Word: dnieper
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Toward Rumania. In the massive Battle of the Dnieper Bend, churning between Kiev and the Crimea since October, the Red Army won two key towns, gave Marshal Joseph Stalin cause to issue special orders of the day, Moscow cause to jubilate with fireworks and cannon...
...Gangrene. To a skilled tactician like Manstein, today's defeat was less grave than its impact on tomorrow. Already, his fleeing men had far outpaced the German armies in the north, exposing their flank. With each day, too, the position of his 20-odd divisions caught in the Dnieper bend became more desperate. A lone railroad of supply and escape was in grave danger...
...failed to hold out behind the broad, free-flowing Dnieper. What chance did he have of making a stand behind the frozen Bug? The Dniester, alone, now some 100 miles behind the front, offered a potential line of defense. But the Dniester's right bank is in Bessarabia, and the echo of Russian gunfire there would echo throughout the Balkans...
...Manstein, retirement behind the Dnieper was inevitable. But he had to hold on until the Dnieper Line was ready, until his men had pulled out of the dangerous southern pocket. To achieve this he used hedgehogs-well-placed, well-fortified strongholds. The hedgehog at Stalino held until Manstein's units withdrew from the Don. The Poltava hedgehog held until the Germans reached the Dnieper...
...retreat was costly; all retreats are. But none of Manstein's units was trapped; the army was battered, but it was still an army. Now Manstein wanted to fatten and rest it behind the Dnieper, build defenses, perhaps prepare a new counteroffensive...