Eastern Front (World War II)
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Eastern Front | |
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Part of the Austria | |
Result |
Soviet victory[j]
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Territorial changes |
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- United States[g]
- British Empire[h]
- Free France[i] (from 1943)
- Adolf Hitler †
- Wilhelm Keitel
- Alfred Jodl
- Walther von Brauchitsch
- Franz Halder
- Kurt Zeitzler
- Hermann Göring
- Hans Jeschonnek
- Wilhelm von Leeb
- Fedor von Bock
- Gerd von Rundstedt
- Günther von Kluge
- Georg von Küchler
- Wilhelm List
- Maximilian von Weichs
- Ewald von Kleist
- Erich von Manstein
- Ernst Busch
- Walter Model
- Johannes Friessner
- Georg Lindemann
- Ferdinand Schörner
- Lothar Rendulic
- Heinrich Himmler
- Ion Antonescu
- Iosif Iacobici
- Ilie Șteflea
- Petre Dumitrescu
- Horia Macellariu
- Miklós Horthy
- Ferenc Szálasi
- Ferenc Szombathelyi
- Károly Beregfy
- Risto Ryti
- C.G.E. Mannerheim
- Aksel Airo
- Benito Mussolini
- Italo Gariboldi
- Joseph Stalin
- Georgy Zhukov
- Boris Shaposhnikov
- Aleksandr Vasilevsky
- Aleksei Antonov
- Kliment Voroshilov
- Semyon Timoshenko
- Semyon Budyonny
- Nikolai Kuznetsov
- Ivan Isakov
- Pavel Zhigarev
- Alexander Novikov
- Sergei Khudyakov
- Markian Popov
- Fyodor Kuznetsov
- Dmitry Pavlov
- Mikhail Kirponos †
- Ivan Tyulenev
- Andrey Yeremenko
- Pavel Kurochkin
- Ivan Konev
- Yakov Cherevichenko
- Rodion Malinovsky
- Kiril Meretskov
- Filipp Golikov
- Konstantin Rokossovsky
- Leonid Govorov
- Nikolai Vatutin †
- Maksim Purkayev
- Vasily Sokolovsky
- Fyodor Tolbukhin
- Ivan Petrov
- Ivan Bagramyan
- Ivan Chernyakhovsky †
- Bolesław Bierut
- Michał Rola-Żymierski
- Zygmunt Berling
- Michael I
- Constantin Sănătescu
- Nicolae Rădescu
- Kimon Georgiev
- C.G.E. Mannerheim
- 1941
3,767,000 troops - 1942
3,720,000 troops - 1943
3,933,000 troops - 1944
3,370,000 troops - 1945
1,960,000 troops
- 1941
(Front) 2,680,000 troops - 1942
(Front) 5,313,000 troops - 1943
(Front) 6,724,000 troops - 1944
6,800,000 troops - 1945
6,410,000 troops
5.1 million dead
- 4.5 million killed or missing in action
- 600,000 died in captivity
4.5 million captured
See below.
8.7–10 million dead
- 6.5–6.7 million killed or missing in action
- 2.2–3.3 million died in captivity
4.1 million captured
See below.
18–24 million civilians dead
See below.
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The Eastern Front[k] was a theatre of World War II fought between the European Axis powers and Allies, including the Soviet Union (USSR) and Poland. It encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans), and lasted from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. Of the estimated 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II, around 30 million occurred on the Eastern Front, including 9 million children.[3][4] The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theatre of operations in World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis nations.[5] It is noted by historian Geoffrey Roberts that "More than 80 per cent of all combat during the Second World War took place on the Eastern Front".[6]
The Axis forces, led by Nazi Germany, began their advance into the Soviet Union under the codename Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, the opening date of the Eastern Front. Initially, Soviet forces were unable to halt the Axis forces, which came close to Moscow. Despite their many attempts, the Axis failed to capture Moscow and soon focused on the oil fields in the Caucasus. German forces invaded the Caucasus under the Fall Blau ("Case Blue") plan on 28 June 1942. The Soviets successfully halted further Axis advance at Stalingrad — the bloodiest battle in the war — costing the Axis powers their morale and becoming the turning point of the front.
Seeing the Axis setback from Stalingrad, the Soviet Union routed its forces and regained territories at its expense. The Axis defeat at Kursk terminated the German offensive strength and cleared the way for Soviet offensives. Its setbacks caused many countries friendly with Germany to defect and join the Allies, such as Romania and Bulgaria. The Eastern Front concluded with the capture of Berlin, followed by the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender on 8 May, a day that marked the end of the Eastern Front and the War in Europe.
The battles on the Eastern Front of World War II constituted the largest military confrontation in history.
The two principal belligerent powers in the Eastern Front were Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though they never sent in ground troops to the Eastern Front, the United States and the United Kingdom both provided substantial material aid to the Soviet Union in the form of the Lend-Lease program, along with naval and air support. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front. In addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War is generally also considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front.
Background
Germany and the Soviet Union remained unsatisfied with
Adolf Hitler had declared his intention to invade the Soviet Union on 11 August 1939 to Carl Jacob Burckhardt, League of Nations Commissioner, by saying:
Everything I undertake is directed against the Russians. If the West is too stupid and blind to grasp this, then I shall be compelled to come to an agreement with the Russians, beat the West and then after their defeat turn against the Soviet Union with all my forces. I need the Ukraine so that they can't starve us out, as happened in the last war.[11]
The
On 1 September 1939
In June 1940 the Soviet Union occupied and illegally annexed the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).[13] The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact ostensibly provided security to the Soviets in the occupation both of the Baltics and of the north and northeastern regions of Romania (Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia, June–July 1940), although Hitler, in announcing the invasion of the Soviet Union, cited the Soviet annexations of Baltic and Romanian territory as having violated Germany's understanding of the pact. Moscow partitioned the annexed Romanian territory between the Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republics.
Ideologies
German ideology
Hitler had argued in his autobiography
The Nazi
Hitler referred to the war in radical terms, calling it a "war of annihilation" (German: Vernichtungskrieg) which was both an ideological and racial war. The Nazi vision for the future of Eastern Europe was codified most clearly in the Generalplan Ost. The populations of occupied Central Europe and the Soviet Union were to be partially deported to West Siberia, enslaved and eventually exterminated; the conquered territories were to be colonised by German or "Germanized" settlers.[21] In addition, the Nazis also sought to rid themselves of the large Jewish population of Central and Eastern Europe[22] as part of their
Psychologically, the German surge to the east in 1941 marked a high point in some Germans' feeling of Ostrausch - an intoxication with the idea of colonising the East.[24]
After Germany's initial success at the Battle of Kiev in 1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for immediate conquest. In a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast on 3 October, he announced, "We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down."[25] Thus the German authorities expected another short Blitzkrieg and made no serious preparations for prolonged warfare. However, following the decisive Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 and the resulting dire German military situation, Nazi propaganda began to portray the war as a German defence of Western civilisation against destruction by the vast "Bolshevik hordes" that were pouring into Europe.
Soviet situation
Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent massive
In February 1936 the
Nazi Germany, which was an
Forces
The war was fought between Germany, its allies and
The states that provided forces and other resources for the German war effort included the Axis Powers – primarily Romania, Hungary, Italy, pro-Nazi Slovakia, and Croatia.
The Soviet Union offered support to the anti-Axis partisans in many Wehrmacht-occupied countries in Central Europe, notably those
Date | Axis forces | Soviet forces |
---|---|---|
22 June 1941 | 3,050,000 Germans, 67,000 (northern Norway); 500,000 Finns, 150,000 Romanians Total: 3,767,000 in the east (80% of the German Army) |
2,680,000 active in Western Military Districts out of 5,500,000 (overall); 12,000,000 mobilizable reserves |
7 June 1942 | 2,600,000 Germans, 90,000 (northern Norway); 600,000 Romanians, Hungarians, and Italians Total: 3,720,000 in the east (80% of the German Army) |
5,313,000 (front); 383,000 (hospital) Total: 9,350,000 |
9 July 1943 | 3,403,000 Germans, 80,000 (northern Norway); 400,000 Finns, 150,000 Romanians and Hungarians Total: 3,933,000 in the east (63% of the German Army) |
6,724,000 (front); 446,445 (hospital); Total: 10,300,000 |
1 May 1944 | 2,460,000 Germans, 60,000 (northern Norway); 300,000 Finns, 550,000 Romanians and Hungarians Total: 3,370,000 in the east (62% of the German Army) |
6,425,000 |
1 January 1945 | 2,230,000 Germans, 100,000 Hungarians Total: 2,330,000 in the east (60% of the German Army) |
6,532,000 (360,000 Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Czechs) |
1 April 1945 | 1,960,000 Germans Total: 1,960,000 (66% of the German Army) |
6,410,000 (450,000 Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Czechs) |
The above figures includes all personnel in the German Army, i.e. active-duty
By July 1943, the Wehrmacht numbered 6,815,000 troops. Of these, 3,900,000 were deployed in eastern Europe, 180,000 in Finland, 315,000 in Norway, 110,000 in Denmark, 1,370,000 in western Europe, 330,000 in Italy, and 610,000 in the Balkans.[47] According to a presentation by Alfred Jodl, the Wehrmacht was up to 7,849,000 personnel in April 1944. 3,878,000 were deployed in eastern Europe, 311,000 in Norway/Denmark, 1,873,000 in western Europe, 961,000 in Italy, and 826,000 in the Balkans.[48] About 15–20% of total German strength were foreign troops (from allied countries or conquered territories). The German high water mark was just before the Battle of Kursk, in early July 1943: 3,403,000 German troops and 650,000 Finnish, Hungarian, Romanian and other countries' troops.[40][41]
For nearly two years the border was quiet while Germany conquered Denmark, Norway,
Some historians say Stalin was fearful of war with Germany, or just did not expect Germany to start a two-front war, and was reluctant to do anything to provoke Hitler. Others say that Stalin was eager for Germany to be at war with capitalist countries. [citation needed] Another viewpoint is that Stalin expected war in 1942 (the time when all his preparations would be complete) and stubbornly refused to believe it would come early.[50]
British historians Alan S. Milward and M. Medlicott show that Nazi Germany—unlike Imperial Germany—was prepared for only a short-term war (Blitzkrieg).
