A 1941 German Encirclement of Kiev Medal

(AKA First Battle of Kiev): Brownish-red porcelain, obverse illustrating a swastika surrounded by an open-ended wreath of oak leaves on an Iron Cross, with "1939" on its lower arm, surrounded by the inscription "DAS DEUTSCHE VOLK DANKT SEINEN TAPFEREN SOLDATEN", reverse illustrating a map of the Kiev area centred by crossed swords, the map surrounded by the inscriptions, clockwise from the left, "3718 GESCHÜTZE", "665000 GESFANGENE", "885 PANZER-KAMPWAGEN" and "FUNF-SOWJET ARMEEN", surrounded by the inscription "UMFASSUNGSSCHLACHT VON KIEW IM SEPTEMBER 1941", 50.3 mm, near mint.

Footnote: The First Battle of Kiev was the German name for the operation that resulted in a very large encirclement of Soviet troops in the vicinity of Kiev during the Second World War. This encirclement is considered the largest encirclement in the history of warfare (by number of troops). The operation ran from August 7 to September 26, 1941 as part of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. In Soviet military history, it is referred to as the Kiev Defensive Operation, with the somewhat different dating of July 7 to September 26, 1941. Nearly the entire Southwestern Front of the Red Army was encircled, with the Germans claiming 665,000 captured. However, the Kiev encirclement was not complete, and small groups of Red Army troops managed to escape the cauldron days after the German pincers met east of the city, including the headquarters of Marshal Semyon Budyonny, Marshal Semyon Timoshenko and Commissar Nikita Khrushchev. The commander of the Southwestern Front, Mikhail Kirponos, was trapped behind enemy lines and killed while trying to break through. The Kiev disaster was an unprecedented defeat for the Red Army, exceeding even the Minsk tragedy of June-July 1941. On September 1st, the Southwestern Front numbered 752-760,000 troops (850,000 including reserves and rear service organs), 3,923 guns and mortars, 114 tanks and 167 combat aircraft. The encirclement trapped 452,700 soldiers, 2,642 guns and mortars and 64 tanks, of which scarcely 15,000 escaped from the encirclement by October 2nd. Overall, the Southwestern Front suffered 700,544 casualties, including 616,304 killed, captured, or missing during the month-long Battle for Kiev. As a result, five Soviet field armies (5th, 37th, 26th, 21st, and the 38th), consisting of 43 divisions, virtually ceased to exist. The 40th Army was badly affected as well. Like the Western Front before it, the Southwestern Front had to be recreated almost from scratch.