Eastern Front (World War II)

“Great Patriotic War” redirects here. For a discussion ofthe term itself, see Great Patriotic War (term).Not to be confused with Patriotic War of 1812.

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatreof conflict between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland andother allies, which encompassed Northern, Southern andCentral and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9May 1945. It has been known as the Great Patri-otic War (Russian: Великая Отечественная Война,Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna) in the former SovietUnion and in modern Russia, while in Germany it wascalled the Eastern Front (German: die Ostfront),[3]the Eastern Campaign (der Ostfeldzug) or the RussianCampaign (der Rußlandfeldzug).[4][5]

The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largestmilitary confrontation in history.[6] They were charac-terized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction,mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to com-bat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. TheEastern Front, as the site of nearly all exterminationcamps, death marches, ghettos, and the majority ofpogroms, was central to the Holocaust. Of the estimated70 million deaths attributed to World War II, over 30million,[7] many of them civilian, occurred on the EasternFront. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining theoutcome of World War II, eventually serving as the mainreason for Germany’s defeat.[8][9][10] It resulted in the de-struction of the Third Reich, the partition of Germany fornearly half a century and the rise of the Soviet Union asa military and industrial superpower.The two principal belligerent powers were Nazi Germanyand the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies.Though never engaged in military action in the EasternFront, the United Kingdom and the United States bothprovided substantial material aid in the form of the Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union. The joint German–Finnishoperations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet bor-der and in the Murmansk region are considered partof the Eastern Front. In addition, the Soviet–FinnishContinuation War may also be considered the northernflank of the Eastern Front.

1 Background

See also: Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

Despite their ideological antipathy, both Germany andthe Soviet Union shared a common dislike for the out-come ofWorldWar I. The Soviet Union had lost substan-tial territory in eastern Europe as a result of the Treaty ofBrest-Litovsk, where it gave in to German demands andceded control of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia andFinland, among others, to the "Central Powers". Subse-quently, when Germany in its turn surrendered to the Al-lies and these territories were liberated under the termsof the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, Russia was in acivil war condition and the Allies did not recognize theBolshevik government. The Soviet Union would not beformed for another four years, so no Russian representa-tion was present.[11]

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939was a non-aggression agreement between Nazi Germanyand the Soviet Union that contained a secret protocol aim-ing to return Central Europe to the pre–World War I sta-tus quo by dividing it between Germany and the SovietUnion. Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would re-turn to Soviet control, while Poland and Romania wouldbe divided.Adolf Hitler had declared his intention to invade the So-viet Union on 11 August 1939 to Carl Jacob Burckhardt,League of Nations Commissioner by saying, “EverythingI undertake is directed against the Russians. If the Westis too stupid and blind to grasp this, then I shall be com-pelled to come to an agreement with the Russians, beatthe West and then after their defeat turn against the So-viet Union with all my forces. I need the Ukraine so thatthey can't starve us out, as happened in the last war.”.[12]

The two powers invaded and partitioned Poland in 1939.After Finland refused the terms of a Soviet pact of mu-tual assistance, the Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30November 1939 in what became known as the WinterWar – a bitter conflict that resulted in a peace treaty on13 March 1940, with Finland maintaining its indepen-dence but losing parts of eastern Karelia. In June 1940,the Soviet Union occupied and illegally annexed the threeBaltic states—an action in violation of the Hague Con-ventions (1899 and 1907) and numerous bi-lateral con-ventions and treaties signed between the Soviet Union andBaltics. The annexations were never recognized by mostWestern states.[13] The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact osten-

1

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2 2 IDEOLOGIES

sibly provided security to Soviets in the occupation ofboth the Baltics and the north and northeastern regions ofRomania (Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia) althoughHitler, in announcing the invasion of the Soviet Union,cited the Soviet annexations of Baltic and Romanian ter-ritory as having violated Germany’s understanding of thePact. The annexed Romanian territory was divided be-tween the Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet republics.

2 Ideologies

Main article: Germany–Soviet Union relations before1941

2.1 German ideology

Adolf Hitler had argued in his autobiography MeinKampf (1925) for the necessity of Lebensraum (“liv-ing space”): acquiring new territory for Germans inEastern Europe, in particular in Russia.[14] He envis-aged settling Germans there, as according to Nazi ideol-ogy the Germanic people constituted the “master race”,while exterminating or deporting most of the exist-ing inhabitants to Siberia and using the remainder asslave labour.[15] Hitler as early as 1917 had referred tothe Russians as inferior, believing that the BolshevikRevolution had put the Jews in power over the massof Slavs, who were, in Hitler’s opinion, incapable ofruling themselves but instead being ruled by Jewishmasters.[16] Hard-line Nazis in Berlin (like Himmler[17])saw the war against the Soviet Union as a struggle be-tween the ideologies Nazism and Jewish Bolshevism,and ensuring territory supremacy for the GermanicÜbermensch (superhumans), who according to Nazi ide-ology were the AryanHerrenvolk (“master race”), againstthe Slavic Untermenschen (subhumans).[18] Wehrmachtofficers told their troops to target people who were de-scribed as “Jewish Bolshevik subhumans”, the “Mongolhordes”, the “Asiatic flood” and the “red beast”.[19] Thevast majority of German soldiers viewed the war in Naziterms, seeing the Soviet enemy as sub-human.[20]

Hitler referred to the war in unique terms, calling it a “warof annihilation” which was both an ideological and racialwar. According to a plan calledGeneralplan Ost, the pop-ulations of occupied Central Europe and the Soviet Unionwere to be partially deported toWest Siberia, partially en-slaved and eventually exterminated; the conquered terri-tories were to be colonized by German or “Germanized”settlers.[21] In addition, the Nazis also sought to wipeout the large Jewish population of (Central and) EasternEurope[22] as part of their program aiming to exterminateall European Jews.[23]

After Germany’s initial success at the Battle of Kiev in1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and

ripe for immediate conquest. On 3 October 1941, he an-nounced, “We have only to kick in the door and the wholerotten structure will come crashing down.”[24] Thus, Ger-many expected another short Blitzkrieg and made no se-rious preparations for prolonged warfare. However, fol-lowing the decisive Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalin-grad in 1943 and the resulting dire Germanmilitary situa-tion, Hitler and his Nazi propaganda proclaimed the warto be a German defence of Western civilization againstdestruction by the vast "Bolshevik hordes” that were pour-ing into Europe.

