Eastern Front (World War II)

The Eastern European Front or Eastern Front was a theater of operations in World War II in which the European Axis powers came into conflict against the Union Soviet (USSR), Poland, and other allies, spanning Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeastern Europe (Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans). The front was active from September 1, 1939 to May 9, 1945. In the Soviet Union and some of its successor states it is known as the Great Patriotic War (Russian: Великая Отечественная война; Velíkaya Otéchestvennaya voyná), while in the rest of the world it is called the Eastern Front and was opened by Nazi Germany with the operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941—or, from a broader view, invading Poland on September 1, 1939 (standing temporarily inactive in 1940)—until 1945 with the Soviet Union's conquest of Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany.

The Eastern Front was instrumental in determining the outcome in the European theater of World War II, ultimately serving as the primary reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis nations.

Because the Nazi ideology was opposed to the Slavic, Jewish and communist movements, while the Soviet ideology was opposed to fascism, the war on the Eastern Front was characterized by the concurrence of genocide in almost all the occupied countries, as well as the constant violation of the agreements obtained in the Geneva Conventions. On this front, 26 million Soviets, 6.5 million Germans and Axis allies, and almost 6 million Poles (more than half were Jewish Poles) lost their lives, more than 60% of the victims of that war throughout the world. It is estimated that 73% of the German soldiers who died in the war died on the Eastern Front and, in the case of Belarus, Ukraine and Poland, more than 20% of the civilian population was killed. The annihilation of human lives was such that Russia was even referred to as "the grave of the German army".

After the sieges of Minsk in July, Kiev in September and Viazma in October 1941, the Germans took three million Soviet prisoners, who were the first to be murdered in the gas chambers of the extermination camps.

Faced with all-out war, Stalin did not hesitate to practice the scorched-earth tactic already tested against Napoleon in 1812, to organize a guerrilla war, move all Soviet industries to the rear, and make all the necessary sacrifices.

After the halt of the German offensive in December 1941 and with some help from the Western Allies, the Soviet Union was able to rebuild its army, mobilize the entire country in the name of homeland defense, and by 1942 production Soviet weaponry was already superior to the German.

The war waged in Eastern Europe during World War II can be divided into several stages:

• Front opening: German invasion of Poland, Soviet invasion of Poland
• Soviet preparations: Winter War, Occupation of the Baltic Republics, Soviet Occupation of Besarabia and North Bucovina
• Balkans: Greek-Italian war, invasion of Yugoslavia, invasion of Greece
• Invasion of the Soviet Union: Operation Barbecue, Battle of Moscow, Leningrad Beer, Continuing War
• Second German offensive. With Operation Blue, the Germans develop as strategic objectives, during the second year of war in the USSR, the conquest of the Caucasus (with its oil fields) and the southern Volga region, industrial and communications zone vital to the Soviet economy
• Point of inflection: the Soviet counterattack planned as Uranus Operation, led to the German defeat in the battle of Stalingrad and the withdrawal of the Wehrmacht from the Caucasus, finally the Germans launched Operation Citadel in 1943, their last major offensive in the Soviet Union that ends without any of its strategic objectives being met after the Battle of Kursk.
• Soviet counterattack: Battle of the Dniéper, Offensive of the Dniéper-Cárpatos, Offensive of Leningrad-Nóvgorod, Operation Bagration, Offensive Leópolis-Sandomierz.
• Advance to Germany: Offensive of the Vistula-Oder, Offensive of Eastern Pomerania, Offensive of East Prussia, Battle of Berlin.

Warring countries

The countries that participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union and sent significant amounts of their armies to this front were mainly: Germany, Romania, Hungary, Italy, and Finland, other countries such as Croatia, and Slovakia also sent contingents, but his contribution was much less. Countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Vichy France and other countries allied or occupied by the Axis Forces sent volunteer contingents who fought as part of regular Wehrmacht or Waffen SS units.

Other neutral countries such as Sweden, Turkey, Bulgaria, among others, helped the German war effort by sending raw materials and other supplies, although their contributions were not decisive and they did not take an active part in the fighting. Notably, private interests in the US, UK and Japan helped finance the German war industry in the 1930s.

At the beginning of March 1941, Bulgaria adhered to the Tripartite Pact and the Anti-Comintern Pact and, in April of the same year, participated in the attack on Yugoslavia and Greece led by Germany. In return, Bulgaria received most of Thrace from Greece, and also Macedonia and some parts of eastern Serbia from Yugoslavia. Although Bulgaria participated in the Balkans campaign, and although King Boris III declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom on December 12, 1941, it refused to participate in the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June. from 1941, and even continued to maintain diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

However, when Soviet troops approached its borders in the late summer of 1944, the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria. In October 1944, Bulgaria abandoned its alliance with Nazi Germany and declared war on it.

On September 1, 1939, with the start of World War II, Spain immediately declared the “strictest neutrality for all Spanish subjects” and demanded guarantees from the belligerent powers that they would respect their neutrality. On June 13, with France about to fall, Franco changed Spain's rank from neutral to "non-belligerent." Situation in which it would remain until 1943 when the fall of Mussolini in July 1943, after the Allied landing in Sicily, and greater hostility from the US towards the Franco regime (see Laurel Incident), forced him to return again to "strict neutrality"

On the other hand, the Soviet Union; the latter includes troops from Russia in general, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia, Georgia. In addition, countries such as Mongolia and the Tuva People's Republic helped the Soviet Union prominently by sending large amounts of supplies, food, raw materials and thousands of volunteers who fought as part of regular Red Army units, likewise both Countries financed the purchase of large quantities of war equipment through private contributions from their citizens.

The Tannu Tuva People's Republic officially declared war on Germany and its allies on June 22, 1941, the same day as the German invasion of the Soviet Union, thus becoming the first country allied with the Soviet Union to his fight against Nazi Germany. Even before the UK: Winston Churchill's radio message to the Soviet people was broadcast at 11pm on June 22, and a similar message arrived from Tuva, in the first half of the same day.

The involvement of Greek, Albanian and Yugoslav partisans was also very important, keeping a disproportionate number of German troops and their allies engaged in garrisoning and policing duties that could otherwise have been used on other fronts more important. For example, in October 1943 there were 610,000 German soldiers deployed in the Balkans, while only 330,000 German soldiers were fighting in Italy against the Western Allies.

Background

Rise of Nazism

The surrender of Germany in World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire created a power vacuum in Central and Eastern Europe that no nation could fill. With the rise to power of communism and Nazism in the Soviet Union and Germany respectively, the European political landscape became unstable. The Nazis had expansionist ambitions and their rearmament efforts showed it.

Germany led the way, aiming to regain its position as a central power, as the German economy was showing improvement and its middle class was resurging. At this time Hitler came to power and endowed this revival of Germany with a clearly offensive nature, challenging the Treaty of Versailles and initiating a rearmament process. Western governments, represented by the United Kingdom, France, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, then began to form alliances with each other, attempting to isolate the two former nations. However, the appeasement policy promoted by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and which characterized other European countries, gave Hitler many achievements, with which he was gaining influence in the countries of Central Europe.

By 1939 Germany had political influence over Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and several Balkan nations. Stalin watched helplessly as Germany became more and more powerful, while the Soviet Union became more and more isolated internationally.

Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact

Polish caricature where Ribbentrop pays tribute to Stalin.

