20/2/25
Byelorussia or White Russia a place of lakes and swamps with dense impenetrable forests infested with Soviet partisans. Georgian Prince Pyotr Bagration 1765-1812 was the hero of the Battle of Borodino 1812 Napoleons last offensive.
Hitler dismissed Gereralfieldmarshal Erich von Manstein who had the temerity to point out to Hitler they could not win a straight fight. Gereralfieldmarshal Busch followed Hitler's orders slavishly to the detriment of his command.
This big offensive started about a fortnight after D-day at Normandy, and the 3rd anniversary of the German invasion. Now Russia after bitter experience was matched by a growing technological experience with Germany and had resources that Hitler could not match. In Jan 1944 Russia had secured the Leningrad -Moscow railway. Then the army ejected the German forces in Southern Ukraine. They liberated Crimea from the Black Sea and Sevastopol
Operation Bagration was the 5th offensive aimed at liberating Byelorussia. It annihilated Hitler Army Group Centre and trapped Army Group North , neutralizing almost a million men. 40% of the Red Army was committed to this campaign.
Stalingrad and Kursk paved the way for Soviet Victory Bagnation ensured that Hitler would never regain the initiative.. The laurels of the victory go to Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky.(1896 to 1968) At the end of 1944 the Red Army manpower peaked and showed what the Soviets were capable of. The opening of Bagration ended in the liberation of Minsk.
First Russia introduced ever more powerful armor and revitalized the Red Air Force. The Soviets were made up of vast numbers of ethnic groups such as Armenians, Byelorussians, Georgians, Tajiks, Ukrainians and Uzbeks.
Stalin said that the Western allies are afraid the Soviets will rout the Germans before them.
Zhukov pointed out that once the Central German Enemy in Byelorussia their entire strategic defenses will collapse. and the enemy must be pursued and destroyed. Stalin wanted one major thrust and Rokossovsky said they have to have 2 to divide the Germans. Rokossovsky had suffered such tortures 3 years in the Gulag that he was not afraid to tell Stalin his views.
Byelorussia at the start of the war their had been 9.2 million people a 3rd of them were gone by the end. Jews and people taken as slave labour mostly didn't return. To confuse the enemy a dummy armor corps was set up in Ukraine and the Germans were led to believe that the first blow of the summer campaign would be in the Ukraine and not Byelorussia. After Kursk this was the most thoroughly prepared Russian operation. 5000 trains each with about 50 freight cars making 90 strips a day to the front.12000 trucks at the railheads. There were 294 hospital beds ready for casualties. The Red Airforce had 5,327 combat aircraft and 1007 bombers ready.
There was a brutal guerilla war with Hitler's armies with partisans attacking the long German lines of communications and railway lines on a regular basis. In one night in June 21st they cut off all railway track communication as well as bridges and blew up trains, water pumping stations and attacked garrisons. There were many Soviet officers and men left behind when the Red Army fled as well as Komsomol members. These drew soldiers from the front to the rear. But in some places it was almost civil war as many official and police were German collaborators. Most railway workers were still Russians.
From Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, Hitler's allies attacked into Ukraine. In March1944 Admiral Miklos Horthy had lost his stomach to fight and Hitler occupied his ally. Hitler's decision to hold Crimea from 1941 was insane. Despite the Germans' and Romanians having overwhelming superiority in tanks and aircraft. In 1944 the Soviets captured Byelorussia in 4 days, possibly the German troops lacked morale.
Bulgaria refrained from joining the crusade against communism. By Jan 44 the Wehrmacht was in tatters after the they had been expelled from Leningrad after besieging it for 900 days. The Finns at this stage were trying to resume their armistice talks with Russia while Germanies other allies saw they would be on the wrong side.
Stalin was now placing more reliance on the advice of the Stavka in 1944. Stalin was winning the war but he would have to insure his position in the aftermath.
1939 Japanese troops had made a surprise attack and crossed into friendly Mongolia which the Soviets had a treaty to protect. Zhukov at Khalking Gol severely mauled killing 45,000 Japanese to 17,000 Soviet soldiers. After that Japan in 1940 signed a border treaty saving Stalin from a 2 front fight.
With the German invasion Moscow , Ukraine the Donets basin and Leningrad were the main German goals to gain the materials they needed for the war. Had Germany got full control the oil fields Churchill knew that Germany would have all the materials they need to win the war. Hitler had a policy of rigid resistance instead of strategic falling back by timely withdrawals. Which would have made it far more difficult for the Russians.
The Byelorussia partisans used his girlfriend to assassinate the Governor and the German governor who took over tried to attract support to the population by offering limited autonomy if they helped against the Reds. The partisan war behind the Germans was at its worst when Bagration began.
