Historical period 1941 1942. Plan "Barbarossa"

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Plan:

Invasion. Summer disaster in 1941 Mobilization of the country. Smolensk battle and catastrophe in Ukraine. Battle near Moscow. The birth of the anti-Hitler coalition. Combat events in the spring - summer of 1942. The defense of Stalingrad. The occupation regime Soviet territory. partisan movement. "Everything for the front, everything for victory!"

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Invasion. Summer disaster 1941

On June 22, 1941, the troops of Germany and its allies (Hungary, Italy, Romania, Finland) invaded the territory of the Soviet Union and went on the offensive on the front stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea. Having won air supremacy, the enemy pinned down Soviet ground forces, primarily tanks, which were being destroyed from the air. The order issued too late from Moscow to bring the border districts into combat readiness the troops did not have time to fulfill, communication with them was broken.

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mobilization of the country.

The German attack came as a surprise to the Soviet leadership. However, a few hours after the start of the war, a directive was sent to the troops: “To fall upon the enemy forces and destroy them in areas where they violated the Soviet border. Do not cross the border until further notice." On June 23, 1941, Stalin signed the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on the establishment of the Headquarters of the High Command, it was headed by S.K. Timoshenko.

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The Kremlin's reaction to the belated information about the catastrophe: Search for the perpetrators of the failures Mobilization of all forces to repel fascist aggression June 30, 1941 - the State Defense Committee (GKO) was created, headed by I.V. Stalin. On July 3, 1941, he spoke on the radio with an appeal in which the war that had begun was called a nationwide, Patriotic war. The State Defense Committee took measures to organize the defense of the country with the involvement of all its socio-economic and military resources. Mobilization was announced, putting an additional 5.3 million people under arms. The country was engulfed in a patriotic upsurge. Heroic resistance to the advancing enemy acquired a massive character. People hurried to the military registration and enlistment offices, volunteering for the front. July 4, 1941 GKO adopted a resolution on the formation militia, which in a short time signed up about 1 million people. About 40 divisions of the people's militia took part in the fighting.

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Smolensk battle and catastrophe in Ukraine.

Army Group Center faced organized resistance from the Red Army for a month and a half in the Battle of Smolensk. Of particular concern to the Soviet command was the "Yelninsky ledge" - a possible springboard for the German offensive on Moscow in the area of ​​​​the city of Yelnya. The troops led by G.K. Zhukov, in early September 1941, ousted the German grouping from it, which suffered heavy losses. This success was of great moral and psychological significance. Near Yelnya, the Red Army defeated the Wehrmacht for the first time in the Great Patriotic War. In August 1941, the Nazis halted their attack on Moscow. Tank armies of the Army Group "Center" moved to Ukraine and Leningrad. An attempt to stop the German advance into Ukraine ended in a heavy defeat. As a result, by mid-September 1941, in the Kyiv region and on the left bank of the Dnieper, 4 Soviet armies were surrounded, a total of about 453 thousand people.

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Battle near Moscow.

The operation to capture the capital of the USSR, which began, received the code name "Typhoon". The general offensive of the German troops of the Center group began on September 30, 1941 with a strike by the tank army of General Guderian in the direction of Orel - Tula - Moscow. The Germans captured Kaluga and Maloyaroslavets, approached Serpukhov, but in the battles for Maloyaroslavets near the village of Borodino and near Mozhaisk at the end of October 1941 they were stopped by the 16th army of Kakar Rokossovsky. at the cost own life repulsed a tank attack on the Leningrad highway at the Dubosekovo junction by 28 Panfilov fighters led by V.G. Klochkov.

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5 – 6 December Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive near Moscow. The Kalinin Front under the command of Konev liberated the city of Kalinin and rushed to Rzhev. The Western Front under the command of Zhukov defeated the Germans and moved to Ruza and Volokolamsk. By mid-December 1941, the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops on three fronts with heavy losses pushed the enemy back 60 km north and 120 km south of Moscow. By December 20, the offensive of the Soviet troops on the main directions was suspended. The Germans shortened the front and strengthened its defenses.

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The birth of the anti-Hitler coalition

Immediately after the invasion of German troops into the territory of the USSR, the leaders of Great Britain and the United States declared their support for the Soviet Union in the fight against the invaders. Agreements were concluded with the emigrant governments of Czechoslovakia and Poland on the formation of Polish and Czechoslovak military formations in the Soviet Union. The USSR and Great Britain sent troops to Iran, preventing it from taking the side of Germany.

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In September 1941, a conference of representatives of the USSR, Great Britain and the USA was held in Moscow. According to its decisions, the Lend-Lease system extended to the Soviet Union. It was a program of gratuitous aid from the United States of America to countries fighting Nazism. It was provided on the condition that only those equipment and resources that would not be used during the war were subject to payment. The first 20 tanks and 193 aircraft arrived in the USSR in October 1941.

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Fighting in the spring and summer of 1942

In January 1942, Soviet troops went on the offensive in order to destroy the enemy's Rzhev-Vyazma grouping. Having advanced 80-250 km, having suffered heavy losses, the formations of the Red Army failed to reach their goal. In May 1942, they suffered a serious defeat near Kharkov and Kerch, which sealed the fall of Sevastopol. German troops broke through the front north of Kursk and reached Voronezh. The attempt of the Red Army to liquidate the blockade of Leningrad also turned out to be a failure. The Red Army has used up the reserves intended for the summer offensive. The Wehrmacht again seized the initiative and began to implement the plan to capture the Caucasus.

Period from June 1941 to November 1942 is the first stage of the Great Patriotic War. This time was the most difficult in the entire war, our country had to completely rebuild the economy on a war footing and, straining all reserves, restrain fascist aggression.

The war began on June 22, 1941, at four o'clock in the morning. The USSR was unprepared for war because of the hopes of I.

Stalin on the fulfillment by Hitler of the conditions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Soviet intelligence officer R. Sorge repeatedly warned the government about Hitler's plans, but Stalin was adamant and did not expect a German attack until 1942. The surprise of the attack, the concentration of huge forces by Germany and the thoughtfulness of hostilities played big role in the rapid advance of the Nazis on the territory of the USSR. Our country, as a result of the sudden start of the war, had to endure long defeats, lose land and people. In the first month of the war, the Red Army left almost the entire Baltic, Belarus, Moldavia and most Ukraine. She lost about 1 million fighters, of which 724 thousand were captured.

Near Minsk, almost all the armies of the Western Front were defeated, against which Germany dealt the main blow.

