why was the eastern front so bloody

The condition of the troops that surrendered was pitiful. The cities of Lyman and Kupyansk are about 100 kilometers apart, north of Bakhmut on Ukraine's eastern front. [101], After 27 September, much of the fighting in the city shifted north to the industrial district. Meantime, the Kremlin said Russia and the United . The Soviet forces were allowed to retain bridgeheads on the right bank from which offensive operations could be quickly launched. It was a bigger campaign then the earlier battles of the western front. The sick and wounded reached 40,000 to 50,000. At the center of the crescent is Bakhmut, the site of one of the war's most prolonged and bloody battles, where Russia has made slow progress in its monthslong attempt to encircle the city. In its evening update, it said Russian troops attempted offensives in five directions. Choice Reviews Online, 27(05), pp.27-2848-27-2848. General Richthofen informed Manstein on 27 November of the small transport capacity of the Luftwaffe and the impossibility of supplying 300 tons a day by air. . The planned summer offensive, code-named Fall Blau (Case Blue), was to include the German 6th, 17th, 4th Panzer and 1st Panzer Armies. [115], After three months of slow advance, the Germans finally reached the river banks, capturing 90% of the ruined city and splitting the remaining Soviet forces into two narrow pockets. [188] Weakened by disease, starvation and lack of medical care during the encirclement, they were sent on forced marches to prisoner camps and later to labour camps all over the Soviet Union. Kursk was a battle of attrition rather than . Read more In August 1914, both sides expected a quick victory. In the early parts of the operation, fuel was shipped at a higher priority than food and ammunition because of a belief that there would be a breakout from the city. How three million Germans died after VE Day. "[90] After conducting hundreds of interviews with Soviet veterans on the subject of terror on the Eastern Front and specifically about Order No. "Stalingrad anniversary: 70 years on, Russian city still gives up its WWII dead", "Russia marks 70th anniversary of Stalingrad battle", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqFo-TswRss, Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad, "Stalinqrad dy: tarixin n qanl sava v II dnya mharibsind sasl dnn balanc", Stalingrad battle Newsreels // Net-Film Newsreels and Documentary Films Archive, Story of the Stalingrad battle with pictures, maps, video and other primary and secondary sources, Volgograd State Panoramic Museum official homepage, The Battle of Stalingrad in Film and History, Stalingrad-info.com, Russian archival docs translated into English, original battle maps, aerial photos, pictures taken at the battlefields, relics collection, H-Museum: Stalingrad/Volgograd 19432003. [156] Hitler rejected it on a point of honour. The Stalingrad Tractor Factory continued to turn out T-34 tanks up until German troops burst into the plant. The Italian front (Italian: Fronte italiano; German: Sdwestfront) was one of the main theatres of war of World War I.It involved a series of military engagements in Northern Italy between the Central Powers and the Allies of World War I from 1915 to 1918. Answer (1 of 3): Hitler always saw Russia as and area to expand his Aryan race. Winter Storm, as Zhukov had predicted, was originally planned as a two-pronged attack. Fighting within the ruined city was fierce and desperate. [130][131] After 1945, Manstein claimed that he told Hitler that the 6th Army must break out. [105], Fighting raged inside the Barrikady Factory until the end of October. Ice floes on the Volga now prevented boats and tugs from supplying the Soviet defenders. [177] In addition, an unknown amount of Hungarian, Italian, and Romanian materiel was lost. [29] Stalin was expecting the main thrust of the German summer attacks to be directed against Moscow again. Sources differ on the number flown out: at least 25,000 to at most 35,000. By the spring of 1942, despite the failure of Operation Barbarossa to decisively defeat the Soviet Union in a single campaign, the Wehrmacht had captured vast expanses of territory, including Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic republics. The 6th Panzer Division, arriving from France, was a vastly more powerful formation, but its members hardly received an encouraging impression. The Germans set up a "mobile defence" of small units that were to hold towns until supporting armour arrived. Another advance to the river south of the city followed, while the Soviets abandoned their Rossoshka position for the inner defensive ring west of Stalingrad. Bloody urban warfare began again in Stalingrad, but this time it was the Germans who were