The British and Americans were operating over Germany between the UK, Italy and the Soviet Union. This was meant to alleviate the pressure over the Normandy landing by drawing the Lufwaffe Eastwards. The Americans wanted 6 bases in Russia but only got 3 Piryatin , Poitava and Mirogorod. The Luftwaffe suddenly got information on this and attacked the 3 airbases destroying 1030 Allied planes. The conclusion was that Stalin wanted the American out of Russia and colluded with the Germans.
The organized Russian tactic was to begin a barrage rolling forward on the Germans and at the same time attack the from behind with both artillery and planes so the could not escape and then encircle them. Busch's lack of flexibility on Hitler's behalf was to waste his limited reserves. Busch was now replaced by Model as German Army commander.
Vassily Grossman The Red Star Correspondent. describes entering Bubruisk a town ablaze and weapons and corpses of Germans and the ruthless revenge of those who hadn't surrendered and tried to break out.
The Germans sent 53 trains to evacuate the wounded and support staff of the defenders of Minsk The Germans began demolishing the city. The Byelorussian parts and sent a message to bring engineers for demining of Government House in Minsk. Afterwards the Germans said that their defeat in Byelorussian and the rout of the Army Group Centre was the greatest defeat the Germans had a far great catastrophe than Stalingrad. By 1944 August the Germans had lost 1,510,000 troops as well as 1,391,000 missing. This included the losses in France.
Between Normandy and Byelorussia German losses were such that Hitler was scaping the bottom of the barrel. Hitler had lost faith in his generals and Germanys supplies of materials were almost gone. Later on there were very few officers to lead the Hitler Youth and Volkssturm Home Guard
1944 July 7th The Polish Home Army rose up against the Germans in Vilnius, These insurgents found themselves rounded up by the NKVD and invited to join General Berling Soviet backed Polish Army other Polish straggles were rounded in the forests were sent off to the Gulags.
At this stage the German Army Group Centre in a space of 2 weeks had been wiped out. On July 17th 57,000 bedraggled German troops were displayed marching through Moscow with Stalin gloating. Russian youngsters booed and threw things at them but old women were full of commiseration with tears thinking and saying "just like our boys"
1944May the Russians were taken Vilnius , Pinsk, Kovno and Grodno and were 100 miles from the German border. The Jews of Lvov had sufferer both under the Nazis and the Ukrainian nationalists. Under the Soviet Nazi pact Stalin's secret police had massared thousand of prisoners mostly Ukrainian nationalist who felt that the region should by part of Ukraine and not Poland. Ukraine hoped it would gain independence with Nazi help and 180,000 Ukrainian's served in the Wehrmacht.
Zhukov wanted to now start fighting in East Prussia but Stalin felt that Germans will fight to the end on German territory and he wanted to weaken the Germans' by driving them out of Ukraine and eastern Poland.
When Poland had been split with Germany 250,000 polish officers and me were moved into the Soviet Union. Stalin had a score to settle with the Poles as they had defeated the Red Army in 1920 civil war.. The Germans had found 10,000 bodies of Polish officers in the Katyn forest. This undermined further Soviet Polish relations.
Both Bering and Rokossovsky had both been in the Austrian Imperial Army and Polish army.
1944 August Walter Model relinquished his post of Army Group Centre and to France to avert the German defeat in Normandy.
September the Polish Home army were defeated by the Germans after 62 day uprising in Warsaw. Vengeful Himmler expelled the rest of the population and ordered the city flattened.
In capturing a German Tiger tank the Russians discovered that it was of poor quality metal and the welds were weak and even if shells did not get through the plating cracked at the welds.
At this stage the American and British wanted to help in Poland and Stalin wanted attack immediately, but Zhukov and Rokossovsky said the army needs to be rested. Zhukov discovered this meeting was a sham as Bagration in the end got Byelorussian, the Baltic States and domination of Poland.
1944 June the Red Army was on the Vistula, 4 weeks later the capitals of Romania and Bulgaria and 6 weeks after that the Baltic and Yugoslav capitals.
1944 December the Red army peaked reached the end of its supply lines, the Wehrmacht had been broken and the army needed to rest while Hitler threw 2 rejuvenated armies against the Western front. Stalin wanted to make sure the once the Eastern European countries were under him he could keep them under the Soviet sphere.
1944 offensives cost the Soviets 1.4 million soldiers. They had 14,000 tanks in the fields but most lacked radios that greatly hampered communication.
Of 110,000 Jewish draftees or volunteers 48,000 were killed.