But the worst was waiting for our country ahead. According to the German plan "Barbarossa", the blow was to be delivered in three directions: Army Group "North" moved to Leningrad, "South" - to Kyiv, "Center" - to Moscow. It was Moscow that became Hitler's main goal at the beginning of the military campaign, due to its peripheral position, the capture of Moscow meant a loss of control over the railways, which means an actual defeat in the war. From September 30, 1941 to January 1942. battles were fought near Moscow, in which the Red Army suffered heavy losses. In October, Zhukov was appointed commander of the troops of the Western Front, who defended Moscow. But Zhukov managed to start the counteroffensive only on December 5-6, he managed to correctly coordinate the actions of the army and push the enemy away from Moscow, ensuring its safety. It was of great importance: the defeat near Moscow was the first major defeat of the German army in the entire Second World War. As a result of the Battle of Moscow, the German plan of "blitzkrieg" - lightning war was finally thwarted.

However, the Battle of Moscow did not decide the entire course of hostilities, highest value played Battle of Stalingrad, during which the period of radical change began. From July 17 to November 18, the Stalingrad Front held the line. Due to desertion and losses, after the start of the fighting near Stalingrad, decree No. 227 "Not a step back" was issued. It had an effect on the fighters, and in November, in accordance with the plan "Uranus" (the encirclement of the Stalingrad enemy grouping led by Paulus), Generals Vatutin, Rokossovsky and Eremenko launched a successful offensive.

The first stage of the war ended, at that time our country managed to transfer the economy to a military footing and contain the main blow of the enemy, at the cost of huge losses, the Red Army began to conduct offensive operations and take the first steps towards the Great Victory.

Updated: 2018-03-10

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Page 1 of 6

Hitler's invasion
Restructuring the country on a military footing
Defensive battles in the summer and autumn of 1941
Moscow battle
Creation and strengthening of the anti-Hitler coalition
New failures at the front

