Battle against 40th Army in 15-17 Jan 1944

[Kelvin]

Hi, prior to Operation Watutin at the end of January 1944, Soviet 40th Army was encircled by German 7.AK and XXXXVI.Panzerkorps ( 1.SS Pz Division LAH, 4.Gebirgs Division, 101.Jager division and 254.Infanterie division and Pz.Rgt Bake)

I would like to ask three questions : 40th Army 's casualties during 14-17 Jan 1944 ?

And which German units in 7.Armeekorps ? thank

And apart from tank repair facility, what else in Uman which German strongly protected it ? thank

[Art]

I believe, you mix up several different events. In mid-January German XXXXVI Corps and Soviet 40 Army held different sectors. Neither Leibstandarte SS was a part of this corps at this moment, and so-called regiment simply "Bäke" did not exist. In a nutshell in mid January 1944 the counterstrike of the German III and VII Corps closed the gap in the front between Zhaskov and Zvenigorodka and pushed back the Soviet 40 Army. In no way the entire army was encircled.

[Kelvin]

I believe, you mix up several different events. In mid-January German XXXXVI Corps and Soviet 40 Army held different sectors. Neither Leibstandarte SS was a part of this corps at this moment, and so-called regiment simply "Bäke" did not exist. In a nutshell in mid January 1944 the counterstrike of the German III and VII Corps closed the gap in the front between Zhaskov and Zvenigorodka and pushed back the Soviet 40 Army. In no way the entire army was encircled.

Hi, Art, Manstein memoir mentions that battle above without details and he had casualty and combat data on Operation Watutin in late Jan 1945, so did book Leibstandarte III, but from Robert Citno book " The German last stand : German campaign of 1944-45, the author mentions German VII Armeekorps and XXXXVI. Panzerkorps pincers encircled 40th Army in mid Jan and destroyed the later within 3 days, that is I found from, thank

For Bake unit, maybe called panzergruppe Bake ? thank

[Art]

from Robert Citno book " The German last stand : German campaign of 1944-45, the author mentions German VII Armeekorps and XXXXVI. Panzerkorps pincers encircled 40th Army in mid Jan and destroyed the later within 3 days, that is I found from, thank

This account is messed up somewhat. First of, all there was a German III Panzer Corps between VII and XXXXVI Corps, and immediate contact between XXXXVI and III Corps wasn't achieved until last days of January 1944. And again in no way the entire 40 Army was "encircled and destroyed", although the battle was quite dramatic.

There is a Russian language account on these events online:
https://warspot.ru/18839-goryachiy-sneg-pod-tsibulevom

Also the entire book in English, which seems very detailed
https://www.amazon.com/Zhitomir-Berdich ... 1909384100

[Art]

According to the war diary of the 40 Army its casualties in 10 days (10-20 January 1944) were 959 men killed, 3239 wounded, 363 sick, 63 others (including missing obviously), for a total of 4774 men. Which was a fairly moderate number. In the next 10 days (20-31 January) the losses amounted to 10,648 men which included both defense against the German strike and own offensive to close the Korsun pocket.

[Kelvin]

According to the war diary of the 40 Army its casualties in 10 days (10-20 January 1944) were 959 men killed, 3239 wounded, 363 sick, 63 others (including missing obviously), for a total of 4774 men. Which was a fairly moderate number. In the next 10 days (20-31 January) the losses amounted to 10,648 men which included both defense against the German strike and own offensive to close the Korsun pocket.

Hi, Art, thank for your help. Very much appreciated.