By April 1939, Hitler's intention to recover the German territory lost in 1918 and handed over to Poland was evident, since he had renounced the Non-Aggression Pact he had signed with this country five years earlier. Stalin was aware that he would eventually have to face Germany, just as his army was not yet ready. Desperate, the Soviet Union looked to France and Britain for allies, but Britain responded by sending delegates by boat, even though they knew the Soviet request was urgent. When these delegates arrived in August, the Soviets found that they possessed no special bargaining power. The Soviet view was that the Western nations had no desire to prevent the invasion of Poland, as they could sacrifice Poland if it led to Germany and the Soviet Union ultimately annihilating each other.

Finally, in the second week of August, Western nations gave a positive response. However, the negotiations stalled on the issue of the defense of Poland. The Polish government did not want Soviet troops to enter their territory, even though they knew that the German invasion was imminent. Western nations pressured Poland to agree to this condition, but the Polish government made it clear that it preferred Poland to be invaded by Germany rather than the Soviet Union. At that time, Poland was fully confident in its alliances with France and the United Kingdom, so it did not see the alliance with its unreliable neighbor as essential. Negotiations were suspended and the Soviet Union found itself alone again against Germany.

On August 19, 1939, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop visited Moscow to sign a trade treaty with the Soviet Union. Once there, Ribbentrop suggested to Viacheslav Molotov that they discuss expanding the treaty to issues related to foreign policy, since German companies wanted to have certain guarantees regarding future good relations between the two nations. It is presumed that this German rapprochement took place only because Hitler also considered that his army was not ready to occupy the Soviet Union either, since Hitler's ideology did not allow peaceful coexistence with this country. Finally, on August 23, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact was signed, which defined the limits of the Soviet and German spheres of influence, which in other words could be translated as the division of Eastern Europe.

The Secret Additional Protocol of said pact specified the division of Poland, Romania and the Baltic countries.

Invasion of Poland

Political situation in Europe after the invasion of Poland.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and to Hitler's surprise, Britain and France declared war two days later. A small force from Slovakia also invaded from the Carpathian Mountains to the south.

The Polish army had not been fully mobilized nor had its armaments been satisfactorily renewed, which explains why completely obsolete cavalry corps were involved in the battle. The Polish plain was ideal for the use of the Blitzkrieg, the new German military tactic, which tried to avoid the stalemate of the front, as it had happened in the First World War. The Polish army was not ready for this tactic and deployed its full force along the front, without sufficient depth in its lines. When the German tanks crossed the lines at different points on the front, they did not attack the Polish forces, but surrounded them, cutting off their rear, leaving them isolated. Then the German heavy infantry arrived, which finished off the Polish pockets.

After the German victory at the Battle of Bzura, the success of the invasion was assured, and Polish forces withdrew to the east, aiming to hold out there until Anglo-French help arrived. An attempt was made to evacuate the civilian population to safer areas, but the rapid German advance prevented the evacuation from being successful. On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, and the Polish contingency plan fell apart. With the battle lost, Polish troops began to be evacuated south to Romania.

By October 1, Poland was fully occupied and on October 6 the invasion was over, and at no time did promised Allied aid show any sign of materializing. Many Polish soldiers managed to escape and joined the French and British ranks, contributing greatly to the war. In addition, multiple political and military resistance movements were formed in Poland, the best known being the Armia Krajowa, which obtained notable results against the Nazi occupation.

In German-occupied Poland, the quality of life of Poles began to deteriorate rapidly, especially that of Jews, since Nazi ideology described them as subhuman (Untermensch). On the Soviet side, the population was also humiliated, in this case not because of their race but because of their political affiliation. In the so-called Katyn massacre, thousands of Polish officers were executed en masse. There were shootings of prisoners of war, mainly Polish soldiers who had participated in the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1921.

As a consequence of the September Campaign, occupied Poland managed to create a powerful resistance movement and contributed significant military forces to the Allied effort for the remainder of World War II.

Winter War

Soviet troops after the Battle of Suomussalmi.

Both Stalin and Hitler knew that it was only a matter of time before the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was broken. Therefore, in April 1938 the Soviets began diplomatic negotiations with Finland with the aim of developing a united defense against Germany. When the Soviet military realized that the Finnish border was only 20 miles from Leningrad, a potential base for a German invasion of Leningrad, the Soviet Union sent requests to Finland to exchange territory, requests that by the fall of 1939 had been made. turned into demands. When the Finnish government refused to agree, the Soviet Union faked a Finnish attack on the border and on November 30, 1939 attacked Finland with 23 divisions commanded by Kliment Voroshilov. Finland only had 9 divisions commanded by Carl Gustaf Mannerheim.

What was meant to be a Soviet military parade turned into a bloody battle, where backward combat tactics, poor preparation for polar weather, and incompetence of Soviet officers led the Red Army to suffer defeats embarrassing against an enemy numerically inferior, but who had perfectly implemented guerrilla tactics in the snow.

At the Battle of Suomussalmi, the Soviets lost two full divisions to a much smaller Finnish force, however this defeat marked a turning point in the way Stalin handled the war. Immediately, he ordered the removal of the positions of the main military leaders, including his friend Voroshilov, who was replaced by Semyon Timoshenko, also a friend of Stalin.

The replacements were more competent officers but who had been relegated in the Great Purge for not belonging to the Bolshevik Party or the faction led by Stalin. Within weeks, the better equipped and led Red Army finally crushed the Finnish defenders, who had to call for an armistice. However, despite suffering many casualties, Finland earned the right to negotiate and managed to retain its autonomy, definitively staying out of the sphere of power of the Soviet Union. Finland lost all territory around Lake Ladoga, including the city of Viborg. It also ceded territories in the North, the center and islands in the Gulf of Finland.

Hitler took note of Soviet weakness, unfortunately for him, so did Stalin. The winter war can be considered a lesson that the Soviet Union paid to learn the efficiency of its troops in modern warfare, which would have been more expensive if the war had been against Germany.

Campaign in the Balkans

German decision

After the invasion of France, Hitler again focused on the Soviet Union. In a secret meeting held on July 31, 1940, the German High Command made the decision to invade the Soviet Union in April 1941, in an operation called Barbarossa. On December 18, the decision was confirmed at a secret military conference. For its part, the Kremlin trusted that Hitler would respect the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact at least until 1945, so the Red Army would be ready for that date, however, more than 100 divisions were concentrated during the invasion of France in along the border with Germany, which were later reinforced by 22 more while the Germans were fighting in the Balkans.

However, the execution date of Operation Barbarossa had to be postponed for two months because Il Duce, Benito Mussolini, decided to reopen the eastern front before Hitler, seeking to invade Greece. However, Italy would not achieve it on its own, which is why German troops already ready to start the invasion of the USSR, located in Prussia, were diverted, as well as all the armored material from the southern sector of Operation Barbarossa.

Diversion in the Balkans of World War II

German soldiers prepare to hoist the German war flag in the Acropolis of Athens.

Firm in his belief that the fall of Great Britain was a matter of time, Mussolini began his program of territorial expansion, even though he knew that his army had not yet completed its rearmament process. Ignoring the advice of his generals and of Hitler himself, Mussolini began to prepare for the occupation of Greece. On October 28, Hitler made an emergency trip to Rome, to convince him to give up his expansionist plan momentarily, but when he arrived, the Italian dictator told him that the invasion had just begun.

Hitler's worst fears were realized when Italian forces were not only unable to quickly occupy Greece but were repelled by a Greek counter-attack into Albania, which at the time was under Italian rule. To make matters worse, Britain sent forces to Crete and Lemnos, while the RAF provided air support. Not wanting to start the war with the Soviet Union with Allied troops south of the Eastern Front, Germany came to Italy's aid.

