Battle of Stalingrad |
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Stalingrad, Stalingrad region, USSR |
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Decisive Soviet victory, destruction of the German 6th Army, failure of the Axis offensive on the Eastern Front |
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Opponents |
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Germany |
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Croatia |
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Finnish volunteers |
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Commanders |
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A. M. Vasilevsky (Representative of the Stavka) |
E. von Manstein (Army Group Don) |
N. N. Voronov (coordinator) |
M. Weichs (Army Group B) |
N. F. Vatutin (Southwestern Front) |
F. Paulus (6th Army) |
V. N. Gordov (Stalingrad Front) |
G. Goth (4th Panzer Army) |
A. I. Eremenko (Stalingrad Front) |
W. von Richthofen (4th Air Fleet) |
S. K. Timoshenko (Stalingrad Front) |
I. Gariboldi (Italian 8th Army) |
K. K. Rokossovsky (Don Front) |
G. Jani (Hungarian 2nd Army) |
V. I. Chuikov (62nd Army) |
P. Dumitrescu (Romanian 3rd Army) |
M. S. Shumilov (64th Army) |
C. Constantinescu (Romanian 4th Army) |
R. Ya. Malinovsky (2nd Guards Army) |
V. Pavicic (Croatian 369th Infantry Regiment) |
Side forces |
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By the beginning of the operation, 386 thousand people, 2.2 thousand guns and mortars, 230 tanks, 454 aircraft (+200 self. YES and 60 self. Air defense) |
By the beginning of the operation: 430 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars, 250 tanks and assault guns, 1200 aircraft. On November 19, 1942, there were more than 987,300 people in the ground forces (including): |
Additionally, 11 army directorates, 8 tank and mechanized corps, 56 divisions and 39 brigades were introduced from the Soviet side. On November 19, 1942: in the ground forces - 780 thousand people. Total 1.14 million people |
400.000 soldiers and officers |
143.300 soldiers and officers |
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220.000 soldiers and officers |
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200.000 soldiers and officers |
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20.000 soldiers and officers |
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4,000 soldiers and officers, 10,250 machine guns, guns, and mortars, about 500 tanks, 732 aircraft (402 of them are out of order) |
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1 129 619 people (irretrievable and sanitary losses), 524 thousand units. shooter weapons, 4341 tanks and self-propelled guns, 2777 aircraft, 15.7 thousand guns and mortars |
1,500,000 (irretrievable and sanitary losses), approximately 91,000 captured soldiers and officers 5,762 guns, 1,312 mortars, 12,701 machine guns, 156,987 rifles, 10,722 machine guns, 744 aircraft, 1,666 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, 80,438 vehicles, 10,679 motorcycles, 240 tractors, 571 tractors, 3 armored trains and other military equipment |
Battle of Stalingrad- a battle between the troops of the USSR, on the one hand, and the troops of Nazi Germany, Romania, Italy, Hungary, on the other, during the Great Patriotic War. The battle was one of the most important events of World War II and, along with the Battle of Kursk, was a turning point in the course of hostilities, after which the German troops lost their strategic initiative. The battle included an attempt by the Wehrmacht to capture the left bank of the Volga near Stalingrad (modern Volgograd) and the city itself, a confrontation in the city, and a counteroffensive by the Red Army (Operation Uranus), which resulted in the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht and other German allied forces inside and around the city were surrounded and partly destroyed, partly captured. According to rough estimates, the total losses of both sides in this battle exceed two million people. The Axis powers lost large numbers of men and weapons and subsequently failed to fully recover from the defeat.
For the Soviet Union, which also suffered heavy losses during the battle, the victory at Stalingrad marked the beginning of the liberation of the country, as well as the occupied territories of Europe, leading to the final defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
On June 22, 1941, Germany and its allies invaded the territory of the Soviet Union, rapidly moving inland. Having suffered defeat during the battles in the summer and autumn of 1941, the Soviet troops counterattacked during the battle for Moscow in December 1941. Exhausted German troops, poorly equipped for combat operations in winter and with extended rears, were stopped on the outskirts of the capital and thrown back.
In the winter of 1941-1942, the front finally stabilized. Plans for a new attack on Moscow were rejected by Hitler, despite the fact that his generals insisted on this option - he believed that an attack on Moscow would be too predictable.
For all these reasons, the German command considered plans for new offensives in the north and south. An attack on the south of the USSR would ensure control over the oil fields of the Caucasus (Grozny and Baku regions), as well as over the Volga River, the main transport artery connecting the European part of the country with the Transcaucasus and Central Asia. A German victory in the south of the Soviet Union could seriously damage the Soviet war machine and economy.
The Soviet leadership, encouraged by the successes near Moscow, tried to seize the strategic initiative and in May 1942 threw large forces into the offensive near Kharkov. The offensive began from the Barvenkovsky ledge south of Kharkov, which was formed as a result of the winter offensive of the South-Western Front (a feature of this offensive was the use of a new Soviet mobile formation - a tank corps, which approximately corresponded to the German tank division in terms of the number of tanks and artillery, but was significantly inferior to it in number motorized infantry). The Germans, at that time, were simultaneously planning an operation to cut off the Barvenkovsky ledge.
The offensive of the Red Army was so unexpected for the Wehrmacht that it almost ended in disaster for Army Group South. However, the Germans decided not to change their plans and, thanks to the concentration of troops on the flanks of the ledge, they broke through the defenses of the Soviet troops. Most of the Southwestern Front was surrounded. In the subsequent three-week battles, known as the "second battle for Kharkov", the advancing units of the Red Army suffered a heavy defeat. According to German data alone, more than 200 thousand people were taken prisoner (according to Soviet archival data, the irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to 170,958 people), a lot of heavy weapons were lost. After that, the front south of Voronezh was practically open (See map May - July 1942). The key to the Caucasus, the city of Rostov-on-Don, which in November 1941 managed to defend with such difficulty, was lost.
After the Kharkiv disaster of the Red Army in May 1942, Hitler intervened in strategic planning by ordering Army Group South to split in two. Army Group "A" was to continue the offensive in the North Caucasus. Army Group "B", including the 6th Army of Friedrich Paulus and the 4th Panzer Army of G. Hoth, was to move east towards the Volga and Stalingrad.
The capture of Stalingrad was very important to Hitler for several reasons. It was the main industrial city on the banks of the Volga and a vital transport route between the Caspian Sea and northern Russia. The capture of Stalingrad would provide security on the left flank of the German armies advancing into the Caucasus. Finally, the very fact that the city bore the name of Stalin - Hitler's main enemy - made the capture of the city a winning ideological and propaganda move.
The summer offensive was codenamed Fall Blau. "option blue"). The 6th and 17th armies of the Wehrmacht, the 1st and 4th tank armies participated in it.
Operation "Blau" began with the offensive of the Army Group "South" on the troops of the Bryansk Front to the north and the troops of the South-Western Front to the south of Voronezh. It is worth noting that, despite a two-month break in active hostilities, the result for the troops of the Bryansk Front was no less disastrous than for the troops of the South-Western Front, battered by the May battles. On the very first day of the operation, both Soviet fronts were broken through tens of kilometers inland and the Germans rushed to the Don. Soviet troops could only oppose weak resistance in the vast desert steppes, and then they began to flock to the east in complete disarray. Ended in complete failure and attempts to re-form the defense, when the German units entered the Soviet defensive positions from the flank. In mid-July, several divisions of the Red Army fell into a pocket in the south of the Voronezh region, near the village of Millerovo.
One of the important factors that thwarted the plans of the Germans was the failure of the offensive operation on Voronezh.
Easily capturing the right-bank part of the city, the enemy was unable to develop success and the front line was leveled along the Voronezh River. The left bank remained behind the Soviet troops and repeated attempts by the Germans to drive the Red Army from the left bank were unsuccessful. The German troops ran out of resources to continue offensive operations and the battles for Voronezh moved into a positional phase. Due to the fact that the main forces of the German army were sent to Stalingrad, the attack on Voronezh was stopped, the most combat-ready units were removed from the front and transferred to the 6th Paulus Army. Subsequently, this factor played an important role in the defeat of the German troops near Stalingrad (see Voronezh-Kastornenskaya operation).
After taking Rostov, Hitler transferred the 4th Panzer Army from Group A (advancing into the Caucasus) to Group B, aiming east towards the Volga and Stalingrad.
The Sixth Army's initial offensive was so successful that Hitler intervened again, ordering the Fourth Panzer Army to join Army Group South (A). As a result, a huge "traffic jam" was formed, when the 4th and 6th armies needed several roads in the zone of operations. Both armies were firmly stuck, and the delay turned out to be quite long and slowed down the German advance by one week. With the slow advance, Hitler changed his mind and reassigned the target of the 4th Panzer Army back to the Stalingrad direction.
The army was supported by the 4th Air Fleet, which had up to 1200 aircraft (fighter aircraft aimed at Stalingrad, in initial stage battles for this city consisted of about 120 Messerschmitt Bf.109F-4 / G-2 fighter aircraft (various domestic sources give figures ranging from 100 to 150), plus about 40 outdated Romanian Bf.109E-3).
By the end of July, the Germans pushed back the Soviet troops beyond the Don. The defense line stretched for hundreds of kilometers from north to south along the Don. In order to organize a defense along the river, the Germans had to use, in addition to their 2nd Army, the armies of their Italian, Hungarian and Romanian allies. The 6th Army was only a few dozen kilometers from Stalingrad, and the 4th Panzer, south of it, turned north to help take the city. Further south, Army Group South (A) continued to deepen further into the Caucasus, but its advance slowed down. Army Group South A was too far south to support Army Group South B in the north.
In July, when the German intentions became quite clear to the Soviet command, they developed plans for the defense of Stalingrad. Additional Soviet troops were deployed on the eastern bank of the Volga. The 62nd Army was created under the command of Vasily Chuikov, whose task was to defend Stalingrad at any cost.
There is a version that Stalin did not give permission for the evacuation of the inhabitants of the city. However, no documentary evidence of this has yet been found. In addition, the evacuation, albeit at a slow pace, but still took place. By August 23, 1942, about 100 thousand of the 400 thousand inhabitants of Stalingrad were evacuated. On August 24, the Stalingrad City Defense Committee adopted a belated decision to evacuate women, children and the wounded to the left bank of the Volga. All citizens, including women and children, worked on the construction of trenches and other fortifications.
Massive German bombardment on August 23 destroyed the city, killed more than 40,000 people, destroyed more than half of the housing stock of pre-war Stalingrad, thereby turning the city into a huge area covered with burning ruins.
The burden of the initial fight for Stalingrad fell on the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment: a unit staffed mainly by young female volunteers with no experience in destroying ground targets. Despite this, and without the proper support available from other Soviet units, the anti-aircraft gunners remained in place and fired on the advancing enemy tanks of the 16th Panzer Division until all 37 air defense batteries were destroyed or captured. By the end of August, Army Group South (B) reached the Volga to the north of the city, and then to the south of it.
At the initial stage, the Soviet defense relied to a large extent on the "People's Militia of Workers", recruited from workers not involved in military production. Tanks continued to be built and manned by voluntary crews, consisting of factory workers, including women. The equipment was immediately sent from the conveyors of factories to the front line, often even without painting and without sighting equipment installed.
By September 1, 1942, the Soviet command could provide its troops in Stalingrad only with risky crossings across the Volga. In the midst of the ruins of the already destroyed city, the Soviet 62nd Army built defensive positions with gun emplacements located in buildings and factories. The battle in the city was fierce and desperate. The Germans, moving deep into Stalingrad, suffered heavy losses. Soviet reinforcements crossed the Volga from the east bank under constant bombardment by German artillery and aircraft. The average life expectancy of a newly arrived Soviet private in the city sometimes fell below twenty-four hours. The German military doctrine was based on the interaction of military branches in general and especially close interaction of infantry, sappers, artillery and dive bombers. To counter this, the Soviet command decided to take the simple step of constantly keeping the front lines as close to the enemy as physically possible (usually no more than 30 meters). Thus, the German infantry had to fight on its own, or be in danger of being killed by its own artillery and horizontal bombers, support was possible only from dive bombers. A painful struggle went on for every street, every factory, every house, basement or stairway. The Germans, calling the new urban war (German. Rattenkrieg, Rat War), bitterly joked that the kitchen had already been captured, but they were still fighting for the bedroom.
The battle on Mamayev Kurgan, the blood-soaked height overlooking the city, was unusually merciless. Height changed hands several times. At the grain elevator, a huge grain processing complex, the fighting was so dense that Soviet and German soldiers could feel each other's breath. The fighting at the grain elevator continued for weeks, until the Soviet army gave up its positions. In another part of the city, an apartment building defended by a Soviet platoon in which Yakov Pavlov served was turned into an impregnable fortress. Despite the fact that this building was subsequently defended by many other officers, the original name was assigned to it. From this house, later called "Pavlov's House", one could observe the square in the city center. Soldiers surrounded the building with minefields and set up machine gun positions.
Seeing no end to this terrible struggle, the Germans began to bring heavy artillery to the city, including several giant 600-mm mortars. The Germans made no effort to ferry troops across the Volga, allowing Soviet troops erect a huge number of artillery batteries on the opposite bank. Soviet artillery on the eastern bank of the Volga continued to calculate German positions and work them with increased fire. The Soviet defenders used the emerging ruins as defensive positions. German tanks could not move among piles of cobblestones up to 8 meters high. Even if they could move forward, they came under heavy fire from Soviet anti-tank units located in the ruins of buildings.
Soviet snipers, using the ruins as cover, also inflicted heavy damage on the Germans. The most successful sniper (known only as "Zikan") - he had 224 people on his account already by November 20, 1942. Sniper Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev during the battle destroyed 225 enemy soldiers and officers (including 11 snipers).
For both Stalin and Hitler, the Battle of Stalingrad became a matter of prestige in addition to strategic importance. The Soviet command moved the reserves of the Red Army from Moscow to the Volga, and also transferred air forces from almost the entire country to the Stalingrad region. The tension of both military commanders was immeasurable: Paulus even developed an uncontrollable nervous tic of the eye.
In November, after three months of carnage and a slow, costly advance, the Germans finally reached the banks of the Volga, capturing 90% of the ruined city and splitting the surviving Soviet troops in two, causing them to fall into two narrow pockets. In addition to all this, a crust of ice formed on the Volga, preventing the approach of boats and supplies for the Soviet troops in a difficult situation. In spite of everything, the struggle, especially on Mamaev Kurgan and in the factories in the northern part of the city, continued as furiously as before. The battles for the Krasny Oktyabr plant, the tractor plant and the Barrikady artillery plant became known to the whole world. While Soviet soldiers continued to defend their positions by firing at the Germans, plant and factory workers repaired damaged Soviet tanks and weapons in the immediate vicinity of the battlefield, and sometimes on the battlefield itself.
The Don Front was formed on September 30, 1942. It included: 1st Guards, 21st, 24th, 63rd and 66th Armies, 4th Tank Army, 16th Air Army. Lieutenant General K.K. Rokossovsky, who took command, actively began to fulfill the "old dream" of the right flank of the Stalingrad Front - to surround the German 14th Panzer Corps and connect with units of the 62nd Army.
Having taken command, Rokossovsky found the newly formed front on the offensive - following the order of the Headquarters, on September 30 at 5:00, after artillery preparation, units of the 1st Guards, 24th and 65th armies went on the offensive. Heavy fighting went on for two days. But, as noted in the TsAMO document f 206, parts of the armies had no advances, and moreover, as a result of German counterattacks, several heights were left. By October 2, the offensive had fizzled out.
