Major battles of World War II, which were of great importance for the history of the USSR, are:
The Battle of Stalingrad July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943, which marked a radical turning point in the war;
Battle of Kursk July 5 - August 23, 1943, during which the largest tank battle of World War II took place - near the village of Prokhorovka;
The Battle of Berlin - which led to the surrender of Germany.
But events important for the course of World War II took place not only on the fronts of the USSR. Among the operations carried out by the Allies, it is worth especially noting: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which caused the United States to enter World War II; opening of the second front and landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944; the use of nuclear weapons on August 6 and 9, 1945 to strike Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The end date of World War II was September 2, 1945. Japan signed the act of surrender only after the defeat of the Kwantung Army by Soviet troops. The battles of World War II, according to rough estimates, claimed 65 million people on both sides. The Soviet Union suffered the greatest losses in World War II - 27 million citizens of the country died. It was he who took the brunt of the blow. This figure is also approximate and, according to some researchers, underestimated. It was the stubborn resistance of the Red Army that became the main cause of the defeat of the Reich.
Results of World War II
Results The Second World War horrified everyone. Military actions have brought the very existence of civilization to the brink. During the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, fascist ideology was condemned, and many war criminals were punished. In order to prevent similar possibilities of a new world war in the future, at the Yalta Conference in 1945 it was decided to create the United Nations Organization (UN), which still exists today. The results of the nuclear bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the signing of pacts on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and a ban on their production and use. It must be said that the consequences of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still felt today.
The economic consequences of World War II were also serious. For Western European countries it turned into a real economic disaster. The influence of Western European countries has decreased significantly. At the same time, the United States managed to maintain and strengthen its position.
Significance of World War II
Meaning World War II was huge for the Soviet Union. The defeat of the Nazis determined the future history of the country. As a result of the conclusion of the peace treaties that followed the defeat of Germany, the USSR noticeably expanded its borders. At the same time, the totalitarian system was strengthened in the Union. Communist regimes were established in some European countries. Victory in the war did not save the USSR from the mass repressions that followed in the 50s.
The Second World War was fought on the territory of 40 countries, and 72 states took part in it. In 1941, Germany had the strongest army in the world, but several critical battles led to the Third Reich's defeat.
BATTLE FOR MOSCOW
The Battle of Moscow showed that the German blitzkrieg failed. In total, more than 7 million people took part in this battle. This is more than the Berlin operation, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest battle of World War II, and more than the enemy forces on the western front after the Normandy landings.
The Battle of Moscow was the only major battle of World War II that was lost by the Wehrmacht despite its overall numerical superiority over the enemy.
As a result of the counteroffensive near Moscow and the general offensive, German units were thrown back 100–250 km. The Tula, Ryazan and Moscow regions, and many areas of the Kalinin, Smolensk and Oryol regions were completely liberated.
General Günter Blumentritt wrote: “It was now important for German political leaders to understand that the days of the blitzkrieg were a thing of the past. We were confronted by an army whose fighting qualities were far superior to all other armies we had ever encountered on the battlefield. But it should be said that the German army also demonstrated high moral fortitude in overcoming all the disasters and dangers that befell it.”
BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
The Battle of Stalingrad was the main turning point of World War II. The Soviet military command made it clear: there is no land beyond the Volga. The assessments of foreign historians of this battle and the losses that Stalingrad suffered are interesting.
In the book “Operation Survive,” published in 1949 and written by the famous American publicist Hessler, who is difficult to suspect of a pro-Russian position, it was stated: “The highly realistic scientist Dr. Philip Morrison estimates that it would take at least 1,000 atomic bombs to inflict on Russia the damage done in the Stalingrad campaign alone... This is significantly more than the number of bombs we have accumulated after four years of tireless effort.”
The Battle of Stalingrad was a fight for survival.
The beginning was made on August 23, 1942, when German aircraft carried out a massive bombing of the city. 40,000 people died. This exceeds the official figures for the Allied air raid on Dresden in February 1945 (25,000 casualties).
In Stalingrad, the Red Army used revolutionary innovations of psychological pressure on the enemy. From the loudspeakers installed at the front line, favorite hits of German music were heard, which were interrupted by messages about the victories of the Red Army in sections of the Stalingrad Front. The most effective means of psychological pressure was the monotonous beat of the metronome, which was interrupted after 7 beats by a comment in German: “Every 7 seconds one German soldier dies at the front.” At the end of a series of 10–20 “timer reports,” a tango sounded from the loudspeakers.
During the Stalingrad operation, the Red Army managed to create the so-called “Stalingrad cauldron”. On November 23, 1942, the troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts closed the encirclement ring, which contained almost 300,000 enemy forces.
In Stalingrad, one of Hitler’s “favorites,” Marshal Paulus, was captured and became a field marshal during the Battle of Stalingrad. By the beginning of 1943, Paulus's 6th Army was a pitiful sight. On January 8, the Soviet military command addressed the German military leader with an ultimatum: if he does not surrender by 10 o’clock the next day, all the Germans in the “cauldron” will be destroyed. Paulus did not react to the ultimatum. On January 31 he was captured. Subsequently, he became one of the USSR's allies in the Cold War propaganda war.
In early February 1943, units and formations of the 4th Luftwaffe Air Fleet received the password “Orlog”. It meant that the 6th Army no longer existed, and the Battle of Stalingrad ended in the defeat of Germany.
BATTLE OF KURSK
The victory in the battles on the Kursk Bulge was of cardinal importance due to a number of factors. After Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht had another chance to change the situation on the Eastern Front in its favor; Hitler had high hopes for Operation Citadel and stated that “The victory at Kursk should serve as a torch for the whole world.”
The Soviet command also understood the importance of these battles. It was important for the Red Army to prove that it could win victories not only during winter campaigns, but also in summer, so not only the military, but also the civilian population invested in the victory at Kursk. In record time, in 32 days, a railway was built connecting Rzhava and Stary Oskol, called the “road of courage.” Thousands of people worked day and night on its construction.
The turning point in the Battle of Kursk was the Battle of Prokhorovka. One of the largest tank battles in history, over 1,500 tanks.
The commander of the tank brigade, Grigory Penezhko, who received the Hero of the Soviet Union for this battle, recalls: “We lost the sense of time; we felt neither thirst, nor heat, nor even blows in the cramped cabin of the tank. One thought, one desire - while you are alive, beat the enemy. Our tankers, who got out of their wrecked vehicles, searched the field for enemy crews, who were also left without equipment, and beat them with pistols, grappling hand-to-hand...”
After Prokhorovka, our troops launched a decisive offensive. Operations “Kutuzov” and “Rumyantsev” allowed the liberation of Belgorod and Orel, and Kharkov was liberated on August 23.
BATTLE FOR THE CAUCASUS
Oil is called the “blood of war.” From the very beginning of the war, one of the general routes of the German offensive was directed towards the Baku oil fields. Controlling them was a priority for the Third Reich. The Battle of the Caucasus was marked by air battles in the skies over the Kuban, which became one of the largest air battles of World War II. For the first time during the Great Patriotic War, Soviet pilots imposed their will on the Luftwaffe and actively interfered with and opposed the Germans in carrying out their combat missions. From May 26 to June 7, the Red Army Air Force conducted 845 sorties against Nazi airfields in Anapa, Kerch, Saki, Sarabuz and Taman. In total, during the battles in the skies of Kuban, Soviet aviation carried out about 35 thousand sorties.
It was for the battles over Kuban that Alexander Pokryshkin, the future three-time Hero of the Soviet Union and an air marshal, was awarded the first Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
On September 9, 1943, the last operation of the battle for the Caucasus began - Novorossiysk-Taman. Within a month, German troops on the Taman Peninsula were defeated. As a result of the offensive, the cities of Novorossiysk and Anapa were liberated, and the prerequisites were created for a landing operation in Crimea. In honor of the liberation of the Taman Peninsula on October 9, 1943, a salute of 20 salvos from 224 guns was given in Moscow.
OPERATION ARDNESS
The Battle of the Bulge is called “the last blitzkrieg of the Wehrmacht.” This was the last attempt of the Third Reich to turn the tide on the Western Front. The operation was commanded by Field Marshal V. Model, who ordered it to begin on the morning of December 16, 1944; by December 25, the Germans had advanced 90 km deep into the enemy’s defenses.
However, the Germans did not know that the Allied defenses were deliberately weakened so that when the Germans broke through to the West 100 kilometers, they would be surrounded and attacked from the flanks. The Wehrmacht did not foresee this maneuver. The Allies knew about the Ardennes operation in advance, since they could read the German Ultra codes. In addition, aerial reconnaissance reported on the movements of German troops.
In American historiography, the Battle of the Bulge is called the Battle of the Bulge. By January 29, the Allies completed the operation and began the invasion of Germany.
The Wehrmacht lost more than a third of its armored vehicles in the battles, and almost all the aircraft (including jets) participating in the operation used up fuel and ammunition. The only “profit” for Germany from the Ardennes operation was that it delayed the Allied offensive on the Rhine for six weeks: it had to be postponed to January 29, 1945.
In Stalingrad, the course of the world took a sharp turn
In Russian military history, the battle of Stalingrad has always been considered the most outstanding and significant event of the Great Patriotic War and the entire Second World War. Modern world historiography also gives the highest assessment of the victory of the Soviet Union in the Battle of Stalingrad. “At the turn of the century, Stalingrad was recognized as the decisive battle not only of the Second World War, but of the era as a whole,” emphasizes British historian J. Roberts.
During the Great Patriotic War, there were other, no less brilliant Soviet victories, both in terms of their strategic results and the level of military art. So why does Stalingrad stand out among them? In connection with the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, I would like to reflect on this.
The interests of historical science and the development of cooperation between peoples require freeing military history from the spirit of confrontation, subordinating the research of scientists to the interests of deep, truthful and objective coverage of the history of the Second World War, including the Battle of Stalingrad. This is due to the fact that some people want to falsify the history of the Second World War, to “re-fight” the war on paper.
