[50]:1223, The total Lend-Lease aid provided during the Second World War had been estimated between $4250billion. This conflict soon took on the characteristics of a proxy war involving the Soviet Union and left wing volunteers from different countries on the side of the predominantly socialist and communist-led[21] Second Spanish Republic;[22] while Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Portugal's Estado Novo took the side of Spanish Nationalists, the military rebel group led by General Francisco Franco. [61] It was not unusual for half of a unit's replacements to become casualties within the first few days of combat. In the south, the German attempts, in Operation Konrad, to relieve the encircled garrison at Budapest failed and the city fell on 13 February. 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. 28 (3): 567587. It brought home to the German troops their incapacity to turn the scales and thereby undermined such hopes as they had retained. The VT-line was breached on 14 June and after a failed counterattack in Kuuterselk by the Finnish armoured division, the Finnish defence had to be pulled back to the VKT-line. Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, set their sights on the occupation of the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland. 10 Largest Air to Air Battles in Military History Following bloody encirclement battles, all of the present-day Belarus territory was occupied by the Germans by the end of August 1941. The largest number of civilian deaths in a single city was 1.2million citizens dead during the Siege of Leningrad. The Allied siege of La Rochelle occurred during the Second World War in 194445, when Allied troops invaded France. "Fighting a Lost War: The German Army in 1943": "How the Red Army Defeated Germany: The Three Alibis": This page was last edited on 20 August 2023, at 16:21. [20] Hodges had initially hoped to bypass the city itself, believing it to be held only by a small garrison, which would presumably surrender once isolated. [23] The mindset of the city's defenders was further altered by the different attitude the local population had toward them as they fought on home soil for the first time; one German officer commented, "Suddenly we were no longer the Nazis, we were German soldiers. At the end of August Romanian mountain troops joined the Caucasian spearhead, while the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies were redeployed from their successful task of clearing the Azov littoral. Army Group South took the initiative, anchoring the front with the Battle of Voronezh and then following the Don river southeastwards. This opened up their places to the promotion of many younger officers that Stalin and the NKVD regarded as in line with Stalinist politics. Apart from the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, it marked the only military action of the Soviet Union against Imperial Japan; at the Yalta Conference, it had agreed to Allied pleas to terminate the neutrality pact with Japan and enter the Second World War's Pacific theatre within three months after the end of the war in Europe. The aims of the German counteroffensive were far-reaching: to break through to Antwerp, Belgium, by an indirect move, to cut off the British army group from American forces as well as from its supplies, and then to crush the isolated British. International Military Tribunal at Nurnberg, Germany. This represented an ideological shift in Soviet policy, away from its commitment to the international communist revolution, and eventually leading to the dissolution of the Comintern (Third International) organisation in 1943. The Nazi vision for the future of Eastern Europe was codified most clearly in the Generalplan Ost. [98], In Slovakia, the Slovak National Uprising started as an armed struggle between German Wehrmacht forces and rebel Slovak troops between August and October 1944. Marshal Shaposhnikov thus began his counter-attack, employing freshly mobilised reserves,[81] as well as some well-trained Far-Eastern divisions transferred from the east following intelligence that Japan would remain neutral. Resulted in withdrawal of Japanese forces after heavy fighting, Considered by historians to be one of the most important naval battles in history, Contributed to depletion of manpower and material of the, Failure to divert American aircraft carriers into trap and invade Midway Island in preparation for future offensives against, Turning point in the Pacific War resulting in Japanese retreat and American offensives, Major Allied victory recapturing the Solomon Islands, Forced Japanese military to end offensives and shift to defensive strategy, Resulted in capture of Tarawa Atoll after heavy fighting, Ended in American seizure of Kwajelein Atoll, Brought Japanese home islands within range of American, Completely eliminated Japanese ability to mount large-scale carrier operations, Ended in Japanese withdrawal from the Philippine Sea and American offensive towards the Philippines, Ended in American capture of Tinian as forward air base, Ended in American capture of Peleliu as forward air base, Controversial due to high casualty rate of the, Ended in American capture of Angaur as forward air base, Final naval battle in history fought between, Isolated Japanese holdings in Southeast Asia from the Home Islands, Allied defeat of Japanese naval forces despite their full mobilization, Commenced American