2.2 Soviet situation

Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent mas-sive industrialization and economic growth under theleadership of Joseph Stalin. Stalin’s central tenet,"Socialism in one country", manifested itself as a se-ries of nationwide centralized Five-Year Plans (1929 on-wards). This represented an ideological shift in Sovietpolicy, away from its commitment to the internationalcommunist revolution, and eventually leading to the dis-solution of the Comintern (Third International) organiza-tion in 1943.In February 1936 the Spanish general election broughtmany communist leaders into the Popular Front govern-ment in the Second Spanish Republic, but in a matter ofmonths a right-wing military coup initiated the SpanishCivil War of 1936–1939. This conflict soon took onthe characteristics of a proxy war involving the SovietUnion and left wing volunteers from different countrieson the side of the predominantly socialist and communist-led[25] Second Spanish Republic;[26] while Nazi Ger-many, Fascist Italy, and the Portuguese Republic took theside of Spanish Nationalists, the military rebel group ledby General Francisco Franco.[27] It served as a useful test-ing ground for both the Germans and the Soviets to ex-periment with equipment and tactics that they would lateremploy on a wider scale in the Second World War.Nazi Germany, which positioned itself as an anti-Communist régime, formalized its ideological positionon November 25, 1936 by signing the Anti-CominternPact with the Empire of Japan.[28] Fascist Italy joined thePact a year later.[26][29] The German Anschluss of Aus-tria in 1938 and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia(1938–1939) demonstrated the impossibility of establish-ing a collective security system in Europe,[30] a policyadvocated by the Soviet ministry of foreign affairs un-der Maxim Litvinov.[31][32] This, as well as the reluc-tance of the British and French governments to sign a full-scale anti-German political and military alliance with theUSSR,[33] led to the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact betweenthe Soviet Union and Germany in late August 1939.[34]

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3

3 Forces

The war was fought between Nazi Germany, its allies andFinland, against the Soviet Union. The conflict beganon 22 June 1941 with the Operation Barbarossa offen-sive, when Axis forces crossed the borders described inthe German–Soviet Nonaggression Pact, thereby invad-ing the Soviet Union. The war ended on 9 May 1945,when Germany’s armed forces surrendered uncondition-ally following the Battle of Berlin (also known as theBerlin Offensive), a strategic operation executed by theRed Army. The states that provided forces and otherresources for the German war effort included the AxisPowers – primarily Romania, Hungary, Italy, pro-NaziSlovakia, and Croatia. The anti-Soviet Finland, whichhad fought the Winter War against the Soviet Union, alsojoined the offensive. TheWehrmacht forces were also as-sisted by anti-Communist partisans in places likeWesternUkraine, the Baltic states, and later by Crimean Tatars.Among the most prominent volunteer army formationswas the Spanish Blue Division, sent by Spanish dictatorFrancisco Franco to keep his ties to the Axis intact.[35]

The Soviet Union offered support to the partisans in manyWehrmacht-occupied countries in Central Europe, no-tably those in Slovakia, Poland and the Kingdom of Yu-goslavia. In addition, the Polish Armed Forces in theEast, particularly the First and Second Polish armies,were armed and trained, and would eventually fight along-side the Red Army. The Free French forces also con-tributed to the Red Army by the formation of the GC3(Groupe de Chasse 3 or 3rd Fighter Group) unit to ful-fill the commitment of Charles de Gaulle, leader of theFree French, who thought that it was important for Frenchservicemen to serve on all fronts. British and Common-wealth forces contributed directly to the fighting on theEastern Front through their service in the Arctic convoysand training Red Air Force pilots, as well as in the provi-sion of early material and intelligence support. The latermassive material support of the Lend-Lease agreementby the United States and Canada played a significant partparticularly in the logistics of the war.Main articles: Aufbau Ost (1940) and Lossberg study

For nearly two years the border was quiet while Germanyconquered Denmark, Norway, France, The Low Coun-tries, and the Balkans. Hitler had always intended to re-nege on his pact with the Soviet Union, eventually makingthe decision to invade in the spring of 1941. Hitler be-lieved that the Soviets would quickly capitulate after anoverwhelming German offensive and that the war couldlargely end before the onset of the fierce Russian winter.Some historians say Stalin was fearful of war with Ger-many, or just did not expect Germany to start a two-frontwar, and was reluctant to do anything to provoke Hitler.Others say that Stalin was eager for Germany to be at warwith capitalist countries. Another viewpoint is that Stalin

expected war in 1942 (the time when all his preparationswould be complete) and stubbornly refused to believe itsearly arrival.[38]

German infantry in June 1943

British historians Alan S. Milward and M. Medlicottshow that Nazi Germany—unlike Imperial Germany—was prepared for only a short-term war (Blitzkrieg).[39]According to Edward Ericson, although Germany’s ownresources were sufficient for the victories in the West in1940, massive Soviet shipments obtained during a shortperiod of Nazi–Soviet economic collaboration were crit-ical for Germany to launch Operation Barbarossa.[40]

Germany had been assembling very large numbersof troops in eastern Poland and making repeatedreconnaissance flights over the border; the Soviet Unionresponded by assembling its divisions on its western bor-der, although the Soviet mobilization was slower thanthe Germans’ due to the country’s less dense road net-work. As in the Sino-Soviet conflict on the ChineseEastern Railway or Soviet–Japanese border conflicts, So-viet troops on the western border received a directive,signed by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko and General ofthe Army Georgy Zhukov, that ordered (as demanded byStalin): “do not answer to any provocations” and “do notundertake any (offensive) actions without specific orders”– which meant that Soviet troops could open fire only ontheir soil and forbade counter-attack on German soil. TheGerman invasion therefore caught the Soviet military andcivilian leadership largely by surprise.The extent of warnings received by Stalin about a Ger-man invasion is controversial, and the claim that therewas a warning that “Germany will attack on 22 June with-out declaration of war” has been dismissed as a “popularmyth”. However, some sources quoted in the articles onSoviet spies Richard Sorge and Willi Lehmann, say theyhad sent warnings of an attack on 20 or 22 June, whichwere treated as “disinformation”. The Lucy spy ring inSwitzerland also sent warnings, possibly deriving fromUltra codebreaking in Britain.Soviet intelligence was fooled by German disinformation,so sent false alarms to Moscow about a German invasionin April, May and the beginning of June. Soviet intel-

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4 4 CONDUCT OF OPERATIONS

ligence reported that Germany would rather invade theUSSR after the fall of the British Empire[41] or after anunacceptable ultimatum demanding German occupationof Ukraine during the German invasion of Britain.[42]

4 Conduct of operations

Main article: Strategic operations of the Red Army inWorld War II

While German historians do not apply any specific pe-riodisation to the conduct of operations on the EasternFront, all Soviet and Russian historians divide the waragainst Germany and its allies into three periods, whichare further subdivided into eight major Campaigns of theTheatre of war:[43]

1. First period of Great Patriotic war (Russian:Первый период Великой Отечественной войны)(22 June 1941 – 18 November 1942)

• Summer–Autumn Campaign (Russian:Летне-осенняя кампания 1941 г.) (22 June– 4 December 1941)

• Winter Campaign of 1941–42 (Russian: Зим-няя кампания 1941/42 г.) (5 December 1941– 30 April 1942)

• Summer–Autumn Campaign (Russian:Летне-осенняя кампания 1942 г.) (1 May –18 November 1942)

2. Second period of Great Patriotic war (Russian:Второй период Великой Отечественной войны)(19 November 1942 – 31 December 1943)

• Winter Campaign of 1942–43 (Russian: Зим-няя кампания 1942–1943 гг.) (19 November1942 – 3 March 1943)

• Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1943(Russian: Летне-осенняя кампания 1943 г.)(1 July – 31 December 1943)