Much has been written about the Battle of Stalingrad. Therefore, there is no need to retell its course in detail. Historians and military officers rightly wrote that its outcome was due to the increased power of the country and the Red Army by the fall of 1942, the high level of military leadership of its command cadres, the mass heroism of Soviet soldiers, the unity and dedication of the entire Soviet people. It was emphasized that our strategy, operational art and tactics during this battle took a new major step forward in their development and were enriched with new provisions.
PLANS OF THE PARTIES FOR 1942
When discussing plans for the summer campaign at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command (SHC) in March 1942, the General Staff (Boris Shaposhnikov) and Georgy Zhukov proposed considering the transition to strategic defense as the main method of action.
Zhukov considered it possible to take private offensive actions only in the Western Front. Semyon Timoshenko proposed, in addition, to conduct an offensive operation in the Kharkov direction. To the objections of Zhukov and Shaposhnikov regarding this proposal, Supreme Commander-in-Chief Joseph Stalin said: “We can’t sit idly by in defense, don’t wait for the Germans to strike first! We ourselves must launch a series of pre-emptive strikes on a wide front and test the enemy’s readiness.”
As a result, it was decided to undertake a series of offensive operations in the Crimea, in the Kharkov region, in the Lgov and Smolensk directions, in the areas of Leningrad and Demyansk.
As for the plans of the German command, at one time it was believed that its main goal was to capture Moscow by deep encircling from the south. But in reality, according to the directive of the Fuhrer and Supreme Commander of the German Armed Forces Hitler No. 41 of April 5, 1942, the main goal of the German offensive in the summer of 1942 was to seize the Donbass, Caucasian oil and, by disrupting communications in the interior of the country, to deprive the USSR of the most important resources coming from these districts.
Firstly, when delivering a strike in the south, conditions were created for achieving surprise and more favorable opportunities for achieving success, because in 1942 our Supreme High Command again expected the enemy’s main attack in the Moscow direction, and the main forces and reserves were concentrated here. The German Kremlin disinformation plan was not solved either.
Secondly, when attacking in the Moscow direction, German troops would have to break through pre-prepared, defense in depth with the prospect of protracted military operations. If in 1941, near Moscow, the German Wehrmacht was unable to overcome the resistance of the Red Army, which was retreating with heavy losses, then in 1942 it was even more difficult for the Germans to count on capturing Moscow. At that time, in the south, in the Kharkov region, as a result of a major defeat of the Soviet troops, the German army was confronted by our significantly weakened forces; it was here that the most vulnerable section of the Soviet front was located.
Thirdly, when the German army delivered the main blow in the Moscow direction and even at worst captured Moscow (which was unlikely), the retention by Soviet troops of extremely economically important areas in the south created the conditions for the continuation of the war and its successful completion.
All this suggests that the strategic plans of the Nazi command basically correctly took into account the current situation. But even under this condition, the troops of Germany and its satellites would not have been able to advance so far and reach the Volga, if not for the major mistakes of the Soviet command in assessing the direction of a possible enemy attack, inconsistency and indecisiveness in choosing a method of action. On the one hand, in principle it was supposed to switch to strategic defense, on the other, a series of unprepared and unsupported offensive operations were undertaken. This led to a scattering of forces, and our army was unprepared for either defense or attack. Oddly enough, the Soviet troops again found themselves in the same uncertain position as in 1941.
And in 1942, despite the defeats of 1941, the ideological cult of the offensive doctrine continued to press so hard, the underestimation of defense, its false understanding was so deeply rooted in the consciousness of the Soviet command that it was embarrassed as something unworthy for the Red Army and was not fully resolved apply.
In the light of the plans of the parties discussed above, an important aspect is clearly clarified: the Stalingrad strategic operation was an interconnected part of the entire system of strategic actions of the Soviet Armed Forces in 1942. In many military-historical works, the Stalingrad operation was considered in isolation from other operations carried out in the western direction. This also applies to Operation Mars of 1942, the essence of which is most distorted, especially in American historiography.
The main point is that the main, decisive strategic operation in the fall and winter of 1942–1943 was not the operations in the southwest, but the offensive operations carried out in the western strategic direction. The basis for this conclusion is the fact that less forces and resources were allocated to solve problems in the south than in the western direction. But in reality this is not entirely true, because the southern strategic direction must be taken as a whole, and not just the troops at Stalingrad, including the troops in the North Caucasus and the troops in the Voronezh direction, which were practically directed towards the southern direction. In addition, we must take into account the fact that the offensive actions of our troops in the west did not allow the German command to transfer forces to the south. Our main strategic reserves were located southeast of Moscow and could be transferred to the south.
DEFENSIVE OPERATIONS ON THE APPROACHES TO STALINGRAD
The second group of questions relates to the first stage of the Battle of Stalingrad (from July 17 to November 18, 1942) and arises from the need for a more objective, critical assessment of defensive battles and operations on the approaches to Stalingrad. During this period there were the most omissions and shortcomings in the actions of our command and troops. Military theoretical thought has yet to clarify how our army, in catastrophically difficult conditions, managed to restore the almost completely destroyed strategic front in the southwestern direction in the summer of 1942. It is known that only from July 17 to September 30, 1942, the Supreme Command Headquarters sent 50 rifle and cavalry divisions, 33 brigades, including 24 tank brigades, to strengthen the Stalingrad direction.
At the same time, the Soviet command did not plan or task the troops to stop the advancing enemy only after retreating to the Volga. It repeatedly demanded that the enemy be stopped at a number of lines even on the distant approaches to Stalingrad. Why did this not succeed, despite the large number of reserves, the courage and massive heroism of officers and soldiers, and the skillful actions of a number of formations and units? There were, of course, many cases of confusion and panic, especially after heavy defeats and heavy losses of our troops in May-June 1942. For a psychological change to occur in the troops, a serious shake-up was needed. And in this regard, Order No. 227 of the People’s Commissar of Defense played a generally positive role, giving a sharp and truthful assessment of the situation and imbued with the main requirement - “Not a step back!” It was a very harsh and extremely tough document, but forced and necessary in the conditions that prevailed at that time.
Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus chose captivity over suicide.
The main reason for the failure of a number of defensive battles on the approaches to Stalingrad was that in organizing strategic defense the Soviet command repeated the mistakes of 1941.
After each major breakthrough of the German army, instead of a sober assessment of the situation and making a decision to defend at one or another advantageous line, where the retreating troops would fight and pull up fresh formations from the depths in advance, orders were given to hold the occupied lines at all costs, even when this was impossible . Reserve formations and incoming reinforcements were sent into battle on the move, as a rule, to launch poorly prepared counterattacks and counterstrikes. Therefore, the enemy had the opportunity to beat them piecemeal, and the Soviet troops were deprived of the opportunity to properly gain a foothold and organize defense on new lines.
The nervous reaction to each retreat further aggravated the already difficult, complex situation and doomed the troops to new retreats.
It should also be recognized that the German troops carried out offensive operations quite skillfully, widely maneuvering and massively using tank and motorized formations in open, tank-accessible terrain. Having encountered resistance in one area or another, they quickly changed the direction of their attacks, trying to reach the flank and rear of the Soviet troops, whose maneuverability was much lower.
The setting of unrealistic tasks, the appointment of dates for the start of hostilities and operations without taking into account the minimum necessary time for preparation for their implementation made themselves felt during many counterattacks and counterstrikes during defensive operations. For example, on September 3, 1942, in connection with the difficult situation on the Stalingrad front, Stalin sent a telegram to a representative of the Supreme Command Headquarters: “Demand that the commander of the troops stationed north and north-west of Stalingrad immediately strike the enemy and come to the aid of the Stalingraders.”
There were many such telegrams and demands. It is not difficult for a person who knows even a little about military affairs to understand their absurdity: how can troops, without minimal training and organization, take and “strike” and go on the offensive. The activity of the defense was of great importance for wearing down the enemy, disrupting and delaying his offensive actions. But counterattacks could have been more effective with more thorough preparation and material support.
During the defensive battles on the approaches to Stalingrad, air defense was extremely weak, and therefore it was necessary to operate in conditions of significant superiority of enemy aviation, which made maneuvering troops especially difficult.
If at the beginning of the war the inexperience of personnel was also reflected, then after heavy losses in 1941 and the spring of 1942, the problem of personnel was even more acute, although there were many commanders who managed to harden themselves and gain combat experience. There were many mistakes, omissions and even cases of criminal irresponsibility on the part of the commanders of fronts, armies, commanders of formations and units. Taken together, they also seriously complicated the situation, but were not as decisive as the miscalculations made by the Supreme Command Headquarters. Not to mention the fact that the too frequent change of commanders and commanders (in July–August 1942 alone, three commanders of the Stalingrad Front were replaced) did not allow them to get used to the situation.
The stability of the troops was negatively affected by fear of encirclement. Political distrust and repression against military personnel, who were surrounded during the retreats in 1941 and the spring of 1942, played a detrimental role in this regard. And after the war, officers who were surrounded were not accepted to study at military academies. It seemed to the military-political authorities and the heads of the NKVD that such an attitude towards the “encircled” could increase the resilience of the troops. But it was the other way around - fear of encirclement reduced the tenacity of the troops in defense. It did not take into account that, as a rule, the most staunchly defending troops were surrounded, often as a result of the retreat of their neighbors. It was this most selfless part of the military that was persecuted. No one was held accountable for this wild and criminal incompetence.
FEATURES OF THE STALINGRAD OFFENSIVE OPERATION
From the experience of the second stage of the Battle of Stalingrad (from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943), when the troops of the Southwestern, Don and Stalingrad fronts carried out a counteroffensive, important conclusions and lessons emerge regarding the preparation and conduct of offensive operations to encircle and destroy the enemy.
