page_title: Battle of Kiev (1941)
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Kiev (1941) / Battle
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Generaloberst Guderian auf dem Gefechtsstand eines Panzerregiments. Ständig steht der General in der vordersten Front. Hier besucht er den Gefechtsstand eines Panzerregiments, um sich von dem planmässigen Verlauf des Vormarsches zu überzeugen. PK-Huschke-Scherl. 20.8.41 [herausgabedatum] "Fr" OKW
context_page_description: The First Battle of Kiev was the German name for the operation that resulted in a very large encirclement of Soviet troops in the vicinity of Kiev during World War II. This encirclement is considered the largest encirclement in the history of warfare. The operation ran from 7 August to 26 September 1941 as part of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. In Soviet military history, it is referred to as the Kiev Strategic Defensive Operation, with the somewhat different dates of 7 July – 26 September 1941.
  Much of the Southwestern Front of the Red Army was encircled but small groups of Red Army troops managed to escape the pocket, days after the German panzers met east of the city, including the headquarters of Marshal Semyon Budyonny, Marshal Semyon Timoshenko and Commissar Nikita Khrushchev. Kirponos was trapped behind German lines and was killed while trying to break out.
  The battle was an unprecedented defeat for the Red Army, exceeding even the Battle of Białystok–Minsk of June–July 1941. The encirclement trapped 452,700 soldiers, 2,642 guns and mortars and 64 tanks, of which scarcely 15,000 had escaped from the encirclement by 2 October.
context_section_description: The Panzer armies made rapid progress. On 12 September, Kleist's 1st Panzer Group, which had by now turned north and crossed the Dnieper river, emerged from its bridgeheads at Cherkassy and Kremenchuk. Continuing north, it cut across the rear of Budyonny's Southwestern Front. On 16 September, it made contact with Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group advancing south, at the town of Lokhvitsa, 120 miles east of Kiev. Budyonny was now trapped and soon relieved by Stalin's order of 13 September.
  After that, the fate of the encircled Soviet armies was sealed. With no mobile forces or supreme commander left, there was no possibility to effect a breakout. The infantry of the German 17th Army and 6th Army of Army Group South soon arrived, along with 2nd Army (also on loan from Army Group Center and marching behind Guderian's tanks).  They systematically began to reduce the pocket assisted by the two Panzer armies. The encircled Soviet armies at Kiev did not give up easily. A savage battle in which the Soviets were bombarded by artillery, tanks and aircraft had to be fought before the pocket had finally fallen, the city was decimated, with most of its buildings reduced to rubble
  By 19 September, Kiev had fallen, but the encirclement battle continued. After 10 days of heavy fighting, the last remnants of troops east of Kiev surrendered on 26 September. Encircled became several Soviet armies, 5th, 37th, 26th, and separate detachments of 38th and 21st armies. The Germans claimed 600,000 Red Army soldiers (up to 665,000) captured, although these claims have included a large number of civilians suspected of evading capture.
  During withdrawal from Kiev, on 20–22 September 1941 at Shumeikove Hai near Dryukivshchyna (today in Lokhvytsia Raion) perished several members of headquarter staff Mikhail Kirponos (commander), Mikhail Burmistenko (a member of military council), and Vasiliy Tupikov (chief of staff). Some 15,000 Soviet troops managed to break through the encirclement.
caption: Guderian at a forward command post for one of his panzer regiments, 1941
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