How the Red Army beat Hitler part two
BY DECEMBER 1941 Germany and their allies (Italy, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, French, and Spanish volunteers) had advanced to the gates of Moscow. With overstretched supply lines and severe weather setting in they dug in to defend the enormous swathes of the Soviet lands they had captured in the past six months.
Stalin now planned a counter-offensive to push the fascist invaders back using his eastern and Siberian troops - trained and equipped for winter warfare. The relief of Moscow began on 5 December 1941 and made early gains at several points and freeing Moscow from immediate danger. However the Red Army wasn't strong enough to force a full retreat by the Germans and the front remained largely static until a new German offensive was launched in June 1942.
Operation Blue was Hitler's renewed effort to defeat the USSR outright. His huge losses in 1941 meant that he couldn't launch another assault along the entire Russian front. Hitler's generals planned instead to capture the oilfields of southern Russia, and cut the USSR in two on the river Volga. The 1942 summer offensive saw the German forces make huge and rapid sweeping gains. Army Group A began to advance on the industrial Soviet showpiece city of Stalingrad. Three Soviet field armies had been destroyed and the German advance now split in two with one half going south to the oilfields whilst another - the 6th army carried on eastwards to capture Stalingrad. By mid September the Germans had reached the city centre yet were spread across a vast front with neither arm group actually having fully taken their objectives. Meanwhile Stalin ordred the Red Army to defend Stalingrad at all costs. "It is time to finish retreating!" Stalin ordered, "Not one step back!"
What followed was the biggest and bloodiest battle of the Second World War - if not of the 20th century. It became a gruelling fight amongst the streets, buildings, and houses of the city. Ordinary buildings were turned into fortresses. General Chuikov, defending the city ordered his troops to 'hug the enemy' and fight at close quarters thus negating the Germans artillery and air power. The battle halted the German advance eastwards and marked the turning point of the Second World War.
Monument marking the limit of the German advance on Moscow on 2 December 1942. Photo (c) 2007 James Florey.
By November 1942 the Red army had built up enough strength to go over to the counter attack on the Stalingrad front. rather than attack the German 6th army head on the Red Army attacked its flanks which were manned by German allies; the much weaker and ill equipped Romanian, and Italian armies. They were smashed to pieces in Operation Uranus. The German 6th army became cut off and surrounded, it was annihilated and the remnants forced to surrender in February 1943. Then the Red Army pushed the Germans out of the south of Russia and into retreat.
By the summer of 1943 the Red Army had thrust south west of Moscow creating a huge salient around Kursk. German forces made one last epic offensive to cut off this salient. The following battle - Operation Citadel - became the largest tank battle in history involving around 8000 tanks and 1.7 million men on each side. Soviet aircraft - tank busters - played a vital role, nearly 4000 of them helping to smash the German armour and negate the power of the German air force too. Kursk marked the high point of the German effort in the USSR and on the eastern front. Their armies were smashed and never again regained the initiative. From here the Germans could only fight defensive battles of retreat until they finally fell upon Berlin in 1945.
The Red Army could now sweep forward on a broad front pushing the Germans out of the USSR altogether. In the summer of 1944 the Red Army launched its biggest and most decisive offensive of the war - Operation Bagration - involving millions of Soviet troops and advancing on the borders of the German reich.
The Russian way of war was known as the Deep Battle Doctrine. It had been developed in the inter war years by Marshall Tukhachevsky and was a theory of mechanised war that looked at pushing through to the enemy's lines of communication and logistics. The theory focussed on making narrow breakthroughs across the enemy's front line and capturing key logistical points before the enemy could retreat. Up until 1943 most Red Army attempts at Deep Battle were disastrous simply because they themselves lacked good chains of supply and equipment. From 1943 onwards however the 1500 factories that had relocated to Siberia and east of the Urals were able to amply supply the Red Army with all its needs. More so with the USSRs much larger numerical strength of manpower the Red Army could keep feeding troops into the assault whereas the Germans manpower constantly and steadily dwindled. The god of war loves the big battalions and Deep Battle success depends on having huge numbers of troops, artillery, tanks and aircraft - as well as the logistics to keep them in the field. The Red Army was also lucky to have in it two outstanding commanders; Zhukov and Rossokovsky both of whom rarely lost a battle.
Finally the last Soviet advance from January until May 1945 saw staggering losses amongst the Wehrmacht, and also German civilians. Germany had suffered appalling bomb damage from British and American bomber forces, with its industries smashed to pieces. On 2 May 1945, after a fearful battle where over 100,000 Soviet troops were killed, Hitler shot himself and the Red Flag flew over Berlin. The Red Army had beaten the Third Reich and won the war.