3. Third period of Great Patriotic war (Russian:Третий период Великой Отечественной войны)(1 January 1944 – 9 May 1945)

• Winter–Spring Campaign (Russian: Зимне-весенняя кампания 1944 г.) (1 January – 31May 1944)

• Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1944(Russian: Летне-осенняя кампания 1944 г.)(1 June – 31 December 1944)

• Campaign in Europe during 1945 (Russian:Кампания в Европе 1945 г.) (1 January – 9May 1945)

Operation Barbarossa: the German invasion of the SovietUnion, 21 June 1941 to 5 December 1941:to 9 July 1941to 1 September 1941to 9 September 1941to 5 December 1941

4.1 Operation Barbarossa: Summer 1941

Operation Barbarossa began just before dawn on 22June 1941. The Germans wrecked the wire network inall Soviet western military districts to undermine Sovietcommunications.[44]

Panicky transmissions from Soviet front-line units to theircommand headquarters were picked up like this one:

“We are being fired upon. What shall wedo?"The answer was just as confusing:“You must be insane. And why is your signalnot in code?"[1]

1. ^ Reagan, Geoffrey. Military Anec-dotes (1992) p. 210, Guinness Publish-ing ISBN 0-85112-519-0

Map of South Western Front (Ukrainian) at 22 June 1941

At 03:15 on 22 June 1941, 99 of 190 German divi-sions, including fourteen panzer divisions and ten mo-torized, were deployed against the Soviet Union from

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4.1 Operation Barbarossa: Summer 1941 5

the Baltic to the Black Sea. They were accompa-nied by ten Romanian divisions, and nine Romanianand four Hungarian brigades.[45] On the same day, theBaltic, Western and Kiev Special military districts wererenamed the Northwestern, Western and SouthwesternFronts respectively.[44] To establish air supremacy, theLuftwaffe began immediate attacks on Soviet airfields, de-stroying much of the forward-deployed Soviet Air Forceairfield fleets consisting of largely obsolescent types be-fore their pilots had a chance to leave the ground.[46]For a month the offensive conducted on three axes wascompletely unstoppable as the panzer forces encircledhundreds of thousands of Soviet troops in huge pocketsthat were then reduced by slower-moving infantry armieswhile the panzers continued the offensive, following theBlitzkrieg doctrine.Army Group North's objective was Leningrad via theBaltic states. Comprising the 16th and 18th Armies andthe 4th Panzer Group, this formation advanced throughthe Baltic states, and the Russian Pskov and Novgorodregions. Local insurgents seized the moment and con-trolled most of Lithuania, northern Latvia and southernEstonia prior to the arrival of the German forces.[47][48]

The corpses of victims of Stalin’s NKVD murdered in last daysof June 1941, just after outbreak of war

Army Group Centre's two panzer groups (2nd and 3rd),advanced to the north and south of Brest-Litovsk and con-verged east of Minsk, followed by the 2nd, 4th, and 9thArmies. The combined panzer force reached the BeresinaRiver in just six days, 650 km (400 mi) from their startlines. The next objective was to cross the Dnieper river,which was accomplished by 11 July. Their next targetwas Smolensk, which fell on 16 July, but the fierce So-viet resistance in the Smolensk area and retardation oftheWehrmacht advance in North and South forced Hitlerto halt a central thrust at Moscow and to divert PanzerGroup 3 north. Critically, Guderian's Panzer Group 2wasordered to move south in a giant pincer maneuver withArmy Group South which was advancing into Ukraine.Army Group Centre’s infantry divisions were left rela-tively unsupported by armor to continue their slow ad-vance to Moscow.[49]

This decision caused a severe leadership crisis. The Ger-man field commanders argued for an immediate offensive

towards Moscow, but Hitler overruled them, citing theimportance of Ukrainian agricultural, mining and indus-trial resources, as well as the massing of Soviet reserves inthe Gomel area between Army Group Centre’s southernflank and the bogged-down Army Group South’s north-ern flank. This decision, Hitler’s “summer pause”,[49] isbelieved to have had a severe impact on the Battle ofMoscow's outcome, by giving up speed in the advance onMoscow in favor of encircling large numbers of Soviettroops around Kiev.[50]

Army Group South, with the 1st Panzer Group, the6th, 11th and 17th Armies, was tasked with advancingthrough Galicia and into Ukraine. Their progress, how-ever, was rather slow, and took heavy casualties in amajor tank battle. With the corridor towards Kiev se-cured by mid-July, the 11th Army, aided by two Roma-nian armies, fought its way through Bessarabia towardsOdessa. The 1st Panzer Group turned away from Kievfor the moment, advancing into the Dnieper bend (west-ern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast). When it joined up with thesouthern elements of Army Group South at Uman, theGroup captured about 100,000 Soviet prisoners in a hugeencirclement. Advancing armored divisions of the ArmyGroup South met with the Guderian Panzer Group 2near Lokhvytsa in mid September, cutting off large num-bers of Red Army troops in the pocket east of Kiev.[49]400,000 Soviet prisoners were captured as Kiev was sur-rendered on 19 September.[49]

Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of thewar, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive

As the Red Army withdrew behind the Dnieper andDvina rivers, the Soviet Stavka (the high command),turned its attention to evacuating as much of the west-ern regions’ industry as it could. Factories were disman-tled and sent away from the front line in flatcars for re-establishment in more remote areas of the Ural Moun-tains, Caucasus, Central Asia and south-eastern Siberia.Most civilians were left to make their own way East, withonly industry-related workers evacuated with the equip-ment; much of the population was left behind to themercy of the invading forces.

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6 4 CONDUCT OF OPERATIONS

Stalin ordered the retreating Red Army to initiate ascorched-earth policy to deny Germans and their alliesbasic supplies as they moved eastward. To carry out thatorder, destruction battalions were formed in front-line ar-eas, having the authority to summarily execute any sus-picious person. The destruction battalions burned downvillages, schools, and public buildings.[51] As a part ofthis policy theNKVDmassacred thousands of anti-Sovietprisoners.[52]

4.2 Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941

Main articles: Battle of Moscow and Battle of Rostov(1941)

Hitler then decided to resume the advance on Moscow,re-designating the panzer groups as panzer armies for theoccasion. Operation Typhoon, which was set in motionon 30 September, saw the 2nd Panzer Army rush alongthe paved road from Oryol (captured 5 October) to theOka River at Plavsk, while the 4th Panzer Army (trans-ferred fromArmyGroupNorth to Centre) and 3rd Panzerarmies surrounded the Soviet forces in two huge pocketsat Vyazma and Bryansk. Army Group North positioneditself in front of Leningrad and attempted to cut the raillink at Mga to the east. This began the 900-day Siegeof Leningrad. North of the Arctic Circle, a German–Finnish force set out for Murmansk but could get no fur-ther than the Zapadnaya Litsa River, where they settleddown.

Wehrmacht soldiers pulling a car from the mud during therasputitsa period, November 1941

Army Group South pushed down from the Dnieper tothe Sea of Azov coast, also advancing through Kharkov,Kursk, and Stalino. The 11th Army moved into theCrimea and took control of all of the peninsula by autumn(except Sevastopol, which held out until 3 July 1942).On 21 November, the Germans took Rostov, the gate-way to the Caucasus. However, the German lines wereover-extended and the Soviet defenders counterattackedthe 1st Panzer Army’s spearhead from the north, forcingthem to pull out of the city and behind the Mius River;the first significant German withdrawal of the war.

