Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive

Part of The Eastern Front of World War II

Soviet advances in 1943 and 1944.

Date	December 24, 1943 – April 14, 1944
Location	South-western Ukrainian SSR
Result	Soviet victory

Belligerents

Nazi Germany

Kingdom of Romania

Soviet Union

Commanders and leaders

Maximilian de Angelis

Konstantin Rokossovsky

Lev Vladimirsky

Strength

Germany:
700,000 men; 500 tanks and assault guns; 600 aircraft

Romania:
c. 600,000

2,406,100 men; including tanks, guns, mortars and SP guns

Casualties and losses

Germany:
96,000 dead or missing
157,888 wounded and sick
Total: 250,956 casualties

Romania:
Unknown but high

270,198 killed or missing
839,330 wounded and sick
Total: 1,192,000 casualties

7,532 guns and mortars
4,666 tanks and SP guns destroyed or damaged
676 aircraft

270,198 killed or missing
839,330 wounded and sick
Total: 1,192,000 casualties

The Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive, also known in Soviet historical sources as the liberation of right-bank Ukraine, fought from 24 December 1943 – 14 April 1944, was a strategic offensive executed by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Ukrainian Fronts, along with the 1st Belorussian Front, against the German Army Group South, intended to retake all of the Ukrainian and Moldovian territories occupied by Axis forces. The operation brought the Red Army forces into Poland and Romania, completely destroyed 18 Wehrmacht and Romanian divisions, and reduced another 68 to below half of their establishment strength.

As part of the Lower Dnieper Offensive in autumn 1943, which secured the Left-bank, or eastern Ukraine and cut off the German 17th Army in the Crimea, several Soviet bridgeheads were established across the Dnieper River, which were then expanded throughout November and December to become the platforms from which the Dnieper—Carpathian Offensive was launched. This offensive and its follow-ups, which continued into December, left several large German salients along the Dnieper, including one south of Kiev centered on the city of Korsun, between the areas of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts, and another to the south, around Kryvyi Rih and Nikopol. Adolf Hitler's "No retreat" policy forced German troops to hold the tenuous positions, despite opposition from Erich von Manstein, commander of Army Group South.

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