Red Army soldiers taking advantage of cover during their advance on a railway station in the Kuban Valley, 1943

Photograph, World War Two, Eastern Front (1941-1945), 1943.

Following the Soviet victory at Stalingrad in February 1943 the German Army Group A withdrew from the Caucasus back towards the Kuban region on the Black Sea. A defensive bridgehead was formed that allowed units to withdraw to the Crimea. Soviet attacks were repeatedly launched during the spring and summer of 1943 but the Germans resisted bitterly. Eventually the breakthrough of Red Army units in other sections of the front led the Germans to evacuate. Kuban finally fell to the Soviets on 9 October 1943.