Just months after defiantly deceiving his ally Stalin and sending troops into Russian
territory, Hitler commanded his Wehrmacht to lay siege and capture the Ukrainian capital
of Kiev.
The outnumbered German forces advanced aggressively, spearheaded by their Panzer groups, while
the Soviets collapsed helplessly before their merciless strides.
As the Soviet and German forces clashed on the banks of the Dnieper River, the Red Army
desperately scrambled to contain the German onslaught and prevent them from crossing the
rivers at all costs.
The body of water and thinly spread Soviet force was the only thing standing between
Hitler and the fall of Kiev.
The Soviet defense could only hold for so long before the German tanks pierced the line
in a brutal pincer maneuver.
Suddenly, faced with annihilation, Southwestern Front Commander Semión Timoshenko pleaded
with Stalin for permission to withdraw.
Even so, the response was always the same: Kiev had to be defended at all costs and to
the last man.
One day after the city was enveloped and four entire Soviet armies lay trapped, Timoshenko
received a telegram, a message finally giving him and his men permission to leave the city.
But with nowhere to run or hide, over half a million Soviet fighters chose to make the
Germans pay for every inch of Kiev they wished to claim…
Riverside Stand
The golden-domed city of Kiev was a strategic asset for both sides of the war.
For the Soviet Union, it represented its ancestral cultural home and the centerpiece of the Ukrainian
territory.
For Germany, Kiev was a crucial midpoint that stood in the way of both Moscow and gold deposits
in the Donbas and vital ports in the Black Sea.
As such, seizing the city was of the utmost importance to Hitler, despite many of his
generals advising against rushing to its capture.
Hitler delegated the assault on Kiev to Army Group South and ordered Army Group Center
to reinforce them at the cost of leaving the central front weakened.
Nevertheless, by August of 1941, a force of 25 infantry divisions and nine armored divisions
were assembled with the sole purpose of pummeling Kiev’s defenses into submission.
The march of the immense German force was decisive and irresistible.
Despite Stalin’s loathing of retreating maneuvers, the Soviets were forced to fall
back across the Dnieper River from where they could orchestrate some sort of defensive effort.
With most bridges demolished long before the approach of the Germans, the river signified
an essential obstacle to Germany’s plan.
It gave the Soviet Army precious time to reinforce its defenses and repel more minor attacks.
For days, the defense of the riverbank held firm, with every German blow quickly repelled
by the forces across the Dnieper.
Consequently, the Germans scoured for a way to deceive the defensive barriers, and on
August 22, a Panzer group traveled north until it found a weak spot in the enemy’s defenses.
Following a brutal assault, they crossed the river north of Kiev.
Disaster was looming ever closer, the Germans had crossed the river, and now it would be
just a matter of time before they encircled the city.
Semión Timoshenko, the commander of the Soviet forces in the city, asked the Soviet high
command permission to withdraw from Kiev and avoid a massacre.
The answer came directly from Stalin; Kiev had to hold at any cost…
Skirmish In The Marsh
Disheartened by Stalin’s decision but determined to see it through, Timoshenko prepared his
forces to offer the Germans as much resistance as possible.
Meanwhile, the Panzer group that had crossed the river had to go through a difficult marshland
on the city’s north that would give the Red Army a slim but plausible opportunity
to halt the German’s advance toward Kiev.
Timoshenko then organized small elite units of Soviet commandos tasked with guerrilla
warfare in the swampy region to the north.
The groups infiltrated the swaps and systematically terrorized the advancing Germans for several
days.
With lethal ambushes, planted explosives, and small-scale battles, the Soviet guerrilla
groups managed to considerably slow down the German tanks.
But that only bought Kiev limited time, and at the end of the day, nothing could stop
the Panzer group from reaching the city’s northern boundary.
With the German force now pummeling the western and northern fringes of Kiev, the situation
became dire for the Soviets.
As such, Timoshenko kept asking the Soviet high command for permission to retreat, but
the answer was always the same.
As the Red Army regrouped to repeal the attack coming from the north, its coverage of the
southern regions faltered, and on September 12, 1941, they awoke to terrible news: a Panzer
group had secretly crossed the river in the south, and it was now moving northeast to
complete the encirclement of Kiev.
