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{{Infobox Military Conflict
| date = June 22, 1941 - May 8, 1945
| conflict = Eastern Front
| partof = [[World War II]]
| image = [[Image:Reichstag flag.jpg|300px]]
| caption = Soviet soldiers raising the [[flag of the Soviet Union]] over the [[Reichstag (building)|Reichstag]] during the [[Battle of Berlin]] on April 30, 1945
| place = Mostly [[Soviet Union]] and [[Eastern Europe]]
| result = Soviet victory
| combatant1 = {{flagicon|USSR}} '''[[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Union]]'''<sup>1<sup><br>[[Image:Flag of Poland.svg|20px]] [[History of Poland (1939–1945)|Poland]]<br>
| combatant2 = [[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|22px]] '''[[Nazi Germany|Germany]]'''<sup>1<sup>,<br> [[Image:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg|20px]] [[History of Italy as a monarchy and in the World Wars|Italy]] (from June, 22, 1941 to 1943)<br>[[Image:Rumania.gif|22px]] [[Romania during World War II|Romania]] (from June, 22)<br>[[Image:Flag of Finland (bordered).svg|20px]] [[Military history of Finland during World War II|Finland]] (from June, 26 to 1944),<br>[[Image:Flag of Hungary 1940.svg|20px]] [[History of Hungary#World War II|Hungary]] (from June, 27)
| commander1 = {{flagicon|USSR}} [[Aleksei Antonov]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Ivan Konev]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Rodion Malinovsky]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Kirill Meretskov]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Ivan Petrov (General)|Ivan Petrov]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Alexander Rodimtsev]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Konstantin Rokossovsky]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Pavel Rotmistrov]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Semyon Timoshenko]],<br> {{flagicon|USSR}} [[Fyodor Tolbukhin]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Aleksandr Vasilevsky]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin|Nikolai Vatutin]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Kliment Voroshilov]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Andrei Yeremenko]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Matvei Zakharov]],<br>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Georgy Zhukov]]
| commander2 = [[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Fedor von Bock]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Ernst Busch]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Heinz Guderian]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist|Ewald von Kleist]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Günther von Kluge]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Georg von Küchler]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Wilhelm List]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Erich von Manstein]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Walter Model]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Friedrich Paulus]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Gerd von Rundstedt]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Ferdinand Schörner]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|20px]] [[Maximilian von Weichs]],<br>[[Image:Flag of Finland (bordered).svg|20px|]] [[Karl Lennart Oesch]],<br>[[Image:Rumania.gif|22px]] [[Petre Dumitrescu]]
| notes = <sup>1 </sup>Partial help for the Soviet Union was provided by [[United States home front during World War II|United States]] and [[Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II|United Kingdom]] (mainly troops and material aid) and for Germany by its puppet states. There were also numerous foreign units recruited by Germany, notably the [[Russian Liberation Army]] and Spanish [[Blue Division]].<br>
}}{{Campaignbox Axis-Soviet War}}
The '''Eastern Front of [[World War II]]''' was the [[theater (warfare)|theatre of war]] covering the conflict in central and eastern Europe from [[June 22]], [[1941]] to [[May 8]], [[1945]]. In all [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] and the majority of [[Russian language|Russian]] sources, the conflict is referred to as the '''Great Patriotic War''' ({{lang-ru|Великая Отечественная война}}, ''Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna''). It was notorious for its unprecedented ferocity, destruction, and immense loss of life. Some sources include the [[Invasion of Poland (1939)|German and Soviet invasion of Poland]] of [[1939]] in this World War II theatre but this article concentrates on the much larger conflict which was fought from June [[1941]] to May [[1945]] in which the two principal [[belligerent]] powers were [[Nazi Germany]] and the [[Soviet Union]]. It resulted in the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and industrial [[superpower]], the Soviet occupation of [[Eastern Europe]], and the [[partition of Germany]].
The Russo-Finnish [[Continuation War]] may be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. Some scholars of the conflict use the term '''Russo-German War''', while others use '''Soviet-German War''', '''German-Soviet War''' or '''Axis-Soviet War'''.
==Overview==
===Forces===
The war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union began on [[22 June]] [[1941]], when Germany crossed borders, fixed in the [[German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact]], invading the Soviet Union. The war ended on [[8 May]] [[1945]], when Germany's armed forces [[Unconditional surrender|surrendered unconditionally]] following the [[Battle of Berlin]] and the subsequent defeat of the German army by Soviet forces. Germany was able to call on the manpower of a number of other [[Axis Powers]] - foremost [[Romania]], [[Hungary]], [[Slovakia]], [[Croatia]], and [[Italy]] - to support them at the front and the subsequently occupied territories. The anti-Soviet [[Finland]], which had recently been at war with the Soviet Union, also joined the ranks of the Germans. The German forces were also assisted by anti-communist [[Partisan (military)|partisans]] in places like Ukraine and Estonia where citizens had suffered greatly at the hands of the Soviets. There was even a [[Blue Division|Spanish division]], sent by Spanish dictator [[Franco]] to keep his ties to the Axis intact. The Soviet Union had help from partisans in many countries in [[Eastern Europe]], notably those in Slovakia, Poland, [[Bulgaria]] and [[Yugoslavia]]. In addition the [[Polish First Army|First]] and [[Polish Second Army|Second]] Polish armies, armed and trained by the Soviets, fought alongside the [[Red Army]] at the front.