But here, from the Stavka reserve, the Don Front receives seven fully equipped rifle divisions (277, 62, 252, 212, 262, 331, 293 rifle divisions). The command of the Don Front decides to use fresh forces for a new offensive. On October 4, Rokossovsky instructed to develop a plan for an offensive operation, and on October 6 the plan was ready. The operation was scheduled for October 10th. But by this time, several things have happened.
On October 5, 1942, Stalin, in a telephone conversation with A. I. Eremenko, sharply criticizes the leadership of the Stalingrad Front, and demands that immediate measures be taken to stabilize the front and subsequently defeat the enemy. In response to this, on October 6, Eremenko made a report to Stalin on the situation and considerations for the further actions of the front. The first part of this document is justification and blaming the Don Front (“they had high hopes for help from the north”, etc.). In the second part of the report, Eremenko proposes to carry out an operation to encircle and destroy German units near Stalingrad. There, for the first time, it is proposed to encircle the 6th Army with flank attacks on the Romanian units, and after breaking through the fronts, unite in the Kalach-on-Don area.
The Headquarters considered Eremenko's plan, but then considered it unfeasible (the operation was too deep, etc.).
As a result, the Headquarters proposed the following option for encircling and defeating the German troops near Stalingrad: the Don Front was asked to deliver the main blow in the direction of Kotluban, break through the front and go to the Gumrak area. At the same time, the Stalingrad Front is conducting an offensive from the Gornaya Polyana region to Elshanka, and after breaking through the front, the units advance to the Gumrak region, where they unite with units of the Don Front. In this operation, the command of the fronts was allowed to use fresh units (Don Front - 7th Rifle Division, Stalingrad Front - 7th St. K., 4 Kv. K.). On October 7, General Staff Directive No. 170644 was issued on conducting an offensive operation on two fronts to encircle the 6th Army, the start of the operation was scheduled for October 20.
Thus, it was planned to encircle and destroy only the German troops fighting directly in Stalingrad (14th Panzer Corps, 51st and 4th Infantry Corps, about 12 divisions in total).
The command of the Don Front was dissatisfied with this directive. On October 9, Rokossovsky presented his plan for an offensive operation. He referred to the impossibility of breaking through the front in the Kotluban region. According to his calculations, 4 divisions were required for a breakthrough, 3 divisions for the development of a breakthrough, and 3 more to cover from enemy attacks; thus, seven fresh divisions were clearly not enough. Rokossovsky proposed to strike the main blow in the Kuzmichi area (height 139.7), that is, everything according to the same old scheme: surround the units of the 14th Panzer Corps, connect with the 62nd Army, and only after that move to Gumrak to join units of the 64th th army. The headquarters of the Don Front planned 4 days for this: from October 20 to 24. The "Orlovsky ledge" of the Germans haunted Rokossovsky since August 23, so he decided to first deal with this "corn", and then complete the complete encirclement of the enemy.
The Stavka did not accept Rokossovsky's proposal and recommended that he prepare an operation according to the Stavka's plan; however, he was allowed to conduct a private operation against the Oryol group of Germans on October 10, without attracting fresh forces.
On October 9, units of the 1st Guards Army, as well as the 24th and 66th armies launched an offensive in the direction of Orlovka. The advancing group was supported by 42 Il-2 attack aircraft, under the cover of 50 fighters of the 16th Air Army. The first day of the offensive ended in vain. The 1st Guards Army (298th, 258th, 207th Rifle Divisions) had no advance, while the 24th Army advanced 300 meters. The 299th Rifle Division (66th Army), advancing to the height of 127.7, having suffered heavy losses, had no advances. On October 10, offensive attempts continued, but by the evening they finally weakened and stopped. Another "operation to eliminate the Oryol group" failed. As a result of this offensive, the 1st Guards Army was disbanded due to the losses incurred. Having transferred the remaining units of the 24th Army, the command was withdrawn to the Headquarters reserve.
On November 19, 1942, the offensive of the Red Army began as part of Operation Uranus. On November 23, in the Kalach area, the encirclement ring around the 6th Wehrmacht Army closed. It was not possible to complete the Uranus plan, since it was not possible to divide the 6th Army into two parts from the very beginning (by a strike by the 24th Army in the interfluve of the Volga and Don). Attempts to liquidate those surrounded on the move under these conditions also failed, despite the significant superiority in forces - the superior tactical training of the Germans affected. However, the 6th Army was isolated and supplies of fuel, ammunition and food were progressively reduced, despite attempts to supply it by air, undertaken by the 4th Air Fleet under the command of Wolfram von Richthofen.
The newly formed Wehrmacht Army Group "Don" under the command of Field Marshal Manstein attempted to break through the blockade of the encircled troops (Operation "Wintergewitter" (German. Wintergewitter, Winter Thunderstorm)). Initially, it was planned to start on December 10, but the offensive actions of the Red Army on the outer front of the encirclement forced the start of the operation to be postponed until December 12. By this date, the Germans managed to present only one full-fledged tank formation - the 6th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht and (from the infantry formations) the remnants of the defeated 4th Romanian Army. These units were under the control of the 4th Panzer Army under the command of G. Goth. During the offensive, the group was reinforced by the very battered 11th and 17th tank divisions and three airfield divisions.
By December 19, units of the 4th Panzer Army, which had actually broken through the defensive orders of the Soviet troops, collided with the 2nd Guards Army under the command of R. Ya. Malinovsky, which had just been transferred from the Stavka reserve. The army consisted of two rifle and one mechanized corps. During the oncoming battles, by December 25, the Germans retreated to the positions in which they were before the start of Operation Wintergewitter, losing almost all equipment and more than 40 thousand people.
According to the plan of the Soviet command, after the defeat of the 6th Army, the forces engaged in Operation Uranus turned to the west and advanced towards Rostov-on-Don as part of Operation Saturn. At the same time, the southern wing of the Voronezh Front was attacking the 8th Italian Army north of Stalingrad and advancing directly to the west (towards the Donets) with an auxiliary attack to the southwest (toward Rostov-on-Don), covering the northern flank of the South-Western front during a hypothetical offensive. However, due to the incomplete implementation of "Uranus", "Saturn" was replaced by "Small Saturn". A breakthrough to Rostov (due to the lack of seven armies pinned down by the 6th Army near Stalingrad) was no longer planned, the Voronezh Front, together with the South-Western and part of the forces of the Stalingrad Front, had the goal of pushing the enemy 100-150 km west of the encircled 6- th Army and defeat the 8th Italian Army (Voronezh Front). The offensive was planned to begin on December 10, however, the problems associated with the delivery of new units necessary for the operation (the ones available on the spot were connected near Stalingrad) led to the fact that A. M. Vasilevsky authorized (with the knowledge of I. V. Stalin) the transfer of the start of the operation to 16 December. On December 16-17, the German front on Chir and on the positions of the 8th Italian Army was broken through, the Soviet tank corps rushed into the operational depth. However, in the mid-20s of December, operational reserves (four well-equipped German tank divisions) began to approach Army Group Don, originally intended to strike during Operation Wintergewitter. By December 25, these reserves launched counterattacks, during which they cut off the tank corps of V. M. Badanov, who had just broken into the airfield in Tatsinskaya (86 German aircraft were destroyed at the airfields).
After that, the front line temporarily stabilized, since neither the Soviet nor the German troops had enough strength to break through the enemy's tactical defense zone.
On December 27, N. N. Voronov sent the first version of the Koltso plan to the Supreme Command Headquarters. The headquarters in directive No. 170718 of December 28, 1942 (signed by Stalin and Zhukov) demanded changes to the plan so that it provided for the division of the 6th Army into two parts before its destruction. Appropriate changes were made to the plan. On January 10, the offensive of the Soviet troops began, the main blow was delivered in the zone of the 65th Army of General Batov. However, the German resistance turned out to be so serious that the offensive had to be temporarily stopped. From January 17 to January 22, the offensive was suspended for regrouping, new strikes on January 22-26 led to the division of the 6th Army into two groups (Soviet troops united in the Mamaev Kurgan area), by January 31, the southern group was liquidated (the command and headquarters of 6 th Army, led by Paulus), by February 2, the northern group of the encircled under the command of the commander of the 11th Army Corps, Colonel General Karl Strecker capitulated. Shooting in the city went on until February 3 - the "Khivi" resisted even after the German surrender on February 2, 1943, since they were not threatened with captivity. The liquidation of the 6th Army, according to the "Ring" plan, was supposed to be completed in a week, but in reality it lasted 23 days. (The 24th Army on January 26 withdrew from the front and was sent to the Stavka reserve).
In total, more than 2,500 officers and 24 generals of the 6th Army were taken prisoner during Operation Ring. In total, over 91 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were taken prisoner. Trophies of the Soviet troops from January 10 to February 2, 1943, according to a report from the headquarters of the Don Front, were 5762 guns, 1312 mortars, 12701 machine guns, 156,987 rifles, 10,722 machine guns, 744 aircraft, 1,666 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, 80,438 vehicles, 10,679 motorcycles , 240 tractors, 571 tractors, 3 armored trains and other military property.
The victory of the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad is the largest military and political event during the Second World War. The great battle, which ended in the encirclement, defeat and capture of a select enemy grouping, made a huge contribution to achieving a radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War and had a decisive influence on the further course of the entire Second World War.
In the Battle of Stalingrad, new features of the military art of the Armed Forces of the USSR manifested themselves with all their might. Soviet operational art was enriched by the experience of encircling and destroying the enemy.
The victory at Stalingrad had a decisive influence on the further course of World War II. As a result of the battle, the Red Army firmly seized the strategic initiative and now dictated its will to the enemy. This changed the nature of the actions of the German troops in the Caucasus, in the regions of Rzhev and Demyansk. The blows of the Soviet troops forced the Wehrmacht to give the order to prepare the Eastern Wall, on which they intended to stop the advance of the Soviet Army.
The outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad caused bewilderment and confusion in the Axis. A crisis of pro-fascist regimes began in Italy, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. The influence of Germany on its allies sharply weakened, and the differences between them became noticeably aggravated. In political circles in Turkey, the desire to maintain neutrality has intensified. Elements of restraint and alienation began to prevail in the relations of the neutral countries towards Germany.
As a result of the defeat in front of Germany, the problem of restoring the losses incurred in equipment and people became. The head of the economic department of the OKW, General G. Thomas, stated that the losses in equipment are equivalent to the number of military equipment of 45 divisions from all branches of the armed forces and are equal to the losses for the entire previous period of fighting on the Soviet-German front. Goebbels at the end of January 1943 declared "Germany will be able to withstand the attacks of the Russians only if it manages to mobilize its last manpower reserves." Losses in tanks and vehicles amounted to a six-month production of the country, in artillery - three months, in rifle and mortars - two months.
Many state and political figures highly appreciated the victory of the Soviet troops. In a message to I. V. Stalin (February 5, 1943), F. Roosevelt called the Battle of Stalingrad an epic struggle, the decisive result of which is celebrated by all Americans. On May 17, 1944, Roosevelt sent a letter to Stalingrad:
British Prime Minister W. Churchill, in a message to I. V. Stalin dated February 1, 1943, called the victory of the Soviet Army at Stalingrad amazing. The King of Great Britain sent a gift sword to Stalingrad, on the blade of which the inscription is engraved in Russian and English:
During the battle, and especially after its end, the activity of public organizations USA, England, Canada, who advocated the provision of more effective assistance to the Soviet Union. For example, New York union members raised $250,000 to build a hospital in Stalingrad. The chairman of the United Union of Garment Workers stated:
American astronaut Donald Slayton, a participant in World War II, recalled:
The victory at Stalingrad had a significant impact on the lives of the occupied peoples and gave them hope for liberation. A drawing appeared on the walls of many Warsaw houses - a heart pierced by a large dagger. On the heart is the inscription "Great Germany", and on the blade - "Stalingrad".
Speaking on February 9, 1943, the famous French anti-fascist writer Jean-Richard Blok said:
The victory of the Soviet Army greatly raised the political and military prestige of the Soviet Union. Former Nazi generals in their memoirs admitted the great military-political significance this victory. G. Dörr wrote:
According to some reports, from 91 to 110 thousand German prisoners were taken prisoner near Stalingrad. Subsequently, 140 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were buried on the battlefield by our troops (not counting the tens of thousands of German soldiers who died in the "boiler" for 73 days). According to the testimony of the German historian Rüdiger Overmans, almost 20 thousand "accomplices" captured in Stalingrad - former Soviet prisoners who served in auxiliary positions in the 6th Army - also died in captivity. They were shot or died in the camps.
The reference book “The Second World War”, published in Germany in 1995, indicates that 201 thousand soldiers and officers were captured near Stalingrad, of which only 6 thousand people returned to their homeland after the war. According to the calculations of the German historian Rüdiger Overmans, published in a special issue of the historical journal Damalz dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad, about 250 thousand people were encircled near Stalingrad. Approximately 25 thousand of them managed to be evacuated from the Stalingrad pocket and more than 100 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht died in January 1943 during the completion of the Soviet operation "Ring". 130 thousand people were captured, including 110 thousand Germans, and the rest were the so-called "voluntary assistants" of the Wehrmacht ("Hiwi" is an abbreviation for the German word Hilfswilliger (Hiwi), the literal translation is "voluntary assistant"). Of these, about 5 thousand people survived and returned home to Germany. The 6th Army included about 52,000 Khivs, for whom the headquarters of this army developed the main directions for training "voluntary assistants", in which the latter were regarded as "reliable comrades-in-arms in the fight against Bolshevism."
In addition, in the 6th Army ... there were about 1 thousand people of the Todt organization, consisting mainly of Western European workers, Croatian and Romanian associations, numbering from 1 thousand to 5 thousand soldiers, as well as several Italians.
If we compare the German and Russian data on the number of soldiers and officers captured in the Stalingrad region, then the following picture appears. In Russian sources, all the so-called “voluntary assistants” of the Wehrmacht (more than 50 thousand people) are excluded from the number of prisoners of war, whom the Soviet competent authorities never classified as “prisoners of war”, but considered them as traitors to the Motherland, subject to trial under the laws of wartime. As for the mass death of prisoners of war from the "Stalingrad cauldron", most of them died during the first year of their captivity due to exhaustion, the effects of cold and numerous diseases received during their time in encirclement. Some data can be cited on this score: only in the period from February 3 to June 10, 1943 in the camp of German prisoners of war in Beketovka (Stalingrad region), the consequences of the "Stalingrad cauldron" cost the lives of more than 27 thousand people; and out of 1800 captured officers stationed in the premises of the former monastery in Yelabuga, by April 1943 only a fourth of the contingent survived.
On the front side medals - a group of fighters with rifles at the ready. Above a group of fighters, on the right side of the medal, a banner flutters, and on the left side, the outlines of tanks and aircraft flying one after another are visible. In the upper part of the medal, above a group of fighters, there is a five-pointed star and an inscription along the edge of the medal "FOR THE DEFENSE OF STALINGRAD".
On the reverse side of the medal is the inscription "FOR OUR SOVIET MOTHERLAND". Above the inscription are a sickle and a hammer.
The medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" was awarded to all participants in the defense of Stalingrad - the military personnel of the Red Army, the Navy and the NKVD troops, as well as civilians who were directly involved in the defense. The period of the defense of Stalingrad is considered July 12 - November 19, 1942.
As of January 1, 1995, approximately 759 561 human.
Named in honor of the Battle of Stalingrad:
In many countries, including France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy and a number of other countries, streets, squares, and squares were named after the battle. Only in Paris the name "Stalingrad" is given to a square, a boulevard and one of the metro stations. In Lyon, there is the so-called "Stalingrad" brackant, where the third largest antique market in Europe is located.
Also in honor of Stalingrad is named the central street of the city of Bologna (Italy).