The strategic plan of this counteroffensive was to encircle and destroy the group of fascist Germans with concentrated attacks from the Southwestern (Nikolai Vatutin), Don (Konstantin Rokossovsky) fronts from the north and the Stalingrad Front (Andrei Eremenko) from the area south of Stalingrad in the general direction of Kalach troops and their satellites (Romanian, Italian, Hungarian troops) east of Stalingrad. Long-range aviation and the Volga Flotilla also took part in the operation.
Various points of view are expressed as to who came up with the initial idea of a counteroffensive to encircle and destroy the main enemy forces. Khrushchev, Eremenko, and many others claimed this. Objectively speaking, this idea in general, as many participants in the war recall, was literally “in the air,” because the very configuration of the front already suggested the need to strike the flanks of the enemy group under the command of Friedrich Paulus.
But the main, most difficult task was how to concretize and implement this idea, taking into account the current situation, how to collect and timely concentrate the necessary forces and means and organize their actions, where specifically to direct attacks and with what tasks. It can be considered an established fact that the main idea of this plan, of course, belongs to the Supreme Command Headquarters, and first of all to Georgy Zhukov, Alexander Vasilevsky and the General Staff. Another thing is that it was born on the basis of proposals, meetings and conversations with generals and front officers.
In general, it must be said that the level of military art of command cadres and staffs, the combat skill of all personnel during the preparation and conduct of offensive operations at the second stage of the Battle of Stalingrad was significantly higher than in all previous offensive operations. Many methods of preparing and conducting combat operations, having appeared here for the first time (not always in finished form), were then used with great success in the operations of 1943–1945.
At Stalingrad, the massive use of forces and means in the directions chosen for the offensive was carried out with great success, although not yet to the same extent as in the operations of 1944–1945. Thus, on the Southwestern Front, in a breakthrough area of 22 km (9% of the entire width of the strip), 9 out of 18 rifle divisions were concentrated; on the Stalingrad front on a sector of 40 km (9%) of 12 divisions - 8; in addition, 80% of all tanks and up to 85% of artillery were concentrated in these areas. However, the artillery density was only 56 guns and mortars per 1 km of the breakthrough area, while in subsequent operations it was 200–250 or more. In general, secrecy of preparation and suddenness of the transition to the offensive were achieved.
Essentially, for the first time during the war, not only was careful planning of operations carried out, but also the required amount of painstaking work was carried out on the ground with commanders of all levels in preparing combat operations, organizing interaction, combat, logistics and technical support. Reconnaissance managed, although incompletely, to reveal the enemy’s fire system, which made it possible to carry out a more reliable fire defeat than was the case in previous offensive operations.
For the first time, artillery and air attacks were used in full, although the methods of artillery preparation and attack support were not yet sufficiently worked out.
For the first time, before an offensive on a wide front, in the zones of all armies, reconnaissance in force was carried out by forward units in order to clarify the location of the front line and the enemy’s fire system. But in the zones of some armies it was carried out two to three days, and in the 21st and 57th armies - five days before the start of the offensive, which under other circumstances could reveal the beginning of the offensive, and the obtained data on the enemy’s fire system could become significantly outdated .
At Stalingrad, for the first time during a major offensive operation, new infantry combat formations were used in accordance with the requirements of the People's Commissar of Defense Order No. 306 - with a single-echelon formation of not only subunits, units, but also formations. This formation reduced troop losses and made it possible to more fully use infantry firepower. But at the same time, the absence of second echelons made it difficult to build up efforts in a timely manner to develop the offensive in depth. This was one of the reasons why the first echelon rifle divisions failed to break through the enemy’s defenses; already at a depth of 3–4 km, tank corps had to be brought into battle, which, given the prevailing situation at that time, was a necessary measure. The experience of these and subsequent offensive operations has shown that in regiments and divisions, when possible, it is imperative to create second echelons.
The volume of material and technical support for troops has increased significantly. At the start of the counteroffensive, 8 million artillery shells and mines were concentrated on three fronts. For example: in 1914, the entire Russian army had 7 million shells.
But if we compare it with the needs of fire destruction, the November offensive operations of 1942 were relatively insufficiently supplied with ammunition - on average 1.7–3.7 rounds of ammunition; Southwestern Front - 3.4; Donskoy – 1.7; Stalingrad - 2. For example, in the Belarusian or Vistula-Oder operations, the supply of ammunition to the fronts was up to 4.5 rounds of ammunition.
Regarding the second stage of the Battle of Stalingrad, associated with the actions of troops to destroy the encircled enemy group and develop an offensive on the external front, two questions arise on which different opinions are expressed.
Firstly, some historians and military experts believe that a serious flaw in the Soviet counter-offensive operation at Stalingrad is the fact that a large gap formed between the encirclement of the enemy group and its destruction, while the classical position of military art states that the encirclement and destruction of the enemy must be a single a continuous process, which was subsequently achieved in the Belarusian, Yasso-Kishinev and some other operations. But what was accomplished at Stalingrad was a great achievement for that time, especially if we remember that in the offensive near Moscow, near Demyansk and in other areas it was not even possible to encircle the enemy, and near Kharkov in the spring of 1942, Soviet troops encircling the enemy They themselves were surrounded and defeated.
During the counter-offensive at Stalingrad, on the one hand, all necessary measures were not taken to dismember and destroy the enemy during his encirclement, although it is necessary to take into account the large size of the territory in which the encircled enemy was located and the high density of his groups. On the other hand, the presence of large enemy forces on the external front, trying to relieve the encircled 6th Army of Paulus, did not make it possible to concentrate sufficient forces to quickly eliminate the enemy troops encircled at Stalingrad.
In Stalingrad there was a battle for every house.
The Supreme High Command headquarters belatedly made a decision to unite the control of all troops engaged in destroying the encircled group in the hands of one front. It was only in mid-December 1942 that a directive was received to transfer all troops deployed at Stalingrad to the Don Front.
Secondly, how legitimate was the decision of the Supreme Command Headquarters to send the 2nd Guards Army of Rodion Malinovsky to defeat Erich Manstein’s group in the Kotelnikovsky direction. As you know, initially the 2nd Guards Army was intended to operate as part of the Southwestern Front, then, as the situation changed, it was decided to transfer it to the Don Front to participate in the destruction of the encircled enemy group. But with the appearance of the enemy Army Group “Don” in the Kotelnikovsky direction under the command of Manstein, the Supreme High Command Headquarters, at the request of General Eremenko, made a new decision - to transfer the 2nd Guards Army to the Stalingrad Front for operations in the Kotelnikovsky direction. This proposal was supported by Vasilevsky, who was at the command post of the Don Front at that time. Rokossovsky continued to insist on the transfer of the 2nd Guards Army to the Don Front in order to speed up the destruction of the encircled enemy group. Nikolai Voronov also opposed the transfer of the 2nd Guards Army to the Stalingrad Front. After the war, he called this decision a “terrible miscalculation” by the Supreme Command Headquarters.
But a careful analysis of the situation at that time, with the use of enemy documents that became known to us after the war, shows that the decision of the Supreme High Command Headquarters to send the 2nd Guards Army to defeat Manstein was apparently more expedient. There was no guarantee that with the inclusion of the 2nd Guards Army in the Don Front it would be possible to quickly deal with the encircled group of Paulus. Subsequent events confirmed how difficult the task was to destroy 22 enemy divisions, numbering up to 250 thousand people. There was a large, insufficiently justified risk that a breakthrough by Manstein’s group and a strike towards it by Paulus’s army could lead to the release of the encircled enemy group and the disruption of the further offensive of the troops of the Southwestern and Voronezh fronts.
ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD FOR THE PROGRESS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
In world historiography there is no common understanding of the significance of the Battle of Stalingrad for the course and outcome of the Second World War. After the end of the war, statements appeared in Western literature that it was not the Battle of Stalingrad, but the victory of the Allied forces at El Alamein that was the most significant turning point in the course of World War II. Of course, for the sake of objectivity, we must admit that at El Alamein the allies won a major victory, which made a significant contribution to the defeat of the common enemy. But still, the battle of El Alamein cannot be compared with the Battle of Stalingrad.
If we talk about the military-strategic side of the matter, the Battle of Stalingrad took place over a vast territory, almost 100 thousand square meters. km, and the operation near El Alamein was on a relatively narrow African coast.
At Stalingrad, at certain stages of the battle, more than 2.1 million people, over 26 thousand guns and mortars, 2.1 thousand tanks and over 2.5 thousand combat aircraft took part on both sides. The German command attracted 1 million 11 thousand people, 10,290 guns, 675 tanks and 1,216 aircraft for the battles of Stalingrad. While at El Alamein, Rommel's African Corps had only 80 thousand people, 540 tanks, 1200 guns and 350 aircraft.
The battle of Stalingrad lasted 200 days and nights (from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943), and the battle of El Alamein lasted 11 days (from October 23 to November 4, 1942), not to mention the incomparability of the tension and bitterness of the two these battles. If at El Alamein the fascist bloc lost 55 thousand people, 320 tanks and about 1 thousand guns, then at Stalingrad the losses of Germany and its satellites were 10–15 times greater. About 144 thousand people were taken prisoner. A 330,000-strong group of troops was destroyed. The losses of the Soviet troops were also very large - irretrievable losses amounted to 478,741 people. Many of the soldiers' lives could have been saved. But still our sacrifices were not in vain.
The military-political significance of the events that took place is incomparable. The Battle of Stalingrad took place in the main European theater of war, where the fate of the war was decided. The El Alamein operation took place in North Africa in a secondary theater of operations; its influence on the course of events could be indirect. The attention of the whole world was then focused not on El Alamein, but on Stalingrad.
The victory at Stalingrad had a huge impact on the liberation movement of peoples around the world. A powerful wave of national liberation movement swept through all countries that fell under the yoke of Nazism.
In turn, major defeats and huge losses of the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad sharply worsened the military-political and economic situation of Germany and put it in front of a deep crisis. The damage to enemy tanks and vehicles in the Battle of Stalingrad was equal, for example, to six months of their production by German factories, to four months for guns, and to two months for mortars and small arms. And in order to make up for such large losses, the German military industry was forced to work at extremely high voltage. The crisis in human resources has sharply worsened.
