In early September, the division was shifted to LIV Army Corps, as part of the 11th Army under Eugen Ritter von Schobert during the advance east after the fall of Kiev. Hoping to capitalize on the collapse of the Red Army defense on the Dnepr River the reconnaissance battalion of LSSAH was tasked with making a speedy advance to capture the strategically vital choke point of the Perekop Isthmus through a ""coup de main"" but were rebuffed by entrenched defenders at the town of Perekop. That same day, 12 September, 11th Army's commander was killed in an aircraft accident, and Hitler appointed Erich von Manstein to command. It took five days for Manstein to take matters in hand, and the operation to clear the Crimean Peninsula was not launched until 17 September. Manstein deployed LSSAH to create diversions while preparing for the main assault, intending to employ it to exploit an eventual breakthrough, but was forced to throw pioneers into the attack on the "Tatar Ditch" in the face of a furious counterattacks and did not break the Soviet defense for ten days.