Germany had been assembling very large numbers of troops in eastern Poland and making repeated
The extent of warnings received by Stalin about a German invasion is controversial, and the claim that there was a warning that "Germany will attack on 22 June without declaration of war" has been dismissed as a "popular myth". However, some sources quoted in the articles on Soviet spies Richard Sorge and Willi Lehmann, say they had sent warnings of an attack on 20 or 22 June, which were treated as "disinformation". The Lucy spy ring in Switzerland also sent warnings, possibly deriving from Ultra codebreaking in Britain. Sweden had access to internal German communications through breaking the crypto used in the Siemens and Halske T52 crypto machine also known as the Geheimschreiber and informed Stalin about the forthcoming invasion well ahead of June 22, but did not reveal its sources. [citation needed]
Soviet intelligence was fooled by German disinformation, so sent false alarms to Moscow about a German invasion in April, May and the beginning of June. Soviet intelligence reported that Germany would rather invade the USSR after the fall of the British Empire[53] or after an unacceptable ultimatum demanding German occupation of Ukraine during the German invasion of Britain.[54]
Foreign support and measures
British and Commonwealth forces also contributed directly to the fighting on the Eastern Front through their service in the Arctic convoys and training Red Air Force pilots, as well as in the provision of early material and intelligence support.
Year | Amount (tons) |
% |
---|---|---|
1941 | 360,778 | 2.1 |
1942 | 2,453,097 | 14 |
1943 | 4,794,545 | 27.4 |
1944 | 6,217,622 | 35.5 |
1945 | 3,673,819 | 21 |
Total | 17,499,861 | 100 |
Soviet Union
Among other goods, Lend-Lease supplied:[56]: 8–9
- 58% of the USSR's high octane aviation fuel
- 33% of their motor vehicles
- 53% of USSR domestic production of expended ordnance (artillery shells, mines, assorted explosives)
- 30% of fighters and bombers
- 93% of railway equipment (locomotives, freight cars, wide gauge rails, etc.)
- 50–80% of rolled steel, cable, lead, and aluminium
- 43% of garage facilities (building materials and blueprints)
- 12% of tanks and SPGs
- 50% of TNT (1942–1944) and 33% of ammunition powder (in 1944)[57]
- 16% of all explosives (From 1941 to 1945, the USSR produced 505,000 tons of explosives and received 105,000 tons of Lend-Lease imports.)[58]
Lend-Lease aid of military hardware, components and goods to the Soviet Union constituted to 20% percent of the assistance.[56]: 122 The rest were foodstuff, nonferrous metals (e.g., copper, magnesium, nickel, zinc, lead, tin, aluminium), chemical substances, petroleum (high octane aviation gasoline) and factory machinery. The aid of production-line equipment and machinery were crucial and helped to maintain adequate levels of Soviet armament production during the entire war.[56]: 122 In addition, the USSR received wartime innovations including penicillin, radar, rocket, precision-bombing technology, the long-range navigation system Loran, and many other innovations.[56]: 123
Of the 800,000 tons of nonferrous metals shipped,[56]: 124 about 350,000 tons were aluminium.[56]: 135 The shipment of aluminium not only represented double the amount of metal that Germany possessed, but also composed the bulk of aluminium that was used in manufacture of Soviet aircraft, that had fallen in critically short supply.[56]: 135 Soviet statistics show, that without these shipments of aluminium, aircraft production would have been less than one-half (or about 45,000 less) of the total 137,000 produced aircraft.[56]: 135
Stalin noted in 1944, that two-thirds of Soviet heavy industry had been built with the help of the United States, and the remaining one-third, with the help from other Western nations such as Great Britain and Canada.[56]: 129 The massive transfer of equipment and skilled personnel from occupied territories helped further to boost the economic base.[56]: 129 Without Lend-Lease aid, Soviet Union's diminished post invasion economic base would not have produced adequate supplies of weaponry, other than focus on machine tool, foodstuff and consumer goods.[clarification needed][56]: 129
In the last year of war, Lend-Lease data show that about 5.1 million tons of foodstuff left the United States for the Soviet Union.[56]: 123 It is estimated that all the food supplies sent to Russia could feed a 12,000,000-man strong army a half pound of concentrated food per day, for the entire duration of the war.[56]: 122–3
The total Lend-Lease aid provided during the Second World War had been estimated between $42–50 billion.[56]: 128 The Soviet Union received shipments in war materials, military equipment and other supplies worth of $12.5 billion, about a quarter of the American Lend-Lease aid provided to other Allied countries.[56]: 123 However, post-war negotiations to settle all the debt were never concluded,[56]: 133 and as of date, the debt issues is still on in future American-Russian summits and talks.[56]: 133–4
Prof. Dr. Albert L. Weeks concluded, "As to attempts to sum up the importance of those four-year-long shipments of Lend-Lease for the Russian victory on the Eastern Front in World War II, the jury is still out – that is, in any definitive sense of establishing exactly how crucial this aid was."[56]: 123
Nazi Germany
Germany's economic, scientific, research and industrial capabilities were among the most technically advanced in the world at the time. However, access to (and control of) the resources, raw materials and production capacity required to entertain long-term goals (such as European control, German territorial expansion and the destruction of the USSR) were limited. Political demands necessitated the expansion of Germany's control of natural and human resources, industrial capacity and farmland beyond its borders (conquered territories). Germany's military production was tied to resources outside its area of control, a dynamic not found amongst the Allies.
During the war, as Germany acquired new territories (either by direct annexation or by installing puppet governments in defeated countries), these new territories were forced to sell raw materials and agricultural products to German buyers at extremely low prices. Overall, France made the largest contribution to the German war effort. Two-thirds of all French trains in 1941 were used to carry goods to Germany. In 1943–44, French payments to Germany may have risen to as much as 55% of French GDP.[59] Norway lost 20% of its national income in 1940 and 40% in 1943.[60] Axis allies such as Romania and Italy, Hungary, Finland, Croatia and Bulgaria benefited from Germany's net imports. Overall, Germany imported 20% of its food and 33% of its raw materials from conquered territories and Axis allies.[61]
On 27 May 1940, Germany signed the "Oil Pact" with Romania, by which Germany would trade arms for oil. Romania's oil production amounted to approximately 6,000,000 tons annually. This production represents 35% of the total fuel production of the Axis, including synthetic products and substitutes, and 70% of the total production of crude oil.[62] In 1941, Germany only had 18% of the oil it had in peacetime. Romania supplied Germany and its allies with roughly 13 million barrels of oil (about 4 million per year) between 1941 and 1943. Germany's peak oil production in 1944 amounted to about 12 million barrels of oil per year.[63]
Rolf Karlbom estimated that Swedish share of Germany's total consumption of iron may have amounted to 43% during the period of 1933–43. It may also be likely that "Swedish ore formed the raw material of four out of every ten German guns" during the Hitler era'.[64]
Forced labour
The use of foreign
The defeat of Germany in 1945 freed approximately 11 million foreigners (categorised as "displaced persons"), most of whom were forced labourers and POWs. In wartime, the German forces had brought into the Reich 6.5 million civilians in addition to Soviet POWs for unfree labour in factories.[66] In all, 5.2 million foreign workers and POWs were repatriated to the Soviet Union, 1.6 million to Poland, 1.5 million to France, and 900,000 to Italy, along with 300,000 to 400,000 each to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Belgium.[69]
Conduct of operations
While German historians do not apply any specific periodisation to the conduct of operations on the Eastern Front, all Soviet and Russian historians divide the war against Germany and its allies into three periods, which are further subdivided into eight major campaigns of the Theatre of war:[70]
- First period (Russian: Первый период Великой Отечественной войны) (22 June 1941 – 18 November 1942)
- Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1941 (Russian: Летне-осенняя кампания 1941 г.) (22 June – 4 December 1941)
- Winter Campaign of 1941–42 (Russian: Зимняя кампания 1941/42 г.) (5 December 1941 – 30 April 1942)
- Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1942 (Russian: Летне-осенняя кампания 1942 г.) (1 May – 18 November 1942)
- Second period (Russian: Второй период Великой Отечественной войны) (19 November 1942 – 31 December 1943)
- Winter Campaign of 1942–43 (Russian: Зимняя кампания 1942–1943 гг.) (19 November 1942 – 3 March 1943)
- Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1943 (Russian: Летне-осенняя кампания 1943 г.) (1 July – 31 December 1943)
- Third period (Russian: Третий период Великой Отечественной войны) (1 January 1944 – 9 May 1945)
- Winter–Spring Campaign (Russian: Зимне-весенняя кампания 1944 г.) (1 January – 31 May 1944)
- Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1944 (Russian: Летне-осенняя кампания 1944 г.) (1 June – 31 December 1944)
- Campaign in Europe during 1945 (Russian: Кампания в Европе 1945 г.) (1 January – 8 May 1945)
Operation Barbarossa: Summer 1941
Operation Barbarossa began just before dawn on 22 June 1941. The Germans cut the wire network in all Soviet western military districts to undermine the Red Army's communications.[71] Panicky transmissions from the Soviet front-line units to their command headquarters were picked up like this: "We are being fired upon. What shall we do?" The answer was just as confusing: "You must be insane. And why is your signal not in code?"[72]
At 03:15 on 22 June 1941, 99 of 190 German divisions, including fourteen
To establish air supremacy, the Luftwaffe began immediate attacks on Soviet airfields, destroying much of the forward-deployed Soviet Air Force airfield fleets consisting of largely obsolescent types before their pilots had a chance to leave the ground.