pushed back to the banks of the Volga. The Soviet front's composition and names changed several times in the battle. The remaining forces continued to resist, hiding in cellars and sewers, but by early March 1943 the last small and isolated pockets of resistance had surrendered. This slowed the German advance and reduced the effectiveness of the German advantage in supporting fire. Machine-Gewehr Bataillon (mot), Stalingrad Battle Data Project: order of battle, strength returns, interactive map, Stalingrad documentaries by the Army University Press, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Stalingrad&oldid=1164037715, Expulsion of the Axis from the Caucasus, reversing their gains from the, 744 aircraft; 1,666 tanks; 5,762 guns captured. [Note 4], As historian Chris Bellamy notes, the Germans paid a high strategic price for the aircraft sent into Stalingrad: the Luftwaffe was forced to divert much of its air strength away from the oil-rich Caucasus, which had been Hitler's original grand-strategic objective. Some, including Paulus, signed anti-Hitler statements that were broadcast to German troops. '", By 18 December, the German Army had pushed to within 48km (30mi) of Sixth Army's positions. On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus. The fleet's total strength decreased by 40 percent. "We haven't had time to deal with them yet," one of the Russians said. The German 6th Army was only a few dozen kilometres from Stalingrad. Beyond that army, a single German division, the 16th Motorised Infantry, covered 400km. Russia has held, Egypt for the present is safe. The Luftwaffe retained air superiority into November, and Soviet daytime aerial resistance was nonexistent. [202] The statue forms part of a war memorial complex which includes the ruins of the Grain Silo and Pavlov's House. "[168], Around 91,000 exhausted, ill, wounded, and starving prisoners were taken. He had been crouching over another cesspool, and now, noticing us, he was hastily pulling up his pants, and then he slunk away into the door of the basement. [129] The American historian Gerhard Weinberg wrote that Manstein distorted his record on the matter. [163] When interrogated by the Soviets, Paulus claimed that he had not surrendered. The Germans. It aimed to break through to the Sixth Army and establish a corridor to keep it supplied and reinforced, so that, according to Hitler's order, it could maintain its "cornerstone" position on the Volga, "with regard to operations in 1943". On 19 November, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, a two-pronged attack targeting the Romanian armies protecting the 6th Army's flanks. 1, suffered particularly heavy losses. A handful of senior officers were taken to Moscow and used for propaganda purposes, and some of them joined the National Committee for a Free Germany. On 23 December, the Soviet 24th Tank Corps, commanded by Major-General Vasily Mikhaylovich Badanov, reached nearby Skassirskaya and in the early morning of 24 December, the tanks reached Tatsinskaya. Stalingradskaya bitva, IPA:[stlnratskj bitv]; 23 August 1942 2 February 1943)[17][18][19] was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later renamed Volgograd) in Southern Russia. According to Stephen Walsh: Romanian casualties were 158,854; 114,520 Italians (84,830 killed, missing and 29,690 wounded); and 143,000 Hungarian (80,000 killed, missing and 63,000 wounded). "As quick as lightning, the Panzergrenadiers jumped from their wagons. Based on Soviet records, over 11,000 German soldiers continued to resist in isolated groups within the city for the next month. [79], German military doctrine was based on the principle of combined-arms teams and close cooperation between tanks, infantry, engineers, artillery and ground-attack aircraft. [151][152] The German High Command informed Paulus, "Every day that the army holds out longer helps the whole front and draws away the Russian divisions from it. The Kampfwaffe (bomber force) was the hardest hit, having only 232 out of an original force of 480 left. Soviet operations were constantly hampered by the Luftwaffe. Updated August 15, 2022 At the cost of more than 30 million lives, Hitler would finally be defeated by the Soviets. He denied that he was the commander of the remaining northern pocket in Stalingrad and refused to issue an order in his name for them to surrender. Some Soviet commanders adopted the tactic of always keeping their front-line positions as close to the Germans as physically possible; Chuikov called this "hugging" the Germans. At a minimum, 500 tons were required. Zhukov states, "Compared with the Germans, the troops of the satellites were not so well armed, less experienced and less efficient, even in defence. Scorched earth, sabotage, partisans. [132] Manstein