67 years ago, in the snowy steppes between the Volga and the Don, a terrible and bloody battle. A provincial town on the Volga, which few people in the world knew, gained fame comparable to the glory of the Battle of Cannes. Military operations near Stalingrad deservedly are not only biggest battle World War II, but also the most mysterious, if not mystical. It seemed that hundreds of books were written in different languages: events are described, if not by hours, then by days. But any person who has set himself the task of understanding, understanding, suddenly discovers for himself a lot of new and incomprehensible things.
The Red Army, having received the humiliating lessons of the summer and autumn of 1941, preferred a flexible defense with waste at critical moments. The Germans, having experienced the crushing power of the Russian bayonet in the first days of the war, did not get involved in bloody frontal battles, they were looking for bypasses of heavily fortified areas. Suddenly, in Stalingrad, both sides violated all their principles.
Although it all started on the old notes. Like a hot knife cuts a piece of butter, so the tank columns of the Wehrmacht shredded the South of Russia. Victory seemed to be close. And suddenly, at the foothills of the Caucasus, when the oil of Grozny and Baku - the blood of war - was already nearby, when the blue of the main river of Russia was already visible in the haze of the hot steppe, really suddenly - the scythe found on a stone. More precisely, on a concrete wall.
There were moments in Stalingrad when new units, entering the battle in the morning, dissolved in the ruins of the city by evening, leaving only headquarters and rear services. Here it was considered a great success to capture a couple of houses, a city square or two dozen meters of a street. A huge pile of ruins, broken bricks and mangled military equipment. Until February 2 - the official date of the end of the battle - the fighting in the city did not stop for a second.
After the death of the 6th Army in Germany, a three-day mourning was declared. Later, the Germans had losses quite comparable to those of Stalingrad, but no one else declared mourning.
After the end of the battle, at a meeting of the Government of the USSR, the question was raised about the inexpediency of restoring the city: it was cheaper to build a new city than to try to restore the destroyed one. But Stalin ordered to raise the city from the ruins at any cost. And already in March 43, work began.
Submarines in the steppes of Stalingrad
The work of a modern search engine on the sites of past battles poses, at times, unsolvable riddles. In the Orlovka area, the remains of a German sailor were found. Near Cossack Kurgan (Khutor Baburkin), a Kapitanleutenant tunic was found in a German dugout. Not far from this place, until recently, there was a broken kubelwagen marked "WM" (Kriegsmarine).
The presence of German sailors in the Stalingrad area - before and after the encirclement - is confirmed by both eyewitnesses from among the local residents and some archival documents. In TsAMO (Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, former Central Archive of the Soviet Army), Podolsk, in the documents of the 36th Guards Rifle Division it is reported that on January 11, 1943, two naval officers surrendered in the division’s sector (Leutenant zur See, Oberleutenant zur See), who were sent with an escort to the headquarters of the 64th Army.
Oberleutnant Stempel of the 14th Panzer Division recalled that during the withdrawal of their division from the city and the march to Karpovka, on November 18-19, they met a Kriegsmarine column escorted by field gendarmerie. Tankers still joked: “Hitler sent help. Now the Tirpitz will enter the Volga, and the Russians will be finished.
The question is not: Were there German sailors in Stalingrad? It is clear that they were. But what did they do there, and for what reason is there no mention of these parts anywhere? Why were they not taken out of the boiler (after all, many units that performed various special tasks were evacuated)?
Were the Germans beyond the Volga?
In general, in official German documents there is no mention of the actions of the landing units in the Stalingrad area. In our memoirs, however, there is some, albeit fragmentary, information regarding the German landing beyond the Volga. In 1993, a resident of the Yerzovka farm (north of Stalingrad, on the banks of the Volga), said that at the end of August 1942 she saw German troops parachuted into their area.
I. M. Kalyuzhny (in the 42nd - an employee of the Stalingrad regional party committee) said that on August 23 or 24 the regional committee received a call from the Stalingrad State District Power Plant and reported about the German landing force thrown out not far from them. There, according to him, a detachment of militia and police units were immediately sent, who entered into battle with the landing group. Later, a company of the 282nd regiment of the 10th rifle division of the NKVD advanced to their aid. By evening, a message was received that the landing force was completely destroyed.
So were the Germans beyond the Volga? Or were downed pilots taken for landing?
Stalingrad "metro"
The existence of a network of underground galleries under the "city on the Volga", virtually unexplored to this day, is not a secret. Many of them were dug in ancient times. But at the end of the 30s of the now last century, special teams of Moscow metro builders arrived in Stalingrad and began some kind of large-scale underground construction. It was hardly a subway - in the modern sense of the word. Why was it built underground city?
The most interesting thing is that the Germans also carried out their underground construction in the city and its environs. Quite large-scale underground work took place in the area of the confectionery factory. The local residents who remained in the city, who lived not far from this enterprise, were mobilized by the occupiers to deliver cement and other building materials. But they were allowed only up to the entrance to the tunnel, only the Germans themselves and captured Red Army soldiers worked inside. The object was heavily guarded by the military police. Moreover, underground construction went on even in the environment, until the end of January 1943, after which the Germans blew up all the entrances to the dungeon.
In the area of the Austrian beam, search engines discovered a strange underground object. At a depth of only one and a half meters there are powerful reinforced concrete floors. All attempts to somehow get inside - the entrances are blown up - were unsuccessful.
What were these objects that the Germans built almost until the last day of the battle - there is no answer to this question yet.
Airfield "Pytomnik"
It is known to everyone who has ever read about the Battle of Stalingrad. This is the main airfield where supplies for the German group came from, the wounded were taken out from here. After the loss of the Nursery, the supply of the Paulus army actually stopped. But why are there different data on the date of the capture of the "Pennel" by the Red Army - from January 10 to January 20, 1943? With other dates and figures, both in official documents and in various studies, both ours and foreign ones, there are no such discrepancies.
When did the Battle of Stalingrad end?
February 2, 1943 - the surrender of troops under the command of Colonel General Karl Strecker. And this fact is beyond doubt. But separate parts of the German troops continued to conduct hostilities even after the official surrender.
But it turns out that some parts of the German troops were fighting even after the official surrender. The Stalingrad Tractor Plant began to be restored already in March, but armed clashes with Germans hiding in underground communications took place on the territory of the plant in April. Moreover, we are talking about several groups of German soldiers. There are several testimonies about the capture of one, but rather large - about 200 people - a group of Germans in early March 1943 on the territory of the Barrikady plant.
On May 4, 1943, in the Konstantinovsk region of the Rostov region (about 400 km from Stalingrad), a group moving towards the front was detained. Five Germans, two Russians. During preliminary interrogation, according to an eyewitness, a former employee of Smersh, they testified that they were soldiers of the 6th German Army and were coming from Stalingrad. An interesting detail: the detainees did not look exhausted from hunger. Russian "Khivi" ("volunteer assistants" - the Germans called them) were shot, and the Germans were transported to Rostov, to the regional NKVD.
“These were no longer Russian people…”
This topic, concerning the Battle of Stalingrad, is still somehow bypassed. Already in September 1942, when the first German offensive, which began in the area of the railway station and Mamaev Kurgan, was stopped by the iron will and the blood of Soviet soldiers, the NKVD departments of the Stalingrad and South-Eastern fronts began to receive messages from the front line that they were often against them. "former Soviet servicemen" are fighting. It is known that during the operation "Ring" (destruction of the 6th Army) in the most threatening areas, the German assault battalions and "Russian" battalions held the defense.
The division of Major General von Stumpfeld was formed in Stalingrad on December 12, 1942 from volunteers, Cossacks, Ukrainian and Russian policemen who ended up in the Stalingrad cauldron. They also accepted defectors. The division was armed mainly with Soviet "captured" weapons. Command staff: at first - Wehrmacht officers, later they began to appoint former Soviet officers. The commander of the Kamensky battalion in January 1943 was, for example, the former major of the Red Army Tukhminov. When the 6th Army surrendered, the remnants of the division took up defensive positions on the territory of the tractor factory, where they were destroyed in the first week of February.
That's where they go...
Sergey Selivanov
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Wehrmacht "cleanses" the rear
The fighting of the parties in May - July 1942
In the spring of 1942, both Headquarters were arguing about plans for summer campaigns.
The Supreme Commander-in-Chief I. V. Stalin most of all feared for the Moscow direction, where the Germans could well deploy their strategic offensive operations, since they had more than 70 divisions here. According to S. M. Shtemenko, “when assessing the importance of sectors of the strategic front, the Rzhev-Vyazma ledge was most striking, it came close to Moscow and was occupied by the troops of the most powerful enemy army group, Center ... Stalin was convinced that it was too early or later, the enemy will again strike at Moscow... It was believed that the fate of the summer campaign of 1942 would be decided near Moscow... "According to A. Vasilevsky, this" biased, erroneous opinion ... dominated the Supreme Commander until July. Other members of the Headquarters, the General Staff and most of the front commanders shared the opinion that the goal of the German troops and the general direction would be Moscow. In the spring, they again began to build defensive lines on the outskirts of the capital. In the diary of a Moscow ambulance doctor for April 24, 1942, an entry was made: “The barricades are being renewed in Moscow.” The most powerful grouping of Soviet troops continued to stand on the central sector of the Soviet-German front. So, in May 1942, food rations were allocated to the Kalinin Front for 601,894 people, and to the Western Front - for 823,101 people. Even taking into account postscripts, there were more than a million people in two fronts.
Lenin tent. Kalinin front, summer 1942
It is known that I.V. Stalin at that time advocated active strategic defense and the simultaneous conduct of large-scale offensive operations in many sectors of the Soviet-German front, B.M. Shaposhnikov only advocated active strategic defense in order to accumulate reserves, go over in the summer to broad offensive operations. G.K. Zhukov, generally supporting B.M. Shaposhnikov, believed that at the beginning of the summer it was necessary first of all to deliver powerful blows in the western strategic direction in order to eliminate the dangerous Rzhev ledge.
It was decided in the first half of May to carry out the defeat of the entire Rzhev-Vyazma-Gzhatsk group of Germans. These blows were to be delivered again by the forces of the Western, Kalinin and nearby fronts. The troops of the two fronts, who were behind enemy lines, were tasked with holding their positions. According to the memoirs of P. A. Belov, already on May 4, the headquarters of the Western Front indicated to him: “You, with the 4th airborne corps and partisan detachments, must hold the occupied territory at all costs.” Parts of the 39th Army and the 11th Cavalry. the corps was also ordered to strengthen their positions, build defensive structures, which were checked by a special commission in the period from May 15 to June 15.
The command of the Western Front developed a plan for an offensive operation with the aim of breaking through large forces into the area of operations of the Belov corps and holding the bridgehead occupied by the group. On the preparation of the operation, the beginning of which was planned no later than June 5, P. A. Belov was informed on May 9 by the head of the operational department of the front, Major General S. V. Golushkevich, who had flown to him from the "Great Land". By the directive of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, the plan of operation on May 18 was approved.
At the field kitchen. Kalinin front, summer 1942
To carry out the operation, the Western Front was allocated seven rifle divisions, two BM artillery regiments, four or five RGK artillery regiments, and two anti-tank artillery regiments from the Stavka reserves to carry out the operation. It was also planned to allocate tank brigades and an air regiment. On May 20, by order of the front, the “Special Group of General Belov” was created, which included the 1st Guards Cavalry. corps, the 329th rifle division, units of the 4th airborne corps, the 1st and 2nd partisan divisions and the 1st separate partisan detachment, operating in areas southwest of Vyazma. On May 10–25, an air transport operation was ordered to reinforce General Belov's group. It was planned to airlift "personnel in the amount of 9,000 fighters and commanders," as well as weapons, fuel and food.
Subsequently, judging by the "Map-decision of the 20th and 43rd armies for the mastery of the mountains. Vyazma” dated June 17, 1942, these armies were supposed to attack Gzhatsk, then Vyazma. In the first echelon of this attack, 12 rifle divisions, 3 rifle brigades, 41 tank brigades, 10 artillery regiments, 13 guards mortar battalions were to participate. In the front reserve for the operation were guards rifle and cavalry and tank corps.
The advance of the troops of the Western Front was to be supported by the troops of the Kalinin Front. The combat order of the front commander dated May 24, 1942 says: “The troops of the left wing of the KF, in close cooperation with the 30th, 29th, and 31st armies, have the immediate task of capturing the Rzhev-Zubtsov region. Subsequently, together with the 22nd and 39th armies, destroy the Rzhev-Oleninsky enemy grouping. The formations of the 1st and 3rd air armies and long-range aviation were involved in the operation. On May 24 and 26, F. Halder wrote in his diary about the concentration of Russian forces in the Bely region and the possible preparation of an offensive.
That is, a large-scale offensive operation of the troops of two fronts was being prepared. The goals of the upcoming offensive basically repeated the goals of the “incomplete” previous four-month Rzhev-Vyazemsky operation. But the May-June operation was not carried out for a number of reasons, in particular because the enemy launched the offensive first. The order of the Western Front dated May 21 noted the poor organization of the airborne operation to transfer cargo to the group of General Belov. So, from May 10 to May 31, only 1663 personnel were delivered, 82-mm mortars - 21 pieces. (according to the plan 200), 50-mm mortars - 33 pcs. (according to the plan 200), PTR - 162 pcs. (according to plan 600), etc.
It is known that when planning the summer campaign of 1942, the Soviet leadership made a miscalculation: the German high command decided to strike the main blow in the southern direction. The plans of the Wehrmacht for the summer were determined by OKW directive No. 41 of April 5, 1942. Although the German command did not have specific plans for a new attack on Moscow, when developing the summer campaign of 1942, it expected to create favorable conditions for the final strike on the central grouping of Soviet troops. By capturing Stalingrad, it was supposed to cut off the center of the country from the south, and by capturing the Murmansk railway, from the north. The preservation of the bridgehead in the center of the Soviet-German front was given great importance for further actions: “The possibility of a quick redeployment of aviation to the central and northern sectors of the front should be taken into account; to do this, if possible, preserve the existing airfields. In the summer, it was planned to clear the rear of the Army Group Center, and then carry out two offensive operations: by strikes of the 9th from Rzhev and the 16th armies from the Demyansk bridgehead to Ostashkov, encircle the troops of the Kalinin Front, and with the forces of the 4th and 2nd tank armies cut off the ledge between Yukhnov and Bolkhov. Later, OKW Directive No. 45 of July 23, 1942, stated that operations “on the sectors of the front of Army Groups Center and North should be carried out quickly, one after the other. In this way, the dismemberment of the enemy forces and the decline in the morale of his command staff and troops will be ensured to a large extent. It is precisely the desire to keep the initial convenient bridgehead that explains the fact that throughout 1942 the German command kept the largest grouping of its troops here - about 1/3 of the formations operating on the Soviet-German front.
Thus, in the summer offensive of the Wehrmacht in 1942, Army Group Center was assigned a supporting role. For the purpose of disinformation, a directive was issued to conduct false preparations for an offensive against Moscow. The camouflage operation “Kremlin”, elaborated in detail by the headquarters of the Army Group “Center”, was supposed to give the impression that the main blow was delivered here: “To defeat the enemy troops ... west and south of the enemy’s capital, firmly capture the territory around Moscow, surrounding the city ...”. The operation was allegedly supposed to start a few days before Operation Blue. When the offensive began in the south, Wehrmacht reports on the radio and in newspapers reported that German troops were going on the offensive “on the southern and central sectors of the Eastern Front,” despite the fact that there were supposedly no attacks near Moscow.
In fact, in May - July 1942, the troops of the German central group did what they had planned back in the spring: they carried out a number of offensive operations in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Rzhev-Vyazma ledge in order to clear the rear of the 9th, 4th field and 3rd tank armies from units of the Belov group and partisan detachments south and southwest of Vyazma and units of the 39th Army and the 11th Cavalry. corps northwest of Vyazma, which had been operating there since winter (Scheme 16).
