Church of the Archangel Michael,

Smolensk Region, Shumyachsky municipal district, Dubovitsa village,

Battle of Smolensk in 1943: Operation Suvorov

The Battle of Smolensk in August to September 1943 was the second time the Soviet Union and the Third Reich fought over the city on the Dnieper during the Second World War (1939-45). By the summer of 1943, the plan by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) to permanently occupy the USSR was in tatters. The Soviet Red Army was relentlessly pushing back and recapturing lost cities. Smolensk was to be next in a prolonged three-phase battle that ended any hopes Hitler might have had of winning the German-Soviet War.

The German-Soviet War

Hitler's decision to invade the USSR in the summer of 1941 with Operation Barbarossa had got off to a good start with massive territorial gains thanks to victories like the Battle of Białystok-Minsk and the Battle of Kiev in 1941. The following year, though, the Soviet Red Army began to fight back, winning the Battle of Moscow in 1941-2, holding out in the siege of Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), and resisting Hitler's Sixth Army at the Battle of Stalingrad, eventually winning that particular encounter in February 1943. Another large Soviet victory came at the Battle of Kursk in July and August 1943. The Axis armies simply had neither the men nor the material to face an enemy that was growing ever more powerful in size and ever more confident in ultimate victory in the German-Soviet War.

The Axis armies were now fighting a retreat, steadily losing the gains they had made earlier in the war. Smolensk was a case in point. The city, located on the Dnieper (Dnepr/Dnipro) river and the traditional gateway to Moscow, had been captured by Axis forces following the Battle of Smolensk in 1941. Now it was time to get the city back. Joseph Stalin (1878-1953), who had always had the final say on how the war was conducted, began to take an even more direct role. Stalin now prohibited encircling manoeuvres and told his commanders to instead focus on a wide front, utilising multiple direct attacks and employing a massive numerical superiority over the enemy. Stalin's new policy resulted in eight Soviet fronts with 19 parallel thrusts along a frontline over 1,000 km (660 mi) long. One of these thrusts involved the task of liberating Smolensk. This latter offensive was code-named Operation Suvorov, after the great Russian field marshal Alexander Suvorov (1729-1800). The problem for the Soviets was that they greatly underestimated how well dug-in the invaders were at this crucial crossing of the Dnieper.

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