This decision caused a severe leadership crisis. The German field commanders argued for an immediate offensive towards Moscow, but Hitler
On 26 September, the Soviet forces east of Kiev surrendered and the Battle of Kiev ended.
As the Red Army withdrew behind the Dnieper and
Stalin ordered the retreating Red Army to initiate a
Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941
Hitler then decided to resume the advance on Moscow, re-designating the panzer groups as panzer armies for the occasion. Operation Typhoon, which was set in motion on 30 September, saw the 2nd Panzer Army rush along the paved road from
Army Group South pushed down from the Dnieper to the
The onset of the winter freeze saw one last German lunge that opened on 15 November, when the Wehrmacht attempted to encircle Moscow. On 27 November, the 4th Panzer Army got to within 30 km (19 mi) of the
However, by 6 December it became clear that the Wehrmacht did not have the strength to capture Moscow, and the attack was suspended.
Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941
The Soviet counter-offensive during the Battle of Moscow had removed the immediate German threat to the city. According to
The main blow was to be delivered by a
The 20th Army, part of the Soviet 1st Shock Army, the 22nd Tank Brigade and five ski battalions launched their attack on 10 January 1942. By 17 January, the Soviets had captured Lotoshino and Shakhovskaya. By 20 January, the 5th and 33rd Armies had captured Ruza, Dorokhovo, Mozhaisk and Vereya, while the 43rd and 49th Armies were at Domanovo.[90]: 58–59
The Wehrmacht rallied, retaining a
By April 1942, the Soviet Supreme Command agreed to assume the defensive so as to "consolidate the captured ground." According to Zhukov, "During the winter offensive, the forces of the Western Front had advanced from 70 to 100 km, which somewhat improved the overall operational and strategic situation on the Western sector."[90]: 64
To the north, the Red Army surrounded a German
Don, Volga, and Caucasus: Summer 1942
Although plans were made to attack Moscow again, on 28 June 1942, the offensive re-opened in a different direction. Army Group South took the initiative, anchoring the front with the
Meanwhile, the 6th Army was driving towards
Towards the south, the 1st Panzer Army had reached the Caucasian foothills and the
The advance into the Caucasus bogged down, with the Germans unable to fight their way past Malgobek and to the main prize of Grozny. Instead, they switched the direction of their advance to approach it from the south, crossing the Malka at the end of October and entering North Ossetia and entered the suburbs of Ordzhonikidze on 2 November.
Stalingrad: Winter 1942
While the German 6th and 4th Panzer Armies had been fighting their way into Stalingrad, Soviet armies had congregated on either side of the city, specifically into the Don bridgeheads, and it was from these that they struck in November 1942. Operation Uranus started on 19 November. Two Soviet fronts punched through the Romanian lines and converged at Kalach on 23 November, trapping 300,000 Axis troops behind them.[91] A simultaneous offensive on the Rzhev sector known as Operation Mars was supposed to advance to Smolensk, but was a costly failure, with German tactical defences preventing any breakthrough.
The Germans rushed to transfer troops to the Soviet Union in a desperate attempt to relieve Stalingrad, but the offensive could not get going until 12 December, by which time the 6th Army in Stalingrad was starving and too weak to break out towards it.
On 31 January 1943, the 90,000 survivors of the 300,000-man 6th Army surrendered. By that time the Hungarian 2nd Army had also been wiped out. The Red Army advanced from the Don 500 km (310 mi) to the west of Stalingrad, marching through Kursk (retaken on 8 February 1943) and Kharkov (retaken 16 February 1943). To save the position in the south, the Germans decided to abandon the Rzhev salient in February, freeing enough troops to make a successful riposte in eastern Ukraine. Manstein's counteroffensive, strengthened by a specially trained SS Panzer Corps equipped with Tiger tanks, opened on 20 February 1943 and fought its way from Poltava back into Kharkov in the third week of March, when the spring thaw intervened. This left a glaring Soviet bulge in the front centered on Kursk.
Kursk: Summer 1943
After the failure of the attempt to capture Stalingrad, Hitler had delegated planning authority for the upcoming campaign season to the
However, if one last great blitzkrieg offensive could be mounted, then attention could then be turned to the Allied threat to the Western Front. Certainly, the peace negotiations in April had gone nowhere.[93] The advance would be executed from the Orel salient to the north of Kursk and from Belgorod to the south. Both wings would converge on the area east of Kursk, and by that means restore the lines of Army Group South to the exact points that it held over the winter of 1941–1942.
In the north, the entire German 9th Army had been redeployed from the Rzhev salient into the Orel salient and was to advance from Maloarkhangelsk to Kursk. But its forces could not even get past the first objective at Olkhovatka, just 8 km (5.0 mi) into the advance. The 9th Army blunted its spearhead against the Soviet minefields, frustratingly so considering that the high ground there was the only natural barrier between them and flat tank country all the way to Kursk. The direction of advance was then switched to Ponyri, to the west of Olkhovatka, but the 9th Army could not break through here either and went over to the defensive. The Red Army then launched a counter-offensive, Operation Kutuzov.
On 12 July, the Red Army battled through the demarcation line between the 211th and 293rd divisions on the
After the war, the battle near Prochorovka was idealised by Soviet historians as the largest tank battle of all time. The meeting engagement at Prochorovka was a Soviet defensive success, albeit at heavy cost. The Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army, with about 800 light and medium tanks, attacked elements of the II SS Panzer Corps. Tank losses on both sides have been the source of controversy ever since. Although the 5th Guards Tank Army did not attain its objectives, the German advance had been halted.
At the end of the day both sides had fought each other to a standstill, but regardless of the German failure in the north Manstein proposed he continue the attack with the 4th Panzer Army. The Red Army started the strong offensive operation in the northern Orel salient and achieved a breakthrough on the flank of the German 9th Army. Also worried by the Allies'
The Kursk offensive was the last on the scale of 1940 and 1941 that the Wehrmacht was able to launch; subsequent offensives would represent only a shadow of previous German offensive might.
Autumn and winter 1943–44
The Soviet multi-stage summer offensive started with the advance into the Orel salient. The diversion of the well-equipped Großdeutschland Division from Belgorod to Karachev could not counteract it, and the Wehrmacht began a withdrawal from Orel (retaken by the Red Army on 5 August 1943), falling back to the Hagen line in front of Bryansk. To the south, the Red Army broke through Army Group South's Belgorod positions and headed for Kharkov once again. Although intense battles of movement throughout late July and into August 1943 saw the Tigers blunting Soviet tank attacks on one axis, they were soon outflanked on another line to the west as the Soviet forces advanced down the Psel, and Kharkov was abandoned for the final time on 22 August.
The German forces on the
The main problem for the Wehrmacht was that these defences had not yet been built; by the time Army Group South had evacuated eastern Ukraine and begun withdrawing across the Dnieper during September, the Soviet forces were hard behind them. Tenaciously, small units paddled their way across the 3 km (1.9 mi) wide river and established bridgeheads. A second attempt by the Red Army to gain land using parachutists, mounted at Kaniv on 24 September, proved as disappointing as at Dorogobuzh eighteen months previously. The paratroopers were soon repelled – but not until still more Red Army troops had used the cover they provided to get themselves over the Dnieper and securely dug in.
As September ended and October started, the Germans found the Dnieper line impossible to hold as the Soviet bridgeheads grew. Important Dnieper towns started to fall, with
130 kilometres (80 mi) west of Kiev, the 4th Panzer Army, still convinced that the Red Army was a spent force, was able to mount a successful riposte at Zhytomyr during the middle of November, weakening the Soviet bridgehead by a daring outflanking strike mounted by the SS Panzer Corps along the river Teterev. This battle also enabled Army Group South to recapture Korosten and gain some time to rest. However, on Christmas Eve the retreat began anew when the First Ukrainian Front (renamed from the Voronezh Front) struck them in the same place. The Soviet advance continued along the railway line until the 1939 Polish–Soviet border was reached on 3 January 1944.
To the south, the Second Ukrainian Front (ex
By 16 February the first stage was complete, with panzers separated from the contracting Cherkassy pocket only by the swollen Gniloy Tikich river. Under shellfire and pursued by Soviet tanks, the surrounded German troops, among whom were the
One final move in the south completed the 1943–44 campaigning season, which had wrapped up a Soviet advance of over 800 kilometres (500 mi). In March, 20 German divisions of
Along Army Group Centre's front, August 1943 saw this force pushed back from the Hagen line slowly, ceding comparatively little territory, but the loss of Bryansk, and more importantly Smolensk, on 25 September cost the Wehrmacht the keystone of the entire German defensive system. The 4th and 9th armies and 3rd Panzer Army still held their own east of the upper Dnieper, stifling Soviet attempts to reach Vitebsk. On Army Group North's front, there was barely any fighting at all until January 1944, when out of nowhere Volkhov and Second Baltic Fronts struck.[94]
In a lightning campaign, the Germans were pushed back from Leningrad and
Summer 1944
Wehrmacht planners were convinced that the Red Army would attack again in the south, where the front was 80 kilometres (50 mi) from
They focused their massive attacks on Army Group Centre, not Army Group North Ukraine as the Germans had originally expected. More than 2.3 million Soviet troops went into action against German Army Group Centre, which had a strength of fewer than 800,000 men. At the points of attack, the numerical and quality advantages of the Soviet forces were overwhelming. The Red Army achieved a ratio of ten to one in tanks and seven to one in aircraft over their enemy. The Germans crumbled. The capital of Belarus, Minsk, was taken on 3 July, trapping some 100,000 Germans. Ten days later the Red Army reached the prewar Polish border. Bagration was, by any measure, one of the largest single operations of the war.
