In an exclusive interview, David Stahel talks here in depth about this major battle, Kiev Why did Hitler put such importance on capturing the capital of Ukraine? Like many battles in the east during , the battle of Kiev gave its name to a much broader struggle than the one centred exclusively on the city of Kiev. In fact, the battle of Kiev encompassed the whole of the central Ukraine to the north and east of the Dnepr River.
Hitler was determined to restart his stalled drive into the Ukraine to secure essential raw materials as well as threaten the increasingly exposed position of the South-Western Front.
It was an operation, however, that required the addition of motorised forces previously directed towards Moscow. During the course of the battle, the German Wehrmacht wrought unprecedented destruction on the Soviet army. How were they able to do so?
Although my research focuses predominately on the German army in the battle of Kiev, the Soviet side of the battle is also discussed at the strategic level. Indeed while the battle of Kiev is often described as a great German victory, it is perhaps understood as a catastrophic Soviet blunder.
This allowed the German panzer forces attacking from the north and later from the south across the Dnepr to link up well to the east of Kiev encircling the greater part of four Soviet armies one Soviet army was largely able to escape being cut off.
