800 DAYS ON THE EASTERN FRONT A RUSSIAN SOLDIER REMEMBERS WORLD WAR II 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Nikolai Litvin | 9780700615179 | | | | | 800 Days on the Eastern Front A Russian Soldier Remembers World War II 1st edition PDF Book On 8 November, substantial units from Luftflotte 4 were withdrawn to combat the Allied landings in North Africa. The soldiers surrounded it with minefields, set up machine-gun positions at the windows and breached the walls in the basement for better communications. Retrieved 27 April Soviet preparations also included increased activity of Soviet partisans , who attacked German communications and supply lines. Only 27 of the latter were lost in combat, however, the remaining 54 being abandoned after breaking down or running out of fuel. The casualties suffered by the two combatants are difficult to determine, due to several factors. At the beginning of February , the Axis forces in Stalingrad, having exhausted their ammunition and food, surrendered [24] : after five months, one week and three days of fighting. Ice floes on the Volga now prevented boats and tugs from supplying the Soviet defenders. Tank 1st 4th 13th 16th 24th 26th. The threat of further Allied landings in Italy or along southern France made Hitler believe it was essential to stop the offensive and move forces from Kursk to Italy. Tiger 1 Heavy Tank — Location of Stalingrad now Volgograd within modern European Russia. Clark, Lloyd Manstein's main attack was delivered by Hoth's 4th Panzer Army, which was organized into densely concentrated spearheads. He recommended completely abandoning Citadel, allowing the army to await and defeat the coming Soviet offensive, or radically revising the plan for Citadel. He studied 11, letters sent by soldiers inside of Stalingrad between 20 December and 16 January to their families in Germany. The Soviets built up a large number of artillery batteries on the east bank of the Volga. On 19 November, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus , a two-pronged attack targeting the weaker Romanian and Hungarian armies protecting the 6th Army's flanks. About 25 still had not been recovered by the repair service Scholars have produced different estimates depending on their definition of the scope of the battle. This armed resistance continued until 15 February and in a few areas until 20 February. The German onslaught crushed the 37th Guards Rifle Division of Major General Viktor Zholudev and in the afternoon the forward assault group reached the tractor factory before arriving at the Volga River, splitting the 62nd Army into two. Nevertheless, the fighting continued, especially on the slopes of Mamayev Kurgan and inside the factory area in the northern part of the city. There were to be no more periods of quiet on the Eastern Front. Three days later, when the first trainload of Raus's division steamed into Kotelnikovo station to unload, his troops were greeted by "a hail of shells" from Soviet batteries. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. Bartov, Omer The 4th Panzer Army, ordered south on 13 July to block the Soviet retreat "weakened by the 17th Army and the 1st Panzer Army", had turned northwards to help take the city from the south. Ivanov, A. The tanks reached the trench line and, with a terrible roar, clattered overhead He argues that, though it is "easy to argue that from the summer of the Soviet army fought because it was forced to fight," to concentrate solely on coercion is nonetheless to "distort our view of the Soviet war effort. Kursk Tide Turns in the East. July and August saw the heaviest German ammunition expenditure on the Eastern Front up to that point, with , tons consumed in July and , in August. Retrieved 12 November Artillery spotters were an especially prized target for snipers. Showalter, Dennis In reserve, the Steppe Front had an additional , men , Manstein now saw the enormous technical difficulties of a supply by air of these dimensions. The most capable Soviet tank at Kursk was the T , the original version was armed with a Russian military historian Grigoriy Krivosheyev , who based his figures on the Soviet archives, is considered by historian David Glantz as the most reliable source for Soviet casualty figures. About 20 squadrons or more than an air corps. Keegan, John , ed. 800 Days on the Eastern Front A Russian Soldier Remembers World War II 1st edition Writer Out of the nearly 91, German prisoners captured in Stalingrad, only about 5, returned. