Soviet Zhitomir–Berdichev Offensive

Commander of Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front Russian Colonel general Ivan Konev

Tiger n°S33 of SS-Kampfgruppe Lammerding covered with German Paras

Waffen-SS troops on Eastern Front in late 1943

There was no rest on the Eastern front and the bulk of 2.SS-Panzer-Division Das Reich's surviving men were transferred to France on December 17 1943. The division was withdrawn to refit as a fully fledged Panzer Division after constant fighting since Operation Citadel in July. Steady attrition had reduced Das Reich to just six Panzer IVs, four Panthers, and five Tigers left for SS-Kampfgruppe Lammerding of SS-Kampfgruppe Das Reich that remained in action on the south-eastern Front as part of 4.Panzerarmee’s LIX Korps. The Soviets launched the Zhytomyr–Berdychiv Offensive on Christmas eve in 1943, as part of the massive operation known as the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive, that shattered the Ukrainian Front and threatened to cut off German forces. Generaloberst Hans-Valentin Hube successfully extricated his 200,000 soldiers and inflicted heavy losses on the Red Army, but at a high cost in armor. Except for two Tigers evacuated for factory maintenance, all Das Reich's vehicles were destroyed by April 1944, when SS-Oberführer Heinz Lammerding handed SS-Kampfgruppe Das Reich over to SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Weidinger. After heavy losses, the survivors were now removed from the Eastern Front and rested at Köln-Wahn by May 1944. For his conduct during these battles Heinz Lammerding was awarded the prestigious Knight's Cross and promoted to SS-Brigadeführer in April 1944. He later gained notoriety for his involvement in the Tulle massacre. Top image: Russian commander Colonel general Ivan Konev's armies retook Belgorod, Kharkov and Kiev, which led to the bloody battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket. Konev openly boasted of his killing of thousands of German prisoners of war during the Red Army's offensive. He was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union in February 1944. Credit: Konstantin Fiev. Soviet Union stock photo. Middle image: German elite paras of the 2.Fallschirmjäger-Division riding on Tiger n°S33 of SS-Kampfgruppe Lammerding in the north-Ukrainian Zhytomyr Oblast in December 1943. Credit: Doug Banks. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: Waffen-SS soldiers during the fierce battles fought on the eastern front in Ukraine. The picture is thought to have been taken on December 17 1943. Credit: Julius Backman. FU.