«Мясорубка» на Днепре. Переправа века, где до берега доплывал лишь каждый третий

Hitler vowed at a party meeting: the Dnieper would sooner flow backwards than the Russians would cross it. A month later, the Red Army crossed the river on the move—thousands of soldiers waded into the icy water on rafts and fishing boats, knowing that at best, one in three would reach the shore. The airborne assault, intended to reverse the assault on Kyiv, failed in the first hours—the first wave was forced back onto its own positions. The Bukrin bridgehead, chosen according to all the canons of military science, turned into a deadly trap. And the decisive blow ultimately came from the wrong direction: an entire tank army was secretly transferred to the opposite bank a week before, leaving behind wooden and earthen tank models for the Germans. On November 6, just hours before the anniversary of the revolution, Kyiv was liberated. But this story will have a bitter ending—in February 1944, the front commander who took the city will die, not in battle with the Germans. This is the story of how lies, coupled with a desperate determination to cross the river without pausing for preparations, brought down the German Eastern Wall. #battleofthebackofthednieper #liberationofkiev #greatpatrioticwar #1943 #militaryhistory #vatutin #manstein #crossingthednieper #easternwall #dnieperlanding #bukrinbridgehead #lyutezhbridgehead #redarmy #easternfront #rybalko