Panther–Wotan line

Map of the Eastern Front in 1943, showing the Panther-Wotan Line in red.

The Panther-Wotan Line was a defensive line built by the German army in 1943 on the Eastern Front. Hitler hoped to repeat the success of the World War I Hindenburg Line on the western front, which allowed the Germans to shorten their line and thereby free up many troops. In this case the Wehrmacht was no longer capable of launching a decisive, war-winning offensive against the Red Army, so instead Hitler wanted to force a conclusive draw with the Soviets before the Allied armies in the west could become a major threat. By any measure, the effort was a failure.

The majority of the line ran along the Dnieper River, from just west of Smolensk to the Black Sea. It left the banks of the Dnieper only where another major tributary offered similar defensive capabilities, and in the south where the Dnieper bent to the west and did not offer protection to the Crimean Peninsula's connection with the mainland. In the north, the line ran overland roughly from Vitebsk to Pskov, where it then followed the west bank of Lake Peipsi, and its river connection to the Baltic Sea through Narva.

When the order was signed for its construction on 11 August 1943, the German armies held positions hundreds of kilometers to the east, generally along the Donets River in the south and along a line roughly from Smolensk to Lenningrad in the north. Retreating to the line would give up considerable Russian territory, including major cities such as Smolensk and Kharkov, which had only recently been recaptured in the Third Battle of Kharkov, as well as smaller cities including Kholm, Novgorod, Orel and Bryansk. In addition, the siege of Leningrad would have to be abandoned.

The line was only partially completed when a general withdrawal was ordered on 15 September. The Soviets immediately attempted to break the line to deny the Germans time to set up, launching a general offensive along a 300 km front on 22 September 1943, now known as the Battle of the Lower Dnieper. The line was particularly weak in the area just north of the Black Sea, which allowed the Soviet armies to breach it with relative ease, thereby cutting off the German 17th Army on the Crimean Peninsula. Although their casualties were enormous, perhaps as high as 1.2 million, by 1 December, the entire line had been broken from Velikiye Luki in the north to the Black Sea in the south, while the line north of that point was ignored by Soviet planners on the assumption that it would be abandoned under the threat of encirclement.

The only portion of the line to hold was the extreme northern section the Soviets initially ignored. Estonia remained in German hands well into 1944.