Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy: Casualties and losses

Luftwaffe Field Division troops

Fallen SS-Panzergrenadiers

The Soviets greatly outnumbered the German forces but failed to cut off their retreat when the Wiking spearheaded the last desperate breakout of Korsun-Cherkassy on February 16 1944. Soviet sources tally losses of 80,188 casualties for the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts, with 24,286 killed and missing, and 55,902 wounded. These losses were incurred over the period of 24 January – 17 February 1944 during both the encirclements and the breakout attempts. German accounts state that the 60.000 men originally inside the cauldron had shrunk in heavy fighting to less than 50,000 by February 16 1944, that 45,000 took part in the breakout and that 35,000 got through, with a total of 19,000 dead, captured or missing. Only a handful survived Russian captivity. Russian Colonel general Ivan Konev, commander of 2nd Ukrainian Front, openly boasted of his killing of thousands of German POWs, during and after the Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy: The cavalry finally finished them off. 'We let the Cossacks cut up as long as they wished. They even hacked off the hands of those who raised them to surrender' he recounted. Konev was one of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's favorite generals. He was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union in February 1944. Wehrmacht General Wilhelm Stemmermann died fighting among his rear guard. The later SS-Obergruppenführer Herbert Otto Gille of the Wiking and the later SS-Standartenführer Léon Degrelle of the Wallonien both survived World War II. As the survivors from the Pocket streamed into Lysianka they were met by the welcoming arms of their comrades from the 1.Panzer-Division and the Leibstandarte SS. However, there was no immediate rest as they were sent plodding on farther westwards in their sodden uniforms, which were rapidly freezing to their starved bodies. Left image: the crews of the Luftwaffe's overworked transport fleet landed their Junker Ju-52 planes onto improvised airfields to bring in supplies and ferry out the injured. In the 19 days of the battle they would fly in almost 868 tons of ammunition and 82,949 gallons of fuel, while flying out 4,161 wounded soldiers. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Right image: Russian USSR photo showing dead Waffen-SS soldiers, possibly staged photo shoot for Soviet propaganda purposes. Most of the best-known Soviet images from the war were used as propaganda, to glorify the victories of the Red Army. Often they were staged. PD.