he worked in mechanical engineering before he died in 1957. Following these crossing operations the 20th and 21st Guards Corps remained holding a bridgehead northwest of Kremenchug facing the German 320th Infantry Division but it was not given any priority for expansion and in fact on October 18 the 8th Guards Airborne and 80th Guards Rifle Divisions were removed from 4th Guards Army and moved south, leaving the Army with just three divisions under command and the 69th Guards alone in 21st Guards Corps; this situation continued into December. On October 20 Steppe Front was renamed 2nd Ukrainian. Meanwhile, during mid-October the center armies of the Front had driven south from bridgeheads farther to the southeast, liberated Pyatikhatka, and continued as far as Krivoi Rog, although they were forced to fall back from the latter. This advance allowed the 4th Guards Army to substantially expand its bridgehead between Kremenchug and Cherkassy. By November 20 the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts were involved in a joint offensive along the Kirovograd axis. Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket On this date the 1st Panzer Army reported that its infantry strength had fallen to the lowest tolerable level and Cherkassy was threatened with encirclement. The fighting through the first three weeks of December was largely attritional in nature but around the middle of the month the German line north of Krivoi Rog gave way and soon 2nd Ukrainian Front had cleared the west bank of the Dniepr north to Cherkassy. By January 1, 1944 the 4th Guards Army had been restored to a strength of five divisions and the 21st Guards Corps had the 69th Guards and the 138th Rifle Division under command. The Kirovograd Offensive began on January 5 and involved four armies, although the 4th Guards was in a secondary role, and the city was liberated three days later. The advance to the northwest continued until January 16 by which time the German XI and XXXXII Army Corps, holding the last sector of the Dniepr line, were deeply enveloped. On January 25 the 4th Guards Army, which was still rebuilding in strength, plunged into the front of the German 8th Army southwest of Cherkassy and was helping set the stage for a classic double envelopment in conjunction with two mobile corps of 6th Tank Army attacking from the north. On the afternoon of January 28 the encirclement was closed in conjunction with forces of 1st