In the last months of 1942 the German forces
were encircled at Stalingrad. At first the Germans hoped to reverse the
situation by relieving the pocket and maintaining it by air supply. However, as 1943 began the Germans were forced
to abandon their plans to relieve the city and were pushed back from its approaches. Despite that they ordered their troops in
Stalingrad to hold out as long as possible in order to tie up Soviet units and buy time. The advance of the Red Army created the possibility
of the German troops in the Caucasus to be cut off. They ordered a full withdrawal from the region,
while their forces in the North kept the path of retreat open. The main effort of the Red Army was, however,
directed against the Hungarian and Italian units on the Northern flank. Their lightly equipped forces were unable
to hold the line and were forced into a harsh winter retreat. Most of them lost their combat capabilities
or were destroyed, leaving a large gap in the Axis lines. The German units in the North had also to
retreat, but they were able to keep their battle worthiness intact. At the same time the Germans managed to pull
back part of their forces from the Caucasus. The remaining troops formed a bridgehead on
the Coast to retain the opportunity for a summer push towards the oil fields. During January both sides had their full attention
set on the Southern sector. The lack of the German reserves allowed the
Red Army to achieve two small, but significant victories. In the North they reestablished a land connection
to Leningrad and in the Central part of the front they captured the railway junction of
Velikiye Luki. For the Axis, the situation in the South continued
to deteriorate. The German troops in Stalingrad surrendered,
freeing up significant number of Soviet units. The Red Army forces moving west into the Ukraine
were not very formidable, but the large gap in the Axis line left them little opposition. The Soviet command decided to exploit this
opportunity and attempted to cut off almost all of the army group South. In response the Germans used the forces retrieved
from the Caucasus to extend their front eastwards and pulled their main force west. The Red Army moved further west to bypass
their line and encircle them, but this overextended their forces. The Germans counterattacked from two sides
and disorganized their forward detachments. Having caught the Soviet Southern flank off
balance, the Germans now wanted to push in both from North and South at the same time
destroying the whole Soviet force. They began to muster their units for the Northern
attack. In the South their troops continued onwards
retaking Kharkov. But in the North they failed to concentrate
a force sufficient for the attack, though they were able to stop the Red Army’s advance. By this time both the Soviets and the Germans
had exhausted their forces and went on the defensive. As the fighting in the South had drawn all
the German reinforcements, the Red Army prepared to launch a major offensive in the North and
Center. The Germans realized the danger and responded
by abandoning their most vulnerable positions before the Soviets had finished deployment
and the attacks that took place failed to achieve their goals. Being confronted with a much stronger German
line, the Red Army abandoned its offensive plans and the Eastern front became quiet. With the end of the winter campaign, the Axis
had lost the capabilities necessary to knock the Soviet Union out of the war by capturing
the areas vital for its war effort. Now they planned to win through attrition
by holding on to the occupied areas and inflicting vast casualties to the attacking Red Army. In this way they could drain the areas remaining
under the Soviet control dry of resources and create a stalemate. The Red Army, on the other hand, set out to
take back the economically vital western lands of the Soviet Union, which would give it a
strategic advantage. However this time they would play it safe. Their previous offensives had been threatened
by the German armoured counterattacks and this time they decided to receive them on
prepared defences. At the same time with building up the fortifications,
the Red Army formed a massive offensive force. As part of their defensive strategy the Germans
planned a number of limited offensives to encircle Soviet forces and shorten their defensive
line. The most promising of these was the encirclement
of the Soviet units in the Kursk salient. It took three months for the German build-up
to match the gradually improved Soviet defences and in the beginning of July they launched
their attack. The Germans made some headway, but were ultimately
stopped dead in the depth of the Soviet defenses. Having, for the time, tied up the strongest
German armoured units, the Red Army now released its forces for the offensive. The attacks were to be carried out in consecutive
stages along several sectors of the front. First, the Red Army struck into the rear of
the German troops North of Kursk. Being unable to contain the attack and wishing
to avoid the danger of encirclement, the Germans began the process of evacuating the salient. At the same time the Red Army launched an
attack in the South. The Germans redeployed their forces and contained
it. By this time the Soviet units South of Kursk
had finished reorganization and pushed towards Kharkov. The Germans redeployed their forces to the
sector, but failed to hold the city, though succeeded in temporarily containing the Soviet
advance.The situation in the North was more under the German control. The Red Army failed to break through the German
defences near Smolensk. At the same time the Germans had finished
their withdrawal to the new line, strengthening their position further. By this time the Germans had been able to
maintain the balance and check the Red Army’s attacks. However, the renewal of the Soviet offensive
near the sea broke the German line and forced them into a large scale retreat. Even more, the concurrent offensive against
the lightly fortified German positions on the former western edge of the Kursk salient
resulted in a breakthrough the Germans weren’t able to contain. They now realized that they lacked the troops
necessary to contain the Soviets on their present line and ordered a retreat to a much
better defendable Panther-Wotan position, that was centered around the Dnieper river
and its tributaries. They also abandoned the bridgehead towards
the Caucasus. At the same time the Soviet breakthrough near
Smolensk hastened the retreat of Army Group Center. With the German forces taking a stronger defensive