At Yalta it was agreed that Soviet citizens serving the Nazis would be returned to Stalin. Rokossovsky was made Polish defense minister after the war. In the Baltic States , Poland, Belarus , Ukraine , Stalin treated the people little better than what the Nazis had.
It took till 1990 for Moscow to admit that it was responsible for the Katlyn massacre. Stalin's catalogue of mismanagement had cost the Soviet people 40 million dead.
Zhukov led an army attack against the Japanese held Manchukuo (Manchuria) and eventually gained north Korea, southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The attack was vast like Bagration with 1.5 million men and 5000 tanks. The fighting lasted a week and the Japanese capitulated. For 40 years after this NATO lived in armed awe of the Soviet Army.
By 1942 there was no shortage of tanks but more broke down than were knocked out. From 1941 Britain and commonwealth supplied 3,300 tanks and 24,000 other vehicles and 2,600 aircraft. America 7000 tanks 436,000 wheeled vehicles and 14,800 aircraft. These came via Marmusk , Alaska and Iran. The American Sherman had padding inside so that you did not bump yourself and its medical kit as well as sulphidin. The tracks were too narrow for the Russian conditions. The Canadian build British Valentine tank was popular. Many lend lease trucks were assembled in Iran and driven northwards. The food sent from America was a luxury like tins of hams.
The RAF had a fighter squadron in Marmansk to protect the artic conveys. This was Stalin's only concession to the allies desire to operate from his territory.
By the Western allies bombing Germany they were able to draw 80% of the Nazi airplanes away from the east from helping the Soviet battles. Most of the German pilots were by this stage young and inexperienced. The Germans needed planes to fly supplies to forward isolated positions.
The Republic of Belarus only came about in 1993.
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Soviet Union in WW2 92 pg Captivating History 2002 22/2/25
Britain and the US together total losses in WW2 was 800,000 while that was the Soviet loss in only the Siege of Stalingrad. The New economic policy NEP caused a split in the Communist Party but that was solved by Lenin's death in 1924.
1929 Stalin had won his war for power over Trotsky and allies.
1934 the purge cemented Stalin's place.
1935 Hitler introduced conscription to enlarge the army to 500,000. Many believed that Germany was a bulwark against the Soviets.
1937 the Great Purge or Great Terror. Bukharin , Kamenev and Zinoviev put on the Show Trials. Tukhachevsky a military man here accused of plotting with a capitalist government to overthrow Stalin and was executed .
Of 80,000 officers 35 ,000 became Stalin's victims. 3 of 5 Marshalls were killed and 75 of 85 corp. commanders were killed, resulting in the Red army being paralyzed both literally and phycologically .
Strangely the nation that helped Hitler to hide his efforts. Especially in the area of aircraft and development and pilot training was the Soviet Union. In return for German expertise in training in fine tool making , The Russians opened their secret airbases to the Germans and sold massive amounts of agricultural products to Germany.
By the end of the 1930s the USSR was sufficient in foodstuffs though barely, but life was getting better. The Soviets had build up a large army and the risk of war during the Great Depression and the recovery from WW1 was minimal. When Hitler came to power the Soviets increased spending extraordinary amounts or arms.
The Soviet pact with Hitler allocated Bessarabia and 2 regions of Romania to Stalin and would not interfere with Stalin's designs on Finland and the Soviets would cease all anti Nazi propaganda. In return for German machinery and Technical knowledge the Soviets would supply massive amounts for grain and natural resources to Germany. Even when the Nazi's attacked in 1941 they saw grain bound for Berlin. both nations got from the pact what they needed in trade
No nation suffered more than Poland in the war 20% of the population or 1 in 5 Poles died. Stalin taking over the Baltics drove much of the population into Hitler's arms.
Japan saw its future in the Asian mainland with wide open spaces and natural resources of iron, nickel ,timber etc. Once Japanese troops provoked an incident in Mongolia. Stalin sent Georgy Zhukov and humiliated the Japanese decisively.
Barbarossa
Mussolini abortive invasion of Greece where a pro Allied coup toppled regent Prince Paul and placed King Peter 2 on the throne, by declaring him of age. Hitler invaded both Yugoslavia and Greece. Yugoslavia drew hundred of thousand of troops from the front. 80% of the trucks used for Barbarossa were French and it took time to bring them from the west. 3 and a half million Nazi troops invaded Russia and this included Finnish, Romanian Hungarian and Italian troops.
After he was back in power from the shock of the invasion he had a few General's shot for defeatism. A large number of men were drafted and between their time of entry till death was only a few days. Some Soviets welcomed the invaders like the Ukrainians' nationalists. In the Soviets women had greater power than before in manufacturing and government. If the Germans had treated and respected the population better they may have won millions of converts against Stalin.
