Donbass Strategic Offensive | |||||||
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Part of Eastern Front | |||||||
Map of the Donbass Offensive (in German) |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Soviet Union | Germany | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Fyodor Tolbukhin Rodion Malinovsky |
Erich von Manstein Karl-Adolf Hollidt Eberhard von Mackensen |
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Units involved | |||||||
Southern Front Southwestern Front |
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Strength | |||||||
1,053,000 men 1,257 tanks and assault guns 21,000 guns and mortars 1,400 combat aircraft |
Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
273,522 men
814 guns and mortars 327 aircraft |
28,940 men (11 August – 20 September)
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273,522 men
28,940 men (11 August – 20 September)
The Donbass Strategic Offensive was a strategic operation of the Red Army on the Eastern Front of World War II with the goal of the liberation the Donbass. As a result of the Soviet victory, the contribution of the important economic region no longer benefited Nazi Germany, and by 1944 the Soviet Union had restarted its industrial operations in the region. As a byproduct of the Soviet offensive, the German forces was also forced to retreat from the Kuban.