Kirovograd offensive
German troops and Panzer IV in Ukraine, January 1944
Date 5-16 January 1944 (Soviet offensive phase) Location Kirovograd region Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Soviet Union	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Ivan Konev	Otto Wöhler
Units involved
2nd Ukrainian Front	8th Army:[1] -XI Army Corps -XXXXVII Panzer Corps -LII Army Corps - GHQ units directly subordinated to the army
Strength
1 January 1944:[2] - 550,000 personnel in total - 265 tanks - 127 self-propelled guns - 7,136 guns and mortars - 777 anti-aircraft guns - 500 combat aircraft	Personnel strength on 31 December 1943:[3] - 260,000 personnel in total AFV status on 1 January 1944[4] Operational: - 110 tanks - 62 assault guns - 71 self-propelled AT guns and artillery pieces In short-term repair: - 132 tanks - 15 assault guns - 35 self-propelled AT guns and artillery pieces
Casualties and losses
Exact unknown	Exact unknown

TheKirovograd offensive operation (Russian:Кировоградская наступательная операция,Ukrainian:Кіровогра́дська наступа́льна опера́ція),^[5] known on the German side asThe defensive battle in the Kirovograd area (Die Abwehrschlacht im Raum von Kirowograd),^[6] was an offensive by theRed Army's2nd Ukrainian Front against the German8th Army ofArmy Group South in the area ofKirovograd in central Ukraine between 5 and 16 January 1944. It took place on theEastern Front of World War II and was part of the widerDnieper–Carpathian offensive, a Soviet attack againstArmy Group South that aimed to retake the rest of Ukraine west of the Dnieper river, which had been occupied by Germany in 1941.

Aftercrossing theDnieper in September 1943,Army GeneralIvan Konev's2nd Ukrainian Front pushed back German troops in fierce fighting, advancing between 30 and 100 kilometers on the right bank of the river while capturingCherkassy,Znamianka, andAleksandriya by mid-December.^[7]

On 20 December, Konev reported toStavka that, as a result of the preceding fighting, Soviet troops had cleared the right bank of the Dnieper in his front's sector. He requested approval for his decision to temporarily switch the front's center and left flank to the defensive in order to receive reinforcements and replenish equipment pending an attack towardsKrivoi Rog between 5 and 10 January 1944. Stavka approved his plan, setting the date of the offensive between 5 and 7 January. The front was reinforced by the4th Ukrainian Front's5th Guards Cavalry Corps, which arrived around the end of December,^[8] as well as 300 tanks and 100 self-propelled guns.^[7]

In accordance with Stavka instructions, Konev and his staff developed a plan for the offensive. The front command proposed an attack towardsKazanka andBereznegovatoye in the rear of the German troops aroundNikopol. The 2nd Ukrainian Front was then to defeat the German troops around Nikopol in conjunction with the3rd and4th Ukrainian Fronts. Due to the advances of the1st Ukrainian Front in theZhitomir–Berdichev offensive, Stavka decided to change the plan. On 29 December, it issued a new directive,^[7] which ordered the front to resume the offensive by attacking towardsKirovograd with at least four armies (one of which was to be a tank army) no later than 5 January. The attack was to destroy the German troops around Kirovograd and capture the city from the north and south. The front was to then captureNovoukrainka andPomoshnaya, advancing toPervomaisk on theSouthern Bug, where it was to capture a bridgehead. Simultaneously, the front was to mount a secondary attack with two armies towardsShpola andKhristinovka.^[9]

The attack towards Kirovograd and Pervomaisk was intended to split the German troops inRight-bank Ukraine in half, thereby assisting the 1st and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts. The secondary attack was meant to help the 1st Ukrainian Front encircle and defeat German troops in the area ofKanev andZvenigorodka. In accordance with the directive, Konev modified the plan for the offensive.Lieutenant GeneralKonstantin Koroteyev's52nd Army was to attack towardsBalakleya, Shpola, and then Khristinovka, turning its troops towardsKorsun-Shevchenkovsky. Lieutenant GeneralIvan Galanin's53rd Army, supported byMajor GeneralBoris Skvortsov's5th Guards Mechanized Corps, was to attack towardsMala Vyska.^[9]

For the main attack towards Kirovograd, the front utilized two shock groups. The northern shock group, including Lieutenant GeneralAleksey Semenovich Zhadov's5th Guards Army and Major GeneralFyodor Katkov's7th Mechanized Corps, was to attack the city from the northwest. The southern shock group, with Colonel GeneralMikhail Shumilov's7th Guards Army and Colonel GeneralPavel Rotmistrov's5th Guards Tank Army, was to attack from the southwest, tasked with encircling and destroying the German troops in the Kirovograd area, then develop the offensive towards Novoukrainka and Pomoshnaya.^[9]

By the beginning of January, the 2nd Ukrainian Front included the4th,5th, and7th Guards Armies, the37th, 52nd, 53rd, and57th Armies, the5th Guards Tank Army, the 5th Guards Cavalry Corps,20th Tank Corps, and1st,7th, and8th Mechanized Corps. Air support was provided by the5th Air Army. The front fielded a total of 59 rifle divisions, threecavalry divisions, and threetank and fourmechanized corps. Before the operation, the 7th Mechanized Corps was transferred to the 5th Guards Army, and the 8th Mechanized Corps to the 5th Guards Tank Army. By 1 January, the front numbered 550,000 men, 265 tanks, 127 self-propelled guns, 7,136 guns and mortars, 777 anti-aircraft guns, and 500 combat aircraft.^[7]

In 1950, inside theFortress of St. Elizabeth, the memorial complex “Pantheon of Eternal Glory” was created, where about 50 000 victims of the occupiers and several thousand soldiers who died for the liberation of the city were buried. Of these about 30 were awarded the title ofHero of the Soviet Union, and only one, Hryhoriy Kuropyatnykov, was a native of the city.^[10][11]

• 
  One of the cannons at the entrance to the fortress
• 
  The grave of Kuropyatnykov
• 
  Monument to victims of Nazism
• 
  Partisan graves
• 
  Graves of victims of occupation
• 
  Monument "Grieving Motherland"
• 
  Memory wall

• Erickson, John (1999) [1983].Stalin's War with Germany: The road to Berlin. New Haven: Yale University Press.ISBN 9780300078138.
• Frieser, Karl-Heinz, ed. (2017) [2007].Germany and the Second World War. Vol. VIII: The Eastern Front, 1943–1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN 9780198723462.
• Glantz, David (1989).Soviet Military Deception in the Second World War. London: Frank Cass.ISBN 0-7146-3347-X.
• Moschansky, Ilya (2011).Освобождение Правобережной Украины [The Liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine] (in Russian). Moscow: Veche.ISBN 978-5-9533-5236-9.
• Ziemke, Earl F. (2002) [1966].Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History.OCLC 1013364845. Archived fromthe original on January 11, 2012.

• Conflicts in 1944
• History of Kirovohrad Oblast
• Military operations of World War II involving Germany
• Battles and operations of the Soviet–German War
• Military history of Ukraine
• 1944 in Ukraine
• January 1944 in Europe

• Articles containing Russian-language text
• Articles containing Ukrainian-language text
• CS1: long volume value
• CS1 Russian-language sources (ru)