The group of General Belov posed a great danger to the German troops. It controlled the territory within the triangle formed by the railways Vyazma - Smolensk, Smolensk - Zanoznaya, Zanoznaya - Vyazma. The great importance of the railways for supplying the troops of Army Group Center has already been mentioned. According to the Soviet historian D.M. Proektor, “for more than 5 months, partisans and soldiers dictated their will to the Nazi command on the central sector of the Soviet-German front.” The troops of the 39th Army and the 11th Cavalry Corps, who fought in a semi-encirclement, using here part of the former defensive structures mentioned above, diverted large German forces, who complained that they were forced to "have a double front, taking away strength from the main one" . The front line here looked like that inside the large Rzhev-Vyazma ledge there was a smaller ledge with a center in the village of Kholm-Zhirkovsky. This inner ledge, in which the named troops of the Kalinin Front occupied the defense, is sometimes called in the literature Belsky, sometimes Kholm-Zhirkovsky.
The concern of the Germans with the actions of these units "on both sides of the Vyazma" was noted by K. Tippelskirch. He mentions the withdrawal from the front in May 1942 to fight against units of the Belov group of two army corps consisting of several infantry and one tank divisions. Wehrmacht operations against the group of General Belov received the code names "Hannover-1" and "Hannover-2". Seven divisions of two army corps of the 4th Army and about 600 tanks took part in the offensive. Initially, it was supposed to destroy the headquarters of Belov and the 4th Airborne Corps using the forces of sabotage groups from prisoners of war, and then liquidate the entire group in 2-3 days.
Scheme 16. Military operations in the region of the Rzhev-Vyazma ledge in May-July 1942
Scheme 17. Fighting in the encirclement and exit from the encirclement of units of the 1st Guards. Cavalry and 4th Airborne Corps
Active offensive operations against the Soviet units began on May 24 from different directions (Scheme 17). The defensive operation of the troops of the Western Front, located behind enemy lines, began. By the end of the day, the paratroopers were cut off from the main forces of the Belov group. Lieutenant General Belov, waiting for the start of the upcoming operation, turned to the commander-in-chief Zhukov: “I ask you to speed up the tank group’s approach to me ... It is advisable to speed up Boldin’s offensive ...”. Later, P. A. Belov wrote that "all our plans were made these days with the firm belief that in the first days of June ... no later than June 5, a large operation of the troops of the Western Front would begin." According to him, at the end of May, his group, together with the partisans, numbered about 17,000 fighters. But the operation did not begin: no one advanced towards the encircled from the main front.
Parts of the 4th Airborne Corps and the 2nd Cavalry. fighting divisions began to make their way to the west to join the cavalry corps. They had to force the Ugra River, which at that time represented a serious obstacle. On May 30-31, they managed to connect with the main forces of the group.
On June 4, P. A. Belov again turned to the front commander: “The time has come to ask for your advice ... In 12 days of heavy fighting, the enemy captured more than half of the area previously occupied by the group. Another day of battle, and a breakthrough of the enemy into the center of the group and separation of our forces is possible. Further battle in the environment threatens to destroy the manpower of our troops ...
We ask for permission to leave the encirclement, subject to the continuation of stubborn defensive battles. Plan: break through the east. Yelny ... Further break through the direction of Kirov to connect the troops of the front. We ask for urgent measures, help and advice.” The response from headquarters came the next day. Two options were proposed: to go north to the troops of the Kalinin Front or to break through to the east to the 50th Army. By directive of the front headquarters, the partisans were ordered to remain behind enemy lines.
General Belov chose the third way out of the encirclement: to the southwest in the direction of Yelnya. The breakthrough through the ring of enemy troops on June 9 was successful. In mid-June, we approached the Warsaw highway. In his memoirs, P. A. Belov writes that "we again, as in January, had to cross it, but now in the opposite direction and in a different place." On the night of June 17, only parts of the first echelon managed to break through the Warsaw highway during a fierce battle. They went south and on the night of June 24 broke into the location of the troops of the 10th Army.
Half of the troops of the Belov group, which did not break through the highway, retreated to the north, split up and again headed south in separate detachments. The Warsaw highway was crossed in a deserted place. On June 21-22, the paratroopers and cavalry united again. The seriously wounded and sick were taken out by plane. On the night of June 25, by order of the front headquarters, General Belov and other senior commanders flew to the "Great Land" by plane. The entire personnel, reduced to one detachment, on the night of June 28, having broken through the enemy defenses, went to the location of the troops of the Western Front (Scheme 18). Part of the Belov group made its way to the connection with parts of the Kalinin Front.
F. Halder wrote in his diary: “Belov went out in the direction of the city of Kirov. For us, this is not an honor ... ”More than 10 thousand people returned, not counting the 3 thousand wounded sent to the“ Mainland ”before. At least 7 thousand people remained in the rear in partisan detachments. F. Halder wrote: “... he [Belov. - S. G.] diverted a total of seven German divisions. According to P. A. Belov, if we add four more formations in the fettering directions, then the troops of eleven German divisions took part in the May battles with his group.
Scheme 18. The output of parts of the 1st Guards. Cavalry and 4th Airborne Corps to the 10th Army
Despite the fact that the main part of the personnel of the special group of General Belov managed to get out of the encirclement, for the Red Army the outcome of this operation was unsuccessful in operational and strategic terms: in the rear of the enemy troops, an area was lost, the possession of which made it possible to cause significant damage to the communications of the central German group.
The German operations "Hannover" unfolded outside the borders of the Rzhev-Vyazma ledge, but it is impossible to pass over in silence the actions of the group of General Belov. In May - June 1942, they were the continuation and completion of the winter Rzhev-Vyazemsky offensive operation and the first stage of the offensive operations of the troops of Army Group Center to clear their rear in the summer of 1942.
Enough has been written about the actions behind enemy lines of cavalrymen and paratroopers of Belov's special group, about their breakthrough from the enemy encirclement, although not all. Less is known what happened to the Soviet troops north of Vyazma. There, events developed according to a less successful scenario.
The second stage of the “cleansing” of the rear of Army Group Center was the operation of the troops of the 9th Seidlitz field army against units of the 39th Army and the 11th Cavalry. corps of the Kalinin Front, which operated between Bely and Sychevka and occupied the hill-Zhirkovsky ledge. The Wehrmacht's message of July 13 spoke of a "broad offensive of the German units", F. Halder made entries in his diary about the course of its conduct almost daily, and General Grossman called it a battle. These facts, together with a considerable number of German troops involved in the operation, testify to the significance of the operation for the Wehrmacht. Troops of at least twelve divisions, the cavalry team of the 9th Army and other units took part in it.
Planning for the operation began in May. During its preparation, the commander of the 9th Army, Colonel-General V. Model, was wounded by a shot from the forest when he flew by plane over the territory occupied by Soviet troops. The plan of the operation was to hit the Soviet units located in the ledge from four sides: first against the units of the 22nd and 41st armies along the “corridor” or “bridge”, as the Germans called it, two days later - strikes from the north and east against units of the 39th Army, three days later - from the south and, finally, the destruction of units of the 11th Cavalry Corps (Scheme 19).
According to H. Grossman, by the beginning of July there were 60,000 Soviet soldiers in the rear of the 9th Army. According to TsAMO materials, as of July 1, 1942, the 39th Army (Lieutenant General I. I. Maslennikov) included 8 rifle divisions, one artillery regiment, three mortar divisions, one tank and two engineering battalions. The composition of the 11th cav. corps (Colonel S.V. Sokolov) on May 14 included four cavalry divisions, including the 18th Turkmen, a mortar regiment, a horse artillery battalion and a communications battalion. These troops, fighting in a semi-encirclement, had contact with the front and received what they needed through the “Nelidovsky corridor” between the cities of Bely and Nelidovo, which at its narrowest point did not reach 30 km and which was defended by units of the 41st and 22nd armies. Moreover, the line of defense of the 17th Guards Division of the 41st Army, since the winter, passed through the streets of Bely (Scheme 20).
Scheme 19. Operation Seidlitz. July 1942
Scheme 21. Defensive operation of the troops of the Kalinin Front in the area of the city of Bely on July 2–27, 1942
In Russian historiography, the actions of the Soviet troops in this operation are called the defensive operation of the 22nd, 39th, 41st, 3rd air armies of the Kalinin Front in the Belyi region on July 2–27, 1942 (Scheme 21). According to official data, by the beginning of the operation, the number of Soviet troops was 187,690 people.
The command of the front and the armies knew about the upcoming offensive and even assumed the places of possible first strikes. This can be judged from the direct wire talks in the last days of June between Front Commander I.S. Konev and Army Commander of the 39th Army Lieutenant General I.I. Maslennikov and commander of the 11th Cavalry. Corps Colonel S. V. Sokolov. So, Konev informed Maslennikov that "it is not excluded in the coming days that the enemy will attack from the Belyi region in the northern and north-eastern direction." Sokolov and Maslennikov talked about possible enemy strikes at the junction between the corps and the army, as well as at the junction of the 39th and 22nd armies in order to cut them off from each other. According to Maslennikov, the enemy is creating a grouping for an active offensive. Maslennikov and Sokolov opposed taking divisions from them into the front reserve, some of which were already on their way to the "corridor". They reported on the situation with ammunition and food. In the 11th building there were: “rifle cartridges - 1 BC [ammunition. - S. G.], artillery shots - 1/4 BC, mines to mortars - no. Food - 4 days. dachas. Defensive structures - without mines and wire, as they do not exist. In the 39th Army - “3-5 daily food deliveries and an average of about one ammo ammo. For certain types, in particular for 150-mm rounds, we have a reserve of up to two AMs ... for ShVAK guns we have only half of the AMs. We received machine-gun discs for small tanks at the rate of only three pieces per machine gun ... ". Both commanders asked for an urgent shipment of ammunition and food. Maslennikov said: “... I am preparing to fight in the most unfavorable situation, that is, to fight in encirclement without the right to withdraw the army. For this, only ammunition and food are needed. Using the existing fortified zone, the army can conduct long defensive battles in it.
Due to bad weather, Operation Seidlitz began later than planned, only early in the morning on July 2. German troops launched an offensive in the narrowest part of the “corridor”, attacking in Belsky [in the documents - Belysky. - S. G.] in the direction of a part of the 41st Army, in the Oleninsky direction - parts of the 22nd and 39th armies. Soviet troops entered into fierce battles. In a number of areas they managed to repulse the attacks of the German troops with heavy losses for the enemy.
Major General S.V. Sokolov, commander of the 11th Cavalry Corps
The Germans strengthened their groupings in these directions, and on July 4 they launched an offensive with the active support of aviation and from the east - from the Sychev direction - to the positions of divisions of the 39th Army. 11th cav. the corps at that time was still defending its former positions and repulsing the offensive of small enemy groups. On July 4, the village where the headquarters of the 39th Army was located was captured.
On July 5, with the introduction of fresh tank units, German troops intensified offensive operations from three sides. According to German data, on this day - July 5 - at 4 pm, German troops advancing from the south and north joined at the village of Pushkari. According to Soviet data, this happened on July 6. The 39th army, the 11th cavalry were surrounded. corps, as well as parts of the left flank of the 41st (17th guards, 135th rifle divisions, 21st tank brigade) and the right flank of the 22nd armies (355th, part of the 380th, separate units of the 185th rifle divisions). The 22nd and 41st armies tried to restore the passage for the encircled units. From Nelidovo to the place of a possible breakthrough, fresh units were pulled up.
The command of the 39th Army decided to withdraw the formations from the ledge. On July 5, army formations and some parts of the corps leave their positions, retreat to the Obsha River in the area where the crossings were still held. On the night of July 6 and in the afternoon of July 6, the approaching troops fought for the crossings, but only some units from different divisions managed to cross. The Katyushas that were available had to be blown up due to impassable roads.
On the morning of July 6, the remaining units of the 11th Cavalry left their positions. corps. They moved northwest to join forces with the 39th Army. Along the way, they blew up bridges behind them, made blockages on forest roads, and destroyed equipment that could not be removed. A German air reconnaissance report said that a multi-kilometer march column of cavalry, infantry, and individual tanks was moving along the road to the north and northwest.
The German command, having removed units from other sectors of the front, threw them to the place of crossings. On July 7, German troops reached Bely and formed a second encirclement ring. Soviet troops were torn into two parts: northern and southern. In the diary of F. Halder for July 7, an entry was made: “Operation Seidlitz is proceeding very successfully. The enemy, apparently, intends to remove the defense. We are facing a major success."
In the northern part of the encirclement, the entire area of swampy forests between the Bely - Olenino and Bely - Kostritsy highways was filled with large and small groups of Soviet commanders and Red Army soldiers from different divisions of the 22nd, 41st, 39th armies and the 11th cavalry. corps, which rushed to the Bely - Olenino road to get out of the encirclement. Numerous scattered small groups of soldiers and individual Red Army soldiers tried to break through the highway across the entire area north of Bely.
According to the recollections of those who came out, the Germans immediately sent special groups from among the traitors to the Motherland and Germans who spoke Russian and the languages of the Caucasian and Central Asian peoples into the forest. In the form of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, these groups were sent with the task of destroying the commanders and commissars, and the rank and file to unite and facilitate their capture. These individuals were also involved in spreading false rumors, creating a panic among the military wandering in the forest, and among the population in settlements. Their words fell on good ground, as small groups of soldiers wandered through the forest - hungry, tired, people who did not know their true position.
A terrible picture of the environment was recalled by many. V. Polyakov, communications officer of the 26th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 17th Guards Rifle Division, recalled that on the afternoon of July 5 he was driving along the road to the headquarters of the regiment. “Before deserted, it was filled with wagons and motor vehicles, mostly sanitary… presented an eerie sight. I have never seen anything more terrible in the whole war. Large craters were already filled to the brim with water, the road was littered with broken carts, motor vehicles, dead horses, corpses of people. A particularly dense pile of warped vehicles and guns encircled ... a lake. From the side, from the thicket of the forest came the groans of the wounded. A hysterical voice ran into my memory: “Nurseman, orderly!” It was the voice of the doomed. The convoy was hurried all the time, and it took great effort for us to make our way through the continuous blockages of fallen trees and piles of equipment. The sun was setting as the last wagons emerged from the woods near where the regimental headquarters had been during the day. Dead bodies all around. Right next to the road lay the body of Chief Financial Officer Maksimov with his legs torn off, a grave was hastily prepared for him right there ... Having collected the rest of the wagons, the rear moved further northwest to the forest that could be seen ahead. Passing by Solodilovo, I saw our “thirty-four”. The tank was moving along a deserted street, turning its turret back and firing shot after shot... The tank acted as a rearguard, covering the retreat of the rear. And, indeed, we did not have time to enter the forest, as the German submachine gunners occupied the village ... Having no connection with the regiment, the head of logistics sent me to the headquarters ... The atmosphere of calm doom reigned in the headquarters. It was felt that people had done everything possible in their power, and now, by inertia, by the ingrained habit of duty, they were carrying their burden to the end, to the exhaustion of their last strength ... "
Already on July 7–9, units of the 41st Army left the encirclement: about 3 thousand people with mortars, machine guns and weapons, “individual people and units” of some cavalry and rifle divisions. The exit continued, but the Germans brought additional forces to the exit area and closed the encirclement more tightly.