was tasked to conduct a relief operation, named Operation Winter Storm (Unternehmen Wintergewitter) against Stalingrad, which he thought was feasible if the 6th Army was temporarily supplied through the air. [143], The toll on the Transportgruppen was heavy. Positions were taken individually, but the Germans were never able to capture the key crossing points along the river bank. On the Western Front, Germany held most of Europe, the U-boat offensive in the Atlantic was holding American support at bay, and in North Africa Erwin Rommel had just captured Tobruk. Background Lev Kamenev arriving at Brest-Litovsk By 1917, Germany and Russia were stuck in a stalemate on the Eastern Front of World War I and the Russian economy had nearly collapsed under the strain of the war effort. The German operation Barbarosa had 3 million Germans invade the soviet Union. He telegraphed the 6th Army later that day, claiming that it had made a historic contribution to the greatest struggle in German history and that it should stand fast "to the last soldier and the last bullet". Fliegerkorps dispatched wave after wave of Stuka dive-bombers to prevent a breakthrough. [116] From 21 August to 20 November, the German 6th Army lost 60,548 men, including 12,782 killed, 45,545 wounded and 2,221 missing. No troops were pulled off that region to help relieve the 6th Army. German . [184], The bombing campaign and five months of fighting in the city had utterly destroyed 99% of the city, with the city being nothing more than a heap of rubble.[185]. [199], The news of the battle echoed round the world, with many people now believing that Hitler's defeat was inevitable. The Eastern Front was essentially this entire region right over there. This month marks the 70th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Stalingrad, a ferocious and brutal siege that proved to be a major psychological and military tipping point in World War II. The most famous Soviet sniper in Stalingrad was Vasily Zaytsev,[87] with 225 confirmed kills during the battle. Poor weather prevented effective air action against the Soviet offensive. The Luftwaffe helped repel the offensive by heavily attacking Soviet artillery positions and defensive lines. On 4 August, the Germans launched an offensive by using the 6th Army and elements of the 4th Panzer Army. This left only the LVII Panzer Corps around Kotelnikovo, supported by the rest of Hoth's very mixed Fourth Panzer Army, to relieve Paulus's trapped divisions. The Soviets responded by fixing fish hooks to the grenades so they stuck to the nets when thrown. [98] Three air regiments at Stalingrad were entirely female. As General Chuikov acknowledged, "Remembering the defence of Stalingrad, I can't overlook the very important question about the role of women in war, in the rear, but also at the front. [58] Civilians, including women and children, were put to work building trenchworks and protective fortifications. The 16th Panzer was shocked to find that, due to Soviet manpower shortages, it had been fighting female soldiers. Paulus requested that he be granted permission to accept the terms. [36]:98 The third and last serviceable runway was at the Stalingradskaya flight school, which reportedly had the last landings and takeoffs on 23 January. He told Hitler that he was no longer able to command his men, who were without ammunition or food. In the porch lay the skeleton of a horse, with only a few scraps of meat still clinging to its ribs. Behind the front lines, no preparations had been made to defend key points in the rear such as Kalach. The situation of the Romanian tanks is known, however. Stalingrad was strategically important to both sides as a major industrial and transport hub on the Volga River. [30][31][32], On 23 July 1942, Hitler personally rewrote the operational objectives for the 1942 campaign, greatly expanding them to include the occupation of the city of Stalingrad. Equally with men they bore all the burdens of combat life and together with us men, they went all the way to Berlin. [136], The director of Luftflotte 4, Wolfram von Richthofen, tried to get this decision overturned. It was postponed for a month so that Germany could secure its southern flank by conquering Greece and Yugoslavia. [citation needed], A significant historical debate concerns the degree of terror in the Red Army. Out of the nearly 91,000 German prisoners captured in Stalingrad, only about 5,000 returned. [48] It has been said that Stalin prevented civilians from leaving the city in the belief that their presence would encourage greater resistance from the city's defenders. [33] Hitler proclaimed that after Stalingrad's capture, its male citizens were to be killed and all women and children were to be deported because its population was "thoroughly