By the end of August 1944, it had cost the Germans ~400,000 dead, wounded, missing and sick, from whom 160,000 were captured, as well as 2,000 tanks and 57,000 other vehicles. In the operation, the Red Army lost ~180,000 dead and missing (765,815 in total, including wounded and sick plus 5,073 Poles),[97] as well as 2,957 tanks and assault guns. The offensive at Estonia claimed another 480,000 Soviet soldiers, 100,000 of them classed as dead.[98][99]
The neighbouring
The rapid progress of Operation Bagration threatened to cut off and isolate the German units of Army Group North bitterly resisting the Soviet advance towards Tallinn. Despite a ferocious attack at the Sinimäed Hills, Estonia, the Soviet Leningrad Front failed to break through the defence of the smaller, well-fortified army detachment "Narwa" in terrain not suitable for large-scale operations.[102][103]
On the
In Poland, as the Red Army approached, the
In Slovakia, the Slovak National Uprising started as an armed struggle between German Wehrmacht forces and rebel Slovak troops between August and October 1944. It was centered at Banská Bystrica.[105]
Autumn 1944
In the Autumn of 1944, the Soviets paused their offensive towards Berlin to first gain control over the Balkans.
On 8 September 1944 the Red Army began an attack on the Dukla Pass on the Slovak–Polish border. Two months later, the Soviet forces won the battle and entered Slovakia. The toll was high: 20,000 Red Army soldiers died, plus several thousand Germans, Slovaks and Czechs.
Under the pressure of the Soviet
.January–March 1945
The Soviet Union finally entered
On 25 January 1945, Hitler renamed three army groups. Army Group North became Army Group Courland; Army Group Centre became Army Group North and Army Group A became Army Group Centre. Army Group North (old Army Group Centre) was driven into an ever-smaller pocket around Königsberg in East Prussia.
A limited counter-attack (codenamed Operation Solstice) by the newly created Army Group Vistula, under the command of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, had failed by 24 February, and the Red Army drove on to Pomerania and cleared the right bank of the Oder River. In the south, the German attempts, in Operation Konrad, to relieve the encircled garrison at Budapest failed and the city fell on 13 February. On 6 March, the Germans launched what would be their final major offensive of the war, Operation Spring Awakening, which failed by 16 March. On 30 March the Red Army entered Austria and captured Vienna on 13 April.
The OKW - Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or High Command of the German Army - claimed German losses of 77,000 killed, 334,000 wounded and 192,000 missing, with a total of 603,000 men, on the Eastern Front during January and February 1945.[106]
On 9 April 1945, Königsberg in East Prussia finally fell to the Red Army, although the shattered remnants of Army Group Centre continued to resist on the
The fall of Königsberg allowed Stavka to free up General
End of the war: April–May 1945
The Soviet offensive had two objectives. Because of Stalin's suspicions about the intentions of the
The offensive to capture central Germany and Berlin started on 16 April with an assault on the
On 29 and 30 April, as the Soviet forces fought their way into the centre of Berlin, Adolf Hitler married
Upon learning of Hitler and Goebbels's death, Dönitz (now President of the Reich) appointed
At 2:41 am on 7 May 1945, at
In the Soviet Union the end of the war is considered to be 9 May, when the surrender took effect Moscow time. This date is celebrated as a
The German Army Group Centre initially refused to surrender and continued to
The final battle of the Second World War on the Eastern Front, the Battle of Slivice, broke out on 11 May and ended in a Soviet victory on the 12th.
On 13 May 1945, all Soviet offensives ceased and the fighting on the Eastern Front of World War II came to an end.
Soviet Far East: August 1945
After the German defeat, Stalin promised his allies Truman and Churchill that he would attack the
Results
The Eastern Front was the largest and bloodiest theatre of World War II. It is generally accepted as being the deadliest conflict in human history, with over 30 million killed as a result.[4] The German armed forces suffered 80% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front.[119] It involved more land combat than all other World War II theatres combined.[6] The largest military operation in history, Operation Barbarossa, the bloodiest battle in history, Stalingrad, the most lethal siege in history, Leningrad,[120] and the single largest battle in the history, Kursk, all occurred on the Eastern Front.[121] The distinctly brutal nature of warfare on the Eastern Front was exemplified by an often wilful disregard for human life by both sides. It was also reflected in the ideological premise for the war, which saw a momentous clash between two directly opposed ideologies.
Aside from the ideological conflict, the mindframe of the leaders of Germany and the Soviet Union, Hitler and Stalin, respectively, contributed to the escalation of terror and murder on an unprecedented scale. Stalin and Hitler both disregarded human life in order to achieve their goal of victory. This included the terrorisation of their own people, as well as
Memorandum for the President's Special Assistant Harry Hopkins, Washington, D.C., 10 August 1943:
In War II Russia occupies a dominant position and is the decisive factor looking toward the defeat of the Axis in Europe. While in Sicily the forces of Great Britain and the United States are being opposed by 2 German divisions, the Russian front is receiving attention of approximately 200 German divisions. Whenever the Allies open a second front on the Continent, it will be decidedly a secondary front to that of Russia; theirs will continue to be the main effort. Without Russia in the war, the Axis cannot be defeated in Europe, and the position of the United Nations becomes precarious. Similarly, Russia's post-war position in Europe will be a dominant one. With Germany crushed, there is no power in Europe to oppose her tremendous military forces.[124]
The war inflicted huge losses and suffering upon the civilian populations of the affected countries. Behind the front lines, atrocities against civilians in German-occupied areas were routine, including those carried out as part of the Holocaust. German and German-allied forces treated civilian populations with exceptional brutality, massacring whole village populations and routinely killing civilian hostages (see German war crimes). Both sides practised widespread scorched earth tactics, but the loss of civilian lives in the case of Germany was incomparably smaller than that of the Soviet Union, in which at least 20 million were killed. According to British historian Geoffrey Hosking, "The full demographic loss to the Soviet peoples was even greater: since a high proportion of those killed were young men of child-begetting age, the postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million smaller than post-1939 projections would have led one to expect."[125]
When the Red Army invaded Germany in 1944, many German civilians suffered from reprisals by Red Army soldiers (see
The Soviet Union came out of World War II militarily victorious but economically and structurally devastated. Much of the combat took place in or close to populated areas, and the actions of both sides contributed to massive loss of civilian life and tremendous material damage. According to a summary, presented by Lieutenant General
The combined damage consisted of complete or partial destruction of 1,710 cities and towns, 70,000 villages/hamlets, 2,508 church buildings, 31,850 industrial establishments, 64,000 kilometres (40,000 mi) of railroad, 4,100 railroad stations, 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, and 43,000 public libraries; leaving 25 million homeless. Seven million horses, 17 million cattle, 20 million pigs, 27 million sheep were also slaughtered or driven off.[126] Wild fauna were also affected. Wolves and foxes fleeing westward from the killing zone, as the Soviet army advanced between 1943 and 1945, were responsible for a rabies epidemic that spread slowly westwards, reaching the coast of the English Channel by 1968.[127]
Leadership
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2023) |
The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were both ideologically driven states (by
Adolf Hitler
Hitler exercised tight control over the German war-effort, spending much of his time in his command bunkers (most notably at
In part because of the unexpected degree of German success in the Battle of France (despite the warnings of the professional military) Hitler believed himself a military genius, with a grasp of the total war-effort that eluded his generals. In August 1941, when Walther von Brauchitsch (commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht) and Fedor von Bock appealed for an attack on Moscow, Hitler instead ordered the encirclement and capture of Ukraine, in order to acquire the farmland, industry, and natural resources of that country. Some historians like Bevin Alexander in How Hitler Could Have Won regard this decision as a missed opportunity to win the war.[full citation needed]
In the winter of 1941–1942 Hitler believed that his obstinate refusal to allow the German armies to retreat had saved Army Group Centre from collapse. He later told Erhard Milch:
I had to act ruthlessly. I had to send even my closest generals packing, two army generals, for example ... I could only tell these gentlemen, "Get yourself back to Germany as rapidly as you can – but leave the army in my charge. And the army is staying at the front."
The success of this
Frustration at Hitler's
Hitler's direction of the war ultimately proved disastrous for the German Army, though the skill, loyalty, professionalism and endurance of officers and soldiers enabled him to keep Germany fighting to the end. F. W. Winterbotham wrote[citation needed] of Hitler's signal to Gerd von Rundstedt to continue the attack to the west during the Battle of the Bulge:
From experience we had learned that when Hitler started refusing to do what the generals recommended, things started to go wrong, and this was to be no exception.[citation needed]
Joseph Stalin
Stalin bore the greatest responsibility for some of the disasters at the beginning of the war (for example, the Battle of Kiev in 1941), but equally deserves praise for the subsequent success of the Soviet Red Army, which depended on the unprecedentedly rapid industrialisation of the Soviet Union, which Stalin's internal policy had made the first priority throughout the 1930s. Stalin's Great Purge of the Red Army in the late 1930s involved the legal prosecution of many of the senior command, many of whom the courts convicted and sentenced to death or to imprisonment.
