The Germans used the element of surprise, better training, better equipment and lots of experience. The Russians on the other hand were poorly trained, had poor equipment and had no solid places to defend. They had been at war since June 22nd, by the 16th of July 1941 the Germans were only 250 miles from Moscow and they had captured Smolensk. The central army had captured 600,000 soldiers and 5,000 tanks, on their own.
The Germans had said that this attack was because of the Soviet military build up on the border. It was said that Stalin had a “nervous breakdown”. He didn’t talk or make any public announcements for eleven days. When he did give a public announcement he asked for the creation or militia and partisan regiments. He also asked for more soldiers and asked for more people to join the factory workers to increase the output of the military products. One main request he made was that the Germans should on no account be able to get hold of food or equipment, thus the “scorched earth” policy was created. He also made the “a feeling of gratitude” policy, which meant all aid was given to Allied personnel. The Soviets were so desperate to seek help they signed a treaty with the Polish government. The Germans now owned a section of Russia twice the size of Europe, and it was only the end of July.
Many people who have not studied this part of 1941/42 in detail think that the winter in Russia was less lethal for the Russians. Many people thing that the German Armed Forces (The Wehrmacht) suffered causalities mainly from frostbite and not from the Red Army. The winter interrupted the Russians as much as it did the Germans. The Russians also suffered from muddy periods, tank and truck engines that would not work, the only thing that stopped the Germans was the ever increasing Russian, Ukrainian, Belo-Russian and Georgians.
The winter deaths were just a cover up for the fail of appropriate supplies to the front line. The Germans had all of Europe under there control and yet they could not get the right supplies to the front line. This was the real reason for the bulk of the German causalities during the Barbarossa Campaign.
In the spring of 1942, the German army’s showed none of the strength they had before. They had not enough resources to launch an attack this year, but Hitler decided that they would attack from the south. This avoided the main problem of supplying the whole front for a renewed offensive. This was an even greater gamble than before. If the Russians counter-attacked anywhere along the southern stretch, they could punch straight through the German front line. The Germans attempted to use their tactic of Blitzkrieg (Lightning Warfare). At the start of the southern offensive it worked causing the Russians to retreat back. By the sixth week of this renewed offensive the Germans had captured the much needed oil fields in Maikop in the Kursk/Kharkov sector. This was Russia’s most desperate hour, what the Russians needed was a fresh army and new equipment, because at the moment the Russians had no where near enough artillery to match the Germans.
To the Russians good fortune, Hitler had decided that only half of the southern army troops should attack the oilfields in Caucasus and the second half should attack Stalingrad (The city of Stalin). The German 6th Army attacked Stalingrad, slowly the forces from the oilfields came in to reinforce the forces attacking Stalingrad. When the army at the oilfields decided to push further they found this difficult because of their troops were continually going to reinforce the 6th army in Stalingrad. This is when Hitler started to deviate from his original aim. He was not going to be defeated, let alone at Stalingrad.
18:00, August 3rd 1942, the 600 German planes dropped incendiary bombs on Stalingrad. The cities inhabitants were mainly in wooden buildings and the fire of the bombs killed forty thousand of the six hundred thousand people living there. August 23rd saw the first German troops in Stalingrads suburbs. A division of the NVKD (Stalin’s secret police) and civilians from nearby factories attacked the German panzers after they reached the Volga River. Even though the city of Stalingrad was in ruins the 62nd Russian Army did not think of retreating. They fought like no others, firefights, explosions, everywhere. Some German soldiers described Stalingrad as hell on earth, this would be one of the most famous battles in the history of World War 2.
The Soviet 62nd Army was weakening though, and soon in November 1942 the 62nd army was cut into two halves. Weary, tired and running low on supplies the Red Army fought on. It looked like victory for the Germans, so Hitler declared total and impending victory. Just like Napoleon in 1812. The Soviet Commander General Chuikov threw every last man at the Germans but it was not enough.
One spark of hope, a house in the centre of Stalingrad, was defended by a single platoon, commanded by sergeant Pavlov. Here his platoon held out, surrounded by Germans until relief came, 59 days later.
Here is a quote from an extract from the 62nd Armies log book.
"0800 Station in enemy hands. 0840 Station recaptured. 0940 Station retaken by enemy. 1040 Enemy ... 600 meters from Army command post … 1320 Station in our hands."
This describes the fact that both sides were retreating and advancing constantly
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The German air forces (The Luftwaffe) was said to be doing up to three thousand sorties a day and there artillery was constantly pounding the Russian troops. To counter this General Chuikov ordered his men to stay as close to the German lines as possible, to make it too risky for the Germans to use air strikes and artillery. Things were looking bad for both sides, the German forces were being lost fast and the Red army also. Unfortunately the Red Army couldn’t even send reinforcements to the 62nd army, because they would have to cross the Volga River under German fire.
The two sides never stopped fighting, constant volleys of bullets were the only thing that could be heard other than the explosions. The Russians resorted to using night fighting to defeat cut off German troops. The weapons they used would be knives and bayonets. Neither side was prepared for close-quarter battles, they had not been trained in close quarter combat because the Axis and Allied generals both thought that they would be firing at great ranges towards the enemy. The Germans often described the Russians as having some sort of crazy passion, or inspiration from somewhere, either way the Russians used this tactic to its full advantage. The Russians were getting desperate now outnumbers and fighting in the rubble of what used to be one of there greatest cities they fought on with all the bravery they could muster.
November 19th, the Russians initiated operation “Uranus” which was a counter offensive which caught the Germans totally off guard. The German 4th Panzer Army and the German 6th Panzer Army were trapped and on February 2nd Field Marshall von Paulus and his entire army surrendered. The Germans defeat at Stalingrad that started the beginning of the end for Hitler and the Nazi regime.
The battle of Kursk was probably one of the most momentous battles in all of World War 2, it was also the largest armoured battle in all of WW2. Kursk’s surrounding area was of growing importance to the Russian front line. None the less, Hitler needed a victory in this area to gain the upper hand in the war in Russia.
The place of importance was just to the south of Orel. Maloarkangelsk was the northern base and Kursk was the centre base with the base at the south being Belgorod.