An attempt at another breakthrough by the Soviet units on the night of July 11 was described in his book on the history of the German 129th Infantry Division by division veteran G. Bukzain. His memories allow you to see those events through the eyes of a former enemy. According to the stories of prisoners, defectors, overheard radio conversations, and according to their intelligence, the command of the German units had a fairly complete picture of the state of the Soviet troops in the northern and southern encircled groups and their plans. It knew that "the forest was full of Red Army soldiers who wanted to break through to the northwest." If initially tanks, armored vehicles cruised along the Bely - Olenino road, small groups of infantrymen, supported by company guns, patrolled, then after July 8-9, the Germans transferred additional forces to the road from other sectors of the front, brought up heavy guns. The infantrymen took up defenses on both sides of the road with a front to the north and northwest, against the main forces of the Russians, and to the south and east, against the encircled units. On both sides of the highway was fortified with batteries. Radio stations were set up. German aviation also helped to defend the road.
G. Bukzain recalls the constant attempts of the Russian troops to break out of the encirclement and help them from the main Russian front. In his opinion, the attempt to break through a large group of encircled on the night of July 11 was well prepared and planned together with units of the 380th Infantry Division of the 22nd Army, which were not surrounded. The encircled units maintained constant radio contact with the command post of the division. The breakthrough was coordinated in minutes with an attack to remove the environment from the outside.
At about 10 p.m., a “sewing machine” (“maize”) flew from the main Soviet front to the southeast. Soon the plane returned and fired a rocket. This was the signal for the Soviet troops to attack. What began after that, Bookzayn called the words "underworld, hell."
Directly from the forest, from the fog rising from the ground from the west, at a distance of a throw of a hand grenade, enemy infantry approached. The Red Army soldiers rose and rushed to the German positions shouting "Hurrah!". Hand-to-hand fighting began from the place of the breakthrough to the highway. They fired German mortars, machine guns, artillery fired direct fire.
After all the attention of the Germans was directed to the north-west, from the forest on the south side of the road, from the “boiler”, without a cry, a wedge of encircled units advanced to the line of attack on German positions. Silently in the dark, the German posts were removed with edged weapons. They then lay in these places 30 meters from the road. Two heavy German guns turned 180 degrees and began direct fire at the positions surrounded on the outskirts of the forest. A German mortar fired from the flank. The surrounded dragged a 45-mm anti-tank gun onto the highway and fired at the German guns. The attackers came simultaneously from the north and south. Artillery volleys, mortar strikes, whistling shots of infantry weapons, explosions, the roar of machine guns and barking tank shots created the noise of battle, in which there were screams and groans of the wounded on both sides. What happened was "part of hell." On both sides, soldiers died from their weapons. When the battle died down, both sides began to rescue the wounded, the bloody trails from which became visible only in the light of day. All wire fences were broken.
At 22.30 - the second attack. The main blow was delivered from the "cauldron" by a group of about 1,500 Red Army soldiers led by a general. At the same time, the second column of the encircled tried to break through the ring in another place, where Soviet troops hit them from the north. On the site of one of the German battalions, 40 Red Army men managed to break through to their own. In the process, five commissars were killed. The holes in the German defenses were immediately closed by soldiers from the convoy.
At 00.15 on the site of another German battalion - the third attack. At 3 o'clock from the southeast from the "cauldron" - the fourth attack, this time the cavalry unit.
In the morning twilight of a new day, a terrible picture appeared on the battlefield. The position of the dead from the north and south showed that they were only 30 meters apart. Many of the dead had terrible wounds, broken skulls. There are bloody footprints everywhere, left by the seriously wounded, who crawled back into the birch grove. Dishes for eating with pieces of cooked horse meat lay between rifles with fixed bayonets, submachine guns, and machine guns. One Soviet ammunition box lay right in front of the radio operator's trench.
The number of dead only in the area of the 3rd battalion - 5 commissars, 10 officers, 140 privates. The number of dead in the depths of the battlefield, especially in the swampy forest, could not be counted. The following were taken as trophies: an anti-tank gun, 4 machine guns, 8 pistols, 4 machine guns, 4 sabers and about 40 rifles. A large number of weapons were broken and thrown. 25 captured horses were brought into the convoy. Part of the Soviet troops withdrew to swampy places, part was captured or destroyed during the cleaning of the territory by the Germans.
The position of the southern group of encircled units of the 39th Army and the 11th Cavalry. the corps developed no less tragically. Approached July 7 and 8 to the river. Most of the main forces of the army and corps were forced to fight with the enemy for crossings with the last ammunition, without air cover. 8 July ca. the corps was subordinated to the 39th army.
It was not possible to break through the river, and the Military Council of the Army decided: to save manpower, withdraw personnel to the forest to the southeast. They fired eight Katyushas with the last rockets, and they were blown up. The rest of the fuel was poured into the most serviceable vehicles, the rest were rendered unusable, the guns and mortars that were left without ammunition were blown up, archives, party documents, equipment of the army printing house were destroyed, and they went deep into the Smolensk forests and swamps. Front headquarters lost contact with them.
Lieutenant General I. A. Bogdanov
The combat log of the Kalinin Front for July 10 records: “To establish communication and clarify the situation, the commanders of the front headquarters were sent on planes. Of the five commanders, two returned wounded and completed the task; one did not return, and his fate is unknown; one remained in the Marfinka area to organize the withdrawal of individual groups from the encirclement. In the entry for July 11, it is reported that, according to the report of the deputy. commander of the 39th Army, Lieutenant General Bogdanov, the troops concentrated in groups in the forest in the Tupik area and are preparing to exit the encirclement. It was not possible to establish regular communication with Bogdanov, since his radio station has no power. A commander was sent with food for the radio station.
On July 11–12, the detached units concentrated in the Vladimirskoye, Tupik, and Varvarino areas. In total, up to 7 thousand people came here, of which up to 4 thousand cavalrymen. On July 13, a cipher telegram was received with a request to dump a cargo of food surrounded. Meals are mainly horse meat without salt. Local residents helped, but it was forbidden to take away food from them, and the order was strictly followed. This was noted even by the Germans, who interrogated the prisoners.
The command of Army Group Center, concerned about the offensive in the first half of July 1942 of the 10th, 16th and 61st armies of the Western Front against the troops of the 2nd Panzer Army and in need of reserves, demanded that the 9th Army speed up the liquidation surrounded by Soviet troops. After the attempt to break through the Soviet troops on the night of July 11 failed, the Germans began to "cleanse" the territory. On July 12, the German 9th Army reported to its command: "The Seidlitz offensive is completed today." On July 13, 1942, a Wehrmacht message appeared, which spoke of the encirclement and destruction of several Soviet rifle and cavalry divisions and one tank brigade. The number of prisoners was called - over 30 thousand people. The report also stated that 218 tanks, 591 guns, 1300 machine guns and mortars, other weapons and military equipment were destroyed or captured.
The next day, July 14, the Soviet newspapers published a refutation of the Soviet Information Bureau under the title "Fraud report of the Nazi command", which stated that "in this case, the Nazis set a record in their shameless lies." It was reported: “Between July 2 and 13, fighting did take place in the area southwest of Rzhev. The Nazi troops went on the offensive, trying to flank one of our formations and cut off its connection with the rear. As a result of battles with enemy troops that were superior in number and number of tanks, our units, having inflicted heavy damage on the Germans in manpower and equipment and suffering significant losses themselves, were forced to retreat and leave the defense area they occupied. During the fighting, our troops lost up to 7,000 killed and wounded and 5,000 missing, a significant part of which formed partisan detachments ... ". Of course, in hot pursuit it was difficult to get a complete picture of what actually happened in those days southwest of Rzhev and what were the losses, but all the messages from the Soviet Information Bureau from the Kalinin Front these days spoke of the successful repulsion of enemy attacks and German losses. From July 19, it was about "battles of local importance."
Captured Red Army soldiers. Operation Seydlitz, July 1942
In fact, even after July 13, the defensive operation of the troops of the Kalinin Front continued. Units of the 22nd and 41st armies tried to break through the encirclement; separate groups continued to enter their positions north and south of Bely. The main part of the surrounded began to exit the forest in a northerly direction to the river. More. On the way, these units had to shoot down enemy barriers. According to the memoirs of S. Mikaelyan, they moved to the place of the breakthrough in large groups. They made their way through forests, swamps, walked through burning villages under fire from mortars and enemy tanks. They tried not to engage in skirmishes with large enemy garrisons in the villages. They broke through in small groups to avoid losses from mortar fire.
The Germans knew that there were even larger Russian forces in the swampy forests. According to the stories of the defectors, they found that a group of about 1.5 thousand people, led by General of the Cavalry Ivanov, had concentrated in the forests east of the Bely - Olenino road, and on July 17 another large group crossed Obsh to the north. There were about 8 thousand people here. Here were the commander of the 39th Army, Lieutenant General Maslennikov, his deputy, Lieutenant General Bogdanov, the army artillery commander, Major General Kuteinikov, and other commanders. According to the stories of the prisoners, General Maslennikov initially wanted to go northwest with tanks, but due to the loss of all tanks, he was forced to stay with the remnants of the army until July 18.
The front command ordered the Military Council of the 39th Army with a group of staff officers to be taken out, which was done on the night of July 17-18. According to German data, on the night of July 18-19, nine Soviet U-2 aircraft landed in the "cauldron" area, of which three crashed. The memoirs of the pilot who took out General Maslennikov have been preserved. He recalled that General Maslennikov, who was 41 years old at that time, wounded in the leg, together with General Bogdanov, arrived at the plane on horseback, in raincoats and caps. Maslennikov reached the plane with a stick. The pilot asked Bogdanov if he would fly. Bogdanov replied: “We will break through. We need planes. Lots of wounded." A comparison involuntarily suggests itself with the behavior in the same situation of another commander of the encircled army (33rd), General M. G. Efremov. When a plane was sent for him to take him out of the encirclement, he refused, saying: “I came here with the soldiers, I’ll leave with the soldiers,” he sent the banners of the units with the plane, led the troops to a breakthrough, was wounded and, in order not to be taken prisoner , shot himself. I. I. Maslennikov, wounded in the leg, walked with a stick to the plane himself and flew away.
The command of the troops remaining in the encirclement was entrusted to the deputy. Commander Lieutenant General Bogdanov and Deputy. Head of the Political Department of the 39th Army, Divisional Commissar Shabalin. During the day, all the scattered units of the army were reduced to a regiment, which became part of the 256th rifle division. In total, there were up to 5 thousand people. Parts of the 11th kav. Corps numbered up to 4 thousand people and up to 2 thousand horses. People were armed with rifles, machine guns, it was a small amount of light machine guns, two easel. There was not enough ammo. The biggest problem was food.
Major General P. S. Ivanov, commander of the 18th Cavalry Division
On the same day, the encircled people crossed the Kostritsa-Bely road. General Bogdanov decided to make a breakthrough suddenly, under the cover of darkness, linking his actions with units of the 22nd and 41st armies.
On July 15, units of the 185th Infantry Division of the 22nd Army intensified their operations towards the encircled in places of possible exit. On July 18, the division sent a reconnaissance group to communicate with Bogdanov; on July 20, reconnaissance was carried out in battle at the site of a possible exit. The same was carried out in the sectors of the 41st Army. On July 20, the Air Force of the front carried out 202 sorties for bombing, reconnaissance and cover for those emerging from the encirclement. On July 21, from 19.00, the 22nd and 41st armies began operations to ensure the exit of the encircled units, which began at 22.00.
Despite the stubborn resistance of the enemy, already at 23.00, up to 3.5 thousand people left the encirclement, at 4.00 on July 22 - over 10 thousand people. In the documents of the 22nd Army there is a report for July 22 by P. E. Smokachev, a member of the Military Council of the front: “... the people are leaving in an organized manner. Due to overwork and malnutrition, people stretched out. The bulk of those who came out at the concentration point, there is a lot of traffic along the highway. The majority are armed with rifles and machine guns. The breakthrough was made exclusively in an organized manner. The gates were open. Bogdanov began the formation of troops and gloriously completed his exit, with the support of his closest assistant, Deputy. early art. army." Lieutenant General I. A. Bogdanov himself was wounded, taken by plane to a hospital in Kalinin, where he died. Buried on July 24, 1942 on the square. Lenin in Kalinin. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin, although among the veterans of those battles there is a belief that the general was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
From the German side, this breakthrough looked like this. For a breakthrough, a strike group was created, which was supposed to clear the way ahead and from the flanks. Then the bulk of the warriors were to follow. A company of about 150 officers was placed between these groups. In the evening twilight, after eight hours of the enemy's march, the battle began. Shortly before this, a coordinated attack by Russian regiments began in the southeast. At the junction between the two German formations, which suffered heavy losses, a "hole" was made, where many hundreds of Red Army soldiers broke through. The Soviets lost 460 people killed, including many officers, 172 prisoners. The hero of the breakthrough operation was named by the Germans Major General of the Cavalry Ivanov, commander of the 18th Cavalry Division. He was seriously wounded and died right on the battlefield, despite the fact that the Germans provided him with medical care. The Germans buried him on July 22 with military honors. The mass of Soviet soldiers could not get out of the forest and fled back into the swampy forests. Despite the fact that the command of the German army defined these remaining scattered Soviet groups as incapable of serious action, on July 22 a decision was made to build a "security line" against a large forest zone. There, according to the stories of defectors, there were still about 8,000 Red Army soldiers. Numerous large and small groups were still trying to break through to the west. They were taken prisoner, and immediately after July 22, up to 100 people daily. According to some German sources, "the last stragglers held out until October." F. Halder noted in his diary for July 19 that the Seidlitz operation turned into a combing of the forest area north of the Smolensk-Vyazma highway and was developing successfully.
Separate groups of those surrounded until the end of July and in August went south and north of Bely, in the Zubtsovsk and Rzhev directions. According to researchers M. Vorobyov and V. Usov, about 18 thousand people left the encirclement.
Losses were calculated already during the operation. At the end of July, the general results of the losses of personnel of the KF troops for the month were summed up.
Table 3
Total losses of personnel of the troops of the Kalinin Front in July 1942
The total number of only missing in the 39th, 22nd, 41st armies and in the 11th cav. Corps amounted to more than 47 thousand people. It is difficult to say which of these people died, was taken prisoner or stayed to fight in partisan detachments, but this figure is close to the final German data on captured Russian soldiers. Losses of horse composition only in the 11th cavalry. the corps amounted to 9,472 horses, in total - 15,472 horses.
Let readers not be surprised that next to the human losses, the losses of horses are indicated. During the war years, the loss of horse personnel was taken into account according to the same rules as the loss of personnel. Horses honestly fought together with people: they attacked, starved behind enemy lines, pulled cannons out of the mud, took out the wounded, even dying, they saved the hungry with their meat. At the same time, if people knew why they were suffering hardships, then the horses simply honestly did their job.
According to German data, as a result of the entire operation, up to 50 thousand people were taken prisoner, 230 tanks, 58 aircraft, 760 guns of all types, as well as thousands of units were destroyed or captured. small arms. Even today, official historiography is trying to underestimate the figures of losses in the operation. So, in the "Military History Journal" No. 2 for 1999, the total losses in this operation are defined as 20,360 people, of which irretrievable - 7,432 people, sanitary - 12,928 people. The number of missing persons is not indicated at all.
The losses of the units and formations participating in the operation were so great that already on July 13, 1942, the 17th Guards Rifle Division was withdrawn to the second echelon to be replenished with people, equipment and weapons, in early August, the 11th Cavalry Corps, 18th the cavalry division was disbanded, the 39th army was re-formed on the basis of the 58th army. The remnants of the 373rd, 381st, 256th, 252nd and other rifle divisions were assigned to reorganization.
The results of this operation for the Red Army were very unsuccessful and even tragic. With the liquidation of the Kholm-Zhirkov ledge, the Soviet troops lost an important foothold, which the command hoped to use in the future to solve strategic problems. According to I. S. Konev, this bridgehead "would be very useful to us ... for the deployment of offensive operations ... We, in principle, could at any time draw forces to our advanced bridgeheads and deliver a blow that would go deep into the rear of the entire enemy grouping."