communistic" and "especially dangerous". [100] The Soviet command moved units from the Red Army strategic reserve in the Moscow area to the lower Volga and transferred aircraft from the entire country to the Stalingrad region. About the project Fighting the First World War: Stalemate and attrition For much of the First World War, the Western Front remained almost static, with each side killing many of the other's men but otherwise making little progress. [14][180] 955 Soviet civilians died in Stalingrad and its suburbs from aerial bombing by Luftflotte 4 as the German 4th Panzer and 6th Armies approached the city. By the end of July, the Germans had pushed the Soviets across the Don River. Often referred to as the "eastern front," the German-Soviet theater of war was the largest and deadliest of World War II. However, a number of German and Romanian units that were to take part in Blau were besieging Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula. In spite of the failure of the German offensive to reach the 6th Army, the air supply operation continued under ever more difficult circumstances. [53], The Soviets had enough warning of the German advance to ship grain, cattle, and railway cars across the Volga out of harm's way, but Stalin refused to evacuate the 400,000 civilian residents of Stalingrad. Daily sorties decreased from 1,343 per day to 975 per day. Manstein now saw the enormous technical difficulties of a supply by air of these dimensions. So the Western Front, which was generally this region right over here, was a much smaller front than the Eastern Front. [114], The Royal Romanian Air Force was also involved in the Axis air operations at Stalingrad. Army Group B was in disarray and faced strong Soviet pressure across all its fronts. He studied 11,237 letters sent by soldiers inside of Stalingrad between 20 December 1942 and 16 January 1943 to their families in Germany. [166], The central pocket, under the command of Heitz, surrendered the same day, while the northern pocket, under the command of General Karl Strecker, held out for two more days. Between 25 and 31 July, 32 Soviet ships were sunk, with another nine crippled.[54]. One person, though, Roman Karmen, managed to record the first interrogation of Paulus that took place the same day, at Shumilov's 64th Army's HQ, and a few hours later at Rokossovsky's Don Front HQ. The capture of Stalingrad would make the delivery of Lend-Lease supplies via the Persian Corridor much more difficult. In mid-October, after receiving reinforcements from the Caucasus theatre, the Luftwaffe intensified its efforts against the remaining Red Army positions holding the west bank. 227 ("Not a step back!") Neither Army Group North nor Army Group South had been particularly hard-pressed over the winter. : 109,000 Romanians casualties (from November 1942 to December 1942), included 70,000 captured or missing. [108] Determined to crush Soviet resistance, Luftflotte 4's Stukawaffe flew 900 individual sorties against Soviet positions at the Stalingrad Tractor Factory on 5 October. The Germans called this unseen urban warfare Rattenkrieg ("Rat War"),[84] and bitterly joked about capturing the kitchen but still fighting for the living room and the bedroom. General Zeitzler, moved by their plight, began to limit himself to their slim rations at meal times. While a motorised breakout might have been possible in the first few weeks, the 6th Army now had insufficient fuel and the German soldiers would have faced great difficulty breaking through the Soviet lines on foot in harsh winter conditions. The implication was clear: if Paulus surrendered, he would shame himself and would become the highest-ranking German officer ever to be captured. Some 1,000 tons of bombs were dropped in 48 hours, more than in London at the height of the Blitz. [164][165], There was no one with a camera present to film the capture of Paulus. Feb. 9, 2023, 7:47 AM PST. Brown University historian Omer Bartov claims they were motivated by belief in Hitler and National Socialism. At our request, the Ukrainian army showed . [102] Exceptionally intense shelling and bombing paved the way for the first German assault groups. And, at the far end of the yard, besides the other cesspool, behind a low stone wall, the yellow corpses of skinny Germans were piled up men who had died in that basementabout a dozen wax-like dummies. On 20 November, a second Soviet offensive (two armies) was launched to the south of Stalingrad against points held by the Romanian 4th Army Corps. 