e Germans. Hitler visited the headquarters in Zaporizhia again on 10 March 1943, where he was briefed by von Manstein and his air force counterpart Field Marshal von Richthofen. Hitler visited the headquarters at Zaporizhia for the last time on 8 September 1943. In mid-September 1943 the Army Group moved its headquarters from Zaporizhia to Kirovograd.
Both big railway bridge over the New Dnieper and the smaller one over the Old Dnieper were damaged in an air raid by a group of 8 Ilyushin Il-2s led by Lieutenant A Usmanov in 21 September 1943.
Liberation
In mid-August 1943, the Germans started building the Panther-Wotan defence line along the Dnieper from Kiev to Crimea, and retreated back to it in September 1943. The Germans held the city as a bridgehead over the Dnieper, with elements of 40th Panzer and 17th Corps. The Soviet Southwestern Front, commanded by Army General Rodion Malinovsky, attacked the city on 10 October 1943. Whilst the defenders held against the attacks, the Red Army reinforced its troops and launched a surprise night attack at 22:00 on 13 October, "laying down a barrage of shellfire bigger than anything... seen to date (it was here that entire 'divisions' of artillery appeared for the first time) and throwing in no fewer than ten divisions strongly supported by armour", the Red Army broke into the bridgehead forcing the Germans to abandon it on 14 October. The retreating Germans destroyed the Zaporizhstal steel plant almost completely; they demolished the big railway bridge again, and demolished the turbine building and damaged 32 of the 49 bays of the Dnieper hydro-electric dam. The city has a street between Ordjonikidzevkij and Zhovtnevyj Districts and a memorial in Zhovtnevyj District dedicated to Red Army Lieutenant Yatsenko who commanded the tank, which first entered the city; he and his crew were killed in the battle for the city.
The Red Army did not recapture the parts of the city on the right bank
