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The Germans managed to pass a few kilometers and capture the village of Shenderovka. To connect with the tanks Breit remained no more than five kilometers. Stalin telegraphed Zhukov:
The breakthrough of the Korsun grouping of the enemy ... in the direction of Shenderovka occurred because the 27th Army, weak in its composition, was not timely reinforced.
Against the Germans breaking through immediately deployed tank army Rotmistrov. In mid-February frost struck. Breit forced Hniloy Tikich and moved to Shenderovka.
The tankers defended, counterattacked and defended again. "Tigers" and "Panthers" remained less and less. They lacked fuel and ammunition, which were delivered by air.
Sometimes transport planes simply dropped 200-liter barrels of gasoline, and some of them crashed. Field Marshal Manstein, commander of Army Group South, remembered well the experience of Stalingrad. Then Paulus refused to break through to meet him. Repeat the mistake should not be, and Stemmerman received the order:
With his forces to break through to the line Zhurzhentsi to height 239 - and there to connect with the 3rd Tank Corps.
The commanders of the encircled divisions decided that this height is in the hands of Breit, and they only need to reach it. In the evening of February 16, the encircled units destroyed the defective and fuel-less equipment and with the onset of darkness began to break through from the village of Shenderovka.
Belgian Nazi Leon Degrelle, at that time the commander of the encircled SS brigade "Wallonia", recalled:
From 22.00 Soviet batteries covered the center of the village with their fire. The houses were burning and, as if it were daytime, illuminated the retreating troops. From that moment it became easier for the Soviet adjusters to work. Their shells accurately lay down in a huge column. Every second we had to fall into the snow to escape.
Soon the disorderly columns of German infantrymen went into the darkness of the beginning snowstorm Stemmermann's troops were lucky - the cloudy and windy day interfered with the actions of the Soviet attack aircraft. At Height 239, however, their luck ran out. The height was in the hands of the Soviet units, which turned it into an impregnable stronghold.
The Germans bypassed it, and 20 thousand people found themselves at the river Hniloy Tikich. On the opposite bank were already the main forces of the Wehrmacht. It was only necessary to cross the river. In summer it was no wider than a brook. But in February of '44, after the thaw, Hniloy Tikich overflowed up to 30 meters, turning into a fast and deep river without a single bridge. This bank became a grave for many hundreds of Germans from the encircled divisions.
From the north, Soviet tanks approached Hnilom Tikich. The retreat of the Germans turned into a rout. They threw themselves into the icy water, trying to swim to the opposite bank, many drowned.
About half of the soldiers and officers managed to escape from the "cauldron". The commander of the encircled group General Stemmerman was killed. The Soviet armies took about 18 thousand people in captivity. The battle of Korsun-Shevchenkovski was only a prologue of Soviet successes on the territory of Ukraine.

Description

The Germans managed to pass a few kilometers and capture the village of Shenderovka. To connect with the tanks Breit remained no more than five kilometers. Stalin telegraphed Zhukov:
The breakthrough of the Korsun grouping of the enemy ... in the direction of Shenderovka occurred because the 27th Army, weak in its composition, was not timely reinforced.
Against the Germans breaking through immediately deployed tank army Rotmistrov. In mid-February frost struck. Breit forced Hniloy Tikich and moved to Shenderovka.
The tankers defended, counterattacked and defended again. "Tigers" and "Panthers" remained less and less. They lacked fuel and ammunition, which were delivered by air.
Sometimes transport planes simply dropped 200-liter barrels of gasoline, and some of them crashed. Field Marshal Manstein, commander of Army Group South, remembered well the experience of Stalingrad. Then Paulus refused to break through to meet him. Repeat the mistake should not be, and Stemmerman received the order:
With his forces to break through to the line Zhurzhentsi to height 239 - and there to connect with the 3rd Tank Corps.
The commanders of the encircled divisions decided that this height is in the hands of Breit, and they only need to reach it. In the evening of February 16, the encircled units destroyed the defective and fuel-less equipment and with the onset of darkness began to break through from the village of Shenderovka.
Belgian Nazi Leon Degrelle, at that time the commander of the encircled SS brigade "Wallonia", recalled:
From 22.00 Soviet batteries covered the center of the village with their fire. The houses were burning and, as if it were daytime, illuminated the retreating troops. From that moment it became easier for the Soviet adjusters to work. Their shells accurately lay down in a huge column. Every second we had to fall into the snow to escape.
Soon the disorderly columns of German infantrymen went into the darkness of the beginning snowstorm Stemmermann's troops were lucky - the cloudy and windy day interfered with the actions of the Soviet attack aircraft. At Height 239, however, their luck ran out. The height was in the hands of the Soviet units, which turned it into an impregnable stronghold.
The Germans bypassed it, and 20 thousand people found themselves at the river Hniloy Tikich. On the opposite bank were already the main forces of the Wehrmacht. It was only necessary to cross the river. In summer it was no wider than a brook. But in February of '44, after the thaw, Hniloy Tikich overflowed up to 30 meters, turning into a fast and deep river without a single bridge. This bank became a grave for many hundreds of Germans from the encircled divisions.
From the north, Soviet tanks approached Hnilom Tikich. The retreat of the Germans turned into a rout. They threw themselves into the icy water, trying to swim to the opposite bank, many drowned.
About half of the soldiers and officers managed to escape from the "cauldron". The commander of the encircled group General Stemmerman was killed. The Soviet armies took about 18 thousand people in captivity. The battle of Korsun-Shevchenkovski was only a prologue of Soviet successes on the territory of Ukraine.