World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF RUSSIA: Triumph on the Dnieper

In Berlin, the Wehrmacht's spokesman addressed the correspondents: "I am sorry I have to announce a Russian breakthrough on the German front."

In these 14 words, the German Command last week admitted a grave defeat, the possibility of a graver disaster. The Dnieper line, on which Hitler had ordered his army to stand or die, was pierced. Now the Germans faced a long and costly retreat, the calamitous political echoes of defeat.

The Thrust. The break-through was the reward of a bold and ingenious strategy, backed up by a mounting superiority in men...