Battleground Kiev-Zhytomyr and Casualties in the Second Battle of Kiev

SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 4 Der Führer of Das Reich

Leibstandarte SS Kradschützen in the Zhytomyr area

Leibstandarte SS Tigers in the Zhytomyr area

Leibstandarte SS Panzergrenadiers during the Rasputitsa

The Soviets launched a massive offensive to seize Kiev in Ukraine on early November 1943. Soviet tank tactics continued to be unimaginative, allowing small groups of 1.SS-Panzer-Division Leibstandarte SS and SS-Kampfgruppe Das Reich of the 2.SS-Panzer-Division Das Reich panzers to defeat numerically superior forces. The Soviets captured Kiev on November 6 1943. The second phase of the Soviet offensive now began. Zhytomyr was taken by the Soviet 38th Army on November 12 1943 but the Soviet advance came to a halt as the I Guards Cavalry Corps troopers looted the German 4th Army's alcohol stocks. When the Soviet Red Army finally at a high cost in casualties broke through southwest of Kiev during December 1943 it pushed the 4.Panzer-Armee back over 160 km, leaving the 8th Army's right flank dangerously exposed, it was the only German formation with a foothold on the southern banks of River Dnieper. Though the Soviets had failed to break the rail link with Army Group Center or envelop Army Group South, they had broken the Dnieper line, and inflicted massive casualties on the 4.Panzer-Armee. The Germans, for their part, had destroyed several sizable Soviet formations and kept the vital rail link open. According to historian Karl-Heinz Frieser Soviet casualties in the Second Battle of Kiev are estimated at around 118,042 men, including 28,141 killed and missing, the German casualties were 16,992 men, including 2,628 killed and 1,281 missing. Top image: with Tiger S22 in the background Austrian volunteer the then SS-Oberscharführer Adolf Peichl congratulates SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Soretz on the destruction of the Das Reich divisions 2000th enemy tank. The photo was taken near the Dnieper River in early November 1943. The tank's Chinese good luck character Fu written upside down can clearly be seen in this photograph. SS-Untersturmführer Adolf Peichl was one of the 98 out of the millions who fought for the German Reich in World War II who received both the Knight's Cross and the Close-Combat Clasp in Gold. He wears, among others, the German Cross in Gold and no less than five Single-Handed Tank Destruction Badges on his right arm. Peichl destroyed another five tanks in close combat and finished the war with the Wound Badge in Gold. He died aged 51 on June 4 1969 in his home town of Vienna. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Willi Merz. Credit: Dominik Štrok. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Second image: motorcycle troops of the Leibstandarte SS during a short break in 1943. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Max Büschel. Credit: Karl Mensburg. U.S. National Archives. Third image: Tigers of 13.schwere Kompanie of SS-Panzer-Regiment 1 of the Leibstandarte SS in November 1943. Credit: Doug Banks. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: soldiers of the Leibstandarte SS struggle with the mud in the Zhytomyr Oblast during the Rasputitsa – the season without roads – in November 1943. Credit: Jean M. Gillet. Commons: Bundesarchiv.