Hitler's invasion

Germany attacked the Soviet Union at dawn on Sunday, June 22, 1941. On the main sections of the Soviet-German border, German troops began fighting at 3 h 15 min. After 15 minutes, the General Staff of the Red Army began to receive reports of the bombing of the Soviet cities of Ukraine and Belarus. With the first volleys of German artillery, the implementation of the Barbarossa plan began, which provided for the disappearance of the USSR from the world map in a matter of weeks.
When planning the blitzkrieg, the high command of the German armed forces intended to reach the line Astrakhan - Arkhangelsk "maximum 70 days" after the outbreak of hostilities. According to the documents that appeared at the trial of the main German war criminals in Nuremberg, the defeated USSR was supposed to be divided into 7 states. "Great Russia" was planned to be weakened as much as possible by "the complete abolition of the Jewish-Bolshevik administration." A huge part of the indigenous population was doomed to death. Hitler demanded to shoot "everyone who dares to look askance at a German." They also relied on hunger, which, according to Field Marshal G. Rundstedt, “acts much better than a machine gun, especially among young people.”
It was also planned in the next 30 years to evict more than 50 million people from the territory of Poland, Czechoslovakia and the western regions of the USSR, and to resettle 10 million Germans to these territories, who would remain to be served by 14 million indigenous people. A significant part of the population of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia was supposed to be moved to central regions Russia. It was planned to populate the new Baltic provinces of the Reich with the peoples of the Germanic race, "purified of undesirable elements" - Volga Germans, Danes, Norwegians, Dutch, British.
Central to the plans were "considerations" about the policy towards the Russian people. “We are talking not only about the defeat of the state with the center in Moscow,” one of the additions to the Ost plan said, “the achievement of this historical goal would never mean a complete solution to the problem. The point is most likely to defeat the Russians as a people, to divide them ... It is important that the majority of the population on Russian territory consists of people of a primitive semi-European type. It was believed that their learning would be limited to memorizing road signs, learned the multiplication table “up to 25”, and learned to sign their last name.
All plans for the USSR were kept secret. Speaking at a meeting on the reorganization of the Eastern Regions on July 16, 1941, Hitler said: “We must not publish our real goals, but we must know exactly what we want. We must act as we did in Norway, Denmark, Belgium and Holland. We will announce that we are compelled to occupy, rule and pacify, that this is done for the good of the population; that we provide order, communication, food. We must portray ourselves as liberators. No one should guess that we are preparing the final device, but this will not prevent us from accepting necessary measures- deport, shoot - and we will take these measures. We will act as if we are only here temporarily. But we will know well that we will never leave this country.”
The bombardment of Soviet cities began before the presentation of the German declaration of war. The German ambassador in Moscow, F. Schulenburg, handed it over to People's Commissar V. M. Molotov. In Berlin, the corresponding document was handed over by Minister I. Ribbentrop to Soviet Ambassador V. G. Dekanozov. Stalin was notified of the start of the war at 3:15, and from 5:00 he began discussing the situation with Beria, Molotov, Malenkov, Zhukov, and Timoshenko. Other members of the top leadership of the USSR learned about the war and the German declaration upon their arrival (5:45) at Stalin's office in the Kremlin. The actions of the German side were presented in the declaration as preventive measures (the word “war” was not used). Subsequently, this fascist position was invariably reproduced by politicians and historians trying to whitewash the greatest crime of the 20th century, to give the attack on the USSR at least some semblance of moral justification. In fact, Germany saw no threat from the Soviet Union. Hitler was sure that "the Russians would not attack for another hundred years."
The decision to invade was made not because the USSR threatened Germany, but because the Nazis found it easy to implement their plan. The Führer's statement, read over the German radio by Propaganda Minister J. Goebbels at 7 am, stated that the danger from the East could be quickly eliminated. If it took six weeks to defeat France, whose army was considered the strongest in the world, it would take even less effort to finish Russia. economic system Hitler presented Russia as being in a state of chaos, a communist dictatorship - a country hated by the peoples. The head of the press of the Third Reich G. Fritsche Nuremberg Trials in 1946 he said that "we had no grounds to accuse the Soviet Union of preparing a military attack on Germany."
The suddenness of the attack caused obvious confusion to the leadership of the USSR. The Kremlin discussed possible ways to prevent further military developments. In the directive of the Main Military Council of the USSR, sent to the troops by the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, General of the Army G.K. Zhukov 15 minutes after the broadcast of Hitler's speech, it was ordered to “fall on the enemy forces and destroy them in areas where they violated the Soviet border”, but “ do not cross the border.
Until the middle of the day, the Soviet people remained in the dark about the outbreak of war. Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars I. V. Stalin refused to address the country. Apparently, he felt guilty for the serious miscalculation and suddenness of the attack. former ally. Only at noon on June 22, V. M. Molotov announced to those gathered at the radios and loudspeakers that “today at four o’clock in the morning, without presenting any claims against the Soviet Union and without declaring war, German troops attacked our country.” Calling on the Soviet people to give a decisive rebuff to the aggressor, Molotov ended his laconic speech with words that became programmatic for all days of the war: “Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours".
In the very first days, Romania, Finland, Italy entered the war against the USSR on the side of Germany; Hungary joined in July. Military operations on the border with Finland began on June 29, on the border with Romania on July 1. Units manned by citizens of Albania, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Sweden also participated in the war against the USSR. In addition, at the end of the war, there were almost 500,000 foreigners in the Wehrmacht, mostly Germans, who had previously lived outside Germany.
The armed forces of Germany before the attack on the Soviet Union totaled 8.5 million people. 153 divisions and 2 brigades were advanced to the western borders of the USSR. In addition, 29 divisions and 16 brigades of Germany's allies were put on alert there. In total, the eastern grouping of the enemy had 5.5 million people, 47.2 thousand guns and mortars, 4.3 thousand tanks, 5 thousand combat aircraft.
They were opposed by Soviet troops in the western military districts numbering 2.9 million people (60.4% of the personnel of the army and navy). In addition, there were about 75 thousand people in the formations of other departments that were on allowance in the People's Commissariat of Defense. Another 805.3 thousand persons liable for military service were in the army at “large military training camps”. With the announcement of mobilization on June 22, they were included in payroll troops. The war was taken over mainly by young people born in 1919-1921, who were on a valid military service, school graduates 1938-1941.
The mobilization of reservists born in 1905-1918, aged 23 to 36, announced on the first day of the war, made it possible by July to replenish the army by 5.3 million people. On August 10, 1941, to make up for combat losses, as well as to create reserves, the conscripts of 1890-1904 were mobilized. and conscripts born in 1922-1923. In the summer of 1942, conscripts born in 1924 left for the army; in January 1943, young people born in 1925 were drafted. In the same year, from October 25 to November 15, the conscription of those born in 1926 took place. From November 15 to 30, 1944, the last conscription of the war years unfolded in the USSR, covering young men born in 1927. During the war years, 20-25% of men aged 18 to 55 were released from conscription (according to the presence of armor, disability, political and national characteristics).
On April 11, 1942, the State Defense Committee adopted a resolution according to which, for the period from April 15 to May 15, 1942, 35 thousand children of immigrants (former kulaks) of military age were to be mobilized, and from April to October 1942, another 61 thousand people. From October 1942, family members of migrants drafted into the Red Army were removed from the register of labor links and exempted from 5% deductions from their salaries for the maintenance of the administrative apparatus of the labor link. The source of replenishment of the army was also former prisoners (with the exception of those serving sentences under “political” articles). In total, over 1 million prisoners were transferred from camps and colonies to the active army during the war years. Many of them honorably fulfilled their duty to the Motherland. In addition to Soviet citizens in 1941-1942. 43,000 Poles, 10,000 Czechs and Slovaks, who were sent to national units, were released from the camps.
For all the years of the war, 34.5 million people, or 17.5% of the pre-war population of the country, were mobilized into the army and to work in industry, taking into account those who had already served at the beginning of the war and left to fight as volunteers (for comparison: in 1940, in the national economy of the USSR, a total of 23.9 million workers, 10 million employees and 29 million collective farmers were employed). More than a third of those mobilized were in the army, of which 5-6.5 million were in active army. (For comparison: 17,893 thousand people, or 25.8% of the German population in 1939, were recruited to serve in the Wehrmacht.) Mobilization made it possible to form 410 new divisions in 1941, and 648 throughout the war. In repelling the Nazi invasion All the peoples of the Soviet Union participated, including the smallest. For example, among the Nanai and Ulchi, participants in the war made up 8% of their population. total strength.
Soviet troops advanced to the western borders of the country had 167 divisions and 9 brigades; they had 32.9 thousand guns and mortars, 14.2 thousand tanks, 9.2 thousand combat aircraft. Launched on the eve of the war into serial production latest tanks T-34 and KB accounted for only 10% of the entire tank fleet, 2.7 thousand aircraft of the latest designs could not significantly change the ratio of the old and new technology in aviation units.
In general, the forces and means of Germany and its allies at the beginning of the war were 1.2 times greater than those available to the USSR. In a number of positions, the Armed Forces of the USSR were numerically superior to the enemy's armies, but they were inferior to it in strategic deployment, the quality of many types of weapons, experience and training. Unlike the Germans, 75% of the Soviet troops did not have modern combat experience. A significant part of the command staff (55%) held their positions for less than six months. This was due to the fact that the size of the Red Army had almost doubled since 1939. The cadres were damaged by Stalin's purges.
The German troops, set up for blitzkrieg, after a short artillery preparation, rushed deep into the USSR in three main directions. Army Group North (commanded by Field Marshal W. Leeb) had the task of destroying Soviet troops in the Baltic and capturing Leningrad. Group "Center" (Field Marshal F. Bock) advanced along the line Minsk - Smolensk - Moscow. Group "South" (General-Field Marshal G. Rundstedt) was supposed to defeat the forces of the Red Army in Western Ukraine, go to the Dnieper and advance in the direction of Kyiv. The main task of the war was to be solved by the troops of F. Bock, who had the greatest power. Soviet strategists made a mistake in determining the direction of the main attack, and the main forces of repelling the enemy were concentrated on southbound.
By the end of the first day of the war, German troops had advanced deep into Soviet territory in the Baltic states at a distance of up to 80 km, in Belarus - up to 60, in Ukraine - up to 20 km. On the same day, German aviation destroyed 1489 Soviet aircraft on the ground and 322 in the air. German tank columns, without fear of air attacks, quickly moved forward. On the main directions of the German army, it was possible to ensure a three-four-fold superiority in strength over the Soviet units that were trying to advance. During decisive first days of the war, the Moscow leadership did not ensure command and control of the troops. The height of the misunderstanding of the developing situation was sent to the troops on the evening of June 22, at 21:15, a directive instructing them to immediately launch a counteroffensive, within two days to "encircle and destroy" the main forces of the enemy grouping.
In a number of frontier places, Soviet troops put up fierce resistance to the advancing enemy troops and for a long time delayed his advance into the interior of the country. 3.5 thousand defenders of the Brest Fortress (including representatives of more than 30 peoples of the USSR fought heroically), led by Captain I.N. Zubachev and regimental commissar E.M. Fomin, for a whole month fettered the enemy infantry division, supported by tanks, artillery and aviation . Counterattacks of the 8th, 9th and 19th mechanized corps (by the beginning of the war 9 such corps had been created, 20 were in the process of being formed) inflicted serious damage on the advancing German tank divisions in the Dubno, Lutsk and Rovno region, pushing them back to 1-35 km, which not only delayed the enemy attack on Kyiv until the end of June, but also made it possible to withdraw the main forces of the Southwestern Front in the Lvov region from the threat of encirclement.
Not having a proper idea of ​​the situation on the fronts, the Soviet government began hastily restructuring the leadership of the Armed Forces. On June 22-24, on the basis of the pre-war border districts, the Northern, North-Western, Western and South-Western fronts were formed. Their commanders were Lieutenant General M. M. Popov, Colonel General F. I. Kuznetsov, Army General D. G. Pavlov, Colonel General M. P. Kirponos. On June 25, the Southern Front was formed from the 9th and 18th armies (General of the Army I.V. Tyulenev). In the subsequent stages of the war, up to 10-15 fronts operated simultaneously. Each of them included: 5-9 combined arms armies of 8-9 rifle divisions; 1-3 tank, 1-2 air armies; several separate tank, mechanized and cavalry corps; formations and parts of artillery; special forces frontline submission. The number of officers and soldiers in the front reached 800 thousand people.
On the second day of the war, the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the party created the Headquarters of the High Command, headed by Marshal Timoshenko. The headquarters was called upon to make decisions of a strategic nature, it included the marshals of the Soviet Union, the chief of the General Staff, the heads of the naval and air force; later, the heads of the military branches were included in it.
The confusion in Moscow lasted until the end of June. Of all the orders received by the troops, only one actually worked - to fight to the last. However, the situation on the fronts did not improve. The Soviet troops retreated. On June 24 they left Vilnius, on June 28 they were forced to leave Minsk. On June 30, the Germans captured Lviv, fought for Riga, which fell on July 1. Murmansk, Orsha, Mogilev, Smolensk, Kyiv, Odessa, Sevastopol were subjected to continuous bombardment. On June 29, Hitler declared: “In four weeks we will be in Moscow, and it will be plowed up.” On June 30, Halder said: "The Russians were defeated in this war within the first eight days." These assessments, while still in full agreement with the “Barbarossa plan” and the self-confidence of the aggressor, were erroneous. The main events on the Soviet-German front were just beginning.