The German invasion of Greece was due to take place by March 1941, but Yugoslavia was in the way. At that time, the regent, Prince Paul, was under pressure from all sides to take sides soon, so he decided to sign a peace and friendship pact with Germany on March 24, 1941. Then, a coup occurred on the day March 27, overthrowing the prince and installing an anti-German government in power that ignored the pact signed three days before, so on April 6 Germany bombed Belgrade. For this campaign the German army withdrew 31 divisions from their bases, which were already ready to launch the coup against the USSR, facing 42 allied divisions (23 Yugoslav, 15 Greek and 4 British).

Marshal Wilhelm List led the 12th Army in the main thrust through the rugged mountains of Serbia cutting off Yugoslavia to the south from the Greeks and British, whereupon his 2nd Panzer Division broke through to the Greek port of Thessaloniki, causing the Macedonian mountain front to be suddenly encircled and thus ending what the Allies hoped would be a durable front. The Yugoslav army was squeezed into the pocket that formed between Belgrade and Skopje. After eleven days from the start of the fighting (April 17), Yugoslavia surrendered and 335,000 soldiers fell prisoner. Wasting no time, Germany rushed to Greece, forcing the Anglo-Greek front to retreat to avoid being overrun, and then the British embarked from the ports they had reached, heading for the island of Crete. Greek troops were left on their own, forcing Greece to capitulate on April 21 after having lost nearly 233,000 prisoners, most of them in the encirclement of Macedonia. After the capitulation of Greece, Hitler ordered that all Greek and Yugoslav prisoners be released. On April 25, paratroopers were dropped on Crete and managed to capture the island, albeit at great cost.

With the Balkans Front calmed down, Hitler was once again free to start Operation Barbarossa, albeit a few months late. But in the Soviet Union, the situation was completely calm despite the fact that the spy Richard Sorge had given Stalin the approximate date of the German attack as well as the Swedish cryptanalysts. He was only two days wrong when he specified that the attack would take place on June 20, 1941. Stalin, considering that the Battle of Britain was raging, ignored the warnings. Also in 1937, Stalin, succumbing to the disinformation techniques of German counterintelligence, accepted that Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky was cooperating with Nazi Germany. This belief led to the execution of Tukhachevsky, along with other eminent Soviet soldiers, in the course of the Great Purge. In this way, several commanders familiar with the new military tactics were eliminated, undermining Soviet military effectiveness (see the Case of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Military Organization).

Invasion of the Soviet Union

German preparations

Situation in Europe in May/June 1941, immediately before Operation Barbecue

Following the principles set out in My Struggle, the Nazi government planned to occupy Eastern Europe as the German people needed Lebensraum or "living space" to thrive. Hitler planned to expel the population of the Soviet Union beyond the Ural Mountains, according to him his natural region, and the remaining population would die of starvation, generating a surplus of food production that would be destined for Germany. In addition, since in Germany there was a shortage of manpower due to the mobilization of the army, the Russians who survived would become a kind of slave working class. The agricultural fields of the Ukraine and the oil wells of the Caucasus would supply the Third Reich with all the food and fuel for its expansion. In addition, when the Soviet Union fell, the United Kingdom would be completely isolated in Europe and would be forced to sign an armistice.

The weakness of the Red Army was never questioned by Hitler. He commented, "We only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down." Having occupied France, Norway, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Greece and driven the British out of Europe in less than a year, few doubted that Germany could defeat the Soviet Union.

Operation Barbecue Map

Operation Barbarossa, initially planned for May 13, had three million men, divided into three groups: North (Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb), Center (Fedor von Bock) and South (Gerd von Rundstedt). In total 3.5 million German soldiers plus 600,000 Allied soldiers, in total 4,100,000 soldiers amassed in 225 divisions with 600,000 vehicles, 750,000 horses, 4,300 tanks, 7,184 guns and 4,000 Luftwaffe planes along with 19,000 trains. Army Group Center would carry the most tanks and would have to go through Belarus and head straight for Moscow. The Northern Group should occupy Leningrad with the help of Finnish troops and then go to the aid of the Center Group. Meanwhile, the Southern Group would cross the populated Ukraine, then head to the Volga and from there to the oil-rich Caucasus. The German advance of this operation should reach the so-called AA line, which ran from Archangel to Astrakhan.

For its part, by June 1, 1941, the Red Army had a total of 36 armored, 18 motorized, 7 cavalry, and 88 hunting divisions in the western military sectors. The Great Purge carried out in the Red Army greatly aggravated the situation (more than 80% of the officers were eliminated) Stalin killed three of his five marshals, thirteen of his fifteen Army chiefs, more than half of the division generals and almost identical proportion of those of brigade. In addition, at that time the Soviet Union suffered from a great disorganization of the commands and in the initial phase it had a high concentration of troops on the border; and, even worse, for a week the non-provocation order given to the Soviet officers at the border prevailed.

Operation Barbarossa

On June 22, the invasion began, the largest ground operation in history, and it caught the Red Army completely unprepared. Stalin, who was on vacation, ordered not to counterattack for the first day, in the naive hope that it was all a mistake, or that at least a solution could still be found through dialogue. Much of the Soviet air force located near the borders was destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the first and second days of fighting, as a plan was drawn up in which several squadrons of three bombers each would enter Soviet territory covering a radius of 300 kilometers flying almost at ground level and without crossing cities to go against the main airfields of the USSR. In these two days, about 2,500 Soviet planes were shot down, in the air and especially at their airports. The order to locate the planes so close to Germany had recently been given by Lavrenti Beria, and was one of the many causes that led to his execution years later.

The above figures include all German Army personnel, i.e., active duty Heer, Waffen SS, Luftwaffe ground forces, naval coastal artillery personnel, and security units. In the spring of 1940, Germany had mobilized 5,500,000 men. At the time of the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht consisted of, 3,800,000 Heer men, 1,680,000 Luftwaffe, 404,000 Kriegsmarine, 150,000 Waffen-SS and 1,200,000 Replacement Army (contained 450,400 active reservists, 550,000 new recruits and 204,000 in administrative services, vigils or convalescence). The Wehrmacht had a total strength of 7,234,000 men by 1941. For Operation Barbarossa, Germany mobilized 3,300,000 Heer troops, 150,000 Waffen-SS and approximately 250,000 Luftwaffe personnel were actively assigned.

By July 1943, the Wehrmacht numbered 6,815,000 soldiers. Of these, 3,900,000 were deployed to Eastern Europe, 180,000 to Finland, 315,000 to Norway, 110,000 to Denmark, 1,370,000 to Western Europe, 330,000 to Italy and 610,000 to the Balkans. According to a presentation by Alfred Jodl, the Wehrmacht it had up to 7,849,000 personnel by April 1944. 3,878,000 were deployed to Eastern Europe, 311,000 to Norway/Denmark, 1,873,000 to Western Europe, 961,000 to Italy and 826,000 to the Balkans. About 15–20% of the total force German were foreign troops (from allied countries or conquered territories). The peak of Nazi power can be placed just before the Battle of Kursk, in early July 1943: 3,403,000 German troops and 650,000 Finnish, Hungarian, Romanian and other troops.

For nearly two years, the border was quiet as Germany conquered Denmark, Norway, France, the Netherlands, and the Balkans. Hitler always intended to break his pact with the Soviet Union, and finally made the decision to invade in the spring of 1941.