The disaster on the Volga left its noticeable imprint on the morale of the Wehrmacht. In the German army, the number of cases of desertion and disobedience to commanders increased, and military crimes became more frequent. After Stalingrad, the number of death sentences handed down by Nazi justice to German military personnel increased significantly. German soldiers began to conduct combat operations with less persistence and began to fear attacks from the flanks and encirclement. Oppositional sentiments against Hitler emerged among some politicians and representatives of senior officers.
The victory of the Red Army at Stalingrad shocked the fascist military bloc, had a depressing effect on Germany's satellites, and caused panic and insoluble contradictions in their camp. The ruling figures of Italy, Romania, Hungary and Finland, in order to save themselves from the impending catastrophe, began to look for excuses to leave the war and ignored Hitler’s orders to send troops to the Soviet-German front. Since 1943, not only individual soldiers and officers, but also entire units and units of the Romanian, Hungarian and Italian armies surrendered to the Red Army. The relationship between the Wehrmacht and the Allied armies worsened.
The crushing defeat of the fascist hordes at Stalingrad had a sobering effect on the ruling circles of Japan and Turkey. They abandoned their intentions to go to war against the USSR.
Under the influence of the successes achieved by the Red Army at Stalingrad and in subsequent operations of the winter campaign of 1942–1943, Germany’s isolation in the international arena increased and at the same time the international authority of the USSR increased. In 1942–1943, the Soviet government established diplomatic relations with Austria, Canada, Holland, Cuba, Egypt, Colombia, Ethiopia, and resumed previously interrupted diplomatic ties with Luxembourg, Mexico and Uruguay. Relations with the London-based governments of Czechoslovakia and Poland improved. On the territory of the USSR, the formation of military units and formations of a number of countries of the anti-Hitler coalition began - the French aviation squadron "Normandie", the 1st Czechoslovak infantry brigade, the 1st Polish division named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko. All of them were subsequently involved in the fight against Nazi troops on the Soviet-German front.
All this suggests that it was the battle of Stalingrad, and not the operation of El Alamein, that broke the back of the Wehrmacht and marked the beginning of a radical change in World War II in favor of the anti-Hitler coalition. More precisely, Stalingrad predetermined this radical change.
The fascist German troops occupied an advantageous operational-strategic position and had superiority in forces. In total, the enemy ground forces operating against the USSR numbered 4,300 thousand. During the Battle of Smolensk, the fascist German troops suffered such damage that at the beginning of September 1941, the troops of Army Group Center were tasked with encircling and destroying Soviet troops in the area of Bryansk and Vyazma. tank groups to cover Moscow from the north and south and simultaneous attacks by tank forces from the flanks and infantry in...
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Introduction
1. Battle of Moscow
2. Battle of Pearl Harbor
3. Battle of Stalingrad
4. Battle for the Caucasus
5. Battle of Kursk
6. Battle of the Dnieper
7. Berlin operation
Conclusion
List of sources and literature
Application
Introduction
The Second World War began in September 1939 with the invasion of Poland. At dawn on this day, German planes roared in the air, approaching their targets - columns of Polish troops, trains with ammunition, bridges, railways, unprotected cities.
The war became a fait accompli. The Second World War - prepared by the forces of international imperialist reaction and unleashed by the main aggressive states - fascist Germany, fascist Italy and militaristic Japan - became the largest of the wars.
61 states took part in the Second World War.
The causes of the Second World War were the imbalance of power in the world and the problems provoked by the results of the First World War, in particular territorial disputes.
The winners of the First World War, the USA, England, and France, concluded the Treaty of Versailles on conditions that were most unfavorable and humiliating for the losing countries, Turkey and Germany, which provoked an increase in tension in the world.
At the same time, adopted in the late 1930s by England and France, the policy of appeasing the aggressor made it possible for Germany to sharply increase its military potential, which accelerated the Nazis’ transition to active military action.
Members of the anti-Hitler bloc were the USSR, USA, France, England, China (Chiang Kai-shek), Greece, Yugoslavia, Mexico, etc. On the German side, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, China (Wang Jingwei), Thailand, Finland, Iraq, etc. participated in World War II.
Many states that participated in World War II did not take action on the fronts, but helped by supplying food, medicine and other necessary resources.
The purpose of this work is to highlight the main battles of the Second World War.
The main tasks on the way to achieving the goal were:
Analysis of the main events of the Second World War;
Theoretical justification for the victory of the Soviet people and Western countries in the war against fascism;
The structure of this work includes: introduction, seven chapters, conclusion, list of sources and literature.
1. Battle of Moscow
“When people ask me what I remember most from the last war, I always answer: the battle for Moscow.”
G.K.Zhukov
One of the first major battles of the Second World War was the battle for Moscow between the USSR and the countries of the fascist bloc, which unfolded in the spaces of the USSR. The Moscow battle lasted from September 30, 1941 to April 20, 1942 and ended with the defeat of the Nazi troops.
The period of the Battle of Moscow, in turn, can be divided into two large and operationally-tactically intense periods: defensive (September 30 - December 4, 1941) and offensive (December 5, 1941 - April 20, 1942)
The defensive stage of the battle for Moscow is characterized by extreme intensity of fighting, high mobility and significant movements of troops on both sides, and special climatic conditions.
The operational-tactical situation on the Soviet-German front by the end of September 1941 was extremely difficult for the Soviet troops. The fascist German troops occupied an advantageous operational-strategic position and had superiority in strength.
The Red Army, after heavy defensive battles, was forced to retreat to Leningrad and leave Smolensk and Kyiv.
The Wehrmacht, together with the armed forces of Germany's European allies, had 207 divisions here. The average strength of an infantry division was 15.2 thousand people, a tank division - 14.4 thousand people. and motorized - 12.6 thousand people. In total, the enemy ground forces operating against the USSR numbered 4,300 thousand people, 2,270 tanks, over 43 thousand guns and mortars and 3,050 aircraft. 1
Despite the fact that with its heroic struggle the Red Army thwarted the plans of the Nazi command for the lightning defeat of the USSR, the enemy stubbornly continued to move forward, regardless of losses.
During the Battle of Smolensk, the fascist German troops suffered such damage that at the beginning of September 1941, the fascist German command ordered the transfer of troops in the Moscow direction to temporary defense.
The troops of Army Group Center were tasked with encircling and destroying Soviet troops in the area of Bryansk and Vyazma, then with tank groups to cover Moscow from the north and south and with simultaneous attacks by tank forces from the flanks and infantry in the center to capture Moscow. “The enemy’s plan was to dissect our Western Front with powerful strike groups, surround the main group of troops in the Smolensk area and open the way to Moscow.
A fierce battle broke out again near the walls of the ancient Russian city, which once stood as a formidable barrier on the way of Napoleonic troops to Moscow. It lasted two months...
During the Battle of Smolensk, the troops of the Red Army, the residents of the city and its environs showed the greatest resilience...” recalled Marshal of the USSR G.K. Zhukov. 2
The offensive was well organized logistically. The work of the railways was considered good, but there was so much motor transport that part of it was put into reserve by the German command.
The Wehrmacht promised the troops an imminent victory. Hitler's invaders were ready for desperate efforts in a new battle with Soviet troops; such a fight seemed to be their last.
The strategic initiative remained with the Hitlerite command; it determined the time and place of strikes, the conditions of the struggle, and this posed many tasks of unprecedented difficulty to the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
From the first weeks of the war, when the failures of our troops in the western direction became apparent. The State Defense Committee and the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command mobilized construction organizations, engineering troops, and labor forces to strengthen the defensive lines of the Moscow region. At the call of the Central Committee, Moscow, Smolensk, Tula and Kalinin regional party committees, hundreds of thousands of workers, collective farmers, employees, students and housewives took part in the construction of fortifications. They erected dugouts, dug trenches and anti-tank ditches. The Vyazemsk and Mozhaisk defense lines were created: the latter included Volokolamsk, Mozhaisk, Maloyaroslavets and Kaluga fortified areas.
By the beginning of the offensive of the Nazi troops in the Moscow direction, three Soviet fronts were defending on the distant approaches to the capital: Western (I.S. Konev), Reserve (S.M. Budyonny) and Bryansk (A.I. Eremenko). In total, at the end of September 1941, they included about 800 thousand people, 782 tanks and 6808 guns and mortars, 545 aircraft. 3
The Red Army concentrated its best aviation forces and guards mortar units on the defense of Moscow. High-power artillery was installed in the most important areas, including heavy batteries of naval artillery. Long-range bomber aircraft systematically bombed the deep rear and communications of Army Group Center. Frequent counterattacks by our troops caused serious damage to the enemy.
Back on September 27, 1941, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command gave directives to the troops of the Western direction to switch to a tough defense, but the fronts did not have the reserves and time to organize it to the full depth. Three to five days later, Army Group Center launched an offensive against Moscow. On September 30, 1941, from the Gadyach-Putivl-Glukhov-Novgorod-Seversky line, Guderian’s 2nd Tank Group, consisting of 15 divisions, of which 10 were tank and motorized, launched an attack on Orel and Bryansk, on Moscow. It was supported by almost all the forces of the 2nd Air Fleet, attached to Army Group Center. 4
The Soviet command in this direction, after intense fighting and the defeat of the Southwestern Front, had no operational reserves. The 13th Army of the Bryansk Front operating here and the group of troops of General A.N. Ermakov fought heroically, but the enemy, using superiority of forces, by the end of September 30, 1941, broke through the defenses and, not encountering reserves in its depths, walked non-stop towards the city. Orlu. The city was not prepared for defense, there was no time left to organize it, and German tank crews burst into its streets on October 3. At the same time, part of the forces of the 2nd Tank Group, advancing along the rear of the Bryansk Front from the south and southeast, captured Karachev on October 6 and captured Bryansk on the same day.