Soviet gun crew in action at Odessa in 1941

The onset of the winter freeze saw one last German lungethat opened on 15 November, when the Germans at-tempted to throw a ring around Moscow. On 27 Novem-ber, the 4th Panzer Army got to within 30 km (19 mi)of the Kremlin when it reached the last tramstop of theMoscow line at Khimki. Meanwhile, the 2nd PanzerArmy failed to take Tula, the last Soviet city that stoodin its way to the capital. After a meeting held in Orshabetween the head of theOKH (ArmyGeneral Staff), Gen-eral Franz Halder and the heads of three Army groupsand armies, decided to push forward to Moscow since itwas better, as argued by the head of Army Group Center,Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, for them to try their luckon the battlefield rather than just sit and wait while theiropponent gathered more strength.However, by 6 December it became clear that theWehrmacht did not have the strength to capture Moscow,and the attack was suspended. Marshal Shaposhnikovthus began his counter-attack, employing freshly mo-bilized reserves,[53] as well as some well-trained Far-Eastern divisions transferred from the east followingintelligence that Japan would remain neutral.

4.3 Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941

Main articles: Battle of Moscow, Second Battle ofKharkov and Winter Campaign of 1941–1942During the autumn, Stalin had been transferring fresh,well-equipped Soviet forces from Siberia and the Far Eastto Moscow. On 5 December 1941, these reinforcementsattacked the German lines around the Soviet capital, sup-ported by new T-34 tanks and Katyusha rocket launch-ers. The new Soviet troops were better-prepared for win-ter warfare than their foes, and they also included severalski battalions. The exhausted and freezing Germans weredriven away from Moscow on 7 January 1942.A further Soviet attack was mounted in late January,focusing on the junction between Army groups Northand Centre between Lake Seliger and Rzhev, and drovea gap between the two German army groups. In con-cert with the advance from Kaluga to the south-west ofMoscow, it was intended that the two offensives convergeon Smolensk, but the Germans rallied and managed tohold them apart, retaining a salient at Rzhev. A Soviet

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4.4 Don, Volga, and Caucasus: Summer 1942 7

The Soviet winter counter-offensive, 5 December 1941 to 7 May1942:Soviet gainsGerman gains

parachute drop on German-held Dorogobuzh was spec-tacularly unsuccessful, and those paratroopers who sur-vived had to escape to the partisan-held areas beginningto swell behind the German lines. To the north, the So-viets surrounded a German garrison in Demyansk, whichheld out with air supply for four months, and establishedthemselves in front of Kholm, Velizh, and Velikie Luki.Further north still, the Soviet Second Shock Army wasunleashed on the Volkhov River. Initially this madesome progress; however, it was unsupported, and byJune a German counterattack cut off and destroyedthe army. The Soviet commander, Lieutenant GeneralAndrey Vlasov, later became defected to the Germansand forming the ROA or Russian Liberation Army.In the south the Red Army lunged over the Donets Riverat Izyum and drove a 100 km (62 mi) deep salient. Theintent was to pin Army Group South against the Sea ofAzov, but as the winter eased the Germans were ableto counter-attack and cut off the over-extended Soviettroops in the Second Battle of Kharkov.

4.4 Don, Volga, and Caucasus: Summer1942

Main articles: Case Blue, Battle of Voronezh (1942) andBattle of StalingradAlthough plans were made to attack Moscow again, on28 June 1942, the offensive re-opened in a different di-rection. Army Group South took the initiative, anchoringthe front with the Battle of Voronezh and then followingthe Don river southeastwards. The grand plan was to se-cure the Don and Volga first and then drive into the Cau-casus towards the oil fields, but operational considerationsand Hitler’s vanity made him order both objectives to beattempted simultaneously. Rostov was recaptured on 24July when the 1st Panzer Army joined in, and then that

Operation Blue: German advances from 7 May 1942 to 18November 1942:to 7 July 1942to 22 July 1942to 1 August 1942to 18 November 1942

group drove south towards Maikop. As part of this, Op-eration Shamil was executed, a plan whereby a group ofBrandenburger commandos dressed up as Soviet NKVDtroops to destabilise Maikop’s defenses and allow the 1stPanzer Army to enter the oil town with little opposition.Meanwhile, the 6th Armywas driving towards Stalingrad,for a long period unsupported by 4th Panzer Army, whichhad been diverted to help 1st Panzer Army cross the Don.By the time the 4th Panzer Army had rejoined the Stal-ingrad offensive Soviet resistance (comprising the 62ndArmy under Vasily Chuikov) had stiffened. A leap acrossthe Don brought German troops to the Volga on 23 Au-gust but for the next three months theWehrmacht wouldbe fighting the Battle of Stalingrad street-by-street. To-wards the south, the 1st Panzer Army had reached theCaucasian foothills and the Malka River. At the end ofAugust Romanian mountain troops joined the Caucasianspearhead, while the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies wereredeployed from their successful task of clearing theAzovlittoral. They took up position on either side of Stalingradto free German troops for the main offensive. Mindfulof the continuing antagonism between Axis allies Roma-nia and Hungary over Transylvania, the Romanian armyin the Don bend was separated from the Hungarian 2ndarmy by the Italian 8th Army. Thus, all of Hitler’s allieswere involved – including a Slovakian contingent with the1st Panzer Army and a Croatian regiment attached to 6thArmy.The advance into the Caucasus bogged down, with theGermans unable to fight their way past Malgobek and tothe main prize of Grozny. Instead, they switched the di-rection of their advance to approach it from the south,crossing the Malka at the end of October and enteringNorth Ossetia. In the first week of November, on theoutskirts of Ordzhonikidze, the 13th Panzer Division’s

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8 4 CONDUCT OF OPERATIONS

spearhead was snipped off and the panzer troops had tofall back. The offensive into Russia was over.

4.5 Stalingrad: Winter 1942

Operations Uranus, Saturn and Mars: Soviet advances on theEastern Front, 18 November 1942 to March 1943:to 12 December 1942to 18 February 1943to March 1943 (Soviet gains only)

Main articles: Battle of Stalingrad, Operation LittleSaturn, Operation Mars, Third Battle of Kharkov andBattle for Velikiye Luki (1943)

While the German 6th and 4th Panzer Armies had beenfighting their way into Stalingrad, Soviet armies had con-gregated on either side of the city, specifically into theDon bridgeheads that the Romanians did not reduce,and it was from these that they struck on 19 November1942. In Operation Uranus, two Soviet fronts punchedthrough the Romanian lines and converged at Kalachon 23 November, trapping 300,000 Axis troops behindthem.[54] A simultaneous offensive on the Rzhev sectorknown as Operation Mars was supposed to advance toSmolensk, but was a failure, with German tactical flairwinning the day.The Germans rushed to transfer troops to Russia for adesperate attempt to relieve Stalingrad, but the offensivecould not get going until 12 December, by which timethe 6th Army in Stalingrad was starving and too weakto break out towards it. Operation Winter Storm, withthree transferred panzer divisions, got going briskly fromKotelnikovo towards the Aksai river but became boggeddown 65 km (40 mi) short of its goal. To divert the res-cue attempt, the Soviets decided to smash the Italians andcome down behind the relief attempt if they could; thatoperation starting on 16 December. What it did accom-plish was to destroy many of the aircraft that had beentransporting relief supplies to Stalingrad. The fairly lim-ited scope of the Soviet offensive, although still eventu-

