Eastern Front - World War II

World War II

The Eastern Front of World War II was fought between Germany and her allies against the Soviet Union. The front began on 22 June 1941 with Operation Barbarossa, where Germany launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. Using their highly advanced Blitzkrieg doctrine and spearheaded by formidable Panzer armies, the Germans pushed deep into the Soviet Union, while inflicting enormous losses on the Red Army. During the Battles of Smolensk and Kiev, the Red Army lost and suffered heavy casualties, but managed to delay the German advance, thus giving more time for defenses and fortifications to be built around Moscow. By October Germany reached the gates of the Soviet capital and Hitler launched Operation Typhoon, to capture Moscow before winter. However due to stiff Soviet resistance and Vyazma and Tula, the fast moving panzer armies were slowed considerably. An unusually cold winter began, stopping the German tanks dead in their tracks only 15 miles away from Moscow and allowing the Red Army to launch a massive counter-offensive which pushed the Germans to a safe distance away from city. The Soviets had defended their capital city, but at a very high cost. The Red Army suffered more than 1,280,000 casualties. In the north the Germans besieged Leningrad but the Red Army kept them at bay. This siege would last three years. Even though the Soviets had won at Moscow, the war was far from over. Germany occupied vast areas of the country and was still strong. In the summer of 1942, Hitler launched Case Blue, a massive offensive to capture the Caucasus. The Germans captured key cities such as Rostov, Kharkov and Krasnodar and pushed towards a key transport hub on the Volga, Stalingrad. The German 6th Army entered the outskirts of the city in August but was slowed down with fierce Soviet resistance. Even though the Germans controlled 90% of the city, they were unable to dislodge the last Soviet defenders tenaciously holding on to the west bank of the Volga. Winter set in and the German tanks were once again unable to perform well. In November the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, another massive counter-offensive which destroyed the weak Romanian and Hungarian armies and encircled the Germans inside Stalingrad. The now depleted German Army held on against wave after wave of Soviet attacks until they finally collapsed and surrendered on 3 February 1943. With more than 1.7 million casualties, the Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest in history. With Stalingrad secure the Red Army launched Operation Little Saturn and pushed the Germans back into the Ukraine. In the summer of 1943, Hitler launched yet another offensive, Operation Citadel. Two large Panzer Armies spearheaded the attack in a pincer movement to encircle the industrial city of Kursk. However thousands of Soviet T-34 tanks were rushed to Kursk and engaged the German Panzer and Tiger tanks in the largest tank battle in history, just outside the city resulting in another decisive victory for the Red Army. After Kursk, the Germans had suffered heavy casualties and their supplies had grown thin, while the ever growing Red Army had a never ending flow of supplies and troops. Germany hadn’t expected the war to last this long and were beginning to fall apart. By spring of 1944, the Red Army had relieved Leningrad and pushed the Germans out of Russia and the Ukraine. Army group Center however, still held on strong and occupied most of Byelorussia. During this time, the western Allies had invaded northern France and forced Germany to relocate some troops and supplies to the west. This allowed the Soviets to launch Operation Bagration, the largest Soviet offensive of the war which destroyed Army Group Center and had the Red Army advance to the border of Prussia and Poland. In the south the Red Army overran Romania and was pushing into Hungary. Now with the Germans fighting the Americans and British in the west and the Soviets in the east, the fall of Germany was all but inevitable. The next Soviet offensives came in the winter of 1945, the Vistula-Oder Offensive and the East Prussian Offensive in which the Red Army smashed through German occupied Poland and captured the historical capital of Germany, Konigsberg. In the south the Red Army pushed into Hungary and captured Budapest, thus knocking Hungary out of the war. By the end of March the Red Army had invaded Germany and had advanced to the Oder River, just 50 miles east of Berlin. As Germany’s end neared close the Soviet Union now looked to capture key cities in central Europe, before the fast moving American armies from the west did. The Red Army then turned some of its attention to advance and capture Vienna and Prague. In mid April 1945, the Red Army launched its final offensive, the Berlin Offensive. After nearly two weeks of fighting, the Red Army captured Berlin and shortly after Germany surrendered.