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Illustration: “Stalingrad on the Dnieper”
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· Day 971 of 1418

“Stalingrad on the Dnieper”

Korsun-Shevchenkovsky

In January–February 1944 tens of thousands of enemy soldiers were encircled near Korsun-Shevchenkovsky. The fighting went on through blizzards and mud. By 17 February the trapped force had been defeated.

The ring closed on 28 January at Zvenigorodka. The trapped troops tried to break out through blizzards and deep snow, and only some of them made it. The fighting was so hard that people compared it to Stalingrad.

The spring thaw was setting in: roads turned into rivers of mud, vehicles got stuck, and shells were carried by hand, sometimes by people from the nearby villages.

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Chapter 33 · February 1944

“Stalingrad on the Dnieper”

At Korsun-Shevchenkovsky tens of thousands of enemy soldiers were encircled. Nikopol and Krivoy Rog were freed. The Red Army advanced through the spring thaw, knee-deep in mud.