A Soviet junior political officer (Politruk) urges Soviet troops for-ward against German positions (12 July 1942)

German infantry and a supporting StuG III assault gun duringthe advance towards Stalingrad, September 1942

ally targeted on Rostov, also allowed Hitler time to seesense and pull Army Group A out of the Caucasus andback over the Don.[55]

On 31 January 1943, the 90,000 survivors of the300,000-man 6th Army surrendered. By that time theHungarian 2nd Army had also been wiped out. The So-viets advanced from the Don 500 km (310 mi) to thewest of Stalingrad, marching through Kursk (retaken on8 February 1943) and Kharkov (retaken 16 February1943). In order to save the position in the south, the Ger-mans decided to abandon the Rzhev salient in February,freeing enough troops tomake a successful riposte in east-ern Ukraine. Manstein's counteroffensive, strengthenedby a specially trained SS Panzer Corps equipped withTiger tanks, opened on 20 February 1943 and fought its

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4.6 Kursk: Summer 1943 9

way from Poltava back into Kharkov in the third week ofMarch, when the spring thaw intervened. This left a glar-ing Soviet bulge (salient) in the front centered on Kursk.

4.6 Kursk: Summer 1943

Main article: Battle of KurskAfter the failure of the attempt to capture Stalingrad,

Soldiers of the 1st SS Panzer Division near Kharkov, February1943

Hitler had delegated planning authority for the upcom-ing campaign season to the German Army High Com-mand and reinstated Heinz Guderian to a prominent role,this time as Inspector of Panzer Troops. Debate amongthe General Staff was polarised, with even Hitler ner-vous about any attempt to pinch off the Kursk salient.He knew that in the intervening six months the Sovietposition at Kursk had been reinforced heavily with anti-tank guns, tank traps, landmines, barbed wire, trenches,pillboxes, artillery andmortars. However, if one last greatblitzkrieg offensive could be mounted, just maybe the So-viets would ease off and attention could then be turnedto the Allied threat to the Western Front. The advancewould be executed from the Orel salient to the north ofKursk and from Belgorod to the south. Both wings wouldconverge on the area east of Kursk, and by that means re-store the lines of Army Group South to the exact points

German advances at Kharkov and Kursk, 19 February 1943 to1 August 1943:to 18 March 1943to 1 August 1943

that it held over the winter of 1941–1942.Although the Germans knew that the Red Army’s re-serves of manpower had been bled dry in the summer of1941 and 1942, the Soviets were still re-equipping, sim-ply by drafting the men from the regions taken back.Under pressure from his generals, Hitler agreed to theattack on Kursk, little realising that the Abwehr's in-telligence on the Soviet position there had been under-mined by a concerted Stavkamisinformation and counter-intelligence campaign mounted by the Lucy spy ring inSwitzerland. When the Germans began the operation,it was after months of delays waiting for new tanks andequipment, by which time the Soviets had reinforced theKursk salient with more anti-tank firepower than had everbeen assembled in one place before or since that day.

The Battle of Kursk was the largest tank battle ever fought —with each side employing nearly 3,000 tanks

In the north, the entire German 9th Army had been rede-ployed from the Rzhev salient into the Orel salient andwas to advance from Maloarkhangelsk to Kursk. Butits forces could not even get past the first objective atOlkhovatka, just 8 km (5.0 mi) into the advance. The 9thArmy blunted its spearhead against the Soviet minefields,

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10 4 CONDUCT OF OPERATIONS

frustratingly so considering that the high ground there wasthe only natural barrier between them and flat tank coun-try all the way to Kursk. The direction of advance wasthen switched to Ponyri, to the west of Olkhovatka, butthe 9th Army could not break through here either andwent over to the defensive. The Soviets soaked up theGerman punishment and then struck back. On 12 July theRed Army battled through the demarcation line betweenthe 211th and 293rd divisions on the Zhizdra River andsteamed towards Karachev, right behind them and behindOrel.

Soviet T-34/76s and infantry advance past a destroyed PanzerIV. Kharkov, August 1943

The southern offensive, spearheaded by 4th PanzerArmy, led by Gen. Col. Hoth, with three Tank Corpsmade more headway. Advancing on either side of the up-per Donets on a narrow corridor, the II SS Panzer Corpsand the Großdeutschland Panzergrenadier divisions bat-tled their way through minefields and over comparativelyhigh ground towards Oboyan. Stiff resistance caused achange of direction from east to west of the front, butthe tanks got 25 km (16 mi) before encountering thereserves of the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army outsideProkhorovka. Battle was joined on 12 July, with aboutone thousand tanks being engaged. After the war, the bat-tle near Prochorovka was idealized by Soviet historians asthe largest tank battle of all time. The meeting engage-ment at Prochorovka was a Soviet defensive success, al-beit at heavy cost. The Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army,with about 800 light and medium tanks, attacked ele-ments of the II SS Panzer Corps. Tank losses on bothsides have been the source of controversy ever since. Al-though the 5th Guards Tank Army did not attain its ob-jectives, the German advance had been halted.At the end of the day both sides had fought each otherto a standstill, but regardless of the standstill in the northErich von Manstein intended to continue the attack withthe 4th Panzer Army. But the Soviets could absorb theattack, and the German strategic advance in OperationCitadel had been halted. Under the impression of the suc-cessful counter-attacks in the south, the RedArmy startedthe strong offensive operation in the northern Orel salientand achieved a breakthrough on the flank of the German9th Army. Also worried by the Allies’ landing in Sicilyon 10 July, Hitler made the decision to halt the offensiveeven as the German 9th Army was rapidly giving ground

in the north. The Germans’ final strategic offensive in theSoviet Union ended with their defense against a majorSoviet counteroffensive that lasted into August.The Kursk offensive was the last on the scale of 1940and 1941 that theWehrmacht was able to launch, subse-quent offensives would represent only a shadow of previ-ous German offensive might.