Some historians say that Stalin feared war with Germany, or simply did not expect Germany to start a two-front war, and was reluctant to do anything to provoke Hitler. Others say that Stalin was anxious for Germany to be at war with the capitalist countries. Another view is that Stalin expected the war in 1942 (the time when all his preparations would be complete) and stubbornly refused to believe his early arrival.

British historians Alan S. Milward and M. Medlicott show that Nazi Germany, unlike Imperial Germany, was only prepared for a short-term war (Blitzkrieg). According to Edward Ericson, although the country's own resources Germany sufficed for victories in the West in 1940, the massive Soviet shipments obtained during a short period of Nazi-Soviet economic collaboration were critical for Germany to launch Operation Barbarossa.

Once it became clear that Hitler had finally decided to attack the Soviet Union, orders were issued that revealed the strategic immaturity and bewilderment of the Soviet High Command, STAVKA. Surprised Soviet units were ordered not to retreat: instead, they were to advance and take the fight into enemy territory. German units were to be "surrounded and annihilated." As a result of this order, the Soviet armored divisions of the second defensive line, which should have been carefully kept as reserves, were prematurely thrown into battle. By June 24, in several places, the Germans had pushed more than 150 kilometers into Soviet territory and fatal orders had allowed the Nazis to encircle Soviet forces in considerable numbers.

Upset by the results of the winter war, the Finns joined Germany, and supported by the forces of this country, the 18 Finnish divisions that Marshal Mannerheim had arranged for the invasion, advanced to Lake Ladoga, whose shores they had lost in 1940, and they did not stop until they reached the Karelian Isthmus. However, the Finnish government refused to go ahead, despite pressure from Germany to participate in the assault on Leningrad. Unlike the rest of the Nazi-allied countries, Finland never relinquished control of its troops to a German general, maintaining its military independence at all times.

In addition, Nazi Germany had the support of its satellite countries. Romania contributed the 3rd and 4th Romanian Armies; Between them they included 12 infantry divisions and 10 mountain, cavalry and armored brigades. Hungary's contribution was more modest and consisted of a rapid army corps, made up of a motorized brigade and two cavalry brigades. Slovakia participated with a motorized brigade and two light infantry divisions. All Allied units were subordinate to German Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt.

Within a month, the Baltics and Belarus were in German hands. Hitler sent his tanks north and south to finish taking Leningrad and the Ukraine, despite the fact that his generals advised him to send the offensive directly against Moscow, which was only 400 kilometers away.

In September 1941 kyiv fell and 665,000 Soviet soldiers were trapped, and then in Viazma another 600,000 Soviets were also isolated (see First Battle of kyiv and Viazma Bag). At that time the Soviet losses were enormous, when more than 2,000,000 soldiers had lost their lives, were wounded or prisoners. Under these conditions any other nation would have requested surrender, since the war seemed lost for the Soviets. But that war was a struggle for subsistence and Stalin, recovering from his stupefaction, threw himself fully into organizing the high command to contain the Germans. In the meetings, Stalin left the initiative to the military veterans and gave them full flexibility in their proposals, unlike a Hitler who with the passage of time would insist more and more on exercising total and absolute control of his forces.

In addition, given the impossibility of Army Group North to take Leningrad, the German High Command ordered the city to besiege and starve the civilian population and its garrison. In 900 days of siege, dogs, cats, rats and pigeons disappeared, consumed by their desperate inhabitants. Thus, a million people died little by little due to hunger, cold and bombing. There were many cases of cannibalism.

During this time, the Soviets took the opportunity to send all their industry to the rear, moving thousands of workers from one place to another. Although there were serious organizational problems, the operation achieved its goal and soon the Soviet Union's heavy industries were up and running again in the Urals.

On September 6, Hitler finally allowed the capture of Moscow. However, the German forces had had 10% casualties up to this point, which meant that 200,000 Reich soldiers were out of action, and the cruel Russian winter was already near. Due to the length of the front, the regrouping of the tanks of Army Group Center took a full month, with days subtracted from the campaign against Moscow due to the proximity of December. However, the German High Command was confident, since according to their calculations the Soviets had 60 divisions, although in reality they exceeded 200.

Stabilization of the Eastern Front

Operation Typhoon, as the offensive against the Soviet capital was called, once again used the Blitzkrieg, however, in this case the terrain conditions were not the most suitable for this type of combat. The terrible conditions of the Soviet roads, due to the early October rains, delayed the advance of the tanks and made it very difficult to cross the fields, even on horseback. At 160 kilometers from Moscow, the rain stopped, but snowfall began, which began to cause casualties among the Germans. The OKW had expected a quick victory and had failed to provide proper winter uniforms for its soldiers. At Smolensko, the Army Center met fierce resistance which delayed the advance to Moscow. This delay, coupled with the lack of supplies, delayed the Germans by several weeks. The harshest winter of the century was about to begin and so was the battle for Moscow. The partisans attacked the rear and the German supply lines, and the Russian aircraft bombarded the enemy tracks at night. One of the things that most struck the Germans was the tremendous resilience of the Red Army.

In view of the initial German successes, the spy Richard Sorge warned Stalin that Japan was not planning to attack the Soviet Union, and he decided to bring the divisions that were on the border with Mongolia. In addition, Stalin appointed Gueorgui Zhúkov commander Commander of the Red Army.

On November 15, a campaign was launched against Moscow, trying to encircle it. On November 21, the Fourth Panzer Army came within 30 kilometers of its objective, but stopped at Khimki. At the same time, the 2nd Panzer Army failed in its attempt to take Tula, the only town that stood between them and the Soviet capital. By the end of November, the German generals recognized that Muscovite resistance and the harshness of winter were going to make the capture of Moscow impossible that year. A Soviet counterattack organized by Zhukov left the Germans in a bad light, and for the first time the generals of all three groups suggested a withdrawal. Hitler immediately removed them from command.

On December 8, one of the worst winters (-20 to -50 °C) in Russian history convinced Hitler to suspend military operations until 1942.

While the advance stalled in the North, unexpected progress was made in the South. After winning the Battle of Voronezh, Army Group South followed the Don and Volga rivers south. Although the original plan indicated that he had to first secure these rivers before going to the Caucasus, where the oil fields were, Hitler ordered that the forces be divided and that both objectives be taken at the same time. In this way, the German 6th Army went to Stalingrad alone, while the 4th Panzer Army, which was supposed to help it, was delayed a little because it had to ensure the crossing of the troops to the Caucasus by the Don. By the time the 4th Panzer Army reached Stalingrad, Soviet resistance had become too stiff.

In June 1942, Sevastopol fell into German hands, and the German advance in the Caucasus reached its peak on November 18, however, the extent of the advance with exposed flanks forced the Panzers to withdraw when They were attacked by the Soviets. At this point, Russian artillery, tanks (the famous T-34) and planes (Shturmovik) began to outnumber first and second in quality German tanks and artillery. Apparently Hitler was unaware of the real figures and the enemy warfare, facts that were revealed on his maps during the 1942 offensive.

At this point the German invasion reached its full extent: before long, the Red Army would not only have the necessary forces to stop the Wehrmacht, but also to send it back to Germany.

Tipping Point

Features of the Soviet-German War

Europe at the peak of German military expansion, 1942

Germany's war with the Soviet Union took on unique characters. The hardships imposed by both the war and environmental conditions often exceeded the capacity of human beings to suffer. Hunger, extreme cold, the vastness of the landscape, dust and mud, partisans, lack of mercy and cruelty towards the enemy were unique characteristics in this scenario.

