Zhitomir   1943   World War II (Eastern Front)

At the centre of the Soviet offensive towards the Dnieper, General Nikolai Vatutin took Kiev before his forward units raced west and seized the key rail centre of Zhitomir. It was retaken within days by General Hasso von Manteuffel’s Seventh Panzer Division, then lost again to the Russians. The front stabilised and the Russians turned south against the pocket at Korsun (12–31 December 1943).

Army Group South (Field Marshal von Manstein) orders 7th Panzer Division (Manteuffel) to counterattack south of Zhitomir from around Berdichev