Word: dnieper
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...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...
Tough Job. If Bagramian takes Vitebsk, he will rank with other Red greats: Konstantin Rokossovsky, now inching toward Vitebsk from the under side; Nikolai Vatutin, fighting in the Kiev bulge, 350 miles to the south; Stalin's pal, Ivan Konev, long stalemated in the Dnieper bend...
Many of the tanks at Vitebsk may have been shifted from the Kiev bulge, as earlier they had been rushed south to halt a Red push into the Dnieper bend. Now the Red command played its old, shrewd game of "dispersing punching." With the German strength in the Kiev bulge sapped to help other sectors, the Russians struck inside the bulge with all their strength...