offensive into the Philippines, Highest net casualty for U.S. forces during World War II, One of the most intense urban battles fought by American forces during the war, Ended in entrapment of Japanese forces under General, One of the most intensive battles of the Pacific theatre, initially controversial due to heavy casualties and low strategic value of Iwo Jima, Ended in the American occupation of Iwo Jima aided by overwhelming military superiority, later used as an emergency landing base for American bombers, Resulted in most of the Japanese combatants being killed in action, largest amphibious battle of the Pacific theatre of World War II, Heavy civilian and combat casualties may have influenced U.S. decision to use, This page was last edited on 6 January 2023, at 14:08. The Soviet Union came out of World War II militarily victorious but economically and structurally devastated. 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. [105] In response, American artillery began to pound the city on 11 October, firing an estimated 5,000 shells, or over 169 short tons (153t) of explosives; it was also subjected to intense bombardment by American aircraft. [171][160] About 5% of the Soviet prisoners who died were of Jewish ethnicity. [38] By the time of the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht consisted of c. 3,800,000 men of the Heer, 1,680,000 of the Luftwaffe, 404,000 of the Kriegsmarine, 150,000 of the Waffen-SS, and 1,200,000 of the Replacement Army (contained 450,400 active reservists, 550,000 new recruits and 204,000 in administrative services, vigiles and or in convalescence). [83]:53, 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. [39], The Wehrmacht took advantage of the brief respite on the front by pulling the 1st, 2nd, and 12th SS Panzer Divisions, as well as the 9th and 116th Panzer Divisions, off the line. [140] That night, 300 soldiers of the 1st SS Battalion were able to reinforce the hotel and defeat several attacks on the building. However, if one last great blitzkrieg offensive could be mounted, then attention could then be turned to the Allied threat to the Western Front. [41] According to a presentation by Alfred Jodl, the Wehrmacht was up to 7,849,000 personnel in April 1944. The advance into the Caucasus bogged down, with the Germans unable to fight their way past Malgobek and to the main prize of Grozny. Paul Winter, Defeating Hitler, states "these figures are undoubtedly too low". Many hundreds of thousands of Soviet civilians were executed, and millions more died from starvation as the Germans requisitioned food for their armies and fodder for their draft horses. Auburn III resident Vincent Speranza fought at Battle of the Bulge dies German losses in this period of the war remain impossible to determine with any reliability. According to Time magazine: "By measure of manpower, duration, territorial reach and casualties, the Eastern Front was as much as four times the scale of the conflict on the Western Front that opened with the Normandy invasion. To minimize the danger from a speedy intervention of Anglo-American air power, which was vastly greater than their own, the Germans launched their stroke when the meteorological forecast promised them a natural cloak; indeed, for the first three days, mist and rain kept the Allied air forces on the ground. [22] As such, it was of immense psychological value. [90], A counterattack developed on 8 October, composed of an infantry regiment, the 1st Assault Battalion, a battle group of the 108th Panzer Brigade, and some 40 armored fighting vehicles scavenged from available units. [138], On 18 October, the 3rd Battalion of the 26th Infantry Regiment prepared to assault the Hotel Quellenhof, which was one of the last areas of resistance in the city. The Purple Heart and . [149], However, German resistance in Aachen upset Allied plans to continue their eastward advance. Jatkosodan pikkujttilinen (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Great Patriotic War 19411945, Pobediteli: Eastern Front flash animation, World War II Eastern Front Order Of Battle, Don't forget how the Soviet Union saved the world from Hitler, Images depicting conditions in the camps for Soviet POW, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eastern_Front_(World_War_II)&oldid=1171351799, 3,050,000 Germans, 67,000 (northern Norway); 500,000 Finns, 150,000 Romanians, 2,680,000 active in Western Military Districts out of, 2,600,000 Germans, 90,000 (northern Norway); 600,000 Romanians, Hungarians, and Italians, 3,403,000 Germans, 80,000 (northern Norway); 400,000 Finns, 150,000 Romanians and Hungarians, 2,460,000 Germans, 60,000 (northern Norway); 300,000 Finns, 550,000 Romanians and Hungarians, 4,059,000 (military personnel only)5,700,000, 58% of the USSR's high octane aviation fuel, 53% of USSR domestic production of expended ordnance (artillery shells, mines, assorted explosives), 93% of railway equipment (locomotives, freight cars, wide gauge rails, etc. 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. Battle of the Bulge, also called Battle of the Ardennes, (December 16, 1944-January 16, 1945), the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War IIan unsuccessful attempt to push the Allies back from German home territory. It launched the Italian Campaign. While this redeployment was in progress, gaps were left in the lines and the remnants of the German 2nd Army, which had been bottled up in a pocket near Danzig, managed to escape across the Oder. In present-day German historiography the name German-Soviet War is typically used. 