Initially no Soviet General was willing to take the initiative. Zhukov was given a free hand to deal with the Japanese as long as he succeeded this was not the case with the Nazi - Soviet war. New draftees were given a uniform not always boots and told to pick up weapons of the men who had fallen next to them. Most of the forests were bypassed by the Germans to be swept for stragglers later. Hitler believed it was a matter of time before the Soviets collapsed and begged for terms of surrender.
More than 5 million Soviet Soldiers died of starvations, disease in the German concentration camps and those who survived captivity were sent directly to the gulag as traitors for re-education. The Germans invaded faster than imagined and people simply fled in panic before the local Communist party told them to. Where organized evacuation had not occurred the Germans took away factories, food, railroads and other infrastructure. A large number of factories had been left behind. The main weapons factories were moved to the Volga , Urals, Siberia and Kazakhstan. Once America entered the war supplies started coming to Russia from the US. Rusputitsa or "Sea of Mud" bogged the German tanks and horses had to be used slowing down the Germans. When winter arrived there was a nationwide drive in Germany to donate winter clothes for the troops.
The Japanese war plans did not include attacking Russia. The far Eastern troops were well trained and able to return and experienced. Hitler honored the his agreement with Japan and attacked the Americans. on Dec11th 1944.
Leningrad
To Hitter's dismay the Finns refused to continue fighting Leningrad, once they got back the land taken by Stalin and were out. Leningrad had 3 million people. The German bombers had destroyed most of the food warehouses. Soviet officials were reluctant to tell Stalin bad news so the High Command was unaware of the food shortage. It needed 600 ton of food a day. This siege was called the 900 days . Dogs and cats were eaten and sawdust was added to bread, bark was cooked as soup, cannibalisms was reported and marketed as pork pies. When Lake Ladoga froze trucks started being sent in with food and the railroad was build across the ice. Before the war 10% of manufactured goods came from the city.
Stalingrad we see that Russia was getting stronger. Hitler had planned to 1) Seize the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus with other resource rich areas in Southern Ukraine. 2) Cut off those supplies to the Soviets. Stalingrad was a major industrial centre producing 10% of all Soviet heavy machinery and sheet steel products. Taking Stalingrad would cut off supplies moving north on the Volga. The Italian, Romanian and Hungarian armies were poorly equipped and poorly motivated. In Spring of 1942 the Stavka was fooled and believed by deception that the main thrust would be against Moscow. The oil fields that the Germans captured were thornily destroyed by retreating Soviets. The city was bombed but the rubble made natural defenses. By getting close to the Germans the Russians felt the Germans could not bomb them without hitting their own men. This "hugging" sometimes worked.
1) at this stage the German soldiers were tired , sick and malnourished2) the Nazis kept pouring reinforcements into the city but neglecting their flanks3) Axis troops to the north and south of the city were Hungarians, Italians and Romanians much weaker than the Germans. A million men in total had already been killed or died of frostbite and starvation. The Soviets at night moved troops from the front to the north of the city and trapped the Germans stopped rescue attempts many miles short of the German lines. Paulus was named Field Marshall in the hope that no German Field Marshall had surrendered.
Kursk
Soviets had become better in surmising what the German intentions were and were helped by Allies code breaking who were able to inform Stalin about many German plans and partisan forces had grown to million. The Soviets began an artillery barrage just before the Germans were about to begin theirs. Kursk was commanded by Zhukov. The Germans could not replace their losses. At the same time word came that the American had invaded Sicily.
By the time Bagration was over no German troops were left in the Soviet Union.
Poles who fled to the USSR were treated with suspicion but as the war turned against Stalin they were drafted into Polish units of the Red Army and many volunteered. At the Vistula Stalin ordered troops to stop many were exhausted at this stage. The US and Britain pleaded with Stalin to allow them to help the Poles but he refused. The Soviet watched as the Nazis destroyed the 1944 Polish uprising and flattened 90% of the building in the Polish capital.
At Yalta Churchill and Roosevelt realized that nothing was going to remove Stalin from Poland.
Berlin
90% of German casualties took place against the Red Army and over 20% had died from the German invasion.
Berlin was razed to the ground already by US and British bombs. The SS inside Berlin now began a terror campaign against anyone believed to have shirked duty or deserters and hanged untold numbers on trees or light posts. The Volkssturm and Hitler Youth were effectively armed with Panzerfaust and destroyed many Russian tanks but had no high ranking officers to lead and did much harm before they were wiped out.
Eastern Europe was firmly under Stalin's control and his pledge to free election never happened. The USSR was set back for years, the prewar population never recovered till the late 1950s
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