Hitler would issue the following directive Kommissar Befehl, which was the order to assassinate all captured political commissars, without trial and summarily. This measure was counterproductive, since it encouraged the toughest of resistance, since willing not to be caught alive, the political commissars encouraged the resistance to the utmost of officers and soldiers.

Ukrainian and Baltic nationalists initially welcomed the Germans as liberators from the Soviet yoke. But when they realized that the Nazis treated them like an inferior race, the invasion quickly lost this local support. Instead, Stalin revived all the old patriotic and nationalist myths, superseded by the revolution, in order to promote popular resistance. The Soviet press dubbed the war "the Great Patriotic War" and a new magazine called Slavs was circulated, in an attempt to unify all Slavic countries against Germany. This publication was even distributed in South America.

One situation that surprised the Germans was the use of dogs as anti-tank elements. These dogs were trained to get under a tank by Pavlovian instinct, as they had been trained by placing food under tanks. The canine carried a bomb on its back powered by a perpendicular handle that bent when the dog got under the tank and caused the device to explode.

Soon the Soviets, even more so those in the Crimean, Lithuanian and Ukrainian regions, understood that the German intention was their extermination, since the officers turned a blind eye to the robberies of farms and the rapes of women. The massacres in kyiv, Smolensk and other places by the battalions of death, the Einsatzgruppen in charge of the SS, removed all doubts about the fate that awaited them. At this point, both the military and the civilians began to defend themselves to the death, with a stubbornness and a fighting spirit that surprised the Germans. For the first time in history, the Germans observed female soldiers among the corpses of the destroyed defensive posts. Likewise, the supporting role that women provided to the combatant soldier was vital to maintain the combative morale of men, whether serving as liaison officers, radiotelephone operators, or in charge of artillery emplacements or as tank brigade members.

On the other hand, the activities of the partisans meant that for the Germans, going into a forest or serving as a liaison, was equivalent to certain death. During the Battle of Moscow, partisan activity east of Smolensk kept the Reich armies in check for weeks. Despite the fact that some Soviet soldiers went over to the German side (they were called Hiwis, Cossack battalions were even formed in German uniform), the Red Army achieved a surprising degree of recovery far superior to the German. This synergistic mechanism was due, in part, to Allied aid to the Soviet Union, under the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, which provided Great Britain and other allies with large amounts of war material, such as equipment, tanks, American fighter and aircraft. The determination to defend the homeland, and knowing the more than likely fate that would await them at German hands were essential to keep the Red Army and the Soviet people motivated. The appearance of large Soviet tanks such as the KV-1 and the T-34, superior in design and armor to the German Panzer IV, was one of the strengths of the Soviet resistance.

German disaster at Stalingrad

guerrilla warfare in Stalingrad.

During the Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to January 1943), the German army fought fiercely to conquer it. The city was bombed to ruins, but this made it ideal sniper ground. The German 6th Army occupied the main areas of the city until reaching the limits of the Volga River, but this did not diminish the intensity of the fighting. The battle turned into a hand-to-hand fight to control every single building in the city, which was constantly changing hands. On July 28, 1942, in the midst of the fiercest fighting on the southern front, Stalin signed his famous Order 227 prohibiting the withdrawal of occupied positions without prior orders or measures taken for their maintenance, also known as the Order "Not a Step Back!". This document served as a measure of force at a time when discipline in the troops was declining and rumors of the decline of the Soviet army were growing. It noted: «... Our means are unlimited. The territory of the Soviet Union is not a desert, the people are workers, peasants, intellectuals, our fathers, mothers, women, brothers, children... Our front receives more and more planes, tanks, artillery, mine-throwers. What are we missing? We lack order and discipline. If we want to save the position and defend our Homeland, we must establish iron discipline. Thus, an iron discipline was established: withdrawal without a prior order was equated to treason. The consequences of such regulations were unequivocal and have not been studied up to now, but it produced the much-needed effect of mobilizing the flagging army.

On November 19, Operation Uranus was unleashed. The Soviets had been placing troops on both sides of Stalingrad, forming a pincer around the city. On November 23, that clamp closed, trapping 300,000 Reich soldiers. At the same time, Operation Mars attempted to ambush more German soldiers in Smolensk, but failed.

The OKW then began sending troops desperately into the city, in an attempt to free the encircled 6th Army. On December 12, three panzer divisions tried to approach the city in the so-called Operation Wintergewitter ('winter storm'), but stopped 65 kilometers from their objective. At that time, the trapped German soldiers were in dire conditions, without shelter and without food, as if trying to break out from within.

On January 31, 1943, ninety thousand surviving German soldiers surrendered to the Soviet Union. In addition, the Hungarian 2nd Army was wiped out as well.

Stalingrad marked several milestones: the first major German defeat in the war, the point of greatest advance in the Soviet Union, and the bloodiest battle in history; In addition, Friedrich Paulus was captured, being the first German field marshal to be captured alive in history. All historians agree that, although more than two years of war still lay ahead, Germany began to lose it at Stalingrad. Stalin would say for that date: "Sorge saved the Soviet Union", since the reports that he provided to Stalin were invaluable for the withdrawal of Siberian forces from the eastern borders to destine them to Moscow and Stalingrad. These troops fought well in extreme environments. The German Abwehr discovered Sorge's espionage activities and he was arrested by the Kenpeitai (the Japanese equivalent of the Gestapo). Despite Stalin's negotiations, Sorge was executed by hanging on November 7, 1944.

The Russians advanced 500 kilometers beyond Stalingrad, occupying Kursk and Kharkov. However, General Erich von Manstein launched a counteroffensive on February 20, later known as the Third Battle of Kharkov, which allowed the Germans to retake the Ukrainian city. However, the attack left a salient in front whose center was exactly over Kursk.

Operation Citadel

With this situation at the front, Hitler saw the perfect opportunity to launch an offensive that would allow Germany to retake the initiative in the war. Attacking at Kursk was a dangerous move, his generals advised Hitler not to attack, but from now on Germany should fight on the defensive. Hitler ignored them and began to move troops from other fronts towards the Kursk salient, with the aim of trapping the enemy soldiers there. Secretly, Zhukov began moving troops to strengthen the salient, after being informed by his country's intelligence of the German plans.

The attack on the Kursk salient was called Operation Citadel, although today it is known as the Battle of Kursk. The Germans mustered nearly a million men for this operation, as well as 2,700 tanks and 10,000 artillery guns. For their part, the Soviets almost reached a million and a half, as well as 3,600 tanks and twice as many guns.

Everything was set for the greatest tank battle in history, and Germany had to completely defeat the Red Army, because it did not have the reserves to launch another offensive. Hitler knew the importance of this operation and therefore declared:

This operation is of fundamental importance. You must conclude with a quick and decisive success. Each boss and every soldier must be properly prepared to realize the decisive importance of this offensive. The victory of Kursk will be a beacon that will illuminate the world.

The attack began on July 4. In the afternoon Junkers Ju 87 Stuka bombed on the northern lines, at the same time that the artillery attack began. At 22:30 the Soviets replied with an artillery barrage which, aided by the torrential rain, slowed the German advance.