8,314 German aircraft were produced from JulyDecember 1942, but this could not keep pace with a three-front aerial war of attrition. Paulus refused, concerned about the Red Army attacks on the flank of Army Group Don and Army Group B in their advance on Rostov-on-Don, "an early abandonment" of Stalingrad "would result in the destruction of Army Group A in the Caucasus", and the fact that his 6th Army tanks only had fuel for a 30km advance towards Hoth's spearhead, a futile effort if they did not receive assurance of resupply by air. When a position was lost, an immediate attempt was usually made to re-take it with fresh forces. Ultimately, however, Romanian armoured warfare proved to be a tactical success, as the Romanians destroyed 127 Soviet tanks for the cost of their 100 lost units. The Romanian Air Force lost 79 aircraft, most of them captured on the ground along with their airfields. To the south, Army Group A was pushing far into the Caucasus, but their advance slowed as supply lines grew overextended. Soviet offensives in the central and northern portions of the Eastern Front tied down Luftwaffe reserves and newly built aircraft, reducing Luftflotte 4's percentage of Eastern Front aircraft from 60 percent on 28 June to 38 percent by 20 September. [21] Blocks and buildings would change hands numerous times through intense hand-to-hand fighting. The attack was supported by intense Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city to rubble. Sensing that this was the last chance for a breakout, Manstein pleaded with Hitler on 18 December, but Hitler refused. So they decide to essentially re-trench. Tasked with holding the city at all costs,[49] Chuikov proclaimed, "We will defend the city or die in the attempt. Most died of wounds, disease (particularly typhus), cold, overwork, mistreatment and malnutrition. Of his questions to Army Group Don, Paulus was told, "Wait, implement Operation 'Thunderclap' only on explicit orders!" The start of Case Blue had been planned for late May 1942. The starving encircled forces at Stalingrad made no attempt to break out or link up with Manstein's advance. Meanwhile, Hanna Maliar, deputy defense minister of Ukraine, reported frequent clashes . The loss of the two airfields, at Pitomnik on 16 January 1943 and Gumrak on the night of 21/22 January,[154] meant an end to air supplies and to the evacuation of the wounded. In response, Hitler issued a tranche of field promotions to the Sixth Army's officers. The Soviet victory is commemorated in Russia as the Day of Military Honour. [178], More Soviet tanks were destroyed as they overran the Romanian airfields. [48] Beyond the Volga River on the eastern boundary of Stalingrad, additional Soviet units were formed into the 62nd Army under Lieutenant General Vasiliy Chuikov on 11 September 1942. From 28 June to 20 September, Luftflotte 4's original strength of 1,600 aircraft, of which 1,155 were operational, fell to 950, of which only 550 were operational. Some bombers performed adequately the Heinkel He 111 proved to be quite capable and was much faster than the Ju 52.[138]. [1/3] Directors Vitaly Mansky and Yehven Titarenko speak about the movie . In addition, the German 6th Army included between 40,000 and 65,000 Hilfswillige (Hiwi), or "volunteer auxiliaries",[125][126] a term used for personnel recruited amongst Soviet POWs and civilians from areas under occupation. "We had had to pay a high cost in men and material left on the Kalach battlefield were numerous burnt-out or shot-up German tanks. [37], Hitler intervened, however, ordering the Army Group to split in two. A low-level Soviet envoy party (comprising Major Aleksandr Smyslov, Captain Nikolay Dyatlenko and a trumpeter) carried generous surrender terms to Paulus: if he surrendered within 24 hours, he would receive a guarantee of safety for all prisoners, medical care for the sick and wounded, prisoners being allowed to keep their personal belongings, "normal" food rations, and repatriation to any country they wished after the war. Rokossovsky's letter also stressed that Paulus' men were in an untenable situation. The Soviets were initially surprised by the number of Germans they had trapped and had to reinforce their encircling troops. Background By the spring of 1942, despite the failure of Operation Barbarossa to decisively defeat the Soviet Union in a single campaign, the Wehrmacht had captured vast expanses of territory, including Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic republics. Arte documentary. In autumn, the Soviet generals Georgy Zhukov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky, responsible for strategic planning in the Stalingrad area, concentrated forces in the steppes to the north and south of the city. [199] Soviet propaganda spared no effort and wasted no time in capitalising on the triumph, impressing a global audience. "[91], Many women fought on the Soviet side or were under fire. [95] Many of the Soviet wireless and telephone operators were women who often suffered heavy casualties when their