
In particular, 22 of the 32 Panzer and Panzer grenadier divisions on the Eastern Front were allocated to Army Group "South”.
The 18th Artillery Division had also been assigned there, with its eight tracked or motorised battalions, comprising nine 21-cm howitzers, plus 30 15-cm, 48 10.5-cm, and 12 10-cm guns. This was a new formation, based on similar ones in the Red Army, and much was expected of it. But it proved disappointing and was disbanded after a few months. A total of 73 divisions seems impressive, but the figure is misleading. Between July 31, 1943 and July 31, 1944, Manstein lost 405,409 killed, wounded, and missing, yet in the same period his reinforcements in officers,
N. C.O. s, and other ranks amounted to only 221,893. His divisions, particularly the infantry ones, were thin on the ground. It was the same story with the Panzer divisions, which in spite of increased production of tanks, were 50 to 60 per cent below complement. And the front to be defended, in the Fiihrer’s words "with no thought of retreat”, measured a good 650 miles.
World History