On July 5, 1943, the Soviets, knowing the exact time of the German attack, began a massive artillery barrage on enemy lines 10 minutes earlier, followed by a massive Soviet aircraft attack on the Luftwaffe at their bases, in an attempt to emulate the German tactic of eliminating enemy aircraft within the first hour of the battle. The hours that followed turned into the biggest air battle in history. The 11th Panzer Army in the north found itself almost unable to move. Within minutes of advancing he was caught in the minefields.

After the Germans had advanced only 10 kilometers in a week, the Soviets launched an attack on 2nd Army at Orel. In the south, operations were going somewhat better for the Germans. The spearhead of the 4th Panzer Army, commanded by General Hermann Hoth, reached Prokhorovka. A battle of a thousand tanks was then fought at this railway junction, considered by some historians to be the greatest tank battle in history.

However, despite the alarming number of casualties on the Soviet side, the huge reserve of men helped easily offset the losses of the Red Army. On the German side the situation was different, since despite the fact that the casualties were lower, each one was a sacrifice that Germany could not afford to face.

Still far from his goal, Hitler received the news that British and American troops had just landed in Sicily on July 10 (see Operation Husky), the worst fears of Hitler's generals came true: they had just lose hundreds of thousands of soldiers and had gained almost nothing. Hitler ordered the offensive to be suspended and withdrew troops from the eastern front to the Italian front, although many of these were on the battlefield when the order came.

In the Battle of Kursk, Germany lost nearly 200,000 men, 1,000 tanks, and 200 aircraft. For its part, the Soviet Union lost 600,000 men and 1,500 tanks, as well as a thousand aircraft. However, this country replaced the lost soldiers in a short time, but these losses were unsustainable for Germany, and it never again carried out a large-scale offensive. The German momentum in World War II was lost forever, and for the first time, many German generals realized that their country was going to lose the war.

German expulsion

The Rumyantsev

The Red Army is victorious when entering Bucharest.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Germans were distracted by their own offensive, the western flank of the Red Army launched against Smolensk, which was finally liberated on 25 September. However, the Soviet advance towards the Dnieper River was so rapid and unforeseen that the Second Army under Field Marshal Walther Model was almost cut off. North of the Kursk salient, on the Bryansk Front, another Soviet offensive began, taking Oryol within a week and driving the Germans back 120 kilometers.

On August 3, the Polkovodets Rumyantsev operation began on the Voronezh and Steppe fronts, surprising the Germans again, since their intelligence had informed them that these two Soviet fronts had suffered serious casualties in the battle from Kursk. This information was true, but Germany once again underestimated the enormous human resources that the Red Army possessed. The Rumyantsev managed to liberate Belgorod on the second day. On August 21, Kharkov was also liberated for the second time in the war, albeit this time for good.

Germany then found itself facing offensives from all Soviet fronts as the Central Front, the Southwestern Front, and the Southern Front began their own operations as well. On September 23, the Red Army managed to cross the Dnieper.

Although the 1943 Soviet operations scored a major victory in isolating German forces in the Crimea and liberating Kiev, the Germans thought that exhaustion would cause the offensives to be suspended for the winter. What the OKW did not know is that at the same time, the Kremlin was already planning the liberation of Ukraine that same year.

In the early morning of December 24, 1943, the Soviets stormed along the entire front west of Kiev (see Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive), beginning with an artillery strike against Army Group South. The subsequent infantry assault succeeded in driving the Germans back 20 miles, however the rains immediately began, slowing the Soviet pace considerably. In any case, by January 5, 1944, a gap 240 kilometers wide and 80 kilometers deep had opened, cutting off communication between the Center and South Army Groups.

As the rains subsided, the Soviet offensive resumed again, and between the cities of Korsun and Cherkasy, in Ukraine, about 50,000 German soldiers were encircled (see Battle of Korsun-Cherkasy). In this way, it became increasingly clear that the German situation in the Ukraine was untenable, yet Hitler refused to order a general withdrawal. Odessa fell in April and Sevastopol a month later. By the time the offensive ended the Red Army had liberated most of the Ukraine and had reached the Romanian border, and had inflicted heavy losses on German Army Group South.

After the Smolensk disaster, Army Group Center and North had managed to recover and had kept the Red Army off the Dnieper in the north. However, in January 1944, the Northern fronts were activated again, the Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive finally allowed the siege of Leningrad to be lifted, after a siege of nearly 900 days. Soon after, Novgorod was also liberated and in February the Soviet advance halted at the Estonian border, having pushed back 100 kilometers of the front and completely liberated the Leningrad region.

Operation Bagration

Map of Operation Bagration.

With the front in the south very isolated, the Soviet High Command concluded that it would be best to advance through Belarus as well, since if the Soviet troops continued advancing through the Ukraine it would dangerously extend the supply lines. Bagration, whose goal would be to push the front beyond Minsk. The Germans, for their part, had been withdrawing troops from Belarus, as they expected an attack further south, in front of Lviv.

On June 6, Anglo-American troops finally landed in Europe, relieving pressure on the Eastern Front.

On June 9, 1944, the Red Army managed to drive the Finns out of Lake Ladoga. The Germans in Finland, commanded by General Lothar Rendulic, began to prepare to escape from Finland, because they knew that this country would soon betray them. Carl Gustaf Mannerheim himself had warned them some time ago that if the Germans were expelled from Estonia, Finland would negotiate for peace. Indeed, on September 19, the Soviet Union and Finland signed an armistice, and this country declared war on Germany shortly after (see Lapland war). In their flight, the Germans would devastate several towns as a retaliatory measure, including Rovaniemi.

On June 23, Operation Bagration was unleashed, and the results were palpable in less than 24 hours. Thus, by June 27, the German forces at Vitebsk had been defeated, while the German 9th Army, some 70,000 men, had been almost entirely captured.

Meanwhile, the German 4th Army, retreating from Orsha, had to halt at the Berezina River, because Hitler forbade it to go back any further. When disaster was imminent, the commander of the 4th Army disobeyed orders, and made the troops cross, avoiding a major disaster.

Soviet and Polish soldiers of the Krajowa Armia in Vilna, July 1944

On the other hand, Army Group North also came under fire, as many troops withdrew south to Minsk, where they were encircled on 3 July. A week later, the city fell. Immediately the Red Army advanced into Lithuania and quickly took Vilnius.

Finally, on August 29, the Soviet advance came to a halt. By this time, the Second Belorussian Front was less than fifty miles from East Prussia, at the time part of Germany. Further south, the First Belorussian Front had entered Poland and crossed the Vistula River, and an important part of Army Group North had not been able to withdraw and had been isolated in Courland. After advancing nearly 600km on a 1,120km front, the Baltic states had been liberated from Nazi occupation, and it was only a matter of time before Poland would also be liberated by the Soviet Union. Furthermore, in the south, the advance on the Ukraine had finally been completed, and on August 23, the pro-Nazi government of Romania was overthrown. On September 12, Romania surrendered, and the Balkans were completely opened to the Red Army.

In all, Operation Bagration hit sixteen German divisions and inflicted casualties on another 50 divisions. With the Allies landing in France to the west, and having lost over 200,000 men in the east in the past three months, it was Obviously the Wehrmacht would have to take extraordinary measures if it wanted to prevent the Soviets from entering the heart of Germany.

