General der Infanterie Erich Buschenhagen (Kommandierender General LII. Armeekorps) in a picture taken in July 1944 by Walter Frentz, during Eichenlaub award ceremony with Hitler at the Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze in Rastenburg, East Prussia. In the spring of 1944 General Buschenhagen, serving as Korpskommandeur within the 6. Armee of Heeresgruppe Südukraine, faced a critical threat on the lower Dniester front. Strong Soviet forces had established dangerous bridgeheads west of Butor and in the pronounced river bend at Koschniza, positions from which the Red Army could expand its lodgements and threaten the entire German defensive line in southern Ukraine and northern Romania. On 10 and 11 May 1944 Buschenhagen launched a carefully coordinated counter-offensive under the provisional designation Gruppe Buschenhagen. Employing the available infantry, artillery and limited armoured support of his corps, he directed concentric attacks that rapidly compressed and then annihilated the Soviet bridgeheads. In the course of these two days of intense fighting the LII. Armeekorps destroyed seven Soviet rifle divisions together with substantial elements of an artillery division and a Flak division, capturing large numbers of prisoners, guns and heavy weapons. The successful elimination of these bridgeheads restored the integrity of the Dniester line at a moment when the front was under severe pressure and prevented a potentially decisive Soviet breakthrough. For this outstanding command achievement Buschenhagen was mentioned by name in the Wehrmachtbericht of 12 May 1944 and, on 4 July 1944, received the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes as the 521st recipient of the higher grade of the decoration. The award recognised not only the tactical skill displayed in the rapid destruction of the enemy lodgements but also the operational significance of securing the southern sector of Heeresgruppe Südukraine in the critical weeks preceding the major Soviet summer offensives of 1944.
Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=2050789&hilit=buschenhagen#p2050789
https://www.walter-frentz-collection.de/fotoarchiv/personenarchiv-a-z/personen-a-b/
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/3041/Buschenhagen-Erich-Otto-Ludwig-General-der-Inf.htm
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