The executed included
From the foundation of the Red Army in 1918, political distrust of the military had led to a system of "dual command", with every commander paired with a political commissar, a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Larger units had military councils consisting of the commander, commissar and chief of staff – commissars ensured the loyalty of the commanding officers and implemented Party orders.
Following the
At the crisis of the war, in the autumn of 1942, Stalin made many concessions to the army: the government restored unitary command by removing the Commissars from the
These concessions were combined with ruthless discipline:
As it became clear that the Soviet Union would win the war, Stalin ensured that propaganda always mentioned his leadership of the war; he sidelined the victorious generals and never allowed them to develop into political rivals. After the war the Soviets once again purged the Red Army (though not as brutally as in the 1930s) and demoted many successful officers (including Zhukov,
Repression and genocide in occupied territories
"... Hitler's first defeats on the
anti-Semitic propaganda. Then in 1943 came the call for total war. Total war meant further suffering and murders inflicted on millions. Millions of people perished heirless and nameless."[133]— Polish historian Jerzy W. Borejsze
The enormous territorial gains of 1941 presented Germany with vast areas to pacify and administer. For the majority of people of the Soviet Union, the Nazi invasion was viewed as a brutal act of unprovoked aggression. While it is important to note that not all parts of Soviet society viewed the German advance in this way, the majority of the Soviet population viewed German forces as occupiers. In areas such as Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (which had been annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940) the Wehrmacht was tolerated by a relatively more significant part of the native population.
This was particularly true for the territories of Western Ukraine, recently rejoined to the Soviet Union, where the anti-Polish and anti-Soviet
Instead, the Nazi ideologues saw the future of the East as one of settlement by German colonists, with the natives killed, expelled, or reduced to slave labour. The cruel and brutally inhumane treatment of Soviet civilians, women, children and elderly, the daily bombings of civilian cities and towns, Nazi pillaging of Soviet villages and hamlets and unprecedented harsh punishment and treatment of civilians in general were some of the primary reasons for Soviet resistance to Nazi Germany's invasion. Indeed, the Soviets viewed Germany's invasion as an act of aggression and an attempt to conquer and enslave the local population.
Regions closer to the front were managed by military powers of the region, in other areas such as the Baltic states annexed by the USSR in 1940, Reichscommissariats were established. As a rule, the maximum in loot was extracted. In September 1941, Erich Koch was appointed to the Ukrainian Commissariat. His opening speech was clear about German policy: "I am known as a brutal dog ... Our job is to suck from Ukraine all the goods we can get hold of ... I am expecting from you the utmost severity towards the native population."
Atrocities against the Jewish population in the conquered areas began almost immediately, with the dispatch of Einsatzgruppen (task groups) to round up Jews and shoot them.[134]
The massacres of Jews and other
The Nazi ideology and the maltreatment of the local population and Soviet POWs encouraged partisans fighting behind the front; it motivated even anti-communists or non-Russian nationalists to ally with the Soviets and greatly delayed the formation of German-allied divisions consisting of Soviet POWs (see Ostlegionen). These results and missed opportunities contributed to the defeat of the Wehrmacht.
Vadim Erlikman has detailed Soviet losses totalling 26.5 million war related deaths. Military losses of 10.6 million include six million killed or missing in action and 3.6 million POW dead, plus 400,000 paramilitary and Soviet partisan losses. Civilian deaths totalled 15.9 million, which included 1.5 million from military actions; 7.1 million victims of Nazi genocide and reprisals; 1.8 million deported to Germany for forced labour; and 5.5 million famine and disease deaths. Additional famine deaths, which totalled one million during 1946–47, are not included here. These losses are for the entire territory of the USSR including territories annexed in 1939–40.[citation needed]
Belarus lost a quarter of its pre-war population, including practically all its intellectual elite. Following bloody encirclement battles, all of the present-day Belarus territory was occupied by the Germans by the end of August 1941. The Nazis imposed a brutal regime, deporting some 380,000 young people for slave labour, and killing hundreds of thousands (civilians) more.
Some recent reports raise the number of Belarusians who perished in the war to "3 million 650 thousand people, unlike the former 2.2 million. That is to say not every fourth inhabitant but almost 40% of the pre-war Belarusian population perished (considering the present-day borders of Belarus)."[138]
Sixty percent of Soviet POWs died during the war. By its end, large numbers of Soviet POWs, forced labourers and Nazi collaborators (including those who were forcefully repatriated by the Western Allies) went to special NKVD "filtration" camps. By 1946, 80 per cent of civilians and 20 per cent of POWs were freed, others were re-drafted, or sent to labour battalions. Two per cent of civilians and 14 per cent of the POWs were sent to the Gulag.[139][140]
The official Polish government report of war losses prepared in 1947 reported 6,028,000 victims out of a population of 27,007,000 ethnic Poles and Jews; this report excluded ethnic Ukrainian and Belarusian losses.
Although the Soviet Union had not signed the
Soviet repressions also contributed into the Eastern Front's death toll. Mass repression occurred in the occupied portions of Poland as well as in the Baltic states and Bessarabia. Immediately after the start of the German invasion, the NKVD massacred large numbers of inmates in most of their prisons in
Industrial output
The Soviet victory owed a great deal to the ability of its war industry to outperform the German economy, despite the enormous loss of population and land. Stalin's five-year plans of the 1930s had resulted in the industrialisation of the Urals and central Asia. In 1941, thousands of trains evacuated critical factories and workers from Belarus and Ukraine to safe areas far from the front lines. Once these facilities were reassembled east of the Urals, production could be resumed without fear of German bombing.
The increases in production of materiel were achieved at the expense of civilian living standards – the most thorough application of the principle of total war – and with the help of Lend-Lease supplies from the United Kingdom and the United States. The Germans, on the other hand, could rely on a large slave workforce from the conquered countries and Soviet POWs. American exports and technical expertise also enabled the Soviets to produce goods that they wouldn't have been able to on their own. For example, while the USSR was able to produce fuel of octane numbers from 70 to 74, Soviet industry only met 4% of demand for fuel of octane numbers from 90+; all aircraft produced after 1939 required fuel of the latter category. To fulfill demands, the USSR depended on American assistance, both in finished products and TEL.[144]
Germany had far greater resources than did the USSR, and dwarfed its production in every matrix except for oil, having over five times the USSR's coal production, over three times its iron production, three times its steel production, twice its electricity production, and about 2/3 of its oil production.[145]
German production of explosives from 1940 to 1944 was 1.595 million tons, along with 829,970 tons of powder. Consumption on all fronts during the same period was 1.493 million tons of explosives and 626,887 tons of powder.[146] From 1941 to 1945, the USSR produced only 505,000 tons of explosives and received 105,000 tons of Lend-Lease imports.[58] Germany outproduced the Soviet Union 3.16 to 1 in explosives tonnage.
Soviet armoured fighting vehicle production was greater than the Germans (in 1943, the
Year | Coal (million tonnes, Germany includes lignite and bituminous types) |
Steel (million tonnes) |
Aluminium (thousand tonnes) |
Oil (million tonnes) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German | Soviet | German | Soviet | German | Soviet | German | Soviet | Italian | Hungarian | Romanian | Japanese | |
1941 | 483.4 | 151.4 | 31.8 | 17.9 | 233.6 | – | 5.7 | 33.0 | 0.12 | 0.4 | 5.5 | – |
1942 | 513.1 | 75.5 | 32.1 | 8.1 | 264.0 | 51.7 | 6.6 | 22.0 | 0.01 | 0.7 | 5.7 | 1.8 |
1943 | 521.4 | 93.1 | 34.6 | 8.5 | 250.0 | 62.3 | 7.6 | 18.0 | 0.01 | 0.8 | 5.3 | 2.3 |
1944 | 509.8 | 121.5 | 28.5 | 10.9 | 245.3 | 82.7 | 5.5 | 18.2 | – | 1 | 3.5 | 1 |
1945[149] | – | 149.3 | – | 12.3 | – | 86.3 | 1.3 | 19.4 | – | – | – | 0.1 |
Year | Tanks and self- propelled guns | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Soviet | German | Italian | Hungarian | Romanian | Japanese | |
1941 | 6,590 | 5,200[150] | 595 | – | – | 595 |
1942 | 24,446 | 9,300[150] | 1,252 | 500 | – | 557 |
1943 | 24,089 | 19,800 | 336 | 105 | 558 | |
1944 | 28,963 | 27,300 | – | 353 | ||
1945[149] | 15,400 | – | – | – | – | 137 |
Year | Aircraft | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Soviet | German | Italian | Hungarian | Romanian | Japanese | |
1941 | 15,735 | 11,776 | 3,503 | – | 1,000 | 5,088 |
1942 | 25,436 | 15,556 | 2,818 | 6 | 8,861 | |
1943 | 34,845 | 25,527 | 967 | 267 | 16,693 | |
1944 | 40,246 | 39,807 | – | 773 | 28,180 | |
1945[149] | 20,052 | 7,544 | – | – | 8,263 |
Year | Industrial labour | Foreign labour | Total labour | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Soviet | German | Soviet | German | Total Soviet | Total German | |
1941 | 11,000,000 | 12,900,000 | – | 3,500,000 | 11,000,000 | 16,400,000 |
1942 | 7,200,000 | 11,600,000 | 50,000 | 4,600,000 | 7,250,000 | 16,200,000 |
1943 | 7,500,000 | 11,100,000 | 200,000 | 5,700,000 | 7,700,000 | 16,800,000 |
1944 | 8,200,000 | 10,400,000 | 800,000 | 7,600,000 | 9,000,000 | 18,000,000 |
1945[149] | 9,500,000 | – | 2,900,000 | – | 12,400,000 | – |
Soviet production and upkeep was assisted by the Lend-Lease program from the United States and the United Kingdom. In the course of the war the US supplied $11 billion of materiel through Lend-Lease. This included 400,000 trucks, 12,000 armoured vehicles (including 7,000 tanks), 11,400 aircraft and 1.75 million tons of food.[152] The British supplied aircraft including 3,000 Hurricanes and 4,000 other aircraft during the war. Five thousand tanks were provided by the British and Canada. Total British supplies were about four million tons.[153] Germany on the other hand had the resources of conquered Europe at its disposal; those numbers are however not included into the tables above, such as production in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and so on.
