page_title: Battle of Uman
section_title: The first stage
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Uman / The battles of encirclement / The first stage
context_page_description: The Battle of Uman was the German offensive operation against the 6th and 12th Soviet Armies – under the command of Lieutenant General I. N. Muzychenko and Major General P. G. Ponedelin, respectively. The battle occurred during the Kiev defensive operation between the elements of the Red Army's Southwestern Front, retreating from the Lwow salient, and German Army Group South commanded by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, as part of Operation Barbarossa on the Eastern Front during World War II. The Soviet forces were under overall command of the Southwestern Direction, commanded by Marshal Semyon Budyonny, which included the Southwestern Front commanded by Colonel General Mikhail Kirponos and Southern Front commanded by General Ivan Tyulenev. The battle finished by the encirclement and annihilation of the 6th and 12th armies southeast of Uman.
context_section_description: Since 15 July, the XLVIII Motorized Corps of Wehrmacht repulsed the counter-attacks of the Soviet "Berdichev Group" and resumed the offensive. The 16th Panzer Division broke the resistance of the Soviet troops and seized the city of Kazatin (c. 25 km from Berdichev). On the left, the 11th Panzer division was in the gap between Soviet armies, so by 16 July it made a deep (70 km) breakthrough to the South-East. By 18 July, the division advanced another 50 km, crossed the Ros' River and captured the settlement of Stavishche. The 16th Panzer Division, which was forced to repel counterattacks of the Soviet 6th Army (37th Rifle Corps and "Berdichev Group" ), advanced slower, but by 17 July its forward detachment seized the Ros' station (c. 65 km from Berdichev), where was an important Soviet base of rear services support. 18 July, units of the 6th army managed to recapture the station.
  Further to the North, the XIV Motorized Corps advanced to Belaya Tserkov, but met counterattacks by the 26th Army. This army had no time to prepare the offensive, and its divisions didn't have time to concentrate. They couldn't beat out the 9th Panzer Division from Belaya Tserkov. Nevertheless, they for a short time captured Fastov . The advance of the 26th Army soon stopped, but its attacks contained the mobile units of the 1st Panzer Group. A similar situation was with the Panzer divisions of the III Motorized Corps. Halder, the chief of OKH, irritably wrote on 18 July that "the operation of the Army Group «South» is increasingly losing its shape", and that "enveloping flank of the 1st Panzer Group is still hang about in the area of Berdichev and Belaya Tserkov". At the same time the 17th Field Army from the West was approaching too quickly and Halder feared that the future "cauldron" will not trap significant enemy forces.
  Meanwhile, the 17th Field Army tried to implement a shortcut version of the original plan, according to which the Soviet troops were to be surrounded to the west of Vinnytsia. But now Germans had no mobile units to hit Vinnytsia from the North (they operated еast of Berdichev), and the offensive of 11th Field Army from the south was postponed. Therefore, from the north to Vinnitsa 24 ID was marching. From the south-west on 17 July the 1st Mountain Division came and took under fire bridges across the Southern Bug river. In case of German success, 50,000 troops from the Soviet 12th army would have been surrounded there. However, the Soviet troops regrouped, and from the Southern Front a fresh mountain rifle division was transferred, so they managed to contain the advance of the German infantry, and by 21 July to retreat through Vinnytsia across the Southern Bug river.
  By 18 July, the Soviet command realized that they did not have enough forces to seal the breakthrough of the 1st Panzer Group and restore the defense along the "Stalin Line". Budyonny noted that on the right flank of the Soviet 6th army was a gap of 90 km, which is gradually filled with German troops. As a result, it was decided to withdraw the 6th and 12th army on the line of Belaya Tserkov – Tetiev – Kitay-Gorod – Haisyn (80–100 km East of the line Berdichev – Vinnitsa). The 18th army of the Southern Front, adjacent to the left flank of the 12th army, also received an order to withdraw. The departure was to take place at night and be completed by 21 July. The problem was that the German tanks of the XXXXVIII and XIV Motorized corps had already broken through this line. However, the Soviet command planned to fix this problem by the offensive of three infantry corps, which was to strike South-West from Kiev. In addition, on 18 July the 2nd Mechanized Corps received an order to transfer from Southern Front to Uman, to meet the XXXXVIII Motorized Corps of the Germans. In turn, High Command of the Wehrmacht on 19 July decided to change the Barbarossa plan. Units of the Army Group "Center", instead of attacking Moscow, had to hit the South and North to surround the Soviet troops and prevent their withdrawal. The close task of the Army Group "South" was the encirclem
caption: KV-1 tank (1939); there were only 10 such devices in the 2nd Mechanized Corps out of almost 400 tanks, when it got an order to regroup to Uman.
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