Conquest of Germany

Advance into Germany

With the Soviets a few kilometers from Warsaw, the Poles of the Armia Krajowa decided that it was time to rise up en masse against the German occupation. However, the Soviet offensive had to be halted due to supply problems: the best Soviet forecasts had not predicted such an advance and therefore the supply lines had been stretched too far. Furthermore an attack by four panzer divisions at the same time pushed back the Soviet vanguard which was already reaching the suburbs of Warsaw. For this or other reasons Stalin did not provide any support to the Poles, who for two months and with the help dropped by the British and Americans from the air, faced elite SS troops. The tragic Warsaw uprising ended with the execution of 250 000 civilians, as well as the practically total destruction of Warsaw and the dissolution of the Polish resistance movement as a relevant military force.

Prisoners in the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz in Poland, during the liberation of the Red Army, January 1945

In September 1944, troops of the Fourth Ukrainian Front, together with Czechoslovak soldiers integrated into the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps, advanced into Slovakia in a vain attempt to aid the Slovak partisans in their rebellion against the occupation. German (see Slovak National Uprising). Despite their attempts to succor the partisans, the insurrection was crushed by the Germans and their Hungarian allies the Arrow Cross Militia. The rapid German intervention and the difficulty of traversing the German-occupied Carpathian mountain passes prevented the Soviets from assisting the partisans in their insurrection. The Soviet offensive was very costly and only the Battle of Dukla Pass, it cost the Soviets 85,000 casualties.

In January 1945, the Soviets finally reached Warsaw, and with a force of tanks, infantry, and artillery ten times the German forces, they resumed their offensive, covering thirty to forty kilometers a day in Poland. The German population of East Prussia, Danzig and Poznan was evacuated as part of Operation Hannibal. Several ships with German civilians and soldiers were sunk by Russian submarines, the best known being the Wilhelm Gustloff and the Goya, with eight thousand and six thousand dead respectively. The German exodus led thousands of refugees to seek refuge in cities such as Koblenz, Dresden and Hamburg, which would be firebombed by the Americans and British, with thousands of civilians killed including English prisoners of war. Only in Dresden were more than 40,000 missing, this as a result of the allied policy chaired by the Air Marshal, the English Arthur Harris.

On January 27, troops of Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front (322nd Rifle Division, 60th Army) liberated the Auschwitz death camp. Despite attempts by retreating SS units to destroy parts of the camp, Soviet forces still found graphic evidence of the Holocaust. There they found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners. The Germans had been forced to abandon them during the hasty retreat from the camp. They also left the victims' belongings: 348,820 men's suits, 836,255 women's coats, and tens of thousands of pairs of shoes. Later the Soviets would also liberate other death camps such as Płaszów, Stutthof, and Ravensbrück.

German refugees from East Prussia, February 1945

By early February, the Red Army was deployed along the Oder River, some 60 km from Berlin. What remained of Army Group North continued to hold out in Courland, forgotten by Berlin, while Army Group Center was also isolated in Königsberg. Only half of Army Group South (Army Group A) remained to guard the entrance to Berlin, as many troops had been sent into western Germany to try to hold back the Anglo-American offensive during the Battle of the Bulge.

In addition to renaming Army Group North, Army Group Courland, Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler commander of the newly created Army Group Vistula, despite the fact that he had no experience commanding troops, this decision was made by the simple reason that Hitler no longer trusted the Wehrmacht since the attack on July 20 (Operation Valkyrie). The counterattack launched by Himmler on February 24 failed, after the war the Pomerania region was divided into two parts and the eastern part was annexed to Poland.

Further south, three German attempts to extricate their trapped troops in Budapest failed, and the Budapest garrison launched a suicide charge against the Soviets, killing most of them, although some Germans managed to escape. However, Hitler ordered his men to advance to the Danube, executing an offensive on Lake Balaton, which failed. This was the last major offensive by Germany for the remainder of the war.

Taking advantage of the German failure, the Red Army liberated Hungary, and by April 13, Vienna had also been liberated. On April 9, the German garrison at Königsberg surrendered, however the fighting in Heiligenbeil and Danzig continued until the end of the war in Europe.

Battle of Berlin

The Soviet and Polish forces designated to launch this offensive numbered 2.5 million men (2,062,100 combat troops, including 155,900 Poles), 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft, 41,600 artillery pieces, 3,255 Katyusha rocket launchers, and nearly one hundred thousand transportation vehicles. These forces were opposed by one million German soldiers (766,750 combat troops), 1,519 tanks, 9,303 artillery pieces and 3,000 aircraft, although severe fuel shortages substantially limited Luftwaffe air support.

On April 16, the so-called Battle of Berlin began, and while Zhukov encountered trouble on the so-called Seelow Hills (see Battle of the Seelow Hills), in the south, Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front it made it safely south of Berlin. Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front came under pressure to quicken the pace, as he wished to capture Berlin first. Zhukov surrounded Berlin and attacked from the northwest, while Konev, halted momentarily on Stalin's orders, then reached Berlin and attacked from the south.

On April 24, General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the LVI Panzer Corps, went to Hitler's bunker to be shot after being accused of escaping to Potsdam. However, as a symptom of the mental instability that Hitler displayed in his final months, Weidling was not only not executed, but instead made Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Berlin, as Goebbels, the nominal Defender of Berlin, had no preparation. military. The battle for Berlin was tough, the Nazis recruited males between the ages of 13 and 60 (see Volkssturm), so it was normal to see Hitler Youth children, as well as the elderly and disabled, at artillery posts or using Panzerfausts. Casualties were very high on both sides, and buildings in Berlin suffered extensive damage, including the Reich Chancellery, the Reichstag, and the Brandenburg Gate. Those civilians who refused to fight were immediately executed by the Nazis. The number of prisoners was low compared to other battles, the members of the Hitler Youth were among those who fought the most fiercely, only two of them surviving. Hitler refused to leave the capital to go to Berchtesgaden, so the high officers of the Wehrmacht refused to surrender, since they had all taken an oath of allegiance to the Führer.

The Feldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel surrenders to the Soviets on May 9, 1945.

On April 30, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler committed suicide along with his wife, Eva Braun. Several important figures in the Nazi government did the same, including Joseph Goebbels and his wife, who had previously poisoned their six children. Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann disappeared in the battle, although several people say they saw him dead with two shots to the back in a Berlin subway station. Weidling surrendered the city to the Soviets on May 2. Feldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel was captured and later participated in the signing of the surrender document.

In the battle 80,000 Soviet soldiers died and 280,000 were wounded, on the German side the casualties are estimated at 458,080 killed and wounded and 479,298 prisoners. In addition, some 22,000 German civilians were killed during the fighting.

Admiral Karl Dönitz was appointed President by Hitler before he died, and Hitler gave General Alfred Jodl permission to sign an unconditional surrender with the Soviet Union on May 7, effective the next day. Hitler's other trusted men, Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler, had fallen out of favor by trying to make peace separately with the Allies. Both committed suicide after being captured by the Americans.

May 9, Victory Day for the Soviet Union, became a holiday, and an impressive parade was held on Red Square in Moscow on June 24 (see 1945 Moscow Victory Parade).

German forces stationed in Prague refused to surrender, hoping that the Americans could capture the city before the Soviets. When it became obvious that the Americans had no intention of occupying Czechoslovakia, they stopped fighting and fled west. All the rumors that existed, assuring that the Germans had built a series of impregnable fortresses in the Alps (Alpenfestung), turned out to be false, and most of the German troops, fed up with the war, surrendered en masse to the Western allies.

The Marshal of the Soviet Union Gueorgui Zhúkov (in front, second from the left), the Soviet General Vasili Sokolovski (in the back, with decoration), the Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovski (in front, first from the right) and the British quarter Marshal Bernard Montgomery (in front, second from the right-hand gate) are removed from the Soviet ceremony.

