World War: Peril in the South

While Russian counteroffensive and counterattack proceeded vigorously in the center (see below), in the Ukraine things began to look dim for Joseph Stalin this week.

Brilliant Nazi Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt had smashed across the Dnieper at two points. He drove southward from the Gomel sector and took Chernigov, 80 miles to the northeast of the Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, whence he was in excellent position to get in Kiev’s rear, and complete its encirclement (see map). Even more dangerous to Russian hopes was his capture of Kremenchug, 160 miles to Kiev’s southeast. From there he could launch a north eastward drive on 150-mile-distant Kharkov, the Ukraine’s big railroad junction and industrial center, threaten the Donets coal basin. Unconfirmed were reports that the Germans had also reached Perekop at the top of the Crimean Peninsula.

The terrain from Chernigov to Kiev is marshy; that from Kremenchug is muddy. How much would marsh and mud help the Russians, hinder the Nazis?