Appendix 25
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At the end of April, the German command began preparing an operation (which received the designation "Friederikus I") to eliminate the so-called Barvenkovo (Izyum) ledge occupied by Soviet troops. The Barvenkovsky ledge was located south of Kharkov and was formed as a result of the Barvenkovo-Lozovsky offensive operation carried out by Soviet troops at the beginning of the year, which resulted in wedging into the German defenses to a depth of 90 km.
Operation "Friederikus" (05/17/1942 - 05/28/1942)
Defense of Kharkov
German plans for the spring of 1942 called for offensive action. Directive No. 41 of the Main Headquarters of the German Armed Forces of April 5, 1942, stated that as soon as meteorological conditions allowed, the German troops would seize the initiative, pursuing the goal of "the final destruction of the armed forces of the Soviet Union and depriving the country of the most important military economic centers by capturing or destroying them ". The main actions were supposed to be carried out on the southern sector of the front. At the end of April, the German command began preparing an operation (which received the designation "Friederikus I") to eliminate the so-called Barvenkovo (Izyum) ledge occupied by Soviet troops. The Barvenkovsky ledge was located south of Kharkov and was formed as a result of the Barvenkovo-Lozovsky offensive operation carried out by Soviet troops at the beginning of the year, which resulted in wedging into the German defenses to a depth of 90 km. The presence of a ledge contained both positive and negative points for both sides. The Soviet troops occupying the ledge were in a convenient position to attack the Kharkov group of Germans from the south, who, in turn, hitting the base of the ledge, could surround the troops located in the ledge. In this situation, both sides wanted to seize the initiative and frustrate the plans of the enemy. Soviet troops launched the offensive first, going on the attack on the morning of May 12. However, thanks to the actions of intelligence, the German command unraveled the plans of the Soviet operation and hastily carried out a number of measures to strengthen the defense in threatened areas. For this, the available troops of the 6th and 17th German armies and reserves were used, which arrived according to the plan for preparing the future offensive. As a result, during the fighting on May 12-16, the German troops managed to hold back the offensive of the Soviet strike groups. The German 3rd and 23rd Panzer Divisions were especially successful in counterattacking Soviet formations east of Kharkov. As a result of these actions, the Soviet strike groups were unable to achieve their goals of capturing Kharkov, and all conditions were created for the successful conduct of the German operation Friederikus.
Operation "Friederikus" (05/17/1942 - 05/28/1942)
Operation Fridericus began on the morning of 17 May. From 04:00 to 05:30, artillery and air preparation continued, after which the German infantry and tanks went on the attack with air support from about 400 aircraft. The main blow was delivered on the southern base of the Barvenkovo ledge from the area of Slavyansk and Andreevka, where the formations of the so-called "Kleist group" (after the name of the commander of the 1st Panzer Army, General Kleist) were advancing as part of the 3rd Tank and 44th and 52nd Army buildings. The troops of the 6th Army of General Paulus, which, according to the original plan, were supposed to deliver a counterattack from the Balakleya region, by the time the operation began, were used to fight the advancing Soviet groups of the Southwestern Front, so they did not play an active role in the offensive operation. The Soviet 9th Army, which took upon itself the blow of the German units, was not adequately prepared for defense, its command was quickly disorganized, and by noon on the first day of the offensive, the German units advanced 20 km in the Barvenkovsky and Izyum direction. By 17 o'clock Barvenkovo was captured. The next day, the German units reached Izyum and captured the southern part of the city. Having met stubborn resistance from units of the Soviet 343rd Infantry Division here, the Germans bypassed the city from the west. On May 22, the encirclement of Soviet troops at the Barvenkovsky bridgehead was completed. In the following days, the encircled Soviet units made desperate attempts to break out of the bag, from the east they tried to help the formations of the 38th Soviet army that delivered deblocking strikes. In total, 27 thousand people escaped from the encirclement. According to German data, 239 thousand people were captured, 1249 were destroyed Soviet tanks and 2026 guns. Operation Fridericus was successfully completed.
Encirclement at Stary Oskol (28.06.42 - 02.07.42)
At the end of June, five fully manned and well-prepared German armies stood on the front from Taganrog to Kursk, ready to defeat the Russian troops in the south. These armies, along with the three armies of the German allies, were part of Army Group South, which in turn was divided into Army Groups A and B. The southern army group "A" consisted of the 1st tank and 17 field armies under the command of Field Marshal V. List and advanced from the areas of Izyum and Chuguev, captured during the May battle near Kharkov. The Northern Army Group B, General Field Marshal von Bock, consisted of the Weichs Army Group - the 2nd, 4th German Panzer and 2nd Hungarian under the command of Colonel General von Weichs, and the 6th German Field Army. The main role in the operation was initially assigned to the Weichs group, which was supposed to break through the front of Soviet troops in the area east of Kursk, after which the 4th Panzer Army was introduced into the gap, which, with its two tank corps, was supposed to reach the river. Don at Voronezh. After reaching this goal, the tank army was to turn to the right and, together with the 6th army, develop an offensive along the Don in a southeasterly direction. The ultimate goal of their actions was Stalingrad. The operation began on June 28 and developed very successfully. The Soviet command did not expect the German offensive in this area, and there were not enough forces to hold the German tank formations breaking through. The first major success of the advancing German troops was achieved on July 2, when, after the capture of Stary Oskol, several Soviet divisions were caught in a whirl. The German infantry formations were engaged in their liquidation, and the tanks rushed further, to Voronezh.
Exit to Voronezh (02.07.42 - 08.07.42)
After the first successes, the German advanced tank formations continued to move rapidly to the east. The vanguard of the 4th Panzer Army managed to capture the bridge across the Don, cross the river and break into Voronezh on July 3, although the capture of the city was not included in the original plans of the German command. Gradually, larger and larger formations of the advancing German grouping came out to the Don. According to the original plan, after reaching the Don, the tank units turned south, so that, together with the formations of the 6th German field army, moving along the Don to the southeast, defeat the Soviet troops of Marshal Timoshenko in the bend of the Don between Voronezh and Rostov. However, the withdrawal from the battle and turning to the south of such divisions of the 4th Panzer Army was complicated by the counterattacks that the Soviet troops launched on the northern flank of the advancing German group. On July 6-10, the 5th Soviet Tank Army, which arrived from the Reserve of the High Command, tried to push back the Germans here. The northern flank of the German grouping was covered by the 2nd Field Army, moving in a ledge behind the 4th Panzer Army. The infantry formations of this army replaced the panzer divisions of the 4th Panzer Army turning south. On July 5, units of the 2nd Army approached Voronezh and two days later captured a bridgehead on the opposite bank of the Don. However, the Germans failed to capture the city. Due to the counterattacks of the Soviet tank units on the northern flank, the withdrawal of tank divisions from the battle, which were so needed to the south, was also difficult. On the whole, however, Army Group B's offensive plan in the Voronezh sector was carried out.
Exit to Kletskaya (07/13/42 - 07/23/42)
In mid-July, the German armies began to advance in different directions. The 1st Panzer Army from Army Group A turned to the southeast in order to subsequently develop an offensive in the Caucasus. The 4th Panzer Army (General G. Goth), advancing with its left flank along the Don, entered the large bend of the Don west of Stalingrad, moving towards the crossings across the Don. To the left of the 4th Panzer Army, the 6th German Field Army (General F. Paulus) was moving. Using the complete dominance of German aviation in the air and the features of the steppe flat terrain, on which German tank units could show their advantage in mobility, the German shock groups of the 6th and 4th tank armies moved east. The first organized resistance was met by advanced German mobile formations in the bend of the Don on July 17 in the area of the Chir River, where units of the 62nd Soviet Army, which had arrived from the reserve, entered the battle. Although in the course of subsequent battles during the week, the German units managed to push the 62nd Army by 70 km, the Soviet troops managed to reduce the rate of advance of the German strike groups from 30 km per day on July 12-17 to 15 km on July 18-22. The Germans failed to capture Kletskaya on the move. The German command had to regroup its forces and prepare a new strike against the defending Soviet armies.
Photo: A motorcyclist of the 24th Panzer Division is resting between battles. Western bank of the Don, end of July 1942. During the summer offensive of 1942, the 24th Panzer Division was part of the 4th Panzer Army of General Hermann Hoth.
Crossings at Kalach and Vertyachey (07/23/42 - 08/07/42)
Convinced by July 22 that the Red Army units had already organized defenses on the western bank of the Don, the German command, however, did not leave the thought of capturing Stalingrad on the move. It decided to encircle the Soviet troops at the Kletskaya-Surovkino line with concentric strikes and seize crossings across the Don, and then, without stopping, develop an attack on Stalingrad. To implement this plan, two strike groups were created from units of the 6th field and 4th tank armies. The northern strike group, made up of 4 infantry, 2 tank and 2 motorized divisions of the Wehrmacht from the 6th Army, struck part of the forces from the area south of Kletskaya in the direction of Verkhne-Buzinovka, part of the forces through Manoilin to Verkhne-Buzinovka. The southern strike group, which consisted of two infantry and one tank divisions, struck from the area south of Surovkino in the direction of Kalach. The northern group launched an offensive on the morning of July 23, attacking the right flank of the Soviet 62nd Army. The next day, German formations went on the offensive in the Manoilin area, on July 26 - the southern group. The greatest success was achieved by the formations of the northern strike group, which, by the end of July 26, broke through to the Don in the area of Golubinsky and Mostovsky. However, the Germans failed to develop this success quickly. The Soviet command threw incoming reserves into battle, primarily tank units, which forced the Germans to go on the defensive for a while, stabilizing the front at the Verkhne-Buzinovka, Bolshenabatovsky, Mostovsky, Lipologivsky line. The southern group also failed to make significant progress and reach Kalach. As a result, the plan of the operation was thwarted - crossings across the Don were not captured in a timely manner. Only on August 20 did the German formations manage to cross the Don in the Vertyachey area, seize a bridgehead on the eastern bank, and by August 23 send up to four divisions to it, including one tank and two motorized divisions.
Through the Don to Stalingrad (20.08.42 - 03.09.42)
By August 17, when the Germans resumed attacks on the entire front along the Don, 11 infantry, two tank and two mechanized German divisions were concentrated directly in the Stalingrad direction. On August 20, German units were able to cross the Don in the Vertyachey area, and by August 23, up to four divisions had crossed to the left bank, including one tank and two mechanized divisions. Developing the offensive to the east, by 4 p.m. on August 23, units of the 16th Panzer and 3rd Motorized Divisions reached the Volga near the village of Rynok. At the cost of incredible efforts, the small Soviet formations in Stalingrad managed to stabilize the situation on the northern outskirts of the city. On August 25, the Germans crossed the Don with two infantry divisions near the city of Kalach and launched an offensive in an easterly direction along the Kalach-Stalingrad railway. The offensive also developed from the south, where units of the 4th German Panzer Army were operating. The Germans were getting closer to Stalingrad. On August 30, the Soviet command decided to withdraw the 62nd and 64th armies to the middle Stalingrad defensive bypass, but the next day the Germans managed to concentrate a grouping of up to 6 divisions in the Nariman area, including two tank divisions, and on August 1, Soviet units began to retreat to the inner contour of the Stalingrad fortifications, located directly on the outskirts of the city. The struggle began under the walls of Stalingrad.
Assault on Stalingrad (09/13/42 - 11/19/42)
The decisive German offensive against Stalingrad began on 13 September. The main actions at first unfolded in the central and southern parts of the city. The 295th, 76th, 71st and 94th infantry, 24th and 14th tank and 29th motorized divisions of the Wehrmacht were attacking here. More than 200 tanks operated as part of these forces. However, the German troops, who had numerical superiority in this sector, did not succeed quickly. One German attack followed another, with frequent changes in place and method. The attackers, however, while suffering heavy losses, achieved only minor successes. Sometimes it was possible to break through the defenses, but the Germans were never able to wedge in enough to achieve more than a private success in a separate area. Nevertheless, by the end of September, the German units managed to capture the southern and central parts of the city, after which fierce battles unfolded to the north, where workers' settlements and large Stalingrad factories were located. On October 14, at the cost of huge losses, the Germans managed to reach the Volga in the area of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, on November 11, after fierce fighting, they managed to reach the river south of the Barrikady plant. But all attempts to take over the Krasny Oktyabr plant failed. All available reserves from the flanks were thrown into attacks against the selflessly defending defenders of the city, but this did not bring any result, and most of the attacks were not successful. Mounting casualties, increasing awareness of the collapse of the offensive, and the approach of winter sapped the morale of the attackers, and the reserves were so depleted that the outstretched flanks covered by the Allies were weakened to the maximum. Under these conditions, on November 19, the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops began, which soon led to the complete destruction of the entire Stalingrad group of Germans. There was a turning point in the war.
On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany and Slovakia declared war on Poland… Thus began the Second World War…
It involved 61 states out of 73 that existed at that time (80% of the world's population). The fighting took place on the territory of three continents and in the waters of four oceans.
On June 10, 1940, Italy and Albania entered the war on the side of Germany, on April 11, 1941 - Hungary, on May 1, 1941 - Iraq, on June 22, 1941, after the German attack on the USSR - Romania, Croatia and Finland, on December 7, 1941 - Japan , December 13, 1941 - Bulgaria, January 25, 1942 - Thailand, January 9, 1943 Wang Jingwei's government in China, August 1, 1943 - Burma.
Who fought for Hitler and the Wehrmacht, and who is against it?
In total, about 2 million people from 15 European countries fought in the Wehrmacht troops (more than half a million - Romanian army, almost 400 thousand - Hungarian troops, more than 200 thousand - Mussolini's troops!).
Of these, during the war years, 59 divisions, 23 brigades, several separate regiments, legions and battalions were formed.
Many of them were named according to state and nationality and only volunteers served in them:
Blue Division - Spain"Wallonia" - the division included French, Spanish and Walloon volunteers, moreover, the Walloons were in the majority.
"Galicia" - Ukrainians and Galicians
"Bohemia and Moravia" - Czechs from Moravia and Bohemia
"Viking" - volunteers from the Netherlands, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries
"Denemark" - Danes
"Langemark" - Flemish Volunteers
"Nordland" - Dutch and Scandinavian volunteers
"Nederland" - Dutch collaborators who fled to Germany after the Allied occupation of Holland.
The "French Infantry Regiment 638", since 1943, has been merged with the newly organized "French SS Division" Charlemagne "- the French.
The armies of Germany's allies - Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Slovakia and Croatia - participated in the war against the USSR.
The Bulgarian army was involved in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia, but the Bulgarian ground units did not fight on the Eastern Front.
Russian Liberation Army (ROA) under the command of General A.A. Vlasova acted on the side of Nazi Germany, although she was not officially part of the Wehrmacht.
As part of the Wehrmacht, the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps of the SS, General von Panwitz, fought.
On the side of Germany, the Russian Corps of General Shteifon, the Corps of Lieutenant General of the Tsarist Army P.N. Krasnov and a number of separate units formed from citizens of the USSR, often on a national basis, under the command of the former Kuban Cossack SS Gruppen-Führer, A.G. skins ( real name- Skin,) and the Circassian Sultan-Girey Klych, the head of the nationalist "People's Party of the Highlanders of the North Caucasus" in France.
I won’t write who and why fought for Hitler and the Wehrmacht… Some for “ideological considerations”, some for revenge, some for glory, some for fear, some against “communism”… About it was written by millions and millions of pages by professional historians... And I'm just stating historical facts, or rather trying to do it... A question about something else... To remember...
So, first things first…
Romania declared war on the USSR on June 22, 1941 and wanted to return Bessarabia and Bukovina “taken away” from it in June 1940, as well as annex Transnistria (the territory from the Dniester to the Southern Bug).