On October 2, 1941, the 3rd and 4th Tank Groups, the 9th and 4th Field Armies and the remaining forces of Army Group Center went on the offensive. Its command concentrated the main efforts of the troops in the direction of the cities of Bely, Sychevka and along the Roslavl-Moscow highway. The most powerful blows occurred at the junction of the 30th and 19th armies of the Western Front, where 4 Soviet divisions were attacked by 12 enemy divisions, including 3 tank divisions (415 tanks), and at the 43rd Army of the Reserve Front, where against 5 Soviet divisions, 17 enemy divisions were operating, of which 4 were tank divisions. Their advance was supported by hundreds of aircraft from the 2nd Air Fleet.
The shallow defenses of the Soviet divisions could not withstand massive attacks by aviation, tank groups and army infantry corps. They broke through in the center of the Western Front and on the left flank of the Reserve Front and delved into their operational rear areas. In areas where enemy attacks were repelled, enemy tank formations bypassed the positions of staunchly defending armies and divisions, covering their flanks.
The autumn days of 1941 were among the most formidable in the history of our Motherland. The German command was unanimous in its optimistic assessment of the prospects for an attack on Moscow. But the encircled armies of the Western and Reserve Fronts pinned down the enemy forces in battles near Vyazma. They, attacked from all sides by tanks and infantry, under massive air and artillery attacks, deprived of ammunition supplies, continued the unequal heroic struggle. This struggle was of great operational and strategic importance: the enemy suffered losses in men and military equipment and lost time, during which the Soviet command brought up reserves, created new centers of defense, and then a continuous front.
On October 4, 1941, by decision of the Supreme Command Headquarters, the Tula combat area was formed. On October 6, 1941, the Supreme Command Headquarters issued a directive to stop the enemy on the Mozhaisk defense line. On October 10, 1941, the troops of the Western and Reserve Fronts were united into one Western Front. General G.K. Zhukov was appointed commander of the front. In connection with the approach of hostilities to Moscow, by decision of the State Defense Committee of October 12, another line of defense was created on the immediate approaches to the capital, in the construction of which the working people of the city and region took an active part. On October 17, the Kalinin Front was formed under the command of General I. S. Konev. Despite the complexity of the situation, firm control of the troops was again organized by the front-line commands and Headquarters. All these critical days and nights, reserves were tirelessly formed, which quickly and immediately entered into battle in the most dangerous directions.
By the second half of October 1941, when the armies of the Center group, having broken the resistance of the units encircled at Vyazma, moved towards Moscow, they again encountered an organized defense front and were forced to break through it again. From October 13, 1941, fierce battles broke out on the borders of the Mozhaisk and Maloyaroslavets, and from October 16, 1941, the Volokolamsk fortified areas.
For five days and nights, the troops of the 5th Army of the Red Army repelled the onslaught of the motorized and infantry army corps. Only on October 18, 1941 did enemy tanks break into Mozhaisk. On the same day Maloyaroslavets fell. The situation near Moscow has worsened. The enemy suffered irreparable losses in people, military equipment and time, but his forces were still far superior to those of the Western Front.
Terrible messages from the fronts near Moscow mobilized all the working people of the capital. Hundreds of thousands of Muscovites joined the people's militia divisions, extermination squads, and built fortifications. Moscow responded to the increasing danger with new tens of thousands of volunteers. From October 20, 1941, by decision of the State Defense Committee, the capital and surrounding areas were declared under a state of siege. By that time, Moscow had been transformed, became a front-line city, bristling with steel anti-tank “hedgehogs” and gouges. Barricades blocked the streets and entrances to the capital. There was a massive evacuation of the population, institutions and enterprises, and at the same time, the production of military products was again being established in the workshops of the evacuated factories. Moscow became a reliable rear of the front. She supplied him with weapons, ammunition, reserves, inspired soldiers to heroic deeds, and strengthened their faith in victory: “On the initiative of Muscovites, already in the first months of the war, 12 divisions of the people’s militia were formed. Military bodies and party organizations continued to receive thousands of applications from citizens with a request to send them to the front,” recalled G.K. Zhukov. 5
Every day the enemy's advance became slower and he suffered more and more losses. The entire center of the Western Front held out. Although the enemy tried to bypass Moscow from the north, this turned out to be impossible, because the Kalinin Front pinned down the German 9th Army with defenses and counterattacks and threatened the northern flank of Army Group Center. It was not possible to break through to the Soviet capital from the south either.
By the end of October and beginning of November, Army Group Center began to run out of steam. Its advance on Moscow was stopped by the iron steadfastness of our soldiers.
On November 7, 1941, a military parade of the Red Army troops took place on Red Square in Moscow. The German command urgently ordered its aircraft to bomb Red Square, but German planes were unable to break through to Moscow.
After the October offensive, Army Group Center needed a two-week pause to prepare a new offensive. During this time, the enemy troops were put in order, replenished, regrouped, and were reinforced from the reserve with men, tanks, and artillery. They sought to take starting positions advantageous for the offensive. Hitler's command was preparing to finally break the resistance of the Soviet troops and capture Moscow.
In the November 1941 offensive directly towards Moscow, 51 divisions took part, including 13 tank and 7 motorized divisions, armed with a sufficient number of tanks, artillery and supported by aviation.
The Soviet Supreme High Command, having correctly assessed the situation, decided to strengthen the Western Front. From November 1 to November 15, 1941, rifle and cavalry divisions and tank brigades were transferred to him. In total, the front received 100 thousand soldiers, 300 tanks and 2 thousand guns. The Western Front at this time already had more divisions than the enemy, and Soviet aviation was 1.5 times superior to the enemy. But in terms of the number of personnel and firepower, our divisions were significantly inferior to the German ones.
The Soviet troops faced extremely responsible and difficult tasks. The enemy approached Moscow within 60 km in a number of places, and a breakthrough by tanks could become extremely dangerous in any operational direction. The Soviet fronts did not have sufficient reserves. There were not enough weapons supplies. Under these conditions, it was necessary to repel the enemy’s onslaught, defend Moscow and their positions, and gain time until the decisive reserves arrived.
The attack on Moscow began on November 15, 1941 by the 3rd Tank Group of General Hoth in the zone between the Moscow Sea and Klin. To the south, the positions of the Soviet troops were attacked by the 4th Panzer Group of General Hepner. The blows hit the 30th Army of General Lelyushenko and the 16th Army of General Rokossovsky. The tank groups had the task of separating both of these armies, pushing the 30th Army back to the Moscow Sea and the Volga, crossing the Moscow-Volga Canal, and the 16th Army, covering its northern flank, throwing it back from the Leningrad and Volokolamsk highways, along which to break through to the northern outskirts of the capital.
Despite stubborn resistance, the 30th Army was unable to repel the blow of superior enemy forces. Its front was broken through, and one part of the army fought heavy battles south of the Moscow Sea and was pushed back to the Volga, while the other retreated from the Leningrad highway to the canal. The northern flank of the 16th Army was exposed. Anticipating the enemy's attack, the Headquarters ordered General Rokossovsky to forestall the enemy and attack him with his left flank in the direction of Volokolamsk. The 16th Army struck, but at the same time the enemy's 4th Tank Group began to attack. Oncoming battles unfolded, in which Hepner's troops attacked the right flank of Rokossovsky's army, and the latter attacked the right flank of the enemy tank army. At the same time, fierce heavy battles broke out for Klin, Solnechnogorsk, Istra, on the Leningrad and Volokolamsk highways.
Possessing superiority, especially in tanks, the enemy broke through to the area of Rogachev and Yakhroma. He managed to force the Moscow Canal in one of the sections and seize a bridgehead for an offensive bypassing the Soviet capital from the north-west. Having achieved success northeast of Volokolamsk, capturing Klin, Solnechnogorsk, Yakhroma and reaching the eastern bank of the canal, the enemy sharply increased the pressure on the Volokolamsk highway, trying to break through to the northern outskirts of Moscow.
Units of the 16th Army defended in the Volokolamsk direction. With their fighting they slowed down the advance of the 4th Panzer Group. Only at the cost of huge losses did the enemy manage to capture Istra and break through to Kryukov, thus approaching Moscow from the north to a distance of 25 km. The enemy intended to start shelling the city from here with heavy long-range guns. “The battles of November 16-18 were very difficult for us. The enemy, regardless of losses, pushed ahead, trying to break through to Moscow with his tank wedges at any cost,” recalled G.K. Zhukov. 6
The enemy's attack north-west of Moscow was supported by an offensive south of the Volokolamsk Highway, which began on November 19, 1941 and did not stop for a single day. Here the 9th and 7th Army Corps attacked the troops of the 5th Army of General L.A. Govorov. Having captured a number of settlements, the enemy approached Zvenigorod and broke through to the north of it into the area of Pavlovskaya Sloboda. From here, the infantry divisions, whose attack was now merging with the onslaught of the tank divisions operating in the Istra region, were very close to Krasnogorsk and Tushin and to the western outskirts of Moscow.
The 4th Field Army of General Field Marshal Kluge in November 1941 was limited to an offensive on Zvenigorod and north of it, as well as pinning actions in the center of the Western Front. But with the arrival of the 4th Tank Group to the Moscow-Volga Canal and the 2nd Tank Army to Kashira, when conditions seemed to have been created on the flanks to bypass Moscow, the enemy struck on December 1, 1941 in the center. Two infantry divisions with 70 tanks broke through the front of the 33rd Army in the sector of the 222nd Infantry Division north of Naro-Fominsk. They rushed to Kubinka, and then to Golitsyn and Aprelevka, threatening the rear of the 33rd and 5th armies.
In search of weak points in the defense, fascist troops tried to break through to Nakhabino and Khimki, but were repulsed. The tank unit of the 4th Panzer Group, which crossed the canal, was also unable to develop an offensive bypassing Moscow. On its western bank it was counterattacked by defense troops, and from the bridgehead on the eastern bank it was dropped by rifle brigades that arrived in time on the orders of the Supreme High Command Headquarters.
