This Day in Military History · November 6

1943 World War II: The 1st Ukrainian Front liberates Kyiv from German occupation.

The Second Battle of Kiev, known on the German side as the Defensive battle in the Kiev-Zhitomir area (German: Abwehrschlacht im Raum Kiew-Shitomir), was a part of a much wider Soviet offensive in Ukraine known as the Battle of the Dnieper involving three strategic operations by the Soviet Red Army and its Czechoslovak units and one operational counterattack by the Wehrmacht, which took place between 4 November and 22 December 1943. Following the Battle of Kursk, the Red Army launched the Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive Operation, pushing Army Group South (Erich von Manstein) back towards the Dnieper River. Stavka, the Soviet high command, ordered the Central Front and the Voronezh Front to force crossings of the Dnieper. When the attempt to cross the Dnieper failed in October, the effort was handed to the 1st Ukrainian Front (Nikolai Vatutin) with some support from the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

Read more: Battle of Kiev (1943) Text and image from Wikipedia