The Uman Pocket

In the third week of July, Kleist's panzer columns were again racing eastwards to close the jaws around the Uman Pocket. The spearheads of the 16th Panzer Division became overexposed and were hit by three Soviet tank divisions. Leibstandarte troops raced to the rescue and drove off the Russians. With this danger averted, the Leibstandarte turned south as the final stages of the encirclement operation unfolded. The Leibstandarte was moved into the line to hold the eastern edge of the pocket. Soviet tanks, infantry, cavalry and armed civilians hurled themselves at the Waffen-SS lines in waves, but most died in hails of machine-gun and mortar fire. Eventually 100,000 Russians were captured by the Germans when the pocket was finally cleared early in August.

On to the Dnieper

Army Group South now surged towards the lower reaches of the River Dnieper, arriving on 21 August. The Leibstandarte continued the pell-mell advance, occasionally bumping into resistance from bypassed Russian units that were dispersed by artillery and mortar fire. While many of Kleist's panzer divisions were ordered north to complete the encirclement of Kiev in cooperation with Guderian's forces striking south, the remainder of his troops advanced towards the Crimea.

Leibstandarte columns followed in the wake of this advance across the barren Nogai Steppe. As they closed on the Crimea, though, Russian resistance stiffened. Prepared defensive positions manned by well-trained Soviet marines slowed the advance around Nikolayaev, although the Soviet Ninth and Eighteenth Armies were trapped around the Odessa naval base. The Leibstandarte was now ordered into the Crimea, and a series of assaults had to be launched on these lines to try to blast a route south towards Perekop. Here, an 8km- (5-mile-) wide strip of land was totally devoid of cover. When Leibstandarte infantry tried to storm the Soviet lines on 18 September, they met a wall of lead from dug-in troops and an armoured train. After initially faltering, the SS men punched a hole through the Russian defences and captured several sectors of the trench lines. But Soviet counterattacks retook some ground.

The advance to Rostov

It was now decided to screen the Crimea. The Leibstandarte was relieved by Romanian infantry and ordered eastwards again across the steppe towards Rostov. It had only been gone four days when a Soviet offensive broke through the Romanian lines and threatened the German supply lines. In cooperation with German mountain troops, the Soviets were thrown back in chaos into the Crimea by the Leibstandarte.

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