In the Carpathian Mountains, the STAVKA operational plan for 1944 called for successive assaults to retake all the territory lost to the Nazis. While the “fifth blow” of the plan against Army Group Center was winding down, Marshall Konev's First Ukrainian Front assembled near Brody to deliver the sixth blow. The rugged terrain of the Carpathians helped General Harpe compensate for the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Russians. Not to be denied, Marshal Konev reorganized his operational units into Corps-sized Cavalry Mechanized Groups in which the tank brigades supported the horse cavalry in the deep penetrations.