Consequences

Casualties

Nazi Germany lost more than 80% of its best troops while fighting the Soviet Union.

The Eastern Front was unparalleled in Europe for its ferocity and brutality. The fighting involved millions of soldiers and civilians on the Soviet side and the German side. On this front of operations, more than 5.2 million men of all the Axis forces died or disappeared. German civilian deaths due to war crimes in flight or expulsion and forced labor in the Soviet Union is 1.1 million, and some 400,000 opposition German and Austrian civilians, gays and Jews murdered in German death camps, while Soviet losses are double or triple those figures, with more than 6.8 million servicemen killed in action and more than 3.8 million prisoners and militiamen killed in captivity or in German death camps, about 57 percent of the prisoners. The treatment given by the Germans to Soviet POWs was dramatically different from that given to British and American POWs. Of the 231,000 British and American prisoners incarcerated by the Germans during the war, only 8,300–3.6 percent—died at German hands. On the other hand, of the 2,389,560 German prisoners captured by the Soviets during the entire war about 469,687 died during their captivity, a significantly lower figure.

Civilian deaths range from 10 million from military activity to war crimes against humanity by the German military and SS; more than 4 million due to hunger, cold and disease. The high number of civilians and soldiers taken prisoner reveals the mistreatment suffered by both sides, the brutality shown by the Nazis against civilians in the occupation of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union following Hitler's orders to empty these lands of their inhabitants., whom they considered inferior, Untermenschen , to provide the living space needed by the German nation, the “superior” race, the Ubermenschen . The use of the scorched earth tactic, ordered by Hitler and Stalin, caused thousands to die of cold and hunger, as well as the destruction of the entire infrastructure of many cities, Stalingrad and Warsaw for example. The progress of the artillery and the massive bombardment caused large masses of soldiers to be annihilated in minutes. As for the prisoners, they fainted from exhaustion due to forced labor, hunger, cold, and mass executions.

German losses overall include the ᛋᛋ schutzstaffel, volkssturm, Hitler youth, Todt organization, reichsarbeitsdienst, Reich transport ministry and police (330 181). Suicides, death sentences, no information (48,000).

Axis Allied losses include ROA (Russian Liberation Army) troops (215,000), Finns (55,403), Other Allied losses (44,200). Austrian prisoners (156,682), other Allied prisoners (450,600).

The Soviet Union's Allied losses include the Yugoslavs (450,000) and the Czechs (3,000).

Polish forces, initially consisting of refugees from both the German and Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, began fighting alongside the Red Army in 1943. As Poland began to be liberated, more Poles joined the fray.

Countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia switched sides when the Soviet Union approached their borders.

Fate of countries on the Eastern Front

Post-war occupation zones of Germany.

Following the agreements reached at the Yalta Conference and defined at the Potsdam Conference, Poland would cede territory to the Soviet Union, recovering it from Germany. In this way, the Silesian region, the western half of East Prussia and two thirds of Pomerania were obtained by Poland. The other half of East Prussia passed into Soviet hands, and today it is administered by Russia under the name of Kaliningrad Oblast. The regions of Lorraine and Alsace are returned to France, this country in turn occupies the Saar region, Germany's coal reserve. In 1954, the Saarland is declared a European free zone, but three years later, the inhabitants of the Saarland declare themselves German again. The Sudetenland area is returned to Czechoslovakia, and Austria becomes an independent nation again. Norway and Denmark are vacated by the Germans, though a southern Danish province joins Germany again in a referendum. In total Germany lost 25% of its territory before Hitler's annexations began.

Germany is divided into four occupation zones, although there were doubts about giving a zone to France, considering France's insignificant role in the war. Subsequently, at Stalin's suspicious insistence on unifying Germany, in 1949, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States united their occupation zones under the name of West Germany, the part occupied by the Soviet Union becoming East Germany. A unified Germany would regain its sovereignty in 1991.

Austria is also divided into four occupation zones, but this country regains its sovereignty shortly after.

Finland also maintains its sovereignty. In addition to reestablishing the 1940 borders, Finland had to cede the entire area around Petsamo, permanently losing its outlet to the Barents Sea, and had to lend the Porkkala peninsula to the Soviet Union until 1956.

The monarchies of Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Yugoslavia do not return to power or, if to do so, are overthrown shortly thereafter. In Yugoslavia the communist Josip Broz Tito comes to power through elections.

Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine and Belarus continued to be Republics federations of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union emerges from the war as a world-class superpower, with a huge and modern army. Unlike the Western powers, however, this country has suffered irreparable damage to its infrastructure, demanding heavy war reparations from Germany's bankrupt economy.

Common mass of Soviet soldiers, concentration camp of German prisoners of war in Deblin, Poland occupied by the Germans

After the war, those military or Nazi leaders of the Axis forces were arrested and tried in a series of trials. The most famous of these were the so-called Nuremberg Trials, due to the political importance of the courts. In all, few Germans were executed through these trials, although many were imprisoned, most would go free before the 1970s. No allies were held responsible for any war crimes.

The Reich Chancellery was demolished in a ceremony attended by Sir Winston Churchill, who later claimed to have seen several Germans crying. Officially, Hitler's remains have never been found, but reliable Russian sources say they were partially recovered by Soviet forces, and along with the remains of the Goebbels family, were taken to a place in East Germany. In 1970, by order of the Kremlin, the bones of Hitler and Eva Braun were reduced to ashes and thrown into a river. In Moscow, only fragments of their skulls and teeth have been preserved to this day.

Conclusion

On the 50th anniversary of the Normandy landings, an American magazine published on the cover a photo of General Eisenhower, who was described as the man who defeated Hitler. But if anyone deserved that distinction, it was not Eisenhower, but Zhukov, Vasilevsky, Konev, or perhaps Stalin himself.

In November 1942 the British defeated the Afrika Korps at the Battle of Alamein, inflicting Axis losses of around 60 000 men. That same month the Soviets encircled the Sixth Army and part of the 4th Panzer Army and crushed the Romanian Third and Fourth Armies at the Battle of Stalingrad and inflicted Axis losses of about 300 000 men. In May 1943 the Western Allies defeated the Axis at the Battle of Tunis, where after heavy fighting some 250 000 men surrendered. Meanwhile, the Red Army wiped out the encircled Sixth Army and destroyed the Italian Eighth Army and Hungarian Second Army, during Operation Little Saturn, for losses of over 500 000 men.

The figures of losses of the Axis Forces reinforce this image of the Eastern Front as the main theater of the war, thus between September 1942 and November 1943 the Wehrmacht suffered on the Eastern Front, 2 077 000 kills. Between June and November 1944, when Nazi Germany was already fighting on two fronts, the Wehrmacht suffered 903 000 casualties on the Eastern Front. at the 554 000 casualties it suffered on all other fronts. Finally during the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans lost about 120 000 men, while in the East on the same dates, they suffered casualties of about 1 750 000 men killed, wounded and taken prisoner.

As a whole the total losses of the Wehrmacht during World War II were 13 488 000 between dead, wounded and prisoners. Of which 10 758 000 fell, were wounded, or were taken prisoner in the East. The stark inscription Fallen in the East carved on countless German graves line the road between Berlin and Moscow, silent witness to the Red Army's victory over the Nazi Germany.

In the words of Muñoz Lorente, "the Eastern Front represented everything that in terms of contempt for human life and the morality of war could have been imagined in civilized societies".