A hopeless feeling overwhelmed the Soviet fighters; the fall of Kiev was now inevitable,
the claws of the German pincer were slowly closing, and if they were not allowed to flee,
they would soon be entrapped in a besieged city.
But even as the battlefield was covered in gloom and despair, the stalwart will of the
Soviet soldiers produced a slim glimmer of hope.
Against All Odds
A ragtag group of Soviet fighters overcame the lack of resources, leadership, and specialized
weapons to deliver a heroic defense of the town of Lubny.
As the initial Panzer attack was unleashed in the town, the Germans were met with much
more resistance than they bargained for.
The Soviets prepared lethal ambushes as they operated from building to building in brutal
guerrilla warfare.
Using Molotov bombs and carefully placed snipers, the defenders repelled the initial attack,
forcing the Germans back and buying the Soviets in Kiev more time.
Meanwhile, the Panzer group in the north remained idle, awaiting the arrival of the other armored
force that would finally close the encirclement of the city.
But as the small force at Lubny singlehandedly prevented Kiev's eventual fall, Stalin was
furious.
The dictator blamed the whole debacle on Semyon Budyonny, the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet
armed forces of the Southwestern Direction, and he used him as a scapegoat to justify
the Soviet failures in Ukraine.
In a surprising move, Budyonny was replaced by Timoshenko as the commander of operations
in Ukraine, even though the man wanted to withdraw before the fall of Kiev.
On September 16, Lubny finally fell after days of exemplary resistance efforts.
The Panzer group from the south finally met with the other armored force in the town of
Lokhvitsa, completing the devastating circle around Kiev, now a wholly besieged city.
The four Soviet armies inside the metropolis didn’t have any way to escape and would
have to face the fury of the Wehrmacht…
The Fall of Kiev
The day after the siege began, the men trapped in Kiev finally received a telegram with permission
to withdraw.
But despite the cruel treatment they received from the Soviet high command the last few
weeks, the entrapped armies decided to dig in and make the Germans pay for every inch
of territory they wished to claim.
The onslaught began a few days later; on September 18, the Luftwaffe started a fierce air campaign
over Kiev to weaken the defenders before the ground troops executed a large-scale invasion
of the city.
Tensions peaked in preparation for what was coming; in the east, where the German presence
was the thinnest, the Soviets made several desperate attempts to break the siege from
within.
However, the German wall wouldn’t budge, and the Soviet men remained captured inside
the city.
For the following days, the Soviet garrison carried out a valiant defense of the city
and fought tenaciously against the numerous hordes assaulting the city from every direction,
battling to the bitter end even after days of no food or sleep.
Soon, the lack of supplies and the disconnection from the outside began to erode the initially
stoic Soviet forces.
Confusion and a lack of leadership tarnished their defensive efforts, and the battle devolved
into a massacre.
The Germans continued to press their advantage consistently and in well-organized strikes
that resulted in the eventual capture of Kiev on September 19.
A Parting Gift
Despite the decisive German victory, the fighting didn’t stop entirely, with four Soviet pockets
within the city keeping up the confrontation for several days.
Each resistance group was one of the original four Soviet armies trapped in the town.
In contrast to other cities seized by the Wehrmacht during its invasion of the Soviet
Union, Kiev was mostly intact when they took control of it.
The defenders had not been able to retreat before the capture, which prohibited them
from executing their scorched earth policy.
The Germans relished taking hold of the city’s most prominent and iconic hotels and government
buildings, where they swiftly set up their own command centers and military posts.
But they were in for one last surprise from the Soviet defenders.
A few days after the German troops claimed Kiev, a series of spectacular detonations
rang throughout the city.
Many of the important sites the invaders had decided to use as their new bases of operations
suddenly exploded, leading to uncontrolled fires and utter chaos.
The Soviets had managed to rig the buildings with hidden explosives before the Germans
made the final breakthrough into the city, and the saboteurs waited for the Germans to
settle into their new posts before springing the scorching trap they had prepared.
Over 200 Germans perished during the detonations.
Even so, the city’s capture could not be undone.
After resisting valiantly for ten days, the depleted and exhausted Soviet pockets inside
the city finally surrendered on September 26.
The soldiers were taken as prisoners of war, and the bulk of the population was enslaved
and sent to labor camps.
The torture and enslavement of the Ukrainian people would be a devastatingly dark chapter
in their history and would fuel resentment against their aggressor for decades to come…
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