After the defeat at Stalingrad, Germany geared completely towards a war economy, as expounded in a speech given by Joseph Goebbels (the Nazi propaganda minister), in the Berlin Sportpalast, increasing production in subsequent years under Albert Speer's (the Reich armaments minister) direction, despite the intensifying Allied bombing campaign.
Casualties
The fighting involved millions of Axis and Soviet troops along the broadest land front in military history. It was by far the deadliest single theatre of the European portion of World War II with up to 8.7 to 10 million military deaths on the Soviet side (although, depending on the criteria used, casualties in the Far East theatre may have been similar in number).[154][155][156] Axis military deaths were 5 million of which around 4,000,000 were German deaths.[157][158]
Included in this figure of German losses is the majority of the 2 million German military personnel listed as missing or unaccounted for after the war. Rüdiger Overmans states that it seems entirely plausible, while not provable, that one half of these men were killed in action and the other half died in Soviet custody.[159] Official OKW Casualty Figures list 65% of Heer killed/missing/captured as being lost on the Eastern Front from 1 September 1939, to 1 January 1945 (four months and a week before the conclusion of the war), with front not specified for losses of the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe.[160]
Estimated civilian deaths range from about 14 to 17 million. Over 11.4 million Soviet civilians within pre-1939 Soviet borders were killed, and another estimated 3.5 million civilians were killed in the annexed territories.
The huge death toll was attributed to several factors, including brutal mistreatment of POWs and captured partisans, the large deficiency of food and medical supplies in Soviet territories, and atrocities committed mostly by the Germans against the civilian population. The multiple battles and the use of scorched earth tactics destroyed agricultural land, infrastructure, and whole towns, leaving much of the population homeless and without food.
Forces fighting with the Axis | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Dead | DOW/MIA
|
Prisoners taken by the Soviets | Prisoners who died in Captivity | WIA (not including DOW) | |
Greater Germany | est 4,137,000[164] | est 3,637,000 | 2,733,739–3,000,060 | 500,000[165] | Unknown |
Soviet residents who joined German army | 215,000 | 215,000 | 400,000+ | Unknown | 118,127 |
Romania | 281,000 | 226,000 | 500,000 | 55,000 | |
Hungary | 300,000 | 245,000 | 500,000 | 55,000 | 89,313 |
Italy | 82,000 | 55,000 | 70,000 | 27,000 | |
Finland[166] | 63,204 | 62,731 | 3,500 | 473 | 158,000 |
Total | est 5,078,000 | est 4,437,400 | 4,264,497–4,530,818 | est 637,000 | Unknown |
Forces fighting with the Soviet Union | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Dead | KIA/DOW/MIA | Prisoners taken by the Axis | Prisoners who died in captivity | WIA (not including DOW) | |
Soviet | 8,668,400–10,000,000 | 6,829,600 | 4,059,000 (military personnel only)–5,700,000 | 2,250,000–3,300,000[168][169] of which 1,283,200 confirmed[161] | 13,581,483[170] |
Poland | 24,000 | 24,000 | Unknown | Unknown | |
Romania | 17,000 | 17,000 | 80,000 | Unknown | |
Bulgaria | 10,000 | 10,000 | Unknown | Unknown | |
Total | Up to ~8,719,000 – 10,000,000 | 6,880,600 | 4,139,000–5,780,000 | 2,250,000–3,300,000 | 13,581,483 |
Based on Soviet sources Krivosheev put German losses on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 at 6,923,700 men: including killed in action, died of wounds or disease and reported missing and presumed dead – 4,137,100, taken prisoner 2,571,600 and 215,000 dead among Soviet volunteers in the Wehrmacht. Deaths of POW were 450,600 including 356,700 in NKVD camps and 93,900 in transit.[164]
According to a report prepared by the General Staff of the Army issued in December 1944, materiel losses in the East from the period of 22 June 1941 until November 1944 stood at 33,324 armoured vehicles of all types (tanks, assault guns, tank destroyers, self-propelled guns and others). Paul Winter, Defeating Hitler, states "these figures are undoubtedly too low".[171] According to Soviet claims, the Germans lost 42,700 tanks, tank destroyers, self-propelled guns and assault guns on the Eastern front.[172] Overall, Germany produced 3,024 reconnaissance vehicles,[unreliable source?] 2,450 other armoured vehicles, 21,880 armoured personnel carriers, 36,703 semi-tracked tractors and 87,329 semi-tracked trucks,[173] estimated 2/3 were lost on the Eastern Front.[citation needed]
The Soviets lost 96,500 tanks, tank destroyers, self-propelled guns and assault guns, as well as 37,600 other armoured vehicles (such as armoured cars and semi-tracked trucks) for a total of 134,100 armoured vehicles lost.[174]
The Soviets also lost 102,600 aircraft (combat and non-combat causes), including 46,100 in combat.[175] According to Soviet claims, the Germans lost 75,700 aircraft on the Eastern front.[176]
Polish Armed Forces in the East, initially consisting of Poles from Eastern Poland or otherwise in the Soviet Union in 1939–1941, began fighting alongside the Red Army in 1943, and grew steadily as more Polish territory was liberated from the Nazis in 1944–1945.
When the Axis countries of Central Europe were occupied by the Soviets, they changed sides and declared war on Germany (see Allied Commissions).
Some Soviet citizens would side with the Germans and join Andrey Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army,
Hitler's notorious Commissar Order called for Soviet political commissars, who were responsible for ensuring that Red Army units remained politically reliable, to be summarily shot when identified amongst captured troops. Axis troops who captured Red Army soldiers frequently shot them in the field or shipped them to concentration camps to be used as forced labourers or killed.[179] Additionally, millions of Soviet civilians were captured as POWs and treated in the same manner. It is estimated that between 2.25 and 3.3 million Soviet POWs died in Nazi custody, out of 5.25–5.7 million. This figure represents a total of 45–57% of all Soviet POWs and may be contrasted with 8,300 out of 231,000 British and U.S. prisoners, or 3.6%.[180][169] About 5% of the Soviet prisoners who died were of Jewish ethnicity.[citation needed]
Disappearance of Ondrej Sobola
Ondrej Sobola (7 August 1880 – officially 31 December 1918) was an Austro-Hungarian Army soldier. His death, in an unknown place during the First World War, inspired the Tree of Peace project.[181]
Biography
Sobola was born on 7 August 1880 in Lalinok into a farmer family. His family had lived in the area since 1512.[182] 1: 9. He was conscripted into the army in 1901.[183] Sobola and his older brother Štefan travelled to the United States around 1906, residing in Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania.[184] Sobola returned to Lalinok in 1907, living there for three years, and again traveled to the United States on 30 November 1910.[185]
Sobola had returned to Lalinok by 1914. After the outbreak of the First World War, he enlisted in the 15th Military Infantry Regiment.[186] He was listed as missing in action on the Eastern Front in 1915. Sobola was one of those commemorated by his home village in a memorial to First World War dead on 11 November 2018.[187] His portrait made by sculptor Michal Janiga is also incorporated on a Memorial. His name is on a Memorial pillar in the Emperor's park of Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl.[188]
Tree of Peace
The Tree of Peace is an international project that originated in Slovakia. The project, created in 2018 on the centenary of the end of World War I, was initiated by landscape architect Marek Sobola, Ondrej's great-grandson.[189] The grave of Sobola has not been found after many years of historical searching in Military archives across Europe. His great-grandfather's death inspired Sobola to memorialize the soldiers who died in the First World War in unknown places without their names or identities. The main goal of the project was to promote a message of peace by planting "Trees of Peace" on every continent.[190]
See also
- Timeline of the Eastern Front of World War II
- Historiography of World War II
- Outline of World War II
- The Battle of Russia – a film from the Why We Fight propaganda film series
- Horses in World War II
- Severity Order
- Barbarossa decree
- Commissar Order
- Kantokuen - Japanese plan to invade the Soviet Far East in 1941
National and regional experiences
- Bulgaria during World War II
- Byelorussia in World War II
- Carpathian Ruthenia during World War II
- Estonia in World War II
- Finland in World War II
- German occupation of the Baltic states during World War II
- Greece during World War II
- Hungary in World War II
- Italian participation on the Eastern Front
- Romania in World War II
- Soviet–Japanese War
- Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)
- Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1944)
- Soviet Union in World War II
- Women in the Russian and Soviet military
- Women in World War II
- World War II in Yugoslavia
Lists
Notes
- German occupation. In October the same year, a puppet government was installedwhich ensured Hungary's participation until the end of the conflict.
