Eastern Front (WWII)

From Wikinfo

The Eastern Front was the primary theater of combat between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. In Russia, the war is referred to as the Great Patriotic War (Великая Отечественная Война, Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna in Russian), a name which alludes to the Russo–Napoleonic Patriotic War on Russian soil in 1812. Some scholars of the conflict use the term Russo-German War, while others use Soviet-German War or German-Soviet War.

The war began as Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941 4:00 am, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union; and ended on 8 May 1945 when Germany surrendered following the Battle of Berlin. In the Soviet Union the end of war was marked on 9 May, when the surrender took effect Moscow time. This date is celebrated as national holiday (Victory Day) in the Soviet Union and some of post-Soviet countries.

Invasion

In 1939, the German and Soviet governments had arranged a peaceful border via the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and so Operation Barbarossa caught the Soviet leadership largely by surprise; Germany conquered vast areas of territory and captured hundreds of thousands of troops in the first few months. The Red Army withdrew, and the Soviet Union managed to move most of the heavy industry away from the front line and re-establish it in more remote areas. Tenacious, sacrificial defense in the Battle of Moscow prevented the Wehrmacht from capturing Moscow by the time winter set in. The German leadership, expecting the campaign to be over in a few months, had not equipped their armies for winter fighting.

In the north, the Red Army attacked Finland in a pre-emptive attack on 25 June, thus beginning the Finnish Continuation War, lasting until armistice in 1944. By September the Finns had recaptured the losses of the Winter War while the Germans had advanced halfways to Murmansk and to the outskirts of Leningrad; but there they were unable to capture the city, thus beginning the lengthy Siege of Leningrad.

Stalemate

In the spring of 1942 the German army made further attacks, but appeared to be unable to choose between a direct attack on Moscow and the capture of the Caucasian oilfields. Moscow was again spared, and at the end of 1942 the Red Army succeeded in smashing the Axis front lines in the south and surrounding the German 6th Army in the Battle of Stalingrad; in February 1943 the paltry remnant of the 300,000 man army surrendered. In the spring, the Germans were able to restore the front line and make a successful riposte at Kharkov, but their offensive at the massive Battle of Kursk in July 1943 was so unsuccessful that the Red Army was able to counterattack and regain the ground previously lost. From that time on the Soviet Union had the initiative in the East.

Soviet initiative

In January 1944 Novgorod was recaptured; by February the Red Army had reached Estonia and pocketed 10 divisions near Cherkassy. In the south, they reached the Romanian border in March, captured Odessa in April, and Sevastopol in May. The Soviet advance continued into Romania and Poland and following a coup against Axis-allied government of Romania, the Red army occupied Bucharest on August 31. In Moscow on September 12, Romania and the Soviet Union signed an armistice on terms Moscow virtually dictated.

In Poland, as the Red Army approached Warsaw, the Soviet propaganda encouraged the Poles to take up arms in the Warsaw Uprising, but the Soviet Army halted at the Vistula River under circumstances that raised suspicions that the motive was to weaken the Poles and make Poland more susceptible for a Communist takeover.

In October, the Red army moved into Hungary.

At the beginning of 1945, the Red Army began the assault on central Germany. They reached Berlin by April, and the ensuing Battle of Berlin ended with Hitler's suicide and the German surrender.

Several cities in the Soviet Union were awarded the title Hero City for their heroism in the desperate defence against the German aggressors.

Casualties

The war on the Eastern Front was unparalleled for its ferocity, intensity, and brutality. By most estimates some 4 million Axis troops and 11 million Soviet troops fell in battle or died as POWs. Another 15–17 million Soviet civilians fell victim to massacres, disease, and starvation during the war.

Historiography

The scale of the conflict dwarfs all others in World War II; Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had hundreds of divisions in action, while other theaters of the war measured their commitments in tens of divisions or less. However, full accounts of the war have been difficult, partly due to loss of records, and partly due to Soviet secretiveness and propaganda efforts. In recent years the opening of Soviet archives has afforded considerable insight into the strategies and motives on the Soviet side, supplementing previous accounts that often had to be written largely based on the point of view of the Western Allied and surviving Germans.