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. At the beginning of July, the Third and Fourth Romanian Armies, aided by elements of the German 11th Army, fought their way through Bessarabia towards Odessa. [148] Both the 30th Infantry and 1st Infantry divisions received distinguished unit citations for their actions at Aachen. |Glantz, David M. (2005). [85] Better progress was made on 5 October, as the 119th Regiment of the 30th Infantry Division captured Merkstein-Herbach. First Battle of the Marne. 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. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria began on 8 August 1945, with an assault on the Japanese puppet states of Manchukuo and neighbouring Mengjiang; the greater offensive would eventually include northern Korea, southern Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. La Rochelle was an important German base on the Atlantic, especially a major submarine base from where U-Boat campaigns were launched. 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. Stalin ordered the retreating Red Army to initiate a scorched-earth policy to deny the Germans and their allies basic supplies as they advanced eastward. [16] In addition, the Nazis also sought to wipe out the large Jewish population of Central and Eastern Europe[17] [65] Panicky transmissions from the Soviet front-line units to their command headquarters were picked up like this: "We are being fired upon. [117] On the next day, the Germans attempted to mount local counterattacks with the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division, but, after sustaining heavy losses, were forced to suspend further offensive action. The invasion of the coast of Normandy was originally planned for June 5. Omissions? The Sixth Panzer Army, under SS commander Sepp Dietrich, was to thrust northwestward on an oblique line past Lige to Antwerp, creating a strategic barrier astride the rear of the British and of the more northerly American armies. He was replaced by Colonel Gerhard Wilck. In his will, Hitler appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dnitz as new President of the Reich and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels as new Chancellor of the Reich; however, Goebbels also committed suicide, along with his wife Magda and their children, on 1 May 1945. Finding a World War II (1939-1945) Veteran's Records A leap across the Don brought German troops to the Volga on 23 August but for the next three months the Wehrmacht would be fighting the Battle of Stalingrad street-by-street. The diversion of the well-equipped Grodeutschland 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. [44], Although reinforcements continued to arrive, LXXXI Corps' units suffered heavily; the 12th Infantry Division had lost half its combat strength between 16 and 23 September, and the 49th and 275th Infantry Divisions had had to be pulled off the line to recuperate. Many junior officers were short on tactical and leadership abilities. Colossus reborn: the Red Army at war: 1941-1943. The Soviet commander, Lieutenant General Andrey Vlasov, later defected to Germany and formed the ROA or Russian Liberation Army. This is a list of World War II battles, sorted by front location. [22][25] The Soviet Union negotiated treaties of mutual assistance with France and with Czechoslovakia with the aim of containing Germany's expansion. World War I Timeline: Battles & Major Events - HISTORY List of World War II battles involving the United States Local insurgents seized the moment and controlled most of Lithuania, northern Latvia and southern Estonia prior to the arrival of the German forces. [104] The German commander categorically refused. [108] On 12 October, the Germans launched a major counterattack against the American 30th Infantry Division. The next objective was to cross the Dnieper river, which was accomplished by 11 July. German numbers were also bolstered by those troops who had managed to withdraw from France. Accordingly, they stripped troops from Army Group Centre, whose front still protruded deep into the Soviet Union. [50]: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. The Battle of Brody: The Biggest Tank Battle Ever (And It's Been On 27 November, the 4th Panzer Army got to within 30km (19mi) of the Kremlin when it reached the last tramstop of the Moscow line at Khimki. Operation Winter Storm, with three transferred panzer divisions, got going briskly from Kotelnikovo towards the Aksai river but became bogged down 65km (40mi) short of its goal. Macmillan. According to Zhukov, "the success of the December counter-offensive in the central strategic direction was considerable. Critically, Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group was ordered to move south in a giant pincer manoeuvre with Army Group South which was advancing into Ukraine. On 17 September, the Soviet Union invaded Eastern Poland, and, as a result, Poland was partitioned among Germany, the Soviet Union and Lithuania. The German Economy in the Twentieth Century. 