4.7 Autumn and Winter 1943–44

Main articles: Korsun–Shevchenkovsky Offensive,Battle of Smolensk (1943), Lower Dnieper Offensive,Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive and Battle of Narva(1944)The Soviet juggernaut began rolling in earnest with the

"Katyusha" – a notable Soviet rocket launcher

advance into the Germans’ Orel salient. The diversionof the well-equipped Großdeutschland Division fromBelgorod to Karachev could not stop it, and a strategicdecision was made to abandon Orel (retaken by the RedArmy on 5 August 1943) and fall back to the Hagen linein front of Bryansk. To the south, the Soviets blastedthrough Army Group South’s Belgorod positions andheaded for Kharkov once again. Although intense battlesof movement throughout late July and into August 1943saw the Tigers blunting Soviet tank attacks on one axis,they were soon outflanked on another line to the west asthe Soviets advanced down the Psel, and Kharkov had tobe evacuated for the final time on 22 August.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponyrihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Kutuzovhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhizdra_Riverhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karachevhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34/76https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer_IVhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer_IVhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Polkovodets_Rumyantsevhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_4th_Panzer_Armyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_4th_Panzer_Armyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Hothhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/II_SS_Panzer_Corpshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grossdeutschland_Divisionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oboyanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_5th_Guards_Tank_Armyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prokhorovkahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historianhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeting_engagementhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeting_engagementhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_Mansteinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Citadelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-attackhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Huskyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korsun%E2%80%93Shevchenkovsky_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Smolensk_(1943)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Dnieper_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad%E2%80%93Novgorod_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_(1944)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_(1944)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyusha_rocket_launcherhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryanskhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olshanka

4.7 Autumn and Winter 1943–44 11

The German forces on the Mius, now comprising the 1stPanzer Army and a reconstituted 6th Army, were by Au-gust too weak to repulse a Soviet attack on their own front,and when the Soviets hit them they had to fall back all theway through the Donbass industrial region to the Dnieper,losing the industrial resources and half the farmland thatGermany had invaded the Soviet Union for to exploit.At this time Hitler agreed to a general withdrawal to theDnieper line, along which was meant to be the Ostwall,a line of defence similar to the Westwall (Siegfried Line)of fortifications along the German frontier in the west.The main problem for the Germans was that these de-fences had not yet been built; by the time Army GroupSouth had evacuated eastern Ukraine and begun with-drawing across the Dnieper during September, the Sovi-ets were hard behind them. Tenaciously, small units pad-dled their way across the 3 km (1.9 mi) wide river andestablished bridgeheads. A second attempt by the Sovi-ets to gain land using parachutists, mounted at Kanev on24 September, proved as disappointing as at Dorogob-uzh eighteen months previously. The paratroopers weresoon repelled – but not until still more Red Army troopshad used the cover they provided to get themselves overthe Dnieper and securely dug in. As September endedand October started, the Germans found the Dnieper lineimpossible to hold as the Soviet bridgeheads grew, andimportant Dnieper towns started to fall, with Zaporozhyethe first to go, followed by Dnepropetrovsk. Finally, earlyin November the Soviets broke out of their bridgeheadson either side of Kiev and captured the Ukrainian capital,at that time the third largest city in the Soviet Union.Eighty miles west of Kiev, the 4th Panzer Army, stillconvinced that the Red Army was a spent force, wasable to mount a successful riposte at Zhytomyr duringthe middle of November, weakening the Soviet bridge-head by a daring outflanking strike mounted by the SSPanzer Corps along the river Teterev. This battle also en-abled Army Group South to recapture Korosten and gainsome time to rest; however, on Christmas Eve the retreatbegan anew when the First Ukrainian Front (renamedfrom the Voronezh Front) struck them in the same place.The Soviet advance continued along the railway line un-til the 1939 Polish–Soviet border was reached on 3 Jan-uary 1944. To the south, the Second Ukrainian Front (exSteppe Front) had crossed the Dnieper at Kremenchugand continued westwards. In the second week of Jan-uary 1944 they swung north, meeting Vatutin’s tankforces which had swung south from their penetrationinto Poland and surrounding ten German divisions atKorsun–Shevchenkovsky, west of Cherkassy. Hitler’s in-sistence on holding the Dnieper line, even when facing theprospect of catastrophic defeat, was compounded by hisconviction that the Cherkassy pocket could break out andeven advance to Kiev, but Manstein was more concernedabout being able to advance to the edge of the pocket andthen implore the surrounded forces to break out. By 16February the first stage was complete, with panzers sepa-rated from the contracting Cherkassy pocket only by the

Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Sovietwomen served in front-line duty units[56]

swollen Gniloy Tikich river. Under shellfire and pursuedby Soviet tanks, the surrounded German troops, amongwhom were the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, foughttheir way across the river to safety, although at the costof half their number and all their equipment. They as-sumed the Soviets would not attack again, with the springapproaching, but on 3 March the Soviet Ukrainian Frontwent over to the offensive. Having already isolated theCrimea by severing the Perekop isthmus, Malinovsky’sforces advanced across the mud to the Romanian border,not stopping on the river Prut.One final move in the south completed the 1943–44 cam-paigning season, which had wrapped up a Soviet ad-vance of over 500 miles. In March, 20 German divisionsof Generaloberst Hans-Valentin Hube's 1st Panzer Armywere encircled in what was to be known as Hube’s Pocketnear Kamenets-Podolskiy. After two weeks’ of heavyfighting, the 1st Panzer managed to escape the pocket,suffering only light to moderate casualties. At this point,Hitler sacked several prominent generals, Manstein in-cluded. In April, the Red Army took back Odessa, fol-lowed by 4th Ukrainian Front’s campaign to restore con-trol over the Crimea, which culminated in the capture ofSevastopol on 10 May.Along Army Group Centre’s front, August 1943 saw thisforce pushed back from the Hagen line slowly, cedingcomparatively little territory, but the loss of Bryansk, andmore importantly Smolensk, on 25 September cost the

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donbasshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westwall#Reactivation_of_the_Siegfried_Line,_1944https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeheadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanevhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporozhyehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnepropetrovskhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhytomyrhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Evehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppe_Fronthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremenchughttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korsun%E2%80%93Shevchenkovsky_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roza_Shaninahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_women_in_World_War_IIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_women_in_World_War_IIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Division_(motorised)_Wikinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isthmus_of_Perekophttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalobersthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Valentin_Hubehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Panzer_Armyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamenets-Podolsky_Pockethttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odessahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevastopol

12 4 CONDUCT OF OPERATIONS

Soviet advances from 1 August 1943 to 31 December 1944:to 1 December 1943to 30 April 1944to 19 August 1944to 31 December 1944

Wehrmacht the keystone of the entire German defensivesystem. The 4th and 9th armies and 3rd Panzer Armystill held their own east of the upper Dnieper, stifling So-viet attempts to reach Vitebsk. On Army Group North’sfront, there was barely any fighting at all until January1944, when out of nowhere Volkhov and Second BalticFronts struck. In a lightning campaign, the Germans werepushed back from Leningrad and Novgorod was capturedby Soviet forces. After a 75-mile advance in January andFebruary, the Leningrad Front had reached the bordersof Estonia. To Stalin, the Baltic Sea seemed the quick-est way to take the battles to the German territory in EastPrussia and seize control of Finland.[57] The LeningradFront's offensives towards Tallinn, a main Baltic port,were stopped in February 1944. The German army group“Narwa” included Estonian conscripts, defending the re-establishment of Estonian independence.[58][59]