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The Voronezh Front suffered 27, irrecoverable casualties and 46, medical casualties, for a total of 73, The Germans used this period for specialised training of their assault troops. Germany was looking in the face of defeat. The Soviet losses were roughly three times larger than the German losses. Operation Citadel: , men [1] 2, tanks [1] 9, guns and mortars [2] Soviet counter-offensive phase: , men [1] 3, tanks [1] 9, guns and mortars [3] 2, aircraft [4]. On the right flank, XLVI Panzer Corps consisted at this time of four infantry divisions with just 9 tanks and 31 assault guns. Soviet offensive operations for the summer of were planned to begin after the strength of the German forces had been dissipated by their Kursk offensive. A Soviet counterattack the following morning forced the Germans to withdraw, and a series of counterattacks ensued by both sides with control of the town being exchanged several times over the next few days. Manstein advocated an early attack, but requested two additional infantry divisions, to which Hitler responded that none were available. Africa Asia Europe. Army Group B was in disarray and faced strong Soviet pressure across all its fronts. Panzer Leader. For example, tanks disabled one day often appeared a day or two later repaired. With very thin armour and small guns, they were unable to effectively engage the frontal armour of German medium and heavy tanks or AFVs. The armoured formations, reformed and re-equipped with so much effort, had lost heavily in both men and equipment and would now be unemployable for a long time to come. The Luftwaffe retained air superiority into November, and Soviet daytime aerial resistance was nonexistent. Hitler called his senior officers and advisors to Munich for a meeting on 4 May. These operations opened the Winter Campaign of — 19 November — 3 March , which involved some fifteen Armies operating on several fronts. The German air arm found itself spread thinly across Europe, struggling to maintain its strength in the other southern sectors of the Soviet-German front. Several Soviet regiments were wiped out; the entire staff of the Soviet th Infantry Regiment was killed the following morning during an air raid. Initial : , personnel 2, artillery pieces tanks aircraft [1] : 72 At the time of the Soviet counteroffensive : 1,, men [6] 13, artillery pieces tanks [6] 1, [4] : aircraft. Contact Contact Us Help. Delaying the progress of Kempf allowed Red Army forces time to prepare their second belt of defence to meet the German attack on 6 July. German front, 24 December. This result changed the pattern of operations on the Eastern Front, with the Soviet Union gaining the operational initiative. By 5 August, the Soviets had liberated Belgorod. The engagement bought enough time for units of the 23rd Soviet Guards Rifle Corps, lodged in the Soviet second belt, to prepare itself and be reinforced with additional anti-tank guns. The Steppe Front suffered 27, irrecoverable casualties and 42, medical casualties, for a total of 70, Beevor, Antony The main assault was led by a spearhead of 42 Tigers among tanks and assault guns attacking on a twelve-kilometre front. Paulus himself also doubted the feasibility of such a breakout. Wikimedia Commons. Delta NB, Moscow. A common saying was: "You cannot stop an army which has done Stalingrad. The 6th Panzer Division, arriving from France, was a vastly more powerful formation, but its members hardly received an encouraging impression. During the defence of Stalingrad, the Red Army deployed five armies in and around the city 28th , 51st , 57th , 62nd and 64th Armies ; and an additional nine armies in the encirclement counteroffensive [41] : — 24th , 65th , 66th Armies and 16th Air Army from the north as part of the Don Front offensive, and 1st Guards Army , 5th Tank , 21st Army , 2nd Air Army and 17th Air Army from the south as part of the Southwestern Front. Copeland, B. Luftflotte 4 flew 1, sorties on 14 October and its Stukas dropped tonnes of bombs, while German infantry surrounded the three factories. Soviet Union. 800 Days on the Eastern Front A Russian Soldier Remembers World War II 1st edition Reviews Archived from the original PDF on 20 June Hiwi often proved to be reliable Axis personnel in rear areas and were used for supporting roles, but also served in some front-line units as their numbers had increased. Diversionary attacks , launched two weeks earlier across the Donets and Mius Rivers into the Donbass, drew the attention of German reserves and thinned the defending forces that would face the main blow. Thus the total size of the Soviet force was 1,, men, with 1,, actual combat soldiers. The losses of transport planes were especially serious, as they destroyed the capacity for supply of the trapped 6th Army. Hungarian Italian Romanian. Battle of Basantar Battle of Chamb. By the morning of 5 July, the units had lost 16 Panthers due to mechanical breakdown, leaving only available for the launching of the offensive. The figure for German manpower refers to ration strength which includes non-combatants and wounded soldiers still in medical installations.