At dawn on June 22, 1941, the German army attacked Soviet soil with all its might. The Great Patriotic War began Soviet people with fascist invaders, which lasted 1418 days and nights. Italy and Romania joined Germany on the same day, Slovakia on June 23, and Hungary on June 27.

The German invasion took the Soviet forces by surprise; on the first day, a significant part of the ammunition, fuel and military equipment; the Germans managed to ensure complete air supremacy (approximately 1200 aircraft were disabled, most of them did not even have time to take off). In the Leningrad direction, enemy tanks penetrated deeply into Lithuanian territory. An attempt by the command of the North-Western Front (NWF) to launch a counterattack with the forces of two mechanized corps (about 1,400 thousand tanks) ended in failure, and on June 25 a decision was made to withdraw troops to the line of the Western Dvina. However, already on June 26, the German 4th Panzer Group crossed Western Dvina near Daugavpils and began to develop an offensive in the Pskov direction. On June 27, units of the Red Army left Liepaja. The 18th German Army occupied Riga and entered southern Estonia. Pskov fell on July 9th.

An even more difficult situation developed on the Western Front (ZF). The counterattacks of the 6th and 14th tank corps of the Red Army failed; during the fighting on June 23-25, the main forces of the Western Front were defeated. The 3rd German tank group (Goth), developing an offensive in the Vilnius direction, bypassed the 3rd and 10th armies from the north, and the 2nd tank group (H.V. Guderian), leaving the Brest Fortress in the rear (it held until July 20), broke through to Baranovichi and bypassed them from the south. Despite the stubborn resistance offered to the Germans on the approach to Minsk by the 100th division, on June 28 they took the capital of Belarus and closed the encirclement ring, which included eleven divisions. By decision of the military tribunal, Pavlov and his chief of staff, V.E. Klimovskikh, were shot; ZF troops were headed by People's Commissar of Defense S.K. Timoshenko. In early July, the mechanized formations of Guderian and Goth overcame the line of Soviet defense on the Berezina and rushed to Vitebsk, but unexpectedly ran into the troops of the Second Strategic Echelon (five armies). During the tank battle on July 6-8 between Orsha and Vitebsk, the Germans defeated the Soviet troops and took Vitebsk on July 10. The surviving units withdrew beyond the Dnieper and stopped on the line Polotsk - Lipetsk - Orsha - Zhlobin.

The military operations of the Wehrmacht in the south, where the most powerful grouping of the Red Army was located, were not so successful. In an effort to stop the offensive of the 1st German Panzer Group Kleist, the command of the South-Western Front (SWF) launched a counterattack with the forces of six mechanized corps (more than 1700 tanks). During the largest tank battle of the Great Patriotic War on June 26-29 in the region of Lutsk, Rovno and Brody, Soviet troops were unable to defeat the enemy and suffered huge losses (60% of all tanks of the South-Western Front), but they prevented the Germans from making a strategic breakthrough and cutting off the Lviv group (6 -I and 26th armies) from the rest of the forces. By July 1, the troops of the South-Western Front retreated to the fortified line Korosten - Novograd Volynsky - Proskurov. In early July, the Germans broke through right wing The SWF near Novograd Volynsky and captured Berdichev and Zhitomir, but thanks to the counterattacks of the Soviet troops, their further advance was stopped.

On July 2, after Romania entered the war, the German-Romanian troops crossed the Prut at the junction of the South-Western Front and the Southern Front (SW; formed on June 25) and rushed to Mogilev Podolsky. By July 10, they reached the Dniester.

On June 26, Finland entered the war. On June 29, the German-Finnish troops launched an offensive in the Arctic to Murmansk, Kandalaksha and Loukhi, but could not advance deep into Soviet territory.

By the second decade of July 1941, the Germans had defeated the main forces of the NWF and WF (six armies) and captured northern Moldavia, western Ukraine, most of Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, and southern Estonia. However, the command of the Wehrmacht failed to decide main task- destroy all the forces of the Red Army west of the Dvina-Dnieper line.

The main reason for the defeats of the Red Army, despite its quantitative and often qualitative (T-34 and KV tanks) technical superiority, was the poor training of privates and officers, low level exploitation of military equipment and the lack of experience among the troops in conducting large-scale military operations in the conditions of modern warfare.

Headquarters of the High Command.

On June 23, an emergency body of the highest military administration, the Headquarters of the High Command, chaired by People's Commissar of Defense S.K. Timoshenko, was created to direct military operations. In late June - early August, the maximum centralization of the military and political power in the hands of Stalin. On June 30, he headed the State Defense Committee, the extraordinary supreme body of the country's leadership, on July 10 - the Headquarters of the High Command, reorganized into the Headquarters of the High Command; July 19, took the post of People's Commissar of Defense, August 8 - Supreme Commander. On June 22, the mobilization of those liable for military service born in 1905-1918 was carried out in the USSR. From the first days of the war, a mass enrollment of volunteers in the Red Army unfolded. On July 18, the Soviet leadership decided to organize partisan movement in the occupied and front-line areas, which became widespread in the second half of 1942. Despite the difficulties associated with the German offensive, in the summer and autumn of 1941, approx. 10 million people and more than 1350 large enterprises. The militarization of the economy began to be carried out with harsh and energetic measures; all the material resources of the country were mobilized for military needs.

The emergence of the anti-Hitler coalition.