114115, clarifies that this was the 1st Panzer Battalion of the 1st SS Panzer Division. At this time Hitler agreed to a general withdrawal to the Dnieper line, along which was meant to be the Ostwall, a line of defence similar to the Westwall (Siegfried Line) of fortifications along the German frontier in the west. The task fell to the 26th Infantry Regiment, under the command of Colonel John F. R. Seitz, which had only two of its three battalions on hand. To those two panzer armies the Germans gave the bulk of the tanks that they could scrape together. [41] Kchling was also promised a reformed 116th Panzer Division and the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division, numbering a total of some 24,000 personnel. To the north, the Red Army surrounded a German garrison in Demyansk, which held out with air supply for four months, and established themselves in front of Kholm, Velizh, and Velikie Luki. The war was fought between Germany, its allies and Finland, against the Soviet Union and its allies. [151] This would lead to the Battle of Hrtgen Forest, which was to prove more difficult than the Battle of Aachen. Debate among the General Staff was polarised, with even Hitler nervous about any attempt to pinch off the Kursk salient. Ferrell (2000), p. 32, claims it was a panzer corps; Whiting (1976), pp. Stalin's central tenet, "Socialism in One Country", manifested itself as a series of nationwide centralised five-year plans from 1929 onwards. Romania and the Soviet Union signed an armistice on 12 September. Soon after that, the Soviet Union demanded significant territorial concessions from Finland, and after Finland rejected Soviet demands, the Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30 November 1939 in what became known as the Winter War a bitter conflict that resulted in a peace treaty on 13 March 1940, with Finland maintaining its independence but losing its eastern parts in Karelia.[8]. Army Group North's objective was Leningrad via the Baltic states. Mindful of the continuing antagonism between Axis allies Romania and Hungary over Transylvania, the Romanian army in the Don bend was separated from the Hungarian 2nd army by the Italian 8th Army. The Soviet advance in the south continued into Romania and, following a coup against the Axis-allied government of Romania on 23 August, the Red Army occupied Bucharest on 31 August. Thus, all of Hitler's allies were involved including a Slovakian contingent with the 1st Panzer Army and a Croatian regiment attached to 6th Army. [96][97], On the Karelian Isthmus, the Red Army launched a VyborgPetrozavodsk Offensive against the Finnish lines on 9 June 1944 (coordinated with the Western Allied Invasion of Normandy). This idea of holding territory led to another failed plan, dubbed[by whom?] During the Warsaw Uprising, the Red Army were ordered to halt at the Vistula River. What were the U.S. contributions to the Battle of the Bulge? Dates of enlistment or selective service registration will be helpful along with the name military units they served with. "[66], At 03:15 on 22 June 1941, 99 of 190 German divisions, including fourteen panzer divisions and ten motorised, were deployed against the Soviet Union from the Baltic to the Black Sea. [40], By July 1943, the Wehrmacht numbered 6,815,000 troops. 20 January World War II: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin. [111] This lone tank was eventually joined by elements of the 2nd Armored Division, and the Germans were driven from the town. 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. As the Soviet Union's manpower reserves ran low from 1943 onwards, the great Soviet offensives had to depend more on equipment and less on the expenditure of lives. "[129], Sixty percent of Soviet POWs died during the war. [121] The order stipulated to capture or shoot "cowards" and fleeing panicked troops at the rear where blocking detachments were ordered to be set up. Strategically, Husky achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners; the Allies drove Axis air, land and naval forces from the island and the Mediterranean's sea lanes were opened. Many divisions became cut off in "fortress" cities, or wasted uselessly in secondary theatres, because Hitler would not sanction retreat or voluntarily abandon any of his conquests. Of The First World War. [75] Army Group North positioned itself in front of Leningrad and attempted to cut the rail link at Mga to the east. 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. [91] Although hindered by American artillery, the left wing of the attack managed to cut off an American platoon, while the right wing reached a road junction north of the town of Alsdorf. [169], 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. [84] On 4 October, the Allied advance was limited, with only the towns of Hoverdor and Beggendorf taken, the Americans having lost roughly 1,800 soldiers in the past three days of combat. However, Soviet society as a whole was hostile to the invading Nazis from the very start. It included the phrase All forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European time on 8 May 1945. 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. Tank losses on both sides have been the source of controversy ever since. By 16 February the first stage was complete, with panzers separated from the contracting Cherkassy pocket only by the swollen Gniloy Tikich river. [4] They were characterised by unprecedented ferocity and brutality, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. Mass repression occurred in the occupied portions of Poland as well as in the Baltic states and Bessarabia.
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