Meanwhile, by order of the Supreme Command Headquarters, the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps of General P. A. Belov and the 112th Tank Division of Colonel A. L. Getman were hastily sent to the Kashira direction. The enemy was driven back by flank attacks by tank crews and cavalry attacks and began to retreat. He was pursued by cavalry divisions. And the 112th Tank Division, having advanced to the village. Revyakino immediately attacked the enemy, who intercepted the highway and railway from Tula to Moscow. The city's defenders attacked the tankers. The enemy was defeated, and communications connecting the city of gunsmiths with Moscow were restored.
In the second half of November 1941, the Soviet command was faced with the task of taking urgent measures to secure the flanks of the Soviet-German front, along with the defense of the main Moscow strategic direction. To accomplish this task, all available opportunities were used.
The crushing blows of the Red Army in December 1941 led to the defeat of the enemy and the retreat of his troops from Moscow, Rostov and Tikhvin. But despite this, the situation in our country remained dangerous. The main forces of Hitler's army, Army Group Center, were at such a distance from Moscow that the capital of our Motherland could again come under their attack. The Soviet command was faced with the task of thwarting the enemy's plans, preventing his troops from gaining a foothold on the lines to which they had been driven back by the December counteroffensive, and defeating them in new battles.
In January 1942, following the directive of the Supreme Command Headquarters, the soldiers of the Red Army again went on the offensive against the enemy. Having defeated and thrown back the enemy 150400 km, the Red Army eliminated the immediate threat to the capital. The entire Moscow, Tula, and Ryazan regions were liberated. During the winter offensive on the northern and southern sectors of the front, a significant part of the areas of the Kalinin, Leningrad, Smolensk, Oryol, Kursk, Kharkov, Stalin, Rostov regions, and the Kerch Peninsula were cleared of the enemy.
Defeat of the Nazi troops in the winter of 1941-1942. radically changed the situation on the Soviet-German front. However, despite the enormous significance of these events, they could not yet finally turn the tide of the war in favor of the USSR. Although the Red Army inflicted strong blows on the enemy, this was not yet enough to disable Hitler’s war machine.
The victory near Moscow raised the political and moral state of the Red Army, the fighting spirit of its soldiers, who saw how the “invincible” Nazi troops were fleeing in panic under their blows. She strengthened the faith of the Soviet people in their Red Army, in its victory, and inspired new efforts to help the front. 7
The defeat of the Nazis near Moscow stirred up all progressive humanity, strengthened sympathy for the USSR and faith in it on the part of working people around the world. The forced transfer of German divisions from the countries of occupied Europe to the Eastern Front made it easier for the peoples of these states to resist the invaders. The military-political situation of Hitler's Germany worsened.
2. Battle of Pearl Harbor
A sudden combined attack by Japanese carrier-based aircraft from the carrier force of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo and Japanese midget submarines, delivered to the site of the attack by submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy, on American naval and air bases located in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu (Hawaii Islands) ), occurred on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.
The attack consisted of two air raids, in which 353 aircraft took off from 6 Japanese aircraft carriers. The attack resulted in the sinking of 4 US Navy battleships (2 of which were recovered and returned to service at the end of the war), 4 more were damaged.
The Japanese sank or damaged 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, 1 minelayer; destroyed 188 - 272 aircraft (according to various sources). The losses of the US armed forces in people amounted to 2,402 people. killed and 1282 people. - wounded.
At the same time, it should be noted that mainly combat units of the US Army, Air Force and Navy were subjected to air strikes. The power plant, shipyard, fuel and torpedo storage facilities, piers, as well as the main control building were not damaged by the attack.
Japanese losses in this battle were minimal: 29 aircraft, 4 small submarines, along with 65 military personnel killed or injured.
The Japanese kamikaze attack was a preventive measure against the United States, aimed at eliminating the American navy, gaining air supremacy in the Pacific region and subsequent military operations against Burma, Thailand, and the Western possessions of the United States in the Pacific Ocean.
It was the attack on the US naval base - Pearl Harbor that caused the US entry into World War II - on the same day the US declared war on Japan and entered World War II.
Because of the attack, especially its nature, public opinion in America changed dramatically from an isolationist position in the mid-1930s to direct participation in the war effort. On December 8, 1941, US President Franklin Roosevelt spoke at a joint meeting of both houses of Congress. The President demanded that from December 7, from “a day that will go down in history as a symbol of shame,” to declare war on Japan. Congress adopted a corresponding resolution.
3. Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad began in July 1942. Having suffered a heavy defeat in the battle of Moscow, Germany decided to direct all its forces to Stalingrad in order to cut off the central part of the USSR from the grain regions and oil of the Caspian Sea.
To this end, the Nazi occupiers launched a massive attack on Stalingrad, the number of their soldiers noticeably exceeded the number of the Red Army. The Battle of Stalingrad lasted more than 200 days and nights.
On August 28, 1942, the Germans reached the Volga and began endless attempts to storm the city. In the fall, at the beginning of October 1941, large areas of Stalingrad fell into the hands of German soldiers. The defenders of Stalingrad courageously defended the city, thanks to their fierce resistance, the Germans did not manage to completely capture Stalingrad, and the advance of the German group slowed down.
The Soviet troops, having stopped the German offensive impulse, decided to go on the offensive. The offensive was developed in the strictest secrecy for almost three long months.
At Stalingrad, the Germans concentrated significant forces. The size of their army reached more than a million people. In the Battle of Stalingrad, the command of the Soviet troops concentrated its forces in two main directions south and north of Stalingrad.
From the south, Red Army troops attacked Romanian troops, whose morale was low. The offensive was preceded by hurricane artillery fire. After artillery preparation, the tanks went into battle.
The command of the enemy group gave the order to hold out until the last soldier. After two days of rapid advance by Soviet troops, the German armies found themselves surrounded.
Immediately after this, an offensive near Rzhev began in the northern sections of the Stalingrad Front in order to prevent the Germans from transferring forces from there to Stalingrad.
An enemy group of troops under the command of Mainstein tried to break through the encirclement. Their plans were greatly hindered by partisan detachments.
In January 1943, the outer ring of encirclement went west, in a new offensive. The position of the troops surrounded under the command of Paulus deteriorated sharply. He decided to surrender.
From January 31 to February 2, 1943, the Germans surrendered. In the Battle of Stalingrad, 32 German divisions were destroyed. The enemy lost more than 1.5 million people. At Stalingrad, a huge amount of equipment was destroyed: 3.5 thousand tanks and guns, 12 thousand guns and mortars, 3 thousand aircraft. A 3-day mourning period was declared in Germany.
The Battle of Stalingrad was of great importance in the development of subsequent events of the Great Patriotic War. Due to the defeat of German troops at Stalingrad, discord began in the command of the Allied forces. And in the occupied territories the partisan movement grew. The position of the Germans deteriorated sharply. After the victory of the USSR in the Battle of Stalingrad, faith in the final victory over fascism grew stronger.
4. Battle for the Caucasus
Simultaneously with the Battle of Stalingrad, there were fierce battles in the North Caucasus. On June 23, 1942, the German command issued secret directive No. 45 outlining the Edelweiss plan.
In accordance with this plan, the Nazis sought to capture the entire eastern coast of the Black Sea in order to deprive the USSR of ports and the Black Sea Fleet.
At the same time, another group of Nazi troops in the Caucasus was advancing towards the Georgian Military Road to capture the oil-bearing areas of Baku.
The enemy was opposed by the Red Army troops of the Southern Front, under the command of Lieutenant General R.Ya. Malinovsky, and part of the forces of the North Caucasus Front, under the command of Marshal S.M. Budyonny, with the support of the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Military Flotilla.
From July 25 to December 31, 1942, Red Army troops fought heavy defensive battles in the North Caucasus. Under the pressure of superior enemy forces, the Red Army troops were forced to leave the regions of the North Caucasus and retreat to the passes of the Main Caucasus Range and the Terek River.
In November-December 1942, the advance of enemy troops was stopped. The plans of the fascist German command to seize the oil-bearing regions of the Caucasus and drag Turkey into the war remained fruitless.
From January 1 to February 4, 1943, the North Caucasus offensive operation was carried out under the code name "Don". It was attended by troops of the Transcaucasian, Southern and North Caucasian fronts with the assistance of the forces of the Black Sea Fleet.
During the unfolding offensive, the Red Army troops inflicted a major defeat on the enemy Army Group A and reached the approaches to Rostov northeast of Krasnodar and to the line of the Kuban River. However, in the Kuban and Taman Peninsula, the enemy created powerful defensive fortifications - the Blue Line - from the Sea of Azov to Novorossiysk. Soviet troops were unable to immediately overcome the Blue Line defenses and the offensive stopped.
Despite the fact that the plan for the offensive operation was not completely completed, and the main enemy forces managed to retreat to the Donbass, avoiding complete defeat, the plans of the German command to seize the Caucasus and its oil regions failed. The Red Army liberated the Stavropol Territory, the Checheno-Ingush, North Ossetian and Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, part of the Rostov Region and the Krasnodar Territory from the invaders. As a result of the offensive of the Red Army in January 1943, the Elbrus region was cleared of enemy troops.
On September 10, 1943, the Novorossiysk-Taman offensive operation of the Red Army began - the final operation of the Battle for the Caucasus, which lasted until October 9, 1943. It was carried out by troops of the North Caucasus Front, forces of the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Military Flotilla.
Red Army troops and naval forces defeated the formations of the enemy Army Group A, liberated Novorossiysk with landing strikes from the sea and army units from land, reached the coast of the Kerch Strait and completed the liberation of the Caucasus.
The enemy's Kuban bridgehead, which provided him with the defense of Crimea, was eliminated. The clearing of Novorossiysk and the Taman Peninsula from enemy troops significantly improved the basing of the Black Sea Fleet and created favorable opportunities for attacks on the enemy’s Crimean group from the sea and through the Kerch Strait.