Already in the evening of June 22, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a statement on the radio supporting the USSR in its struggle against Hitlerism. June 23 State Department The United States welcomed the efforts of the Soviet people to repel the German invasion, and on June 24, US President Franklin Roosevelt promised to provide the USSR with all possible assistance. On July 12, a Soviet-British agreement was concluded in Moscow on joint actions against Germany; On August 16, Great Britain provided the Soviet government with a loan of 10 million pounds. Art. In the autumn of 1941, the United States began supplying raw materials and military materials to Russia. An anti-German alliance of three great powers emerged.

The second stage of the German offensive (July 10 - September 30, 1941). On July 10, Finnish troops launched an offensive in the Petrozavodsk and Olonets directions, and on August 31 - on the Karelian Isthmus. On August 23, the Northern Front was divided into Karelian (KarF) and Leningrad (LenF). On September 1, the 23rd Soviet Army on the Karelian Isthmus withdrew to the line of the old state border, occupied before the Finnish war of 1939-1940. On September 23, the German-Finnish units were stopped in the Murmansk direction. In September - early October, the Finns captured Western Karelia; On September 5 they took Olonets, and on October 2 - Petrozavodsk. By October 10, the front had stabilized along the line Kestenga - Ukhta - Rugozero - Medvezhyegorsk - Lake Onega. - river Svir. The enemy was unable to cut the lines of communication European Russia with northern ports.

On July 10, the Army Group "North" (23 divisions) launched an offensive in the Leningrad and Tallinn directions. At the end of July, the Germans reached the border of the rivers Narva, Luga and Mshaga, where they were detained by desperately resisting detachments of sailors, cadets and the people's militia. An attempt by the Reserve Army (K.M. Kochanov) to launch a counterattack in the rear of the advancing German troops on August 12 near the lake. Ilmen failed (Kochanov and his chief of staff were shot "for wrecking"). Novgorod fell on August 15, Gatchina fell on August 21. On August 23, battles began for Oranienbaum; the Germans were stopped southeast of Koporye. On August 28-30, the Baltic Fleet was evacuated from Tallinn to Kronstadt. At the end of August, the Germans launched a new onslaught on Leningrad. On August 30, they reached the Neva, cutting off the railway communication with the city, and on September 8, they took Shlisselburg and closed the blockade ring around Leningrad. Only the tough measures of the new LenF commander G.K. Zhukov made it possible to stop the enemy by September 26th.

In mid-July, Army Group Center launched a general offensive against Moscow. Guderian crossed the Dnieper at Mogilev, and Goth struck from Vitebsk. On July 16, Smolensk fell, and three Soviet armies were surrounded. The counterattack of the Soviet troops on July 21 failed, but the fierce nature of the fighting forced the Germans on July 30 to stop their offensive in the Moscow direction and concentrate all their forces on eliminating the Smolensk “cauldron”. By August 5, the encircled troops capitulated; 350 thousand people were captured. On the right flank of the ZF, the 9th German Army captured Nevel (July 16) and Velikiye Luki (July 20).

On August 8, the Germans resumed their offensive against Moscow. They advanced 100-120 km, but on August 16, the Reserve Front launched a counterattack on Yelnya. At the cost of huge losses, Soviet troops forced the enemy to leave the city on September 6. The battle for Yelnya was the first successful operation Red Army in the Great Patriotic War.

In Moldova, the command of the Law Firm tried to stop the Romanian offensive with a powerful counterattack by two mechanized corps (770 tanks), but it was repulsed. On July 16, the 4th Romanian Army took Chisinau, and in early August pushed the Separate Primorsky Army to Odessa; the defense of Odessa for almost two and a half months fettered the forces of the Romanians. Soviet troops left the city only in the first half of October.

At the end of July, Rundstedt's troops launched an offensive in the Bila Tserkva direction. On August 2, they cut off the 6th and 12th Soviet armies from the Dnieper and surrounded them near Uman; 103 thousand people were captured, including both commanders. The Germans broke through in Zaporozhye and moved north through Kremenchug, entering the rear of the Kyiv grouping of the South-Western Front.

On August 4, Hitler decided to turn the 2nd Army and the 2nd Panzer Group to the south in order to completely encircle the forces of the SWF. An attempt by the Bryansk Front (BrF) on 25 August to thwart their advance failed. In early September, Guderian crossed the Desna and on September 7 captured Konotop ("Konotop breakthrough"). The 1st and 2nd Panzer Groups joined at Lokhvitsa and the Kyiv Cauldron slammed shut. Five were surrounded Soviet armies; the number of prisoners was 665 thousand. The front commander Kirponos committed suicide. Left-bank Ukraine was in the hands of the Germans; the way to the Donbass was open; Soviet troops in the Crimea were cut off from the main forces. Only in mid-September, the South-Western Front and the South Front managed to restore the line of defense along the line of the Psel River - Poltava - Dnepropetrovsk - Zaporozhye - Melitopol.

The defeats at the fronts prompted the Headquarters to issue Order No. 270 on August 16, which qualified all soldiers and officers who had surrendered as traitors and deserters; their families were deprived state support and were subject to exile.

On September 30, Army Group Center launched an operation to capture Moscow (Typhoon). Soviet intelligence was unable to determine the direction of the main attack. German tank formations easily broke through the defense line of the Bryansk and Reserve fronts. On October 3, Guderian's tanks broke into Orel and took to the road to Moscow. On October 6-8, all three armies of the BRF were surrounded south of Bryansk, and the main forces of the Reserve (19th, 20th, 24th and 32nd armies) - west of Vyazma; the Germans captured 664,000 prisoners and more than 1,200 tanks. The Soviet command did not have reserves to close a huge gap of 500 km. But the advance of the 2nd tank group of the Wehrmacht to Tula was thwarted by the stubborn resistance of the brigade of M.E. Katukov near Mtsensk (October 6-13); The 4th tank group occupied Yukhnov and rushed to Maloyaroslavets, but was detained at Medyn by Podolsk cadets (October 6-10); the autumn thaw also slowed down the pace of the German offensive.

On October 10, the Germans attacked the right wing of the Reserve Front (renamed the Western Front); On October 12, the 9th Army captured Staritsa, and on October 14 - Rzhev; on the same day, the 3rd Panzer Group occupied Kalinin almost unhindered; Soviet troops retreated to the Martynovo-Selizharovo line. On October 19, a state of siege was declared in Moscow. On October 23, the 4th Panzer Group captured Volokolamsk. Having overcome the resistance of the Podolsk cadets, the 4th Army broke through to Borovsk. On October 24, Guderian resumed his attack on Tula. On October 29, he tried to take the city, but was repulsed with heavy losses for himself. In early November, the new commander of the ZF Zhukov, with an incredible effort of all forces and constant counterattacks, managed, despite huge losses in manpower and equipment, to stop the Germans in other directions.