For military operations against the USSR, the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies were intended, with a total number of about 220 thousand people.
On June 22, Romanian troops tried to capture bridgeheads on the eastern bank of the Prut River. On June 25-26, 1941, the Soviet Danube Flotilla landed troops on Romanian territory, and Soviet aircraft and ships of the Black Sea Fleet bombed and fired on Romanian oil fields and other objects.
Romanian troops began active hostilities by crossing the Prut River on July 2, 1941. By July 26, Romanian troops occupied the territories of Bessarabia and Bukovina.
Then the Romanian 3rd Army advanced in Ukraine, crossed the Dnieper in September and reached the coast of the Sea of Azov.
Since the end of October 1941, units of the Romanian 3rd Army participated in the capture of the Crimea (together with the German 11th Army under the command of von Manstein).
From the beginning of August 1941, the Romanian 4th Army conducted an operation to capture Odessa, by September 10, 12 Romanian divisions and 5 brigades were assembled to capture Odessa, with a total number of up to 200 thousand people
On October 16, 1941, after heavy fighting, Odessa was captured by Romanian troops together with units of the Wehrmacht. The losses of the 4th Romanian army amounted to 29 thousand dead and missing and 63 thousand wounded.
In August 1942, the 3rd Romanian Army took part in the attack on the Caucasus, the Romanian cavalry divisions took Taman, Anapa, Novorossiysk (together with German troops), and the Romanian mountain division captured Nalchik in October 1942.
In the fall of 1942, Romanian troops occupied positions in the Stalingrad region. The 3rd Romanian army with a total strength of 150 thousand people held a front section 140 km northwest of Stalingrad, and the 4th Romanian army held a front section 300 km south.
By the end of January 1943, the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies were practically destroyed - their total losses amounted to almost 160 thousand dead, missing and wounded.
At the beginning of 1943, 6 Romanian divisions, with a total number of 65 thousand people, fought (as part of the German 17th Army) in the Kuban. In September 1943 they retreated to the Crimea, lost more than a third of their personnel, and were evacuated by sea to Romania.
In August 1944, King Mihai I, allied with the anti-fascist opposition, ordered the arrest of General Antonescu and other pro-German generals and declared war on Germany. Soviet troops were brought into Bucharest, and already the “allied Romanian army”, together with the Soviet one, fought against the Nazi coalition in Hungary, and then in Austria.
In total, up to 200 thousand Romanians died in the war against the USSR (including 55 thousand died in Soviet captivity).
18 Romanians were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses", of which three also received the "Oak Leaves" for the "Knight's Crosses".
Italy declared war on the USSR on June 22, 1941. Motivation - Mussolini's initiative, proposed by him back in January 1940 - "a pan-European campaign against Bolshevism." At the same time, Italy had no territorial claims to any zone of occupation of the USSR. In 1944, Italy effectively withdrew from the war.
The "Italian Expeditionary Force" for the war against the USSR was created on July 10, 1941 - 62 thousand soldiers and officers. The corps was sent to the southern sector of the German-Soviet front for operations in southern Ukraine.
The first clash between the advanced units of the Italian corps and units of the Red Army took place on the Southern Bug River on August 10, 1941.
In September 1941, the Italian corps fought on the Dnieper, on a 100-km section in the Dneprodzerzhinsk region, and in October-November 1941, it participated in the capture of Donbass. Then, until July 1942, the Italians were on the defensive, fighting local battles with units of the Red Army.
The losses of the Italian corps from August 1941 to June 1942 amounted to more than 1600 dead, more than 400 missing, almost 6300 wounded and more than 3600 frostbitten.
In July 1942, the Italian troops on the territory of the USSR were significantly strengthened, and the 8th Italian Army was formed, which in the autumn of 1942 occupied positions on the river. Don, northwest of Stalingrad.
In December 1942 - January 1943, the Italians tried to repel the offensive of the Red Army, and as a result, the Italian army was actually defeated - 21,000 Italians were killed, and 64,000 were missing. In the harsh winter, the Italians simply froze, and they were not up to the war. The remaining 145,000 Italians were withdrawn to Italy in March 1943.
The losses of Italians in the USSR from August 1941 to February 1943 amounted to about 90 thousand dead and missing. According to Soviet data, 49 thousand Italians were taken prisoner, of which 21 thousand Italians were released from Soviet captivity in 1946-1956. Thus, in total, about 70 thousand Italians died in the war against the USSR and in Soviet captivity.
9 Italians were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".
On June 25, 1941, Soviet aircraft bombed settlements Finland, and on June 26 Finland declared war on the USSR.
Finland intended to return the territories taken from her in March 1940, and also to annex Karelia.
On June 30, 1941, Finnish troops went on the offensive in the direction of Vyborg and Petrozavodsk. By the end of August 1941, the Finns reached the approaches to Leningrad on the Karelian Isthmus, by the beginning of October 1941 they occupied almost the entire territory of Karelia (except for the coast of the White Sea and Zaonezhye), after which they went on the defensive at the achieved lines.
From the end of 1941 until the summer of 1944, there were practically no military operations on the Soviet-Finnish front, except for the raids of Soviet partisans on the territory of Karelia and the bombing of Finnish settlements by Soviet aircraft.
On June 9, 1944, Soviet troops (with a total number of up to 500 thousand people) went on the offensive against the Finns (about 200 thousand people). In the course of heavy fighting, which lasted until August 1944, Soviet troops took Petrozavodsk, Vyborg, and in one sector reached the Soviet-Finnish border in March 1940.
On September 1, 1944, Marshal Mannerheim proposed a truce, on September 4, Stalin agreed to a truce, Finnish troops withdrew to the March 1940 border.
54,000 Finns died in the war against the USSR.
2 Finns were awarded "Knight's Crosses", including Marshal Mannerheim received "Oak Leaves" to the "Knight's Cross".
Hungary declared war on the USSR on June 27, 1941. Hungary had no territorial claims to the USSR, but there was also a motivation - "revenge on the Bolsheviks for the communist revolution of 1919 in Hungary."
On July 1, 1941, Hungary sent the "Carpathian Group" (5 brigades, totaling 40 thousand people), which fought as part of the German 17th Army in Ukraine, to the war against the USSR.
In July 1941, the group was divided - 2 infantry brigades began to perform the functions of protecting the rear, and the "Fast Corps" (2 motorized and 1 cavalry brigades, a total of 25 thousand people, with several dozen light tanks and wedges) continued to advance.
By November 1941, the "Fast Corps" suffered heavy losses - up to 12 thousand killed, missing and wounded, all tankettes and almost all light tanks were lost. The corps was returned to Hungary, but at the same time, 4 infantry and 2 cavalry Hungarian brigades with a total of 60 thousand people remained at the front and in the rear areas.
In April 1942, the Hungarian 2nd Army (about 200 thousand people) was sent against the USSR. In June 1942, she went on the offensive in the Voronezh direction, as part of the German offensive on the southern sector of the German-Soviet front.
In January 1943, the Hungarian 2nd Army was practically destroyed during the Soviet offensive (up to 100 thousand dead and up to 60 thousand taken prisoner, most of them wounded). In May 1943, the remnants of the army (about 40 thousand people) were withdrawn to Hungary.
In the autumn of 1944, all the Hungarian armed forces (three armies) fought against the Red Army, already on the territory of Hungary. The fighting in Hungary ended in April 1945, but some Hungarian units continued to fight in Austria until the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945.
More than 200 thousand Hungarians died in the war against the USSR (including 55 thousand died in Soviet captivity).
8 Hungarians were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".
Slovakia took part in the war against the USSR as part of the "pan-European campaign against Bolshevism." It had no territorial claims against the USSR. 2 Slovak divisions were sent to the war against the USSR.
One division, numbering 8 thousand people, fought in Ukraine in 1941, in the Kuban in 1942, and in 1943-1944 performed police and security functions in the Crimea.
Another division (also 8 thousand people) in 1941-1942 performed "security functions" in Ukraine, in 1943-1944 - in Belarus.
About 3,500 Slovaks died in the war against the USSR.
Croatia, like Slovakia, took part in the war against the USSR as part of the "pan-European campaign against Bolshevism."
In October 1941, 1 Croatian volunteer regiment with a total strength of 3,900 people was sent against the USSR. The regiment fought in the Donbass, in 1942 - in Stalingrad. By February 1943, the Croatian regiment was almost completely destroyed, about 700 Croats were taken prisoner.
About 2,000 Croats died in the war against the USSR.
Spain was a neutral country, did not officially declare war against the USSR, but organized the dispatch of one volunteer division to the front. Motivation - revenge for sending the Comintern International Brigades to Spain during the Civil War.
The Spanish division, or "Blue Division" (18 thousand people) was sent to the northern sector of the German-Soviet front. From October 1941 she fought in the Volkhov region, from August 1942 - near Leningrad. In October 1943, the division was returned to Spain, but about 2 thousand volunteers remained to fight in the Spanish Legion.
The Legion was disbanded in March 1944, but about 300 Spaniards wished to fight further, and 2 companies of the SS troops were formed from them, who fought against the Red Army until the end of the war.
About 5 thousand Spaniards died in the war against the USSR (452 Spaniards were taken into Soviet captivity).
2 Spaniards were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses", including one received the "Oak Leaves" to the "Knight's Cross".
Belgium declared its neutrality in 1939, but was occupied by German troops.
In 1941, two volunteer legions (battalions) were formed in Belgium for the war against the USSR. They differed by ethnicity - Flemish and Walloon.
In the autumn of 1941, the legions were sent to the front - the Walloon legion to the southern sector (to Rostov-on-Don, then to the Kuban), and the Flemish legion to the northern sector (to Volkhov).
In June 1943, both legions were reorganized into brigades of the SS troops - the SS Volunteer Brigade "Langemark" and the SS Volunteer Assault Brigade "Wallonia".
In October 1943, the brigades were renamed into divisions (remaining in the same composition - 2 infantry regiments each). At the end of the war, both the Flemings and the Walloons fought against the Red Army in Pomerania.
About 5 thousand Belgians died in the war against the USSR (2 thousand Belgians were taken into Soviet captivity).
4 Belgians were awarded the "Knight's Cross", including one received the "Oak Leaves" to the "Knight's Cross".
The Netherlands Volunteer Legion (motorized battalion of 5 companies) was formed in July 1941.
In January 1942, the Dutch legion arrived at the northern sector of the German-Soviet front, in the Volkhov region. Then the legion was transferred to Leningrad.
In May 1943, the Dutch Legion was reorganized into the SS Volunteer Brigade "Netherlands" (with a total of 9 thousand people).
In 1944, one of the regiments of the Dutch brigade was practically destroyed in the battles near Narva. In the autumn of 1944 the brigade retreated to Courland, and in January 1945 it was evacuated to Germany by sea.
In February 1945, the brigade was renamed a division, although its strength was greatly reduced due to losses. By May 1945, the Dutch division was practically destroyed in the battles against the Red Army.
About 8,000 Dutch people died in the war against the USSR (more than 4,000 Dutch were taken into Soviet captivity).
4 Dutchmen were awarded the "Knight's Crosses".
The "French Volunteer Legion" for the war "against the Bolsheviks" was created in July 1941.
In October 1941, the French legion (an infantry regiment, numbering 2.5 thousand people) was sent to the German-Soviet front, to the Moscow direction. The French suffered heavy losses there, were defeated “to the smithereens” almost on the Borodino field, and from the spring of 1942 to the summer of 1944 the legion performed only police functions, it was used to fight against Soviet partisans.
In the summer of 1944, as a result of the offensive of the Red Army in Belarus, the "French Legion" was again on the front line, again suffered heavy losses and was withdrawn to Germany.
In September 1944, the legion was disbanded, and instead the “French Brigade of the SS Troops” (more than 7 thousand people) was created, and in February 1945 it was renamed the 33rd Grenadier Division of the SS Troops “Charlemagne” (“Charlemagne ”) and sent to the front in Pomerania against the Soviet troops. In March 1945, the French division was almost completely destroyed.
The remnants of the French division (about 700 people) at the end of April 1945 defended Berlin, in particular Hitler's bunker.
And in 1942, 130 thousand young people from Alsace and Lorraine born in 1920-24 were forcibly mobilized into the Wehrmacht, dressed in German uniforms and most of them were sent to the eastern front (they called themselves “malgre-nous”, that is, “mobilized against my will). About 90% of them immediately surrendered to Soviet troops and ended up in the Gulag!
Pierre Rigulot writes in his books “The French in the Gulag” and “The Tragedy of the Reluctant Soldiers”: “... In general, after 1946, 85 thousand French were repatriated, 25 thousand died in the camps, 20 thousand disappeared on the territory of the USSR ...”. In 1943-1945 alone, more than 10,000 Frenchmen who died in custody were buried in mass graves in the forest near the Rada station, near Tambov, in camp No. 188.
In the war against the USSR, about 8 thousand Frenchmen died (not counting the Alsatians and Logaringians).
3 Frenchmen were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".
After the landing of the Allies in Northern France, of all the North African territories of France, only Tunisia remained under the sovereignty of Vichy and the occupation of the Axis troops. After the Allied landings, the Vichy regime attempted to create volunteer formations that could serve alongside the Italo-German army.
On January 8, 1943, a "legion" was created with a single unit - the "African Phalanx" (Phalange Africaine), consisting of 300 French and 150 Muslim Africans (later the number of French was reduced to 200).
After three months of training, the phalanx was assigned to the 754th Infantry Regiment of the 334th German Infantry Division operating in Tunisia. Having been "in business", the phalanx was renamed "LVF en Tunisie" and existed under this name until the surrender in early May 1945.
The social democratic government of Denmark did not declare war on the USSR, but did not interfere with the formation of the "Danish Volunteer Corps", and officially allowed the Danish army to join it (indefinite leave with the preservation of the rank).
In July-December 1941, more than 1 thousand people joined the Danish Volunteer Corps (the name "corps" was symbolic, in fact it was a battalion). In May 1942, the "Danish Corps" was sent to the front, to the Demyansk region. From December 1942, the Danes fought in the Velikiye Luki region.
At the beginning of June 1943, the corps was disbanded, many of its members, as well as new volunteers, joined the regiment " Danemark» 11th SS Volunteer Division « Nordland"(Danish-Norwegian division). In January 1944, the division was sent to Leningrad, participated in the battle of Narva.
In January 1945 the division fought against the Red Army in Pomerania, and in April 1945 fought in Berlin.
About 2 thousand Danes died in the war against the USSR (456 Danes were taken into Soviet captivity).
3 Danes were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".
The Norwegian government in July 1941 announced the formation of the "Norwegian Volunteer Legion" to send "to help Finland in the war against the USSR."
In February 1942, after training in Germany, the Norwegian legion (1 battalion, numbering 1.2 thousand people) was sent to the German-Soviet front, near Leningrad.
In May 1943, the Norwegian Legion was disbanded, most of the soldiers joined the Norwegian regiment of the 11th SS Volunteer Division " Nordland"(Danish-Norwegian division).
About 1,000 Norwegians died in the war against the USSR (100 Norwegians were taken into Soviet captivity).
These are the so-called "SS divisions", formed from the "citizens" of the USSR, as well as from the inhabitants of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Note that only Germans and representatives of the peoples of the Germanic language group (Dutch, Danes, Flemings, Norwegians, Swedes) were taken in the SS division. Only they had the right to wear SS runes in their buttonholes. For some reason, an exception was made only for the French-speaking Walloon Belgians.
But "divisions under the SS", "Waffen divisions der SS" formed precisely from the "non-German peoples" - Bosniaks, Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Albanians, Russians, Belarusians, Hungarians, Italians, French.
