The Second World War was fought on the territory of 40 countries, 72 states took part in it. In 1941, Germany had the strongest army in the world, but several crucial battles led the Third Reich to defeat.
Battle of Moscow (disruption of the blitzkrieg)
The battle for Moscow showed that the German blitzkrieg had failed. More than 7 million people took part in this battle in total. This is more than the Berlin operation, included in the Guinness Book as the largest battle of World War II, and more than the enemy forces on the western front after the Normandy landings.
Moscow was defended by "the whole world." So, the feat of the senior groom of the village of Lishnyagi, Serebryano-Prudskiy region, Ivan Petrovich Ivanov, who on December 11, 1941 repeated the feat of Ivan Susanin, led a German convoy of 40 cars into the deep ravine "Belgorodskie sosny".
The victory over the enemy was also helped by a simple teacher from Krasnaya Polyana, Elena Gorokhova, who informed the command of the Red Army about the redeployment of German units with long-range artillery batteries.
As a result of the counteroffensive near Moscow and the general offensive, the German units were driven back 100-250 km. The Tula, Ryazan and Moscow regions, many areas of the Kalinin, Smolensk and Oryol regions were completely liberated.
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General Gunther Blumentritt wrote: “Now it was important for political leaders in Germany to understand that the days of the blitzkrieg were over. We were opposed by an army that was far superior in combat qualities to any other army we had ever encountered on the battlefield. But it should be said that the German army also demonstrated high moral resilience in overcoming all the disasters and dangers that befell it."
Battle of Stalingrad (radical change)
The Battle of Stalingrad was the main turning point of the Second World War. The Soviet military command made it clear that there was no land beyond the Volga. The assessments of this battle and the losses suffered by Stalingrad by foreign historians are interesting.
In the book Operation Survive, which was published in 1949 and written by the famous American publicist Hessler, who is difficult to suspect of a pro-Russian position, it was stated: “According to the highly realistic scientist Dr. Philip Morrison, it would take at least 1000 atomic bombs to inflict the damage caused only during the Stalingrad campaign … This is much more than the number of bombs that we have accumulated after four years of tireless efforts."
The Battle of Stalingrad was a struggle for survival.
The beginning was laid on August 23, 1942, when German aviation 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 applied revolutionary innovations to 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 the sectors of the Stalingrad Front. The most effective means of psychological pressure was the monotonous beat of the metronome, which was interrupted after 7 beats with 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", tango was heard 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, in which there was an almost 300,000-strong enemy group.
In Stalingrad, one of Hitler's “favorites”, Marshal Paulus, who became a field marshal in the days of the Battle of Stalingrad, was captured. By early 1943, Paulus' 6th Army was a pitiful sight. On January 8, the Soviet military command turned to the German commander with an ultimatum: if he did not surrender by 10 o'clock the next day, all Germans in the "cauldron" would be destroyed. Paulus did not react to the ultimatum. On January 31, he was taken prisoner. 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 the Kursk Bulge (transfer of the initiative to the Red Army)
The victory in the battles at 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 pinned great hopes on Operation Citadel and declared that "The victory at Kursk should serve as a torch for the whole world."
The importance of these battles was also understood by the Soviet command. It was important for the Red Army to prove that it can win victories not only during the winter campaigns, but also in the summer, therefore, the forces of not only the military, but also the civilian population were invested in the victory at the Kursk Bulge. 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 of the Battle of Kursk was the Battle of Prokhorovka. The largest tank battle in history, with 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, did not feel any thirst, or heat, or even blows in a cramped tank cabin. One thought, one aspiration - while alive, beat the enemy. Our tankers, who got out of their wrecked vehicles, searched the field for enemy crews, also left without equipment, and beat them with pistols, grabbed hand-to-hand ….
After Prokhorovka, our troops launched a decisive offensive. Operations "Kutuzov" and "Rumyantsev" allowed the liberation of Belgorod and Oryol, on August 23, Kharkov was liberated.
Battle for the Caucasus (preservation of Soviet oil, liberation of the Black Sea region)
Oil is called the "blood of war". From the very beginning of the war, one of the main routes of the German offensive was directed towards the Baku oil fields. Controlling them was a priority for the Third Reich.
The battle for the Caucasus was marked by air battles in the skies over the Kuban, which became one of the largest air battles of the Second World War. For the first time in Soviet pilots they imposed their will on the Luftwaffe and actively interfered with and opposed the Germans' fulfillment of their combat missions. From May 26 to June 7, the Red Army Air Force conducted 845 sorties at the Nazi airfields in Anapa, Kerch, Saki, Sarabuz and Taman. In total, during the battles in the skies of the Kuban, Soviet aviation made about 35 thousand sorties.
On September 9, 1943, the last operation of the battle for the Caucasus began - Novorossiysko-Tamanskaya. 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, the prerequisites were created for an amphibious operation in the Crimea. In honor of the liberation of the Taman Peninsula on October 9, 1943, a salute was given in Moscow with 20 volleys of 224 guns.
Ardennes operation (disruption of the "last blitzkrieg" of the Wehrmacht)
The Battle of the Ardennes is called "the last blitzkrieg of the Wehrmacht." This was the last attempt by the Third Reich to turn the tide on the Western Front. The operation was commanded by Field Marshal V. Model, who ordered to start it 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 break through to the West for 100 kilometers, surround them and strike from the flanks. The Wehrmacht did not foresee this maneuver.
The Allies knew about the Ardennes operation in advance, as they could read the German Ultra system codes. In addition, aerial reconnaissance reported on the movements of German troops.
Despite the fact that the initiative was initially with the Allies, the Germans were well prepared for the Ardennes. The time for the start of the offensive was chosen taking into account the fact that the Allied aviation could not provide air support. Also, the Germans went for a trick: everyone who knew English was dressed in American uniforms and, under the leadership of Otto Skorzeny, created assault squads from them so that they sow panic in the American rear.
Part of the "Panthers" was disguised as American tanks, bulwarks were hung on them, muzzle brakes were removed from the cannons, the towers were covered with sheet metal and large white stars were painted on the armor.
With the beginning of the offensive, the "false panthers" rushed to the rear of the American troops, but the cunning of the Germans was "chewed" out of stupidity. Some of the Germans asked for a gas station and said “petroleum” instead of “gas”. The Americans didn't say that. The saboteurs were exposed, and their cars were burned with bazookas.
The Wehrmacht lost in battles more than a third of its armored vehicles and almost all aircraft (including jet) that participated 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 by six weeks: it had to be postponed to January 29, 1945.