On November 16, the Germans began the second stage of their attack on Moscow, planning to encircle it from the northwest and southwest. On the Dmitrovsky direction, they reached the Moscow-Volga canal and crossed to its eastern bank near Yakhroma, captured Klin on Khimki, crossed the Istra reservoir, occupied Solnechnogorsk and Krasnaya Polyana, and took Istra on Krasnogorsk. In the southwest, Guderian approached Kashira. However, as a result of the fierce resistance of the armies of the Polar Front, the Germans were stopped in all directions in late November - early December. The attempt to take Moscow failed.

On September 27, the Germans broke through the line of defense of the YuF. On October 7-10, they surrounded and destroyed the 9th and 18th armies northwest of Berdyansk and rushed to Artemovsk and Rostov-on-Don. Kharkov fell on October 24. By November 4, Soviet troops retreated to the Balakleya-Artemovsk-Pugachev-Khopry line; most of the Donbass was in the hands of the Germans. On November 21, the 1st Panzer Army captured Rostov-on-Don, but was unable to break through to the Caucasus. During the successful counter-offensive of the troops of the Law Firm, Rostov was liberated on November 29, and the Germans were driven back to the Mius River.

In the second half of October, the 11th German Army broke into the Crimea and by mid-November captured almost the entire peninsula. Soviet troops managed to keep only Sevastopol.

On October 16, Army Group Sever launched an operation in the Tikhvin direction, intending to capture the southeastern coast of Lake Ladoga and, joining with the Finns, cut the only link between Leningrad and the mainland through Ladoga. On October 24 Malaya Vishera fell. The Germans broke through the defenses of the 4th Army on the Volkhov River and on November 8 took Tikhvin. But the counterattacks of the Soviet troops near Novgorod on November 10, near Tikhvin on November 19 and near Volkhov on December 3 stopped the further advance of the Wehrmacht. On November 20, Malaya Vishera was liberated, on December 9, Tikhvin, and the Germans were pushed back beyond the Volkhov River.

On December 5-6, the Kalinin (KalF), Western and Southwestern fronts switched to offensive operations in the northwestern and southwestern directions. The successful advance of the Soviet troops forced Hitler on December 8 to issue a directive on the transition to defense along the entire front line. In the northwestern direction, the ZF troops liberated Yakhroma on December 8, Klin and Istra on December 11, Solnechnogorsk on December 12, Volokolamsk on December 20, and the KalF troops recaptured Kalinin on December 16 and reached Rzhev by the end of December. In the southwestern direction of the SWF, on December 8, Efremov was returned, and on December 9, Yelets, surrounding the 2nd German army; units of the Polar Front pushed the enemy back from Tula, occupied Kaluga on December 30 and reached the Sukhinichi area. On December 18, the ZF troops launched an offensive on central direction; On December 26, they liberated Naro-Fominsk, on December 28 - Borovsk, on January 2, 1942 - Maloyaroslavets. As a result, by the beginning of 1942, the Germans were pushed back 100-250 km to the west. There was a threat of coverage of the army group "Center" from the north and south. The strategic initiative passed to the Red Army.

The victory near Moscow had a huge military and political significance. She dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the Nazi army and the hopes of the Nazis for a "blitzkrieg". Japan and Turkey finally refused to enter the war on the side of Germany.

The success of the operation near Moscow prompted the Headquarters to decide on the transition to a general offensive along the entire front from Lake Ladoga to the Crimea. It was planned to inflict the main blow on Army Group Center by the forces of the North-Western, Western and Kalinin Fronts.

On January 8, Kalf troops broke through to the west of Rzhev and rushed to Sychevka; units of the ZF overcame the enemy defenses at Ruza and Medyn, drove the Germans back to Gzhatsk and went to Vyazma. However, the enemy managed to hold Sychevka and prevent the joining of the troops of both fronts near Vyazma. Having pulled up the reserves, the commander of the 9th Army, V. Model, launched a counteroffensive on January 22, which led to the complete or partial encirclement of the 29th, 33rd, 39th Soviet armies and two cavalry corps. In early March, the Headquarters tried to organize a new offensive against Rzhev and Vyazma. Soviet troops recaptured Yukhnov, but, having suffered huge losses, were forced to go on the defensive in mid-April. The Germans held the Rzhev-Vyazemsky bridgehead, which posed a potential danger to Moscow.

The offensive of the NWF troops, which began on January 7-9, turned out to be more successful. On January 16, they liberated Andreapol, on January 21, Toropets, on January 22, they blocked the Hill and created a threat to the Army Group "Center" from the north. By the end of February, they were deeply wedged between the Staraya Russian and Demyansk enemy groupings and took the latter in pincers. True, in mid-April, Demyansk was released by the Germans.

Although the attempt to defeat the Army Group "Center" near Rzhev and Vyazma failed, the offensive operations of the Soviet troops in December 1941 - April 1942 led to a significant change in the military-strategic situation on the Soviet-German front: the Germans were driven back from Moscow, Moscow was liberated, part of Kalinin. Oryol and Smolensk regions. There was also a psychological turning point among the soldiers and the civilian population: faith in victory was strengthened, the myth of the invincibility of the Wehrmacht was destroyed. The collapse of the lightning war plan gave rise to doubts about the successful outcome of the war, both among the German military-political leadership and among ordinary Germans.

Simultaneously with the Rzhev-Vyazemskaya operation, the Lyuban operation was carried out, which had the goal of breaking the blockade of Leningrad. On January 13, the forces of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts launched an offensive in several directions, planning to link up at Lyuban and encircle the enemy's Chudov grouping. But only the 2nd Shock Army managed to break through the German defenses: on January 14, it crossed the Volkhov, and at the end of January, having captured Myasny Bor, it overcame the defensive line of Chudovo-Novgorod. However, she could not get through to Lyuban; due to the strong resistance of the German troops, she had to change the direction of the offensive from the northwest to the west. By the beginning of March, she captured a large wooded area between the Chudovo-Novgorod and Leningrad-Novgorod railways. On March 19, the Germans launched a counterattack, cutting off the 2nd shock army from the rest of the VolkhF forces. In late March - early June, Soviet troops repeatedly tried (with varying success) to release it and resume the offensive. On May 21, the Stavka decided to withdraw it, but on June 6 the Germans completely closed the encirclement. On June 20, soldiers and officers were ordered to leave the encirclement on their own, but only a few managed to do this (according to various estimates, from 6 to 16 thousand people); commander A.A. Vlasov surrendered.

Summer-autumn 1942.

In the summer-autumn campaign of 1942, the Soviet troops were given an impossible task: to completely defeat the enemy and liberate the entire territory of the country. The main military events took place in the southwestern direction: the defeat of the Crimean Front, the catastrophe in the Kharkov operation, the battles in the North Caucasus. The enemy advanced 500-650 km, went to the Volga, captured part of the passes of the Main Caucasian ridge.

By the summer of 1942, the transfer of the economy to a military footing was completed. AT eastern regions A significant number of enterprises were relocated in the country (about 2,600 in the second half of 1941 alone), and 2.3 million heads of livestock were exported. In the first half of 1942, 10,000 aircraft, 11,000 tanks, and 54,000 guns were produced. In the 2nd half of the year, their output increased by more than 1.5 times.