- ^ Slovakia voluntarily participated in the conflict until August 1944, when it submitted to German occupation which ensured Slovakia's participation until the end of the conflict.
- ^ Croatian army units fought as part of German and Italian units. Croatian Air Force pilots also operated as part of the German Air Force.
- Second Polish Armies that fought as part of the Soviet Red Army. Political leadership came from the Polish Committee of National Liberation, which evolved into a Provisional Governmentrivaling the one in London.
- "Revolutionary Mongolia" Tank Brigade and the "Mongolian Arat" Squadron as well as provided over half a million military horses to the Soviet Union.[1] Also, more than 300 Mongolian volunteer military personnel fought on the Eastern front as part of the Red Army.[2]
- ^ A battalion composed of Czechs and Slovaks in the Soviet Union (refugees, defectors, part of the ethnic minority in the USSR) was established early in the war and would eventually grow to a Czechoslovak Army Corps, loyal to the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London, which fought as part of the Red Army.
- ^ Support provided through Lend-Lease and Arctic convoys
- ^ Support provided through Arctic convoys, as well as by the presence of No. 151 Wing RAF (with No. 81 Squadron RAF and No. 134 Squadron RAF) on the Eastern Front.
- ^ Support provided by the presence of Fighter Squadron 2/30 Normandie-Niemen as part of 1st Air Army on the Eastern Front.
- ^ As part of the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II
- ^ Also known as:
- The Great Patriotic War (Russian: Вели́кая Оте́чественная война́, romanized: Velíkaya Otéchestvennaya voyná) in the Soviet Union – and still is in some of its successor states.
- The German–Soviet War (German: Deutsch-Sowjetische Krieg; Ukrainian: Німе́цько-радя́нська війна́, romanized: Niméts'ko-radiáns'ka viiná), which is typically used in contemporary German and Ukrainian historiographies.
- SS-Obergruppenführer Berger, and the chief of the partisan combating units.[135]
References
This article has an unclear citation style. (September 2022) |
Citations
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- ISBN 9781461664680.
- ISBN 978-0-8117-6784-2– via Google Books.
- ^ ISBN 5-93165-107-1), so the number of military deaths (the USSR and the Axis) amounted to 15 million, far greater than in all other World War II theatres. According to the same source, total Soviet civilian deaths within post-war borders amounted to 15.7 million. The numbers for other Central European and German civilian casualties are not included here.
- ^ Bellamy 2007, p. xix: "That conflict, which ended sixty years before this book's completion, was a decisive component – arguably the single most decisive component – of the Second World War. It was on the eastern front, between 1941 and 1945, that the greater part of the land and associated air forces of Nazi Germany and its Axis partners were ultimately destroyed by the Soviet Union in what, from 1944, its people – and those of the fifteen successor states – called, and still call, the Great Patriotic War"
- ^ ISBN 978-0582771857.
- ^ "World War II: The Eastern Front". The Atlantic. 18 September 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
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- ^ ISBN 978-1-4616-3547-5.
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- ^ "We National Socialists consciously draw a line under the direction of our foreign policy war. We begin where we ended six centuries ago. We stop the perpetual Germanic march towards the south and west of Europe, and have the view on the country in the east. We finally put the colonial and commercial policy of the pre-war and go over to the territorial policy of the future. But if we speak today in Europe of new land, we can primarily only to Russia and the border states subjects him think." Charles Long, 1965: The term 'habitat' in Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' (pdf, 12 Seiten; 695 kB)
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- ^ Heinrich Himmler. "Speech of the Reichsfuehrer-SS at the meeting of SS Major-Generals at Posen 4 October 1943". Source: Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol. IV. USGPO, Washington, 1946, pp. 616–634. Stuart Stein, University of the West of England. Archived from the original on 2 March 2009.
Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death … interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves for our Kultur ...
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[...] Ostrausch (a colonizing high or intoxication with the East) [...].
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- ^ Askey, Nigel (30 October 2017). "The Myth of German Superiority on the WW2 Eastern Front" (PDF). operationbarbarossa.net/.
For example, my own extensive study of German forces in 1941 (Volume IIA and IIB of 'Operation Barbarossa: the complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis') shows the entire German force on the Eastern Front (up to 4 July 1941) had around 3,359,000 men (page 74, Vol IIB). This includes around 87,600 in the Northern Norway command (Bef. Fin.), and 238,700 in OKH Reserve units (some of which had not yet arrived in the East). It includes all personnel in the German Army (including the security units), Waffen SS, Luftwaffe ground forces and even naval coastal artillery (in the East). This figure compares very well with the figure in the table (around 3,119,000) derived from Earl Ziemke's book (which is used as the Axis source in the chart)
- ^ Frieser, Karl-Heinz (1995). Blitzkrieg-Legende: Der Westfeldzug 1940, Operationen des Zweiten Weltkrieges [The Blitzkrieg Legend] (in German). München: R. Oldenbourg. p. 43.
- ^ Muller-Hillebrand, Burkhart (1956). Das Heer 1933–1945: Entwicklung des organisatorischen Aufbaues. Die Blitzfeldzüge 1939–1941. Vol. 2. Mittler & Sohn. p. 102.
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- ^ Materialien zum Vortrag des Chefs des Wehrmachtführungsstabes vom 7.11.1943 "Die strategische Lage am Anfang des fünften Kriegsjahres", (referenced to KTB OKW, IV, S. 1534 ff.)
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{{cite journal}}
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- ^ Source: L. E. Reshin, "Year of 1941", vol. 2, p. 152.
- ^ Hans-Adolf Jacobsen: 1939–1945, Der Zweite Weltkrieg in Chronik und Dokumenten. Darmstadt 1961, p. 568. (German Language)
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- ^ a b Ivan Ivanovich Vernidub, Boepripasy pobedy, 1998
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- ^ William I. Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II Europe (2008), pp 250–56
- Glantz, David M. (25 March 2010). The Soviet–German War, 1941–1945: Myths and Realities. United States Army War College. Archived from the originalon 28 October 2021 – via YouTube.
- ^ a b Zhukov, Georgy (1972). Vospominaniya i razmyshleniya. Moscow: Agenstvo pechati Novosti.
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- ^ Zhilin, P.A., ed. (1973). Velikaya Otechestvennaya voyna. Moscow: Izdatelstvo politicheskoi literatury.
- ^ Shirer (1990), p. 852
- ^ Helen Fry, "'The Walls Have Ears'", Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-23860-0, 2019, p. 81
- ^ Rõngelep, Riho; Clemmesen, Michael Hesselholt (January 2003). "Tartu in the 1941 Summer War". Baltic Defence Review. 9 (1).
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- ^ JSTOR 1987464.
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- ^ Calvocoressi, Peter; Wint, Guy (1972). Total War. Harmandsworth, England: Penguin. p. 179.
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- ISBN 0-304-35864-9.
- JSTOR 1988530.
- ISBN 0-7126-6226-X.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-78159-291-5.
- ^ Shirer (1990), p.925–926
- ^ Shirer (1990), p.927–928
- ^ JSTOR 1861311.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7006-1208-6.
- ^ "Estonia". The Bulletin of International News. Royal Institute of International Affairs. Information Department. 1944. p. 825.
- ^ "The Otto Tief government and the fall of Tallinn". Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 22 September 2006. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
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- ^ "Armistice Agreement Signed". Army News. Northern Territory, Australia. 14 September 1944. p. 1. Retrieved 15 April 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "Terms Of Rumanian Armistice Announced". Army News. Northern Territory, Australia. 15 September 1944. p. 1. Retrieved 15 April 2020 – via Trove.
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- ^ Jan Nowak-Jeziorański (31 July 1993). "Białe plamy wokół Powstania". Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish) (177): 13. Retrieved 14 May 2007.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Czarnecka, Daria. "The Slovak National Uprising". ENRS. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
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- ^ a b Ziemke, Berlin, see References page 71
- ^ Beevor, Berlin, see References Page 138
- ^ Beevor, Berlin, see References pp. 217–233
- ^ Ziemke, Berlin, see References pp. 81–111
- ^ Beevor, Berlin, see References pp. 259–357, 380–381
- ^ Krivosheev 1997, pp. 219, 220.
- ISBN 978-0-451-47701-9.
- ^ "Regime of Doenitz Urges Recognition". The New York Times. Vol. 94, no. 31888. 15 May 1945.
- ^ "Foreign Minister Bids Reich to Hope; Schwerin von Krosigk Begins Campaign to Regain Freedom for Germany". The New York Times. Vol. 94, no. 31881. 8 May 1945.
- ^ Ziemke, Earl F. (1975). "15". THE U.S. ARMY IN THE OCCUPATION OF GERMANY 1944-1946. Washington D.C.: US Government Printing Office. p. 258. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
- ^ Ziemke, Berlin, References p. 134
- JSTOR 1983926.
- ISBN 978-1-285-44790-2.
- ISBN 978-1541674103.
- ISBN 978-0-19-872346-2.
- ^ Bonfante, Jordan (23 May 2008). "Remembering a Red Flag Day". Time. Archived from the original on 28 May 2008.
- ^ Gunther, John (1950). Roosevelt in Retrospect. Harper & Brothers. pp. 356.
- ^ "The Executive of the Presidents Soviet Protocol Committee (Burns) to the President's Special Assistant (Hopkins)". www.history.state.gov. Office of the Historian.
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- ^ a b The New York Times, 9 February 1946, Volume 95, Number 32158.
- ^ Bellamy 2007, pp. 1–2
- ^ Glantz 2005, p. 181.
- ISBN 978-0-7881-7080-5
- ISBN 0-300-11204-1.
