Kirovograd offensive | |||||||
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German troops and Panzer IV in the Ukraine, January 1944 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Soviet Union | Germany | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Ivan Konev | Otto Wöhler | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
2nd Ukrainian Front | 8th Army | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1 January 1944:[1] - 550,000 personnel in total - 265 tanks - 127 self-propelled guns - 7,136 guns and mortars - 777 anti-aircraft guns - 500 combat aircraft |
31 December 1943:[2] - 260,000 personnel in total | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Exact unknown | Exact unknown |
The Kirovograd offensive operation (Russian: Кировоградская наступательная операция, Ukrainian: Кіровогра́дська наступа́льна опера́ція),[3] known on the German side as The defensive battle in the Kirovograd area (Die Abwehrschlacht im Raum von Kirowograd),[4] was an offensive by the Red Army's 2nd Ukrainian Front against the German 8th Army of Army Group South in the area of Kirovograd in central Ukraine between 5 and 16 January 1944. It took place on the Eastern Front of World War II and was part of the wider Dnieper–Carpathian offensive, a Soviet attack against Army Group South that aimed to retake the rest of Ukraine west of the Dnieper river, which fell to Germany in 1941.