At the same time, the command staff in these divisions was mainly from Germans (they had the right to wear SS runes). But the “Russian Division under the SS” was commanded by Bronislav Kaminsky, a half-Polish, half-German, originally from St. Petersburg. Because of his "pedigree" he could not be a member of the SS party organization, and was not a member of the NSDAP.
The first "Waffen Division under the SS" was the 13th ( Bosnian-Muslim) or Handshar, formed in March 1943. She fought from January 1944 in Croatia, and from December 1944 - in Hungary.
"Scanderbeg". In April 1944, the 21st mountain division of the Waffen-SS "Skanderbeg" was formed from Muslim Albanians. Almost 11 thousand soldiers were recruited from the province of Kosovo, as well as from Albania itself. They were mostly Sunni Muslims.
"14th Waffen Division der SS" (Ukrainian)
From the autumn of 1943 to the spring of 1944 she was in the reserve (in Poland). In July 1944 she fought on the Soviet-German front in the Brody region (Western Ukraine). In September 1944 it was sent to suppress the uprising in Slovakia. In January 1945, she was transferred to the reserve in the Bratislava region, in April 1945 she retreated to Austria, and in May 1945 she surrendered to American troops.
The only units of the Eastern Volunteers that entered the Wehrmacht from the very beginning were two small Ukrainian battalions created in the spring of 1941.
The Nachtigal battalion was recruited from Ukrainians living in Poland, the Roland battalion was recruited from Ukrainian emigrants living in Germany.
"15th Waffen Division der SS" (Latvian No. 1)
From December 1943 - at the front in the Volkhov region, in January - March 1944 - at the front in the Pskov region, in April - May 1944 at the front in the Nevel region. From July to December 1944 it was reorganized in Latvia, and then in West Prussia. In February 1945 she was sent to the front in West Prussia, in March 1945 to the front in Pomerania.
"19th Waffen Division der SS" (Latvian No. 2)
At the front since April 1944, in the Pskov region, since July 1944 - in Latvia.
"20th Waffen Division der SS" (Estonian)
From March to October 1944 in Estonia, November 1944 - January 1945 in Germany (in reserve), in February - May 1945 at the front in Silesia.
"29th Waffen Division der SS" (Russian)
In August 1944 she took part in the suppression of the uprising in Warsaw. At the end of August, for the rape and murder of German residents of Warsaw, the division commander, Waffen-Brigadefuhrer Kaminsky, and the division chief of staff, Waffen-Obersturmbannführer Shavyakin (a former captain of the Red Army) were shot, and the division was sent to Slovakia and disbanded there.
"Russian security corps in Serbia"("Russisches Schutzkorps Serbien", RSS), the last division of the Russian Imperial Army. He was recruited from among the White Guards who found refuge in Serbia in 1921 and retained their national self-identification and adherence to traditional beliefs. They wanted to fight "for Russia and against the Reds", but they were sent to fight the partisans of Joseph Broz Tito.
"Russian Security Corps", originally led by the White Guard General Shteifon, and later by Colonel Rogozin. The number of the corps is more than 11 thousand people.
"30th Waffen Division der SS" (Belarusian)
From September to November 1944 in the reserve in Germany, from December 1944 on the Upper Rhine.
"33rd Hungarian" lasted only two months , was formed in December 1944, disbanded in January 1945.
The “36th division” was formed from German criminals and even political prisoners in February 1945. But then the Nazis “raked out” all the “reserves”, calling everyone into the Wehrmacht - from the boys from the “Hitler Youth” to the elderly ...
"Latvian SS Volunteer Legion". In February 1943, after the defeat of the German troops near Stalingrad, Hitler's command decided to form the Latvian National Legion of the SS. It included part of the Latvian volunteer units, created earlier and already taking part in hostilities.
In the first days of March 1943, the entire male population of Latvia born in 1918 and 1919 was ordered to appear at the district and volost police departments at their place of residence. There, after an examination by a medical commission, the mobilized were given the right to choose a place of service: either in the Latvian SS legion, or in the service staff of the German troops, or in defense work.
Of the 150 thousand soldiers and officers of the legion, over 40 thousand died and almost 50 thousand were captured by the Soviets. In April 1945 she took part in the battles for Neubrandenburg. At the end of April 1945, the remnants of the division were transferred to Berlin, where the battalion took part in the last battles for the "capital of the Third Reich".
In addition to these divisions, in December 1944 the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division was transferred to the SS, in January 1945 it was renamed the 15th Cossack Cavalry SS Corps. The corps operated in Croatia against Tito's partisans.
On December 30, 1941, the Wehrmacht command ordered the formation of "legions" from volunteers of various nationalities of the USSR. During the first half of 1942, first four and then six legions were fully integrated into the Wehrmacht, receiving the same status as the European legions. At first they were located in Poland.
"Turkestan Legion" , located in Legionovo, included Cossacks, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Karakalpaks and representatives of other nationalities.
"Muslim-Caucasian Legion" (later renamed " Azerbaijan Legion") located in Zheldny, the total number of 40,000 people.
"North Caucasian Legion" , which included representatives of 30 different peoples of the North Caucasus, was located in Vesola.
The formation of the legion began in September 1942 near Warsaw from Caucasian prisoners of war. The number of volunteers (more than 5,000 people) included Ossetians, Chechens, Ingush, Kabardians, Balkars, Tabasarans, etc.
The so-called. "North Caucasian Committee". His leadership included the Dagestani Akhmed-Nabi Agaev (Abwehr agent), Ossetian Kantemirov (former Minister of War of the Mountain Republic) and Sultan-Girey Klych.
"Georgian Legion" was formed in Kruzhyn. It should be noted that this legion existed from 1915 to 1917, and during its first formation it was staffed by volunteers from among the Georgians who were captured during the 1st World War.
During the Second World War "Georgian Legion""replenished" with volunteers from among the Soviet prisoners of war of Georgian nationality
"Armenian Legion" (18 thousand people ) was formed in Pulav, Drastamat Kanayan (“General Dro”) led the legion. Drastamat Kanayan defected to the Americans in May 1945. He spent the last years of his life in Beirut, died on March 8, 1956, and was buried in Boston. At the end of May 2000, the body of Drastamat Kanayan was reburied in the city of Aparan, in Armenia, near the memorial to the soldiers-heroes of the Great Patriotic War.
"Volga-Tatar Legion" (Legion "Idel-Ural") consisted of representatives of the Volga peoples (Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Udmurts), Most of all there were Tatars. Formed in Zheldny.
In accordance with the policy of the Wehrmacht, these legions never united in combat conditions. As soon as they completed their training in Poland, they were sent to the front separately.
Interestingly, the Kalmyks were not part of the Eastern Legions and the first Kalmyk units were created by the headquarters of the 16th German motorized infantry division after Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, was occupied during the summer offensive of 1942. These units were called differently: "Kalmyk Legion" (Kalmuck Legion), "Dr. Doll's Kalmyk Connection" (Kal-mucken Verband Dr. Doll), or "Kalmyk Cavalry Corps".
In practice, it was a "volunteer corps" with the status of an allied army and broad autonomy. Basically, it was made up of former Red Army soldiers, commanded by Kalmyk sergeants and Kalmyk officers.
Initially, the Kalmyks fought against the partisan detachments, then retreated to the west along with the German troops.
The constant retreat brought the "Kalmyk Legion" to Poland, where by the end of 1944 they numbered about 5,000 people. Soviet winter offensive 1944-45 found them near Radom, and at the very end of the war they were reorganized in Neuhammer.
The Kalmyks were the only "Eastern Volunteers" who joined Vlasov's army.
Crimean Tatars. In October 1941, the creation of volunteer formations from representatives of the Crimean Tatars, "self-defense companies", whose main task was to fight partisans, began. Until January 1942, this process went on spontaneously, but after the recruitment of volunteers from among the Crimean Tatars was officially sanctioned by Hitler, "the solution to this problem" passed to the leadership of the Einsatzgruppe "D". During January 1942, more than 8,600 volunteers, Crimean Tatars, were recruited.
These formations were used in the protection of military and civilian facilities, took an active part in the fight against partisans, and in 1944 they actively resisted the formations of the Red Army that liberated the Crimea.
The remnants of the Crimean Tatar units, together with the German and Romanian troops, were evacuated from the Crimea by sea.
In the summer of 1944, from the remnants of the Crimean Tatar units in Hungary, the "Tatar Mountain Jaeger Regiment of the SS" was formed, which was soon reorganized into the "1st Tatar Mountain Jaeger Brigade of the SS", which was disbanded on December 31, 1944 and transformed into the battle group "Crimea ", which merged into the "Eastern Turkic Union of the SS".
Crimean Tatar volunteers who were not part of the "Tatar Mountain Chasseurs Regiment of the SS" were transferred to France and included in the reserve battalion of the "Volga-Tatar Legion".
As Yurado Carlos Caballero wrote: “... Not as an excuse for “divisions under the SS”, but for the sake of objectivity, we note that a much larger scale of war crimes was committed by the Allgemeine-SS special forces (“Sonderkommando” and “Einsatzgruppen”), but also “ost-truppen” - units formed from Russians, Turkestans, Ukrainians, Belarusians, peoples of the Caucasus and the Volga region - they were mainly engaged in anti-partisan activities ... The divisions of the Hungarian army were also engaged in this ...
However, it should be noted that the Bosnian-Muslim, Albanian and “Russian divisions der SS”, as well as the “36th division der SS” from the Germans, became most famous for war crimes ... ".
A few months before the start of Operation Barbarossa, while the Soviet-German non-aggression pact was still in effect, the extremist leader of the Indian nationalists, Subhas Chandra Bose, arrived from Moscow in Berlin, intending to enlist the support of the Germans "in the liberation of his country." Thanks to his perseverance, he managed to persuade the Germans to recruit a group of volunteers from Indians who served in the British troops and were captured in North Africa.
By the end of 1942, this Free India Legion (also known as the Tiger Legion, the Fries Indyen Legion, the Azad Hind Legion, Indische Freiwilligen-Legion Regiment 950 or I.R 950) reached a strength of about 2000 people and officially Entered the German Army as the 950th (Indian) Infantry Regiment.
In 1943, Bos Chandra traveled by submarine to Japanese-occupied Singapore. He sought to create from the Indians who were captured by the Japanese, the Indian National Army.
However, the German command poorly represented the problems of caste, tribal and religious strife among the inhabitants of India, and in addition, German officers treated their subordinates with disdain ... And, most importantly, more than 70 percent of the soldiers of the division were Muslims, people from tribes from the territories of modern Pakistan, Bangladesh , as well as from the Muslim communities of western and northwestern India. Yes, and the nutritional problems of such “motley fighters” were very serious - someone did not eat pork, someone ate only rice and vegetables.
In the spring of 1944, 2,500 people of the Indian Legion were sent to the Bordeaux region in the fortress of the Atlantic Wall. The first combat loss was Lieutenant Ali Khan, who was killed by French partisans in August 1944 during the retreat of the legion to Alsace. On August 8, the 1944 legion was transferred to the SS troops.
In March 1945, the remnants of the legion tried to break into Switzerland, but were taken prisoner by the French and Americans. The prisoners were handed over to the British as traitors to their own power, former legionnaires were sent to prisons in Delhi, and some were immediately shot.
Nevertheless, we note, in fairness, that this peculiar unit practically did not take part in hostilities.
On May 2, 1941, an anti-British rebellion broke out in Iraq led by Rashid el-Ghaliani. The Germans formed a special headquarters "F" (Sonderstab F) to assist the Arab insurgents.
To support the rebellion, two small units were created - the 287th and 288th special formations (Sonderverbonde), recruited from the personnel of the Brandenburg division. But before they could get involved, the rebellion was crushed.
The 288th all-German formation was sent to North Africa as part of the Afrika Korps, while the 287th formation was left in Greece, near Athens, to organize volunteers from the Middle East. They were mostly Palestinian supporters of the pro-German Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Iraqis who supported el-Galiani.
When three battalions were recruited, one battalion was sent to Tunisia, and the other two were used to fight the partisans, first in the Caucasus and then in Yugoslavia.
The 287th unit was never officially recognized as an Arab legion - " Legion FreeArab. This common name was given to all Arabs who fought under German command to distinguish them from other ethnic groups.
The anti-Hitler coalition included the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and its dominions (Canada, India, the Union of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand), Poland, France, Ethiopia, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Greece, Yugoslavia, Tuva, Mongolia, USA.
China (the government of Chiang Kai-shek) has been fighting against Japan since July 7, 1937, and Mexico, Brazil. Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Argentina declared war on Germany and its allies.
The participation of the Latin American countries in the war consisted mainly in carrying out defensive measures, in protecting the coast and caravans of ships.
The fighting of a number of countries occupied by Germany - Yugoslavia, Greece, France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland consisted mainly in the partisan movement and the resistance movement. Italian partisans were also active, fighting both against the Mussolini regime and against Germany.
Poland. After the defeat and partition of Poland between Germany and the USSR, Polish troops acted together with the troops of Great Britain, France and the USSR (“Anders Army”). In 1944, Polish troops participated in the landing in Normandy, and in May 1945 they took Berlin.
Luxembourg was attacked by Germany on May 10, 1940. In August 1942, Luxembourg was incorporated into Germany, so many Luxembourgers were called up to serve in the Wehrmacht.
In total, 10,211 Luxembourgers were drafted into the Wehrmacht during the occupation. Of these, 2,848 died, 96 were missing.
1653 Luxembourgers who served in the Wehrmacht and fought on the German-Soviet front fell into Soviet captivity (93 of them died in captivity).
Sweden. At the beginning of the war, Sweden declared its neutrality, but nevertheless carried out a partial mobilization. During Soviet-Finnish military conflict She declared her status " non-belligerent power”, however, provided assistance to Finland with money and military equipment.
Nevertheless, Sweden cooperated with both belligerents, the most famous examples being the passage of German troops from Norway to Finland and informing the British about Bismarck's entry into Operation Rheinübung.
In addition, Sweden actively supplied Germany with iron ore, but from mid-August 1943, it stopped transporting German military materials through its country.
During the Great Patriotic War, Sweden was a diplomatic mediator between the USSR and Germany.
Switzerland. Declared its neutrality the day before the outbreak of World War II. But in September 1939, 430 thousand people were mobilized into the army, rationing was introduced for food and industrial products.
In the international arena, Switzerland maneuvered between the two warring factions, the ruling circles for a long time leaned towards the pro-German course.
Swiss firms supplied Germany weapons, ammunition, machinery and other manufactured goods. Germany received electricity from Switzerland, loans (over 1 billion francs), used the Swiss railways for military transport to Italy and back.
Some Swiss firms acted as intermediaries for Germany on world markets. Intelligence agencies of Germany, Italy, the USA and England operated on the territory of Switzerland.
Spain. Spain remained neutral during World War II, although Hitler considered the Spaniards to be his allies. German submarines entered the ports of Spain, and German agents operated freely in Madrid. Spain supplied Germany and tungsten, though at the end of the war, Spain sold tungsten to the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. Jews fled to Spain, then making their way to Portugal.
Portugal. In 1939, she declared neutrality. But the Salazar government supplied strategic raw materials, and, above all, tungsten to Germany and Italy. In October 1943, realizing the inevitability of the defeat of Nazi Germany, Salazar grants the British and Americans the right to use the Azores as a military base, and in June 1944 stops the export of tungsten to Germany.
During the war, hundreds of thousands of Jews from various European countries were able to escape the Nazi genocide, using Portuguese visas, emigrating from war-torn Europe.
Ireland maintained complete neutrality.
About 1,500,000 Jews took part in the fighting in the armies of different countries, in the partisan movement and in the Resistance.
In the US Army - 550,000, in the USSR - 500,000, Poland - 140,000, Great Britain - 62,000, France - 46,000.
Alexey Kazdym
List of used literature