For the battles in the Caucasus, thousands of soldiers and officers of the Red Army and navy sailors were awarded orders and medals. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 1, 1944, the medal “For the Defense of the Caucasus” was established, which was awarded to 600,000 people. In May 1973, Novorossiysk was awarded the title of Hero City.
5. Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk occupies a special place in World War II. It lasted 50 days and nights, from July 5 to August 23, 1943. This battle has no equal in its ferocity and tenacity of struggle.
The general plan of the German command was to encircle and destroy the troops of the Central and Voronezh fronts of the Red Army defending in the Kursk region. If successful, it was planned to expand the offensive front and regain the strategic initiative.
To implement his plans, the enemy concentrated powerful strike forces, which numbered over 900 thousand people, about 10 thousand guns and mortars, up to 2,700 tanks and assault guns, and about 2,050 aircraft. Great hopes were placed on the latest Tiger and Panther tanks, Ferdinand assault guns, Focke-Wulf 190-A fighter planes and Heinkel 129 attack aircraft.
The Soviet military command decided to first bleed the enemy's strike forces in defensive battles and then launch a counteroffensive.
The battle that began immediately took on a grand scale and was extremely tense. Soviet troops did not flinch. They faced avalanches of enemy tanks and infantry with unprecedented tenacity and courage. The advance of enemy strike forces was suspended. Only at the cost of huge losses did he manage to wedge into our defenses in some areas. On the Central Front - 10-12 km, on Voronezh - up to 35 km.
The largest oncoming tank battle of the entire Second World War near Prokhorovka finally buried Hitler’s Operation Citadel. It took place on July 12, 1943. 1,200 tanks and self-propelled guns simultaneously participated in it on both sides. This battle was won by Soviet soldiers. The Nazis, having lost up to 400 tanks during the day of battle, were forced to abandon the offensive.
On July 12, 1943, the second stage of the Battle of Kursk began - the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops. On August 5, 1943, Soviet troops liberated the cities of Orel and Belgorod. On the evening of August 5, 1943, in honor of this major success, a victory salute was given in Moscow for the first time in two years of war. From that time on, artillery salutes constantly announced the glorious victories of Soviet weapons. On August 23, Kharkov was liberated. Thus the Battle of the Kursk Arc of Fire ended victoriously.
During the Battle of Kursk, 30 selected enemy divisions were defeated. Nazi troops lost about 500 thousand people, 1,500 tanks, 3 thousand guns and 3,700 aircraft.
For courage and heroism, over 100 thousand Soviet soldiers who took part in the Battle of the Arc of Fire were awarded orders and medals. The Battle of Kursk ended a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War.
6. Battle of the Dnieper
The Battle of the Dnieper is an operation of Soviet troops to liberate Left Bank Ukraine from the German occupiers. Combat operations within the framework of the Battle of the Dnieper operation lasted from August to December 1943.
Soldiers from the Voronezh, Central, Steppe, Southern and Southwestern fronts took part in the operation to liberate Left Bank Ukraine. The total number of Soviet soldiers and officers who took part in the Battle of the Dnieper was approximately 2.5 million people. The active armies included 51 thousand guns, more than 2.5 thousand tanks and about 3 thousand aircraft.
In the Battle of the Dnieper, Soviet troops were opposed by the 2nd German Army from Army Group Center and the entire Army Group South. The size of the German army in the areas where the fighting took place was 1.5 million soldiers and officers, who had at their disposal 13 thousand guns, 2 thousand tanks and the same number of aircraft. German troops were located along the Dnieper River, in well-fortified positions.
Even during the Stalingrad offensive operation of the Red Army, the eastern parts of Donbass were liberated. By mid-August 1943, the Red Army reached the city of Zmiev. On the river The Northern Donets created a springboard for a future successful offensive. On August 16, 1943, Soviet troops launched a new offensive. The German defense was well organized, and as a result the Soviet offensive stalled. The main result of the offensive was that the German command had to strengthen this section of the front at the expense of other armies.
By the end of August 1943, the bridgehead of Soviet troops was expanded to 100 km. wide, and up to 70 km. - in depth. Soviet troops liberated the cities of Ukraine one after another - Kharkov, Verkhnedneprovsk and others.
In mid-September 1943, there was a respite in the battle for the Dnieper River. The fighting resumed in mid-September 1943. Soviet troops liberated the city of Chernigov, and soon reached the river. Dnieper, near the city of Velikiy Bukrin. Here the preparation of troops for crossing the river began.
The Battle of the Dnieper continued until December 1943. Soviet troops created bridgeheads through which they could continue to advance westward. The Germans sought to destroy these bridgeheads.
Bloody and fierce battles broke out near the city of Kyiv. It was planned to take Kyiv by the Red Army in October 1943, but these attempts failed.
On November 3, 1943, a new offensive by Soviet troops began. The German command feared that their armies operating near Kiev would be surrounded. The enemy was forced to retreat. Kyiv was taken by Soviet troops on November 6, 1943.
By the end of December 1943, as a result of the “Battle of the Dnieper” operation, the entire lower reaches of the river. The Dnieper was cleared of German troops. German units were also blocked in Crimea.
During the offensive in Ukraine, the efforts of five Soviet fronts created bridgeheads for a further offensive against the Germans in Belarus and the liberation of Right Bank Ukraine. During the Battle of the Dnieper operation, Soviet troops liberated 38 thousand settlements and 160 cities.
7.Berlin operation
In November 1944, the General Staff of the Soviet Army began planning military operations on the approaches to Berlin. It was necessary to defeat the German Army Group “A” and complete the liberation of Poland.
At the end of December 1944, German troops launched an offensive in the Ardennes and pushed back the Allied forces, putting them on the brink of complete defeat. The leadership of the USA and Great Britain turned to the USSR with a request to conduct offensive operations to divert enemy forces.
Fulfilling their allied duty, Soviet units went on the offensive eight days ahead of schedule and pulled back part of the German divisions. The offensive launched ahead of time did not allow for full preparation, which led to unjustified losses.
As a result of the rapidly developing offensive, already in February, units of the Red Army crossed the Oder - the last major obstacle in front of the German capital - and approached Berlin to a distance of 70 km.
The fighting on the bridgeheads captured after crossing the Oder was fierce. Soviet troops waged a continuous offensive and pressed back the enemy all along the river. Vistula to Oder.
At the same time, the operation began in East Prussia. Its main goal was to capture the Konigsberg fortress. Perfectly defended and provided with everything necessary, the fortress, which had a selected garrison, seemed impregnable. Before the assault, heavy artillery preparation was carried out. After the capture of the fortress, its commandant admitted that he did not expect such a rapid fall of Koenigsberg.
In April 1945, the Soviet army began immediate preparations for the assault on Berlin. The USSR leadership believed that delaying the end of the war could lead to the Germans opening a front in the west and concluding a separate peace. The danger of Berlin's surrender to Anglo-American units was considered.
The Soviet attack on Berlin was carefully prepared. A huge amount of ammunition and military equipment was transferred to the city. Troops from three fronts took part in the Berlin operation. The command was entrusted to Marshals G.K. Zhukov, K.K. Rokossovsky and I.S. Konev. 3.5 million people took part in the battle on both sides.
The assault began on April 16, 1945. At 3 a.m. Berlin time, under the light of 140 searchlights, tanks and infantry attacked German positions. After four days of fighting, the fronts commanded by Zhukov and Konev, with the support of two armies of the Polish Army, closed a ring around Berlin. 93 enemy divisions were defeated, about 490 thousand people were captured, and a huge amount of captured military equipment and weapons were captured. On this day, a meeting of Soviet and American troops took place on the Elbe River.
On April 21, 1945, the first assault troops reached the outskirts of the German capital and started street battles. German soldiers put up fierce resistance, surrendering only in hopeless situations.
On April 29, 1945, the assault on the Reisstag began, and on April 30, 1945, the Red Banner was hoisted over it.
On May 1, 1945, the Chief of the General Staff of the German Ground Forces, General Krebs, was delivered to the command post of the 8th Guards Army. He stated that Hitler had committed suicide on April 30 and proposed to begin armistice negotiations.
The next day, the Berlin Defense Headquarters ordered an end to resistance. Berlin has fallen. When it was captured, Soviet troops lost 300 thousand people. killed and wounded.
On the night of May 9, the act of unconditional surrender of Germany was signed. The war in Europe is over.
Conclusion
The Second World War had a huge impact on the destinies of mankind. Military operations took place on the territory of 40 states. 110 million people were mobilized into the armed forces. The total human losses reached 60-65 million people, of which 27 million people were killed at the fronts, many of them citizens of the USSR. China, Germany, Japan and Poland also suffered heavy human losses.
Military spending and military losses totaled $4 trillion. Material costs reached 60-70% of the national income of the warring states. The industry of the USSR, USA, Great Britain and Germany alone produced 652.7 thousand aircraft (combat and transport), 286.7 thousand tanks, self-propelled guns and armored vehicles, over 1 million artillery pieces, over 4.8 million machine guns (without Germany) , 53 million rifles, carbines and machine guns and a huge amount of other weapons and equipment. The war was accompanied by colossal destruction, the destruction of tens of thousands of cities and villages, and innumerable disasters for tens of millions of people.
As a result of the war, the role of Western Europe in global politics weakened. The USSR and the USA became the main powers in the world. Great Britain and France, despite the victory, were significantly weakened. The war showed the inability of them and other Western European countries to maintain huge colonial empires. The anti-colonial movement intensified in African and Asian countries. As a result of the war, some countries were able to achieve independence: Ethiopia, Iceland, Syria, Lebanon, Vietnam, Indonesia. In Eastern Europe, occupied by Soviet troops, socialist regimes were established. One of the main results of World War II was the creation of the United Nations on the basis of the Anti-Fascist coalition that emerged during the war to prevent world wars in the future.
