Soviet Operations Kutuzov and Polkovodets Rumyantsev July – August 1943 and Soviet Lower Dnieper Offensive August – December 1943

Waffen-SS Commander Paul Hausser

Operations Kutuzov and Rumyantsev July – August 1943

Operation Zitadelle was abandoned on July 13 1943 and the German forces fell back on the defensive. The Battle of Kursk had depleted the offensive power of the Panzerwaffe to the point that anything short of a massive destruction of Soviet military forces akin to the Barbarossa encirclement battles could rectify the situation. Moreover, the Red Army was still numerically superior to the Wehrmacht and had gained valued experience, improved weapons quality, and increased the quantity of their weaponry in all areas. Thus, a German victory of a magnitude necessary to regain the strategic initiative was all but impossible. Furthermore, the deteriorating situation in Italy now claimed Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's attention, and he ordered SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Paul Hausser's II.SS-Panzerkorps out of the front line to hold itself in readiness for a transfer. In the end, however, only SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Leibstandarte was sent to help stabilize the situation caused by the deposal of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini by the Badoglio Government and the Allied Landings in Sicily on July 10 1943, leaving Das Reich and Totenkopf to face the renewed Soviet onslaught. The next three months the German forces reeled back in disorder on all fronts despite desperate delaying actions by Das Reich and Totenkopf and other crack units like SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking and Panzergrenadier-Division Großdeutschland. Kharkov and Kiev both fell; but in November a fresh counteroffensive, spearheaded by the Waffen-SS divisions (including the Leibstandarte SS, hastily recalled from Italy), succeeded in checking the Soviet advance. A seesaw situation developed with both sides attempting to encircle isolated groups of their opponents, sometimes successfully, at other times vainly. Credit: Osprey Publishing and Col. and Prof. at the U.S. Army War College Jonathan Klug. Left image: Paul Papa Hausser was an officer in the German Army, achieving the high rank of Lieutenant-General in the inter-war Reichswehr. After retirement from the regular Army he became the father (thus the nickname Papa) of the Waffen-SS and one of its most eminent leaders. Paul Hausser died aged 92 on Dec. 21 1972 in Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg. Both images in the PD.