As a result of agreements between the USSR, Great Britain and the USA in 1941-42, the core of the anti-Hitler coalition was formed.

Military operations in May-November

1942 The Wehrmacht command decided to strike the main blow during the summer campaign of 1942 in the southern direction in order to capture the Caucasus with its oil-bearing regions and the fertile valleys of the Don and Kuban, but before that, eliminate the Soviet grouping in the Crimea. Having started the operation on May 8 and defeated the Crimean Front (almost 200 thousand people were taken prisoner), the Germans occupied Kerch on May 16, and Sevastopol in early July.

On May 12, the troops of the South-Western Front and the Southern Front launched an offensive against Kharkov. For several days it developed successfully, but on May 17 the Germans carried out two counterattacks; On May 19, they defeated the 9th Army, throwing it back behind the Seversky Donets, went to the rear of the advancing Soviet troops, and on May 23 took them into pincers; the number of prisoners reached 240 thousand, only 22 thousand people escaped from the encirclement.

On June 28–30, the German offensive began against the left wing of the BrF (from Kursk) and the right wing of the SWF (from Volochansk). After breaking through the defense line, a gap 150-400 km deep was formed at the junction of the two fronts. The counterattack of the Soviet troops from the Yelets region could not turn the tide. On July 8, the Germans captured Voronezh and reached the Middle Don. On July 17, the Wehrmacht launched an offensive operation in the southeast direction. By July 22, the 1st and 4th tank armies had reached the Southern Don. On July 24, Rostov-on-Don was taken. In the conditions of a military catastrophe in the south, on July 28, Stalin issued order No. 227 “Not a step back”, which provided for severe punishments for retreat without instructions from above, detachments to deal with unauthorized leaving positions, penal units for operations on the most dangerous sectors of the front. On the basis of this order, during the war years, approx. 1 million military personnel, of which 160 thousand were shot, and 400 thousand were sent to penal companies.

Although the Soviet command managed to withdraw most of the troops to the left bank of the Don, they were unable to gain a foothold on the Don line. Already on July 25, the Germans crossed the Don and rushed south. Salsk fell on July 31. On August 5, the 1st Panzer Army captured Voroshilovsk (Stavropol), crossed the Kuban, entered Armavir on August 6, and Maykop on August 9; on the same day Pyatigorsk was taken. On August 11-12, the 17th Army captured Krasnodar and moved towards Novorossiysk. In mid-August, the Germans established control over almost all the passes in the central part of the Main Caucasian Range; On August 25 they occupied Mozdok. In early September, under the threat of encirclement, Soviet troops left the Taman Peninsula. On September 11, the 17th Army occupied Novorossiysk, but was unable to break through to Tuapse. In the direction of Grozny, the Germans occupied Nalchik on October 29 and in early November came close to Ordzhonikidze. But they failed to take Ordzhonikidze and Grozny, and in mid-November their further advance was stopped.

On August 16, German troops launched an offensive against Stalingrad, trying to take the city with simultaneous attacks from the northwest and southwest. Having crossed the Don near Kalach, the 6th Army on August 23 reached the Volga north of Stalingrad; On September 12, the 4th Panzer Army, transferred from the Caucasian direction, also broke through to the city. On September 13, fighting began in Stalingrad itself. In the second half of October - the first half of November, the Germans captured a significant part of the city, but could not break the resistance of the defenders.

By mid-November, the Germans established control over the Right Bank of the Don and most of the North Caucasus, but did not achieve their strategic goals - to break into the Volga region and Transcaucasia. This was prevented by the counterattacks of the Red Army in other directions, which, although not crowned with success, nevertheless did not allow the Wehrmacht command to transfer reserves to the south. So, in July-September, units of the NWF made three attempts to defeat the enemy's Demyansk grouping. In late July - early August, the forces of the Kalinin and Western Fronts undertook the Rzhev-Sychevsk (July 30) and Pogorelo-Gorodishchensk (August 4) operations in order to eliminate the Rzhev-Vyazemsky ledge - the first major summer offensive of Soviet troops in the Great Patriotic War and one of the most bloody (losses amounted to 193.5 thousand people): during the Battle of Rzhev on July 30 - August 7 ("Rzhev meat grinder") and subsequent attacks on Rzhev in the second half of August - the first half of September, Kalf troops failed to take the city, and the initially successful advance of the ZF on Sychevka bogged down after a grandiose tank battle between Zubtsov and Karmanovo (about 1,500 tanks on both sides). From early August to early October, the Red Army carried out a series of attacks near Voronezh: units of the Voronezh Front (VorF) captured several bridgeheads on the right bank of the Don, but the approaching German reserves prevented them from capturing the city. At the end of August, the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts made a new attempt to break the blockade of Leningrad; the offensive of the VolkhF ended in failure, but the troops of the LenF were able to break through the blockade ring near Shlisselburg, and only with the help of the 11th Army transferred from the Crimea did the Germans liquidate it by the beginning of October.

Results of the initial period of the war

The first period of the Great Patriotic War, which lasted from June 22, 1941 to November 18, 1942 (until the Soviet troops went on the counteroffensive at Stalingrad), was of great historical significance. The Soviet Union withstood a military strike of such force that no other country could withstand at that time.

Courage and heroism Soviet people thwarted Hitler's plans for the Lightning War. Despite heavy defeats during the first year of the struggle against Germany and its allies, the Red Army showed its fighting qualities. By the summer of 1942, the transition of the country's economy to a war footing was basically completed, which laid the main prerequisite for a radical change in the course of the war. At this stage, the Anti-Hitler coalition took shape, which possessed huge military, economic and human resources.

Sergei Varshavchik, RIA Novosti columnist.

November 1941 is the 27th month of World War II. The most difficult crisis in which the Red Army was, has not yet been overcome: . However, unlike, due to increased resistance in a number of places German troops I had to suspend my advance to the east, and in some places even retreat. The blitzkrieg machine began to crackle.

Don't give the enemy a foothold

By November 1941, the German Army Group "North", having abandoned the assault on Leningrad, carried out, together with the Finnish troops, a systematic blockade of the northern capital of the USSR. All communications of the city on the Neva with the mainland were cut. The defenders of the city had only the communication route along Lake Ladoga, since part of the land coast was in their hands. The Nazis decided to cut this thin "thread" as well, shifting the fighting to the east of the Leningrad Region.

Fierce battles flared up on the outskirts of the cities of Volkhov and Tikhvin. The latter was captured on November 9 by the 39th German Panzer Corps.

On the same day, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command removed General Yakovlev from the post of commander of the 4th Army, appointing in his place former boss General Staff of the Red Army, General Meretskov. The next day, an order followed from Moscow: "in order to prevent the enemy from gaining a foothold in Tikhvin, subject the city of Tikhvin to continuous air bombardment day and night, using incendiary bombs and cartridges." On November 19, a heavy oncoming battle began for the city, during which both sides repeatedly launched counterattacks for several weeks.