4.8 Summer 1944

Main articles: Crimean Offensive (1944), OperationBagration, Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive, Battle of Tan-nenberg Line, Warsaw Uprising, Slovak National Upris-ing, Battle of Romania (1944), Battle of Debrecen andVyborg–Petrozavodsk OffensiveWehrmacht planners were convinced that the Sovietswould attack again in the south, where the front wasfifty miles from Lviv and offered the most direct routeto Berlin. Accordingly, they stripped troops from ArmyGroup Centre, whose front still protruded deep into theSoviet Union. The Germans had transferred some unitsto France to counter the invasion of Normandy twoweeks before. The Belorussian Offensive (codenamedOperation Bagration), which began on 22 June 1944, wasa massive Soviet attack, consisting of four Soviet armygroups totaling over 120 divisions that smashed into a

The Red Army is greeted in Bucharest, August 1944

Soviet and Polish Armia Krajowa soldiers in Vilnius, July 1944

thinly held German line. They focused their massive at-tacks on Army Group Centre, not Army Group NorthUkraine as the Germans had originally expected. Morethan 2.3 million Soviet troops went into action againstGerman Army Group Centre, which boasted a strengthof fewer than 800,000 men. At the points of attack,the numerical and quality advantages of the Soviets wereoverwhelming: the Red Army achieved a ratio of ten toone in tanks and seven to one in aircraft over their en-emy. The Germans crumbled. The capital of Belarus,Minsk, was taken on 3 July, trapping some 100,000 Ger-mans. Ten days later the Red Army reached the prewarPolish border. Bagration was by any measure, one of thelargest single operations of the war. By the end of August1944, it had cost the Germans ~400,000 dead, wounded,missing and sick, from whom 160,000 were captured, aswell as 2,000 tanks and 57,000 other vehicles. In the op-eration, the Red Army lost ~180,000 dead and missing(765,815 in total, including wounded and sick plus 5,073Poles),[60] as well as 2,957 tanks and assault guns. Theoffensive at Estonia claimed another 480,000 Soviet sol-diers, 100,000 of them classed as dead.[61][62]

The neighbouring Lvov–Sandomierz operation waslaunched on 17 July 1944, rapidly routing the Germanforces in Western Ukraine. Lviv itself was occupiedagain by the Soviets on 26 July, the first time being inSeptember 1939 during the Nazi–Soviet alliance and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novgorodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad_Fronthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad_Fronthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_(1944)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_seahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_SShttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Committee_of_the_Republic_of_Estoniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Committee_of_the_Republic_of_Estoniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Offensive_(1944)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bagrationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bagrationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lvov%E2%80%93Sandomierz_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tannenberg_Linehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tannenberg_Linehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprisinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_National_Uprisinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_National_Uprisinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Romania_(1944)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Debrecenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyborg%E2%80%93Petrozavodsk_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lvivhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Normandyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bagrationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucharesthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armia_Krajowahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircrafthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minskhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polandhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_(1944)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lvov%E2%80%93Sandomierz_Offensive

4.9 Autumn 1944 13

joint invasion of Poland. This time, the city was retakenby the 1st Ukrainian Front, a Soviet force, relativelyeasily. Ukrainian hopes of independence were squashedamidst the overwhelming force of the Soviets, much likein the Baltic States. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army,UPA, would continue waging a guerrilla war against theSoviets well into the 1950s. The Soviet advance in thesouth continued into Romania and, following a coupagainst the Axis-allied government of Romania on 23August, the Red Army occupied Bucharest on 31 August.In Moscow on 12 September, Romania and the SovietUnion signed an armistice on terms Moscow virtuallydictated. The Romanian surrender tore a hole in thesouthern German Eastern Front causing the inevitableloss of the whole of the Balkans.

Soviet soldiers advance through the streets of Jelgava; summer1944

The rapid progress of Operation Bagration threatenedto cut off and isolate the German units of ArmyGroup North bitterly resisting the Soviet advance towardsTallinn. In a ferocious attack at the Sinimäed Hills, Esto-nia, the Soviet Leningrad Front failed to break throughthe defence of the smaller, well-fortified army detach-ment “Narwa” in terrain not suitable for large-scale op-erations.[63][64]

On the Karelian Isthmus, the Soviets launched a massiveattack against the Finnish lines on 9 June 1944, (coor-dinated with the Allied Invasion of Normandy). Threearmies were pitted there against the Finns, among themseveral experienced guards rifle formations. The attackbreached the Finnish front line of defence in Valkeasaarion 10 June and the Finnish forces retreated to their sec-ondary defence line, the VT-line. The Soviet attack wassupported by a heavy artillery barrage, air bombardmentsand armoured forces. The VT-line was breached on 14June and after a failed counterattack in Kuuterselkä bythe Finnish armoured division, the Finnish defense had tobe pulled back to the VKT-line. After heavy fighting inthe battles of Tali-Ihantala and Ilomantsi, Finnish troopsfinally managed to halt the Soviet attack.In Poland, as the Red Army approached, the Polish HomeArmy (AK) launched Operation Tempest. During the

Warsaw Uprising, the Soviet Army halted at the VistulaRiver, unable or unwilling to come to the aid of the Pol-ish resistance. An attempt by the communist controlled1st Polish Army to relieve the city was unsupported bythe Red Army and was thrown back in September withheavy losses.In Slovakia, the Slovak National Uprising started as anarmed struggle between German Wehrmacht forces andrebel Slovak troops between August and October 1944.It was centered at Banská Bystrica.

4.9 Autumn 1944

Over three million German and axis personnel were awarded theEastern Front Medal for service during 15 November 1941 – 15April 1942 from its creation on 26 May 1942 until 4 Septem-ber 1944. Soon it was nicknamed as the Gefrierfleischorden –“frozen meat-medal”.[65]

Main articles: Baltic Offensive (1944), Belgrade Offen-sive and Budapest Offensive

On 8 September 1944 the Red Army began an attack onthe Dukla Pass on the Slovak–Polish border. Twomonthslater, the Soviets won the battle and entered Slovakia.The toll was high: 20,000 Red Army soldiers died, plusseveral thousand Germans, Slovaks and Czechs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Insurgent_Armyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Romania_(1944)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucharesthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armisticehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelgavahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Group_Northhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Group_Northhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_(1944)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallinnhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tannenberg_Linehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad_Fronthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_(1944)#Formation_of_Army_Detachment_%2522Narwa%2522https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_(1944)#Formation_of_Army_Detachment_%2522Narwa%2522https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_(1944)#Terrainhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_(1944)#Terrainhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelian_Isthmushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyborg%E2%80%93Petrozavodsk_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyborg%E2%80%93Petrozavodsk_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VT-linehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VKT-linehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tali-Ihantalahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ilomantsihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Home_Armyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Home_Armyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tempesthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprisinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistula_Riverhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistula_Riverhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Polish_Army_(1944%E2%80%931945)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovakiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_National_Uprisinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bansk%C3%A1_Bystricahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_Medalhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Offensive_(1944)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgrade_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgrade_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Dukla_Passhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia

14 4 CONDUCT OF OPERATIONS

Under the pressure of the Soviet Baltic Offensive, theGerman Army Group North were withdrawn to fight inthe sieges of Saaremaa, Courland and Memel.