- ^ "ПРИКАЗ О РАСФОРМИРОВАНИИ ОТДЕЛЬНЫХ ЗАГРАДИТЕЛЬНЫХ ОТРЯДОВ". bdsa.ru. Archived from the original on 20 December 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
- OCLC 60671899.
- ISBN 978-83-63352-88-2.
- ^ Marking 70 Years to Operation Barbarossa Archived 16 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine on the Yad Vashem website
- ^ Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Supplement A pg 1270
- ^ "The Nazi struggle against Soviet partisans". Holocaust Controversies. 17 March 2012.
- ^ "Khatyn WWI Memorial in Belarus". www.belarusguide.com.
- ^ Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II belarusguide.com
- ^ ("Военно-исторический журнал" ("Military-Historical Magazine"), 1997, No.5. page 32)
- ^ Земское В.Н. К вопросу о репатриации советских граждан. 1944–1951 годы // История СССР. 1990. No. 4 (Zemskov V.N. On repatriation of Soviet citizens. Istoriya SSSR., 1990, No.4)
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- ^ Alexander Matveichuk. A High Octane Weapon of Victory. Oil of Russia. Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. 2 November 2011.
- ^ Walter Dunn, "The Soviet Economy and the Red Army", Praeger (30 August 1995), page 50. Citing K.F. Skorobogatkin, et al., "50 Let Voorezhennyk sil SSR" (Moscow: Voyenizdat, 1968), p. 457.
- ^ US Strategic Bombing Survey "Appendix D. Strategic Air Attack on the Powder and Explosives Industries", Table D7: German Monthly Production of Powders and Exploders (Including Extenders) and Consumption by German Armed Forces
- ^ Military Analysis Division, U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey- European War, Volume 3, page 144. Washington, 1947.
- ^ a b c Richard Overy, Russia's War, p. 155 and Campaigns of World War II Day By Day, by Chris Bishop and Chris McNab, pp. 244–52.
- ^ a b c d Soviet numbers for 1945 are for the whole of 1945, including after the war was over.
- ^ a b German figures for 1941 and 1942 include tanks only.
- ^ The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia by Richard Overy p. 498.
- ^ World War II The War Against Germany And Italy Archived 6 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine, US Army Center of Military History, page 158.
- ^ "Telegraph". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 December 2000.
- ^ Krivosheev 1997, p. 85.
- ^ "Nazi Persecution of Soviet Prisoners of War". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
- ^ Richard Overy, The Dictators
- ^ "German military deaths to all causes EF". Archived from the original on 2 May 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
- ISBN 3-486-56531-1, pp. 265, 272
- ISBN 3-486-56531-1p. 289
- ^ Göttingen, Percy E. Schramm (21 November 2012). "Die deutschen Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg". Die Zeit.
- ^ a b Krivosheev 1997, p. [page needed].
- ISBN 0-688-12364-3
- ISBN 5-224-01515-4Table 198
- ^ a b Krivosheev 1997, pp. 276–278.
- ISBN 3-549-07121-3
- ISBN 951-0-28690-7.
- ISBN 5-93165-107-1; Mark Axworthy, Third Axis Fourth Ally. Arms and Armour 1995, p. 216.ISBN 1-85409-267-7
- ^ "Non-Soviet POWs". Archived from the original on 22 April 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
- ^ a b "Gross-Rosen Timeline 1940–1945". Internet Wayback Machine. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 15 January 2009. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
- ^ Krivosheev 1997, p. 89.
- ^ Paul Winter, Defeating Hitler, p. 234
- ^ Micheal Clodfelter, Warfare and Armed Conflicts, p. 449
- ^ "German arms production". WW2 Weapons. 5 September 2020.
- ^ Krivosheev 1997, pp. 253–258.
- ^ Krivosheev 1997, pp. 359–360.
- ISBN 078647470X, 9780786474707. P. 449
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- ^ "Nazi Foreign Legions – History Learning Site". History Learning Site. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
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- ^ "1945". Archived from the original on 22 April 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
- ^ Sobola, Marek (14 December 2018). "INTERNATIONAL PROJECT "THE TREE OF PEACE"" (in slovenčina).
- ^ Sobola, Marek (8 January 2019). "Obecná kniha – Príhovor" (PDF). Informačník Obce Divinka – Lalinok (in slovenčina). Village of Divinka (published 2018).
- ^ Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces of Czech Republic, Military Central Archives, Fund: Tribal – Qualification sheets of soldiers born until 1910 (Czech: Kmenové – kvalifikační listy vojáků narozených do roku 1910). The Tribal list No. 109 of 1901.
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- ^ Sobola, Marek (14 December 2018). "INTERNATIONAL PROJECT "THE TREE OF PEACE"" (in slovenčina).
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Sources
- Bellamy, Chris (2007). Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-375-41086-4.
- Braun, Hans-Joachim (1990). The German Economy in the Twentieth Century. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-02101-2.
- ISBN 0-7006-0899-0.
- Glantz, David M. (1998). Stumbling colossus: the Red Army on the eve of World War. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1789-0.
- Glantz, David M. (2005). Colossus reborn : the Red Army at war: 1941-1943. Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1353-3.
Further reading
- Anderson, Dunkan, et al. The Eastern Front: Barbarossa, Stalingrad, Kursk and Berlin (Campaigns of World War II). London: Amber Books Ltd., 2001. ISBN 0-7603-0923-X.
- ISBN 0-14-028458-3.
- Beevor, Antony. Berlin: The Downfall 1945. New York: Penguin Books, 2002, ISBN 0-670-88695-5
- Dick, C. J. From Defeat to Victory: The Eastern Front, Summer 1944 volume 2 of "Decisive and Indecisive Military Operations" (University Press of Kansas, 2016) online review
- Erickson, John. The Road to Stalingrad. Stalin's War against Germany. New York: Orion Publishing Group, 2007. ISBN 0-304-36541-6.
- Erickson, John. The Road to Berlin. Stalin's War against Germany. New York: Orion Publishing Group, Ltd., 2007. ISBN 978-0-304-36540-1.
- Erickson, John, and David Dilks. Barbarossa, the Axis and the Allies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-7486-0504-5.
- Glantz, David, The Soviet‐German War 1941–45: Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay.
- ISBN 0-306-81101-4.
- ISBN 0-375-71422-7
- Hill, Alexander (2016). The Red Army and the Second World War. UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-02079-5.
- International Military Tribunal at Nurnberg, Germany. Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Supplement A, USGPO, 1947.
- Krivosheev, Grigoriy (1997). Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. Greenhill Books. ISBN 1-85367-280-7.
- ISBN 0-306-80912-5.
- Bengt Beckman. Svenska Kryptobedrifter
- Lubbeck, William and David B. Hurt. At Leningrad's Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North, Philadelphia: Casemate, 2006. ISBN 1-932033-55-6.
- ISBN 0-340-80808-X.
- ISBN 978-0-312-42652-1.
- Müller, Rolf-Dieter and ISBN 1-57181-068-4.
- ISBN 0-14-027169-4.
- Schofield, Carey, ed. Russian at War, 1941–1945. Text by Georgii Drozdov and Evgenii Ryabko, [with] introd. by Vladimir Karpov [and] pref. by Harrison E. Salisbury, ed. by Carey Schofield. New York: Vendome Press, 1987. 256 p., copiously ill. with b&2 photos and occasional maps. N.B.: This is mostly a photo-history, with connecting texts. ISBN 0-88029-084-6
- Seaton, Albert. The Russo-German War, 1941–1945, Reprint edition. Presidio Press, 1993. ISBN 0-89141-491-6.
- Shirer, William L. (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany New York: Simon & Schuster.
- SvD 2010-10-23 Svensk knäckte nazisternas hemliga koder
- ISBN 0-7528-3751-6.
- Ziemke, Earl F. Battle For Berlin: End of the Third Reich, NY:Ballantine Books, London:Macdomald & Co, 1969.
- Ziemke, Earl F. The U.S. Army in the occupation of Germany 1944–1946, USGPO, 1975
Historiography
- Lak, Martijn (2015). "Contemporary Historiography on the Eastern Front in World War II". Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 28 (3): 567–587. S2CID 142875289.
External links
- Marking 70 Years to Operation Barbarossa on the Yad Vashem website
- Prof Richard Overy writes a summary about the eastern front for the BBC
- World War II: The Eastern Front by Alan Taylor, The Atlantic
- Rarities of the USSR photochronicles. Great Patriotic War 1941–1945 Borodulin Collection. Excellent set of war photos
- Pobediteli: Eastern Front flash animation (photos, video, interviews, memorials. Written from a Russian perspective)
- RKKA in World War II
- Armchair General maps, year by year
- World War II Eastern Front Order Of Battle Archived 31 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- Don't forget how the Soviet Union saved the world from Hitler. The Washington Post, 8 May 2015.
- Images depicting conditions in the camps for Soviet POW from Yad Vashem
Videos
- "Operation Typhoon": Video on YouTube, lecture by David Stahel, author of Operation Typhoon. Hitler's March on Moscow (2013) and The Battle for Moscow (2015); via the official channel of USS Silversides Museum.
- "Fighting a Lost War: The German Army in 1943": Video on Robert Citino, via the official channel of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center.
- "Kursk, The Epic Armored Engagement": Video on YouTube, via the official channel of The National WWII Museum; session by the Robert Citino and Jonathan Parshall at the 2013 International Conference on World War II.
- "Mindset of WWII German Soldiers": Video on TVOntario, a Canadian public television station.
- "How the Red Army Defeated Germany: The Three Alibis": Video on Dole Institute of Politics.