In some countries, partisan movements that emerged during the war tried to continue their activities after the end of the war. In Greece, the conflict between communists and the pre-war government escalated into civil war. Anti-communist armed groups operated for some time after the end of the war in Western Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Poland. The civil war that has been going on there since 1927 continued in China.
Fascist and Nazi ideologies were declared criminal at the Nuremberg trials and prohibited. In many Western countries, support for communist parties grew due to their active participation in the anti-fascist struggle during the war.
Europe was divided into two camps: Western capitalist and Eastern socialist. Relations between the two blocs deteriorated sharply. A couple of years after the end of the war, the Cold War began.
List of sources and literature.
- Grechko A.A. Years of war: 1941 1945 / A.A. Grechko. - M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1976. 574 p.
- Zhukov, G.K. Memories and reflections / G.K. Zhukov. M.: Publishing house of the news press agency, 1970. 702 p.
- Isaev A. Five circles of hell. The Red Army in “cauldrons” / A. Isaev. M.: Yauza: Eksmo, 2011. 400 p.
- History of the Second World War: Vol.1. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1973. 366 p.
- History of the Second World War: Vol.2. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1973. 365 p.
- History of the Second World War: Vol.4. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1975. 526 p.
- History of the Second World War: Vol.5. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1975. 511 p.
- History of the Second World War: Vol.6. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1976. 519 p.
- History of the Second World War: T.7. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1976. 552 p.
- 1418 days of war: From memories of the Great Patriotic War. M.: Politizdat, 1990. 687 p.
1 History of the Second World War: 1939 - 1945: vol. 4. - M.: Order of the Red Banner of Labor MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE. - 1975. - P.90.
4 Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections / G.K. Zhukov. Publishing house of news press agency. M.: 1970. P.320.
5 Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections / G.K. Zhukov. Publishing house of news press agency. M.: 1970. P.330.
6 Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections / G.K. Zhukov. Publishing house of news press agency. M.: 1970. P.274-275.
7 Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections / G.K. Zhukov. Publishing house of news press agency. M.: 1970. P.359.
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The Second World War was the most terrible and bloody war in human history. The world was in a state of “total war.” The anti-fascist coalition won, but some of these battles did not always end in victory. The article examines ten battles that changed the course of the war.
Battle of France
After the Germans conquered Poland in September 1939, Hitler turned his attention to the west. Invading the Soviet Union was his main goal, but he knew that first of all he needed to conquer Western Europe to avoid a war on two fronts. First it was necessary to capture the Netherlands (Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium) and France. Hypothetically, Germany could conquer Britain, redeploy its troops in the East, and then begin hostilities against the Russians.
The German army outnumbered the armies of the anti-fascist coalition. However, this did not matter as the German plan was very effective. After the Germans invaded the Netherlands, the French army and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) moved north, facing German forces. This allowed the German army to break through the coalition defenses in the Ardennes and advance towards the English Channel, but it was a trap. The Germans captured Paris, France fell, and the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated at Dunkirk. The country was divided into German occupation zones, in which the Vichy regime was introduced. Now Germany could concentrate and strike at Britain
Operation Overlord
By the summer of 1944, the Red Army was already on the doorstep of Germany. There is no doubt that the Russians could have defeated Nazi Germany single-handedly, but Stalin pressured the West to create a second front there to try to distract the Germans and quickly end the war. Since 1942, the American Air Force and the British Royal Air Force have carried out massive bombing campaigns. The coalition led the Mediterranean operation and invaded Italy in 1943. However, it was necessary to recapture France in order to destroy the main strength of the German army in Northern Europe.
Operation Overlord began with the Normandy landings in June 1944. By August there were about 3 million anti-fascist coalition troops in France. Paris was liberated on August 25th and the German army was driven back and retreated to the Seine River on September 30th. Germany was forced to strengthen its Western Front by taking reinforcements from the Eastern Front. The anti-fascist coalition won a strategic victory. By September, the coalition's western forces were approaching the German border. Nazi Germany surrendered less than a year later. The important thing was that Western Europe could not govern Russia, which was already going through difficult times.
Battle of Guadalcanal
The Battle of Guadalcanal, or Operation Watchtower, took place from August 7, 1942 to February 9, 1943 in the Pacific Theater. The war was fought between Allied and Japanese forces. The fighting took place on the island of Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands).
On August 7, 1942, the first Allied troops landed on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi and Florida in order to prevent the Japanese from using them as their bases, which were a threat to the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The Allies intended to use Guadalcanal and Tulagi as a staging area. The initial landing took the Japanese by surprise. The Allies immediately managed to capture the islands of Tulagi and Florida, as well as the airfield on Guadalcanal (later called Henderson Field).
Not expecting such an onslaught from the Allies, the Japanese made several attempts to retake Henderson Field. These attempts led to major battles, leaving the Japanese without support. In December 1942, the Japanese began to evacuate their troops. The Battle of Guadalcanal was very important to know because it marked the loss of Japan's strategic initiative and the Allies went from defensive to offensive.
Battle of Leyte Gulf
This is the largest naval battle in history. The battle took place in the seas on a Philippine island from October 23 to 26, 1944. The battle was fought between the American and Japanese fleets. The Japanese tried to push back the Allied forces located on the island of Leyte. For the first time in the war, kamikaze tactics were used. As a result, the Allied fleet won a significant victory and was able to sink one of the largest battleships in the world - Musashi and damaging another battleship - Yamato. After this battle, the Japanese Combined Fleet did not undertake major operations.
Battle for Moscow
Hitler intended to capture Moscow. This capital was considered an extremely important point militarily and politically. The original plan was to capture Moscow within four months. Hitler and his coalition decide to capture the capital before the onset of winter. Weather conditions hampered the Germans, but in December they were practically 19 miles from Moscow. Then there were heavy torrential rains. And the temperature dropped sharply and reached -40. The German troops had no winter clothing and the tanks were not designed to operate in such low temperatures. On December 5, 1941, the Russians counterattacked, driving the German forces back. For the first time, the Germans retreated and Operation Barbarossa failed.
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk took place after the Battle of Stalingrad. The Germans wanted to break through the northern and southern flanks to encircle the Soviet troops. However, the Soviet Union knew about Hitler's intentions, and began to prepare for defense. The Germans delayed the advance as the Tiger and Panther tanks were waiting, thereby giving the Red Army more time to dig and gather forces for a counterattack. The defense around Kursk was 10 times deeper than the Maginot Line. German troops went on the offensive on July 5. This was the first time that a blitzkrieg plan was defeated without even breaking through the defenses. After a failed attack, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive.
The war in Europe would continue for two more years, but the Battle of Kursk was over and the Americans and British could invade Italy. At the Kursk Bulge, the Germans lost 720 tanks, 680 aircraft and killed 170,000 people. This battle was the largest tank battle in history. After three years of war, the Allies finally gained a strategic advantage.
Battle of Midway
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan began preparing for its next operation against the United States in the Pacific. The Japanese goal was to destroy US aircraft carriers and capture the strategically important Midway Atoll, located equidistant from Asia and North America. The Americans managed to decipher the encrypted messages of the Japanese, and now the United States could prepare for an attack. On June 3, 1942, the Battle of Midway began. Warplanes took off from Midway Atoll and began bombing and torpedoing the battles in the air. The United States won the battle, and it became a turning point in the Pacific War.
Operation Barbarossa
The Nazi invasion of the USSR began on June 22, 1941. The operation involved 8.9 million soldiers, more than 18,000 tanks, 45,000 aircraft, and 50,000 artillery pieces. When the Germans went on the offensive, the Red Army was caught by surprise. The non-aggression pact was signed before the German and Soviet invasion of Poland. Both countries invaded and occupied Poland, but Hitler always saw Russia as a source of agriculture, slave labor, oil and other raw materials. Three army groups were formed; each of which had its own task. The group in the north was supposed to capture Leningrad. The central group was to take Moscow, and the group in the south was to capture Ukraine and move east to the Caucasus.
The Germans advanced quickly. The main battles took place in Smolensk, Uman, and Kiev. The tank divisions could have surrounded and captured three million Soviet soldiers by the time they reached Moscow. By December, they had surrounded Leningrad from the north, reached the outskirts of Moscow in the center, and occupied Ukraine in the south.
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad is the decisive battle of World War II, in which Soviet troops won their largest victory. This battle marked the beginning of a radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War as a whole.
The Battle of Stalingrad is usually divided into two periods: defensive (from July 17 - November 18, 1942) and offensive (from November 19, 1942 - February 2, 1943).
The Battle of Stalingrad surpassed all battles in world history: in duration, in the number of people and military equipment. The battle took place over a vast territory. The results of this battle also surpassed all previous ones. At Stalingrad, Soviet troops defeated the armies of the Germans, Romanians and Italians. In this battle, the Germans lost 800,000 soldiers and officers, as well as a large amount of military equipment and equipment.
Battle of Britain
If Great Britain were withdrawn from the war, then Hitler could concentrate all of Germany's military potential on the Soviet Union. America and the Soviet Union would have had to fight Hitler's coalition, and Operation Overlord might not have taken place at all. For these reasons, the Battle of Britain is without doubt the most important battle of the Second World War. The British Expeditionary Force was successfully evacuated at Dunkirk. However, most of their equipment remained in France. Germany gained air supremacy over Great Britain, and could launch Operation Sea Lion (invasion of the British Isles). The Royal Navy would be ineffective without air cover.
The Luftwaffe's initial strategy was to destroy the RAF. This was a perfectly good idea, but then the strategy changed. And this gave the Royal Air Force a chance to win. Radar was important to America. Without it, the RAF would have to keep its aircraft in the air. They lacked the resources to do this. Radar would allow troops to wait and coordinate a German attack. By October 1940, the Luftwaffe had a shortage of combat equipment and crew. Hitler did not gain an advantage in the air and Operation Sea Lion failed. This battle allowed Great Britain to regain its strength. After victory was on the side of the Allies, Winston Churchill said: “Never have human conflicts been so acute as now.