4.10 January–March 1945

Soviet advances from 1 January 1945 to 11 May 1945:to 30 March 1945to 11 May 1945

Main articles: Vistula–Oder Offensive (January–February) with the follow-up East Pomeranian Offensiveand Silesian Offensives (February–April), East Prus-sian Offensive (January–April), Vienna Offensive(March–April)

The Soviet Union finally entered Warsaw on 17 January1945, after the city was destroyed and abandoned by theGermans. Over three days, on a broad front incorporat-ing four army fronts, the Red Army began an offensiveacross the Narew River and from Warsaw. The Sovietsoutnumbered the Germans on average by five~six to onein troops, six to one in artillery, six to one in tanks andfour to one in self-propelled artillery. After four days theRed Army broke out and started moving thirty to fortykilometres a day, taking the Baltic states, Danzig, EastPrussia, Poznań, and drawing up on a line sixty kilome-tres east of Berlin along the River Oder. During the fullcourse of the Vistula–Oder operation (23 days), the RedArmy forces sustained 194,191 total casualties (killed,wounded and missing) and lost 1,267 tanks and assaultguns.On 25 January 1945, Hitler renamed three army groups.Army Group North became Army Group Courland;Army Group Centre became Army Group North andArmy Group A became Army Group Centre. ArmyGroup North (old Army Group Centre) was driven intoan ever smaller pocket around Königsberg in East Prussia.A limited counter-attack (codenamed Operation Sol-stice) by the newly created Army Group Vistula, un-der the command of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler,had failed by 24 February, and the Soviets drove on to

German refugees from East Prussia, February 1945

Pomerania and cleared the right bank of the Oder River.In the south, three German attempts to relieve the en-circled Budapest failed and the city fell on 13 Februaryto the Soviets. On 6 March, the Germans again counter-attacked; Hitler insisting on the impossible task of regain-ing the Danube River. By 16 March the attack had failedand the Red Army counterattacked the same day. On 30March they entered Austria and captured Vienna on 13April.OKW claim German losses of 77,000 killed, 334,000wounded and 292,000 missing, with a total of 703,000men, on the Eastern Front during January and February1945.[66]

On 9 April 1945, Königsberg in East Prussia finally fell tothe Red Army, although the shattered remnants of ArmyGroup Centre continued to resist on the Vistula Spit andHel Peninsula until the end of the war in Europe. TheEast Prussian operation, though often overshadowed bythe Vistula–Oder operation and the later battle for Berlin,was in fact one of the largest and costliest operationsfought by the Red Army throughout the war. Duringthe period it lasted (13 January – 25 April), it cost theRed Army 584,788 casualties, and 3,525 tanks and as-sault guns.The fall of Königsberg allowed Stavka to free up GeneralKonstantin Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front (2BF)tomove west to the east bank of the Oder. During the firsttwo weeks of April, the Soviets performed their fastestfront redeployment of the war. General Georgy Zhukovconcentrated his 1st Belorussian Front (1BF), which hadbeen deployed along the Oder river from Frankfurt in thesouth to the Baltic, into an area in front of the SeelowHeights. The 2BF moved into the positions being va-cated by the 1BF north of the Seelow Heights. Whilethis redeployment was in progress gaps were left in thelines and the remnants of the German 2nd Army, whichhad been bottled up in a pocket near Danzig, managed toescape across the Oder. To the south General Ivan Konevshifted the main weight of the 1st Ukrainian Front (1UF)out of Upper Silesia north-west to the Neisse River.[67]The three Soviet fronts had altogether some 2.5 million

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Offensive_(1944)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallinn_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonzund_Landing_Operationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courland_Pockethttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Memelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistula%E2%80%93Oder_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Pomeranian_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian_Offensiveshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussian_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussian_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsawhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_(Soviet_Army)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistula%E2%80%93Oder_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistula%E2%80%93Oder_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-propelled_artilleryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danzighttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozna%C5%84https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oderhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Group_Northhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Group_Courlandhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Group_Ahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6nigsberghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Solsticehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Solsticehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Group_Vistulahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsf%C3%BChrer-SShttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmlerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomeraniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Konradhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapesthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Balaton_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Balaton_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danubehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austriahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viennahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistula_Spithttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hel_Peninsulahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussian_Offensivehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Rokossovskyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Belorussian_Fronthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Zhukovhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Belorussian_Fronthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_an_der_Oderhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seelow_Heightshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seelow_Heightshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Konevhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Ukrainian_Fronthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Silesiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neisse

4.11 End of the War: April–May 1945 15

men (including 78,556 soldiers of the 1st Polish Army);6,250 tanks; 7,500 aircraft; 41,600 artillery pieces andmortars; 3,255 truck-mounted Katyusha rocket launch-ers, (nicknamed “Stalin Organs”); and 95,383 motor ve-hicles, many of which were manufactured in the USA.[67]

4.11 End of the War: April–May 1945

Main articles: Battle of Berlin, Battle of Halbe, PragueOffensive

14,933,000 Soviet and Soviet-allied personnel were awarded theMedal for Victory over Germany from 9 May 1945

All that was left for the Soviets to do was to launch anoffensive to capture central Germany (which would even-tually become East Germany after the war). The Sovietoffensive had two objectives. Because of Stalin’s suspi-cions about the intentions of the Western Allies to handover territory occupied by them in the post-war Sovietzone of occupation, the offensive was to be on a broadfront and was to move as rapidly as possible to the west,to meet theWestern Allies as far west as possible. But theoverriding objective was to capture Berlin. The two werecomplementary because possession of the zone could not

A flag of the Soviet 150th Rifle Division raised over the Reichstag(the Victory Banner)

be won quickly unless Berlin was taken. Another consid-eration was that Berlin itself held strategic assets, includ-ing Adolf Hitler and part of the German atomic bombprogram.[68]

The offensive to capture central Germany and Berlinstarted on 16 April with an assault on the German frontlines on the Oder and Neisse rivers. After several daysof heavy fighting the Soviet 1BF and 1UF punched holesthrough the German front line and were fanning outacross central Germany. By 24 April, elements of the1BF and 1UF had completed the encirclement of theGerman capital and the Battle of Berlin entered its finalstages. On 25 April the 2BF broke through the German3rd Panzer Army’s line south of Stettin. They were nowfree to move west towards the British 21st Army Groupand north towards the Baltic port of Stralsund. The 58thGuards Rifle Division of the 5th Guards Army made con-tact with the US 69th Infantry Division of the First Armynear Torgau, Germany at the Elbe river.[69][70]

Soviet soldiers celebrating the surrender of the German forces inBerlin, 2 May 1945

On 29 and 30 April, as the Soviet forces fought their wayinto the centre of Berlin, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braunand then committed suicide by taking cyanide and shoot-ing himself. Helmuth Weidling, defence commandant ofBerlin, surrendered the city to the Soviets on 2 May.[71]Altogether, the Berlin operation (16 April – 2 May) costthe Red Army 361,367 casualties (dead, wounded, miss-ing and sick) and 1,997 tanks and assault guns. German

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losses in this period of the war remain impossible to de-termine with any reliability.[72]

At 02:41 on the morning of 7May 1945, at SHAEF head-quarters, German Chief-of-Staff General Alfred Jodlsigned the unconditional surrender documents for all Ger-man forces to the Allies at Reims in France. It includedthe phrase All force