command posts came under fire. [179], The USSR, according to archival figures, suffered 1,129,619 total casualties; 478,741 personnel killed or missing, and 650,878 wounded or sick. During the preparations for the attack, Marshal Zhukov personally visited the front and noticing the poor organisation, insisted on a one-week delay in the start date of the planned attack. Having slowly advanced over 10 days against strong Soviet resistance, the 51st Army Corps was finally in front of the three giant factories of Stalingrad: the Red October Steel Factory, the Barrikady Arms Factory and Stalingrad Tractor Factory. Hiwi often proved to be reliable Axis personnel in rear areas and were used for supporting roles, but also served in some front-line units as their numbers had increased.[126]. Though Russia achieved modest progress on the Eastern Front, a German counteroffensive quickly erased its gains. BAKHMUT, Ukraine Surrounded on three sides, this eastern Ukrainian city has held out for months in bloody defiance . Mon 28 Nov 2022 10.59 EST Last modified on Tue 29 Nov 2022 00.11 EST Fighting around the key eastern Ukraine town of Bakhmut has descended into a bloody morass with hundreds of dead and injured. [182] On 18 February, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels gave the famous Sportpalast speech in Berlin, encouraging the Germans to accept a total war that would claim all resources and efforts from the entire population. Occasionally Italian actions were mentioned in official German communiques. Beginning in late August, continuing in September and into October, the Soviets committed between two and four armies in hastily coordinated and poorly controlled attacks against the Germans' northern flank. The Axis suffered 747,300868,374 combat casualties (killed, wounded or captured) among all branches of the German armed forces and their allies: 235,000 German and allied troops in total, from all units, including Manstein's ill-fated relief force, were captured during the battle. The battle began with the heavy bombing of the city by Generaloberst Wolfram von Richthofen's Luftflotte 4. 1917: Year of stalemate. These operations opened the Winter Campaign of 19421943 (19 November 1942 3 March 1943), which involved some fifteen Armies operating on several fronts. According to Zhukov, "German operational blunders were aggravated by poor intelligence: they failed to spot preparations for the major counter-offensive near Stalingrad where there were 10 field, 1 tank and 4 air armies. But already the enemy was attacking the station with their battle-cries of 'Urrah! Fighting was so fierce and intense during one day that the railway station changed hands 14 times in six hours. [195] The Turkish Consul in Moscow predicted that "the lands which the Germans have destined for their living space will become their dying space". Whoever controlled Stalingrad would have access to the oil fields of the Caucasus and would gain control of the Volga. The two German army groups were too far apart to support one another. [59] Casualties were estimated to have been 40,000,[60][21] though they were likely exaggerated,[61] and after 25 August the Soviets did not record any civilian and military casualties as a result of air raids. Eastern Front, major theatre of combat during World War I that included operations on the main Russian front as well as campaigns in Romania. Biesinger (2006: 699): "On August 23, 1942, the Germans began their attack.". / The Eastern Front Article The Eastern Front Dive into the bitterly contested, racial, furious battles of the Eastern Front, where more combatants were killed than in all other theaters combined. [citation needed] Fighting on and around Mamayev Kurgan, a prominent hill above the city, was particularly merciless; indeed, the position changed hands many times.[85][86]. By Richard Engel, Marc Smith and Patrick Smith. 282,606 in the 6th Army from 21 August to the end of the battle; 17,293 in the 4th Panzer Army from 21 August to 31 January; 55,260 in the. The term Stalingrad has become almost synonymous with large-scale urban battles with high casualties on both sides.[207][208][209]. "[119], Because of the total focus on the city, the Axis forces had neglected for months to consolidate their positions along the natural defensive line of the Don River. The Soviets flew 11,317 night sorties over Stalingrad and the Don-bend sector between 17 July and 19 November. However, the predictable nature of the relief operation brought significant risk for all German forces in the area. 1916 Brusilov Offensive begins On June 4, 1916, the Battle of Lutsk marks the beginning of the Brusilov Offensive, the largest and most successful Allied offensive of World War I.

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