As for Volkhov, the German offensive in this direction was stopped only by November 25th. As a result, the front line passed only 6 kilometers south of this city. Realizing that in front of him was a "tough nut", the German command shifted the tip of the blow west of Volkhov, to the area of ​​​​the village of Voybokalo. But the onslaught of the Wehrmacht was repulsed there too. On November 28, the Soviet troops with a powerful counterattack pushed the enemy even further from Volkhov, partially freeing the Volkhov-Tikhvin railway line.

On the threshold of great success

In the Moscow direction, after frost hit in early November, and the roads became more passable, the Germans began the second stage of Operation Typhoon. The idea was simple - to break the flank units of the Soviet troops from the north and south and surround Moscow. The main blows on November 15-18 were delivered in the direction of Klin-Rogachevo and Tula-Kashira.

By introducing 51 divisions into battle, including 13 tank and 7 motorized divisions, the Germans managed to achieve significant tactical successes. By the end of November, having captured Klin, Solnechnogorsk, Istra and Krasnaya Polyana, the enemy moved from the northwest and north to the near approaches to Moscow.

A wall of water prevented a further offensive: the spillways of the Istra, Ivankovsky reservoirs and reservoirs of the Moscow Canal were blown up. As a result, a water stream up to 2.5 meters high was formed for up to 50 kilometers. Attempts by the Germans to close the spillways were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the Soviet 1st shock and 20th armies transferred to the Western Front covered the gap between the 30th and 16th armies. As a result, the enemy was stopped and forced to temporarily go on the defensive.

In the Tula region, units of the 2nd and 4th German armies tried to take the city on the move, but their frontal attacks were repulsed. Then General Guderian decided to bypass the city from the southeast and east with the forces of the 2nd Panzer Group. But by November 7, in the area of ​​​​the village of Dedilovo, the German advance was stopped due to a strong counterattack by the 50th and 3rd Soviet armies on the flanks of the advancing.

Having regrouped their forces, the Germans resumed the offensive, taking Dedilovo on November 18, and Stalinogorsk (now the city of Novomoskovsk) on the 25th. By November 24, Tula was in a semi-encirclement. But the Nazis failed to destroy the Soviet units north of the city, despite swipe on the right flank of the Soviet 50th Army.

At the same time, east of Tula, the 2nd Panzer Army at the end of November was on the verge of a major success, which could lead to dire consequences for the defenders of Moscow. Having captured the city of Skopin on November 25, part of the 18th German tank division, practically without encountering resistance, rapidly moved in the direction Ryazan region. This section, located at the junction of the Western and Southwestern fronts, turned out to be bare. The threat of a deep breakthrough of the enemy into the Soviet rear was eliminated by sailors from the 84th Naval Infantry Brigade urgently transferred here. They not only stopped the attackers, but also recaptured Skopin from the Germans on November 28, holding out until the units of the 10th Soviet Army approached.

Successes on the Soviet-German front cost the Wehrmacht dearly. November 30, 1941 Chief of Staff of the High Command ground forces Wehrmacht General Halder wrote in his diary: "the shortfall on the Eastern Front is 340,000 people, that is, half combat strength infantry. Now companies have an average of 50-60 people.

Hitler's Fury

On November 5, units of Field Marshal von Rundstedt's Army Group South began an active offensive in the direction of Rostov-on-Don. The main goal of the onslaught is the Caucasus and its oil. The city was directly defended by the 56th Army of General Remezov. After a week of stubborn fighting, on November 21, the Germans managed to capture the capital of the Don, but on November 29, Soviet troops drove the invaders out of the city.

On the same day, Stalin sent General Cherevichenko, Commander of the Southern Front, and Commander-in-Chief southwest direction a jubilant telegram to Marshal Timoshenko: "I congratulate you on the victory over the enemy and the liberation of Rostov from the Nazi invaders. I congratulate the valiant troops of the 9th and 56th armies, led by generals Kharitonov and Remezov, who hoisted our glorious Soviet banner over Rostov."

Rundstedt ordered his troops to retreat to the line of the Mius River. Hitler was furious and removed him from command, replacing him with Field Marshal von Reichenau. However, when he arrived at the place, he confirmed the order of his predecessor. As a result, the front line along the Mius River stabilized until the summer of 1942.

Meanwhile, in the Crimea, after the evacuation of the 51st Army to the Kuban, only one small "enclave" remained in the hands of the Red Army - Sevastopol. Its defenses were strengthened by General Petrov's Primorsky Army, which had experience in defending Odessa.

On the outskirts of Sevastopol, since the end of October, battles began with the advanced detachments of the 11th German Army of General von Manstein. On November 11, with the approach of the main forces of the 11th Army, the Germans launched a large-scale offensive against the city. However, over the course of 10 days, they only managed to slightly penetrate into separate defense lines.

In his memoirs, Manstein cited the weather as the reason for the failure. "The Russian winter interfered with us ... In Crimea, continuous rains began, which the shortest time put out of action all the roads without a hard surface ... By November 17, 50% of our transport was out of order for technical reasons. On the mainland, in the north, a severe frost was already raging, which disabled four of the five steam locomotives that were then at our disposal south of the Dnieper, "complained the field marshal.

As a result, the first Nazi attempt to take the city of Russian glory by storm failed, and for a short time there was a lull in this sector of the front.

Operation Crusader

By November 1941, fighting in northern Africa had intensified. British troops, recovering from the spring-summer successes of the German General Rommel, launched an offensive in Libya against the German-Italian troops as part of Operation Crusader.

On November 18, the English 8th Army under the command of General Cunningham attacked the enemy on the coastal road east of the city of Tobruk. Rommel's troops repelled the onslaught, imposing on the British tank battle, during which both sides suffered serious losses in armored vehicles. The British retreated, and on 26 November Cunningham was relieved of his post. Instead, the 8th British Army was led by General Ritchie.

The next day, the 2nd New Zealand Division connected with the garrison of the city of Tobruk besieged by the Germans, releasing it. On November 30, the German Afrika Korps attempted to restore the situation, but after two days of fighting was forced to begin a retreat.

In November, the British suffered a serious loss at sea. On November 13, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal in the Mediterranean was torpedoed by the German submarine U-81. The struggle for the survival of the giant ship lasted 10 hours, but the next day the aircraft carrier sank.

British destroyers dropped 130 depth charges on the submarine, but U-81 managed to escape pursuit. On December 10, the commander of the successful submarine, Lieutenant Commander Guggenberger, was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for a successful attack.

In the same month, the fourth Arctic convoy, PQ-3, was sent from the coast of Iceland with strategic cargo and military equipment from the United States and Great Britain to the USSR. Having put to sea on November 9, on November 22 he safely arrived in Arkhangelsk.