position, the Red Army had to concentrate its main effort on a shorter section of the
front. They decided to make regaining Western Ukraine
the main priority. First, however, we’ll take a look at the
central part of the front, where the Red Army had outrun the Germans to the Dnieper and
had established a bridgehead on the junctions of the Army Groups Center and South. They planned to trap the whole Army Group
Center by combined strikes from the bridgehead and from a breakthrough in the North, while
the other forces would pin the Germans in place. In October, while part of the Red Army was
still recovering from the pursuit, battles were fought in order to secure the bridgehead,
meanwhile the other forces began creating a breach in the Northern part of the front. With their main focus being in the South,
the Red Army had established several bridgeheads over the Dnieper in Ukraine. After they had got their heavy equipment over
the river, they attempted local breakouts, first of which took place in the South. The Germans were able to contain it. Then the Soviets broke through the German
land front severing their connection with the Crimea. They proceeded with another breakout attempt
near Kiev, but the Germans redeployed their troops and pushed it back towards the river. Having not fully succeeded in the breakouts
the Red Army adopted a more systematic approach, slowly but surely expanding its bridgeheads
and massing troops for a larger breakout. In the Center the Red Army was now better
prepared, which allowed it to increase the pressure. It resulted in a breakthrough in the North. The Germans held on to the flanks in the hopes
of conducting a counterattack and cutting the Soviet forces off. Then the Soviets launched their main attack
from the southern bridgehead. It broke through the lines and gained limited
success, though it failed to achieve its objective. The Germans were able to prevent a deeper
breakthrough by abandoning territory and pulling back their front line. As 1943 ended the Red Army was ready for the
winter offensive, which would encompass the whole Soviet-German front. In Ukraine the Germans had concentrated their
defences in the great bend of the Dnieper. This allowed the Red Army to catch them off
balance by mounting a breakout from the Kiev bridgehead. The Germans managed to contain their advance
only with great difficulties. They wanted to keep their last position near
the Dnieper river as a staging area for a possible counter attack and did not evacuate
it despite the evident threat. The Red Army exploited this by cutting the
salient off with a two pronged attack. The Germans launched a rescue attempt and
were able to retrieve part of the encircled forces, but without their heavy equipment. With the German attention directed towards
the pocket, the Soviet forces launched attacks on the flanks threatening to sever the connection
between the Army Groups South and Center. Meanwhile Soviet troops were continuing with
their attempt to encircle Army Group Center itself. In the North the Germans realized they lacked
the force to cut off the Red Army’s breakthrough and abandoned the exposed salients. The Red Army now attempted to encircle the
town of Vitebsk, but it was not met with success. Most of the Red Army’s offensive assets
were deployed in the South and as a result the goals of the Soviet forces in the Center
proved to be beyond their means to achieve them. As a result the offensives took limited territory
at the price of large casualties and were eventually abandoned. During the summer the Soviet pressure on the
Army Group North had not been as strong as against the other Army Groups and the Germans
had dispatched a lot of its strength to other fronts. Despite its greatly reduced strength the Army
Group had not withdrawn to the shorter line and still held its forward positions. The Red Army attempted to encircle part of
the German forces during the winter offensive. The Germans evaded the encirclement and then
attempted to resist on the new positions, but they lacked the strength to do so and
it was decided to withdraw to the Panther line. Both armies settled on the new line and during
the remaining part of the winter the Red Army undertook only some limited attacks in order
to probe the German defences. The Red Army was planning to achieve its main
success in the South. During the preceding half year the Soviet
forces were slowly but steadily consolidating their positions on the west bank of the Dnieper
and by the beginning of March this process was complete. The German Army Group South was by then pushed
into the open plains and did not retreat behind any other natural obstacle, leaving it vulnerable. The Soviets wanted to pin the whole Army group
to the Carpathian mountains or the Black Sea and destroy it. The Axis were unable to resist the Soviet
Tank Armies and the whole front fell back. Near the Black Sea they began pulling back
their forces, but in the West the Red Army encircled several German Corps. Despite that, the Soviets made the mistake
of expecting the Germans to retreat southwards, which allowed them to extract most of the
trapped force back to their front lines. Then the Red Army captured the Crimea as the
last operation of the Winter Campaign. The Soviet Union had taken back its most economically
valuable lands and gained the resources it needed to defeat Germany completely. However, with the front being still more close
to Moscow than to Berlin, the question was, how long shall it take. The Germans, meanwhile, had other problems
to deal with. The Western Allies had landed in Italy and
were preparing to do the same in France. The race to Berlin was on.
I figured since Eugen wanted to go for a more "strategic" play for SD2, this video shows the historical background of the ground forces' movements. In a later part, it showed multiple German corps/divisions escaped an encirclement by attacking into Soviet territory and plowing through their rear area to escape.
I hope there are campaigns of:
The content creator also uploaded videos of the ground forces movements for 1941 and 1942, and both sides' strategies of "how to win this war": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCElybFZ60Hk1NSjgCf7I2sg/videos
How did the OKW not all die of a heart attack?
Wow, this and the rest of his are a great illustration of the movements across the front. While I have seen them in books... like day x, day x+7, etc... the animation is mind blowing
Thanks a lot for sharing this! Really interesting and well made video!
I only wish it were done on a divisional level for the Germans.