Chapter 1 - The Great Patriotic War
Chapter 1: The Great Patriotic War
(June 1941 to January 1942)
As dawn broke on the morning of June 22nd 1941, the sounds of war resounded all across Russia. Over 4.5 million troops poured across Russia’s western border: Operation Barbarossa, Adolf Hitler’s greatest gamble, had begun. The Soviet Army, under orders by Stalin himself to not reply to German provocations, were utterly caught by surprise.
The front on the morning of June 22nd 1941
Major German thrusts in the North and South gained considerable ground. Even though Red Army forces fought bravely to stem the Nazi onslaught, they were unable to halt the Wehrmacht’s advance. By July 5th, Russian forces had been almost completely pushed out of Poland, while advance elements of the 18th Army reached the south bank of the Dniepr opposite of the city of Riga. Faced with this onslaught, Stalin was forced to realize that the only hope the Red Army had of preventing the encirclement of thousands of divisions was to order an orderly retreat towards the Dniepr, where the Red Army would (hopefully) be capable of repelling German attacks. Meanwhile, in the North, Finnish forces launched a limited offensive with Petrozavodsk as an objective. However, Soviet forces soon launched a counterattack and successfully dislodged the Finnish troops on July 14th. While the Red Army had found some limited success against Finland, it was unable to prevent German forces from taking Riga. By August 4th, German forces had reached the outskirts of Kiev.
The extent of German gains by the beginning of August
On August 7th, the German 6th Army, led by General Fretter-Pico launched a major offensive in and around the city. Leading the defence was General Trubnikov, commander of the 6th Mechanized division. Overall, more than 25 divisions took part in the battle. The main attack on Kiev took place in the early morning of the 8th of August, spearheaded by the 46th Infantry Division supported by the 1st Panzer Division. The Germans met heavy resistance and suffered heavy losses. Nevertheless, by August 11th, Russian forces had been successfully dislodged from their defensive positions along the town’s outskirts and were pushed back towards the center of the city. Elsewhere, Russian forces near Priluki were attacked by elements of the 8th Army, threatening the encirclement. Even in the face of concerted Russian counterattacks, German forces were able to secure and hold Priluki, therefore completing the encirclement of Kiev. Even though they were now encircled with little prospect of rescue, Russian still put up a stubborn defence.
A map demonstrating the three main stages of the battle of Kiev
By August 21st, the Germans had managed to push the defenders back to the center of the town. After a series of heavy bombardments by artillery and the Luftwaffe, the Germans attacked once more. After a few days of intense and bloody street fighting, the defenders of Kiev eventually broke. Though General Trubnikov formally surrendered on behalf of remaining Red Army forces in Kiev on August 29th, there were a few pockets of resistance that refused to surrender. By September 3rd however, the city was completely under Axis control. Meanwhile, elsewhere along the front, German forces were meeting increasingly stiff resistance. Nevertheless, Soviet troops were still being pushed back in the North and South. German efforts to take the town of Sumy in late September resulted in a massive counterattack by some 82 divisions in and around the town of Priluki. Although the attack initially met some success, the superiority of the German army in terms of training and equipment meant that Soviet forces incurred tremendous losses. Finally, after the Germans were able to free up divisions further north to reinforce the town, the Russians had to concede defeat. Capitalizing on their victory, the Germans launched their own counterattack on October 22nd, capturing Sumy and pushing Soviet forces back to Kharkov by mid-November. By December 11th, advance elements of the 6th Army broke through at Bilovodsk and reached Rossosh.
Advance elements of the 6th Army taking Rossosh
However, victories at Smolensk and Novossirisk inflicted heavy losses on the Wehrmacht. Finally, with the arrival of the cold Russian winter, the German advance grinded to a halt.... but at what cost? Indeed, by the end of 1941, the Soviet Union had already lost more than half a million men, while German losses are estimated to have been close to 216 000 casualties. Furthermore, the Germans still controlled most of Western Russia, having established a continuous frontline from Narva in the Baltic to Stalino in the South. The war was still far from won...
A chart displaying the losses suffered by all nations in 1941
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All right that's all for now. I'd like to have an update ready every few days but with school I'll probably be limited to a single update a week. Anyway, hope you enjoyed and there's more where that came from
(for real this time
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