A time between crisis: Eastern Front

The battle of Moscow

Moscow was a main strategic goal for the German commandment. Under the Barbarossa Plan Moscow was to be occupied in the first three months after the invasion. The Germans called this offensive Operation Typhoon. According to Hitler’s order, Moscow would be encircled and then destroyed by a man-made flood.

Soviet commandment learned about the German plans too late. At the time of the German attack, the construction of the Vyazma and Mozhaysk defensive lines had not yet been finished and the fronts, which were protecting the Moscow sector, had not been reinforced. The enemy had superiority in both manpower and equipment.

A big problem the German were fighting then was the dropping temperatures and the critical supply shortages. The soldiers were still in summer uniforms and they suffered terribly. But didn’t stop them of finishing their goal, Moscow.

“We forced them to fight to the death. If they resisted or ran away we eliminated them. We shot them. That's all. They weren't fighters anymore. It was hard. It was bad. I understand. But what can you do?”

- Vladimir Ogryzko, 1st NKVD Division

On 15 October the evacuation of Moscow began. The government evacuated military schools, general staff administrations and other state institutions, while citizens tried to leave the city on their own. By the end of October the Germans had saved the Soviet Western Front forces off from the Mozhaysk defensive line. The battles took place only about 55 miles from Moscow.

The last of the successful German operations took place on 1 December, when the Germans occupied the village of Krasnaya Polyana. By 5 December the German advance was stopped in all the sectors and the Soviet counter offensive started.

Also on 5 December the Kalinin Front forces regained Yakhroma and Krasnaya Polyana. Seeing the upcoming threat, Hitler ordered the Army Group Center to go on the defensive, while Soviet forces advanced in all directions. On 9 December the Soutwestern Front forces liberated the town of Elets. On the 11th Stalinogorsk and Istria were regained, on the 15th the town of Klin and on the 16th Kalinin. The Soviet commandment ordered to pursue the enemy.

It took the Soviet forces a month to push the enemy about 123 miles back from Moscow, but the Army Group Center still was not defeated.

This is a little video where you will see images of the Eastern front.

Operation Uranus

Operation Uranus was one of the key turning points of the war. It was not just the moment when Red Army soldiers showed they could mount a sophisticated offensive and defeat the Germans, but also the first major sign that Stalin was prepared, at last, to trust his generals. The objective of Operation Uranus was to destroy the German Sixth Army in Stalingrad.

The plan for Operation Uranus was reminiscent of both German strategy and the Soviet theory of ‘deep operations’ that had been advanced in the 1930s. The idea was not to attack the Sixth Army directly in Stalingrad, but rather to mount two pincer movements, one from the north and the other from the east. These separate thrusts would then meet up west of Stalingrad and trap the Germans in a giant encirclement.

One of the strengths of the plan was that it meant that the Red Army would be fighting weaker units of Romanians, Hungarians and Italians who had been tasked by the Germans with protecting their flanks.

Stallin approved the plan and Operation Uranus was finally launched on the morning of 19 November 1943.

Ivan Golokolenko, a Red Army soldier who took part, remembers the moment when an address from Stalin was read to the troops who were preparing to attack:

‘There was something fatherly, something paternal about it. It said: ‘Dear generals and soldiers, I address you my brothers. Today you start an offensive and your actions decide the fate of the country – whether it remains an independent country or perishes.’ And those words really reached my heart… I was close to tears when the meeting was over. I felt a real upsurge, a spiritual upsurge.’

The Red Army moved forward and caught the Germans and their allies completely by surprise.

By Christmas Eve 1942, , it was clear that the Sixth Army was doomed. And the scene was set for one of the greatest military disasters in German history.