However, the overall advance was quite modest and slow in the face of heavy German resistance, and the operation was therefore accomplished in three stages: 7–20 August, 21 August–6 September, and 7 September–2 October. As a result of this operation, the Red Army was able to start planning for the liberation of Belarus. Despite an impressive German defense, the Red Army was able to stage several breakthroughs, liberating several major cities, including Smolensk and Roslavl. Smolensk had been under German occupation since the first Battle of Smolensk in 1941. Its goal was to clear the German presence from the Smolensk and Bryansk regions. Staged almost simultaneously with the Lower Dnieper Offensive (13 August–22 September), the offensive lasted two months and was led by General Andrei Yeremenko, commanding the Kalinin Front, and Vasily Sokolovsky, commanding the Western Front. This was part of the 1943 offensive and the second Battle of Smolensk (7 August–2 October 1943). It begins with combat in and near Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine in October of 1943.
Presented in Ukrainian, this Soviet-era documentary film shows battles on the Eastern Front in WWII.
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