===Ideologies===
Hitler had argued in his autobiography ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' for the necessity of [[Lebensraum]], acquiring new territory for German settlement in Eastern Europe. He envisaged settling Germans as a master race in western Russia, while deporting most of the Russians to [[Siberia]] and using the remainder as [[slave labour]]. After [[Great Purge|the great purge]] of the [[1930s]], Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for conquest: "We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down."{{fact}} In the aftermath of the [[Battle of Kursk]] and the resulting dire German military situation, Hitler and Nazi propaganda proclaimed the war to be a German defense of European (Western) Civilization against destruction by the vast "[[Bolshevism|Bolshevik]] hordes" that were pouring into Europe.
[[Stalin]]'s also included the occupation of foreign countries: using the occasion of world attention drawn to the [[Western Front (World War II)|Western Front]], he annexed the three [[Baltic countries]] in [[1940]], thus gaining a ''place d'arme'' in case of a possible war with Hitler-Germany. Stalin's active participation in the [[partitions of Poland|partition of Poland]] (1939) should also not be underestimated. Yet, unlike that of Hitlier's, Stalin did not have any far-reaching plans of expanding Soviet territory to include Eastern Europe, let alone Germany, so Soviet policy should rather be interpreted as the attempt to create a buffer zone between the USSR and Germany before Hitler's attack, which the Soviet Union had all the reasons to consider inevitable.
===Results===
[[Image:4SSNL-PGDA1.jpg|thumb|left|''"Up against [[Bolshevism]]!"''. Propaganda poster urging [[Netherlands|Dutchmen]] to volunteer in the [[Waffen-SS]] at the Eastern Front.]]
[[Image:Motherussia.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A [[1941]] poster ''The [[Motherland]] Is Calling!'']]
The Eastern Front was by far the largest and bloodiest [[Theatre (warfare)|theatre]] of World War II. It is generally accepted as being the most costly conflict in human history with over 30 million dead as a result. It involved more land combat than all other World War II theatres combined. The Eastern Front resulted in staggering losses and disregard for human life almost entirely as a consequence of the [[ideological]] premise for the war. To hardline Nazis in Berlin, the war against the Soviet Union was one of a struggle of [[Fascism]] against [[Communism]], and the [[Aryan race]] against the "[[Untermensch|inferior]]" [[Slavs|Slavic race]]. From the beginning of the conflict, Hitler referred it as a "war of annihilation". Aside from the ideological conflict, the mindframe of the leaders of Germany and the Soviet Union, [[Hitler]] and [[Stalin]] respectively, contributed to the escalation of terror and murder on an unprecedented scale. Hitler sought to enslave the Slavic race and wipe out the large Jewish population of Eastern Europe ([[Holocaust]]). Stalin and Hitler both disregarded human life in order to achieve their goal of victory. This included terrorization of their own people, as well as [[mass deportation]] (planned, in the case of Germany) of entire populations. All these factors resulted in tremendous brutality both to combatants and civilians that found no parallel on the [[Western Front (World War II)|Western Front]].
The war inflicted huge losses and suffering upon the civilian populations of the affected countries. Behind the front lines, [[Atrocity|atrocities]] against civilians in German-occupied areas were routine, including the [[Holocaust]]. German and German-allied forces treated civilian populations with exceptional brutality, massacring villages and routinely killing civilian hostages. Both sides practiced widespread [[scorched earth]] tactics, but the loss of civilian lives in case of Germany was incomaprably smaller than that of the Soviet Union, in which over 20 million civilians were killed by the Nazis and by the Soviets themselves (mainly by the [[NKVD]]). When the Red Army invaded Germany from 1944, many German civilians suffered from vengeance taken by Red Army soldiers (see [[Red Army atrocities]]). After the war, following the [[Yalta conference]] agreements between the Allies, the [[German people|German populations]] of [[East Prussia]] and [[Silesia]] were [[German exodus from Eastern Europe|displaced to the west]] of the [[Oder-Neisse Line]], in what became one of the largest [[forced migration]]s of people in world history. The German minority scattered over large swaths of Eastern Europe was thus expelled and those who did not manage to leave were exterminated.
Much of the combat took place in or close by populated areas, and the actions of both sides contributed to massive loss of civilian life.
Internet war author [[Gary Brecher]] postulates that this conflict ultimately reshaped the genetic map of Europe [http://www.exile.ru/2005-May-06/war_nerd.html].
==Background==
===The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact===
{{verify}}
The [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact|Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact]] of August 1939 had established a [[Non aggression pact|non-aggression agreement]] between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and a secret [[Protocol (treaty)|protocol]] outlined how [[Finland]], [[Estonia]], [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]], [[Poland]] and [[Romania]] would be divided between them. In the [[Invasion of Poland (1939)|Invasion of Poland]] of 1939 the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland, and in June 1940 the Soviet Union, threatening to use force if its demands were not fulfilled, won the diplomatic wars against [[Romania]] and three [[Baltic states]] which allowed it to peacefully [[occupation of the Baltic countries|occupy Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania]] ''[[de facto]]'', (while no Western state regarded the annexation of these states ''de jure'') and to return the [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]], [[Belarus|Belarusian]], and [[Moldavia]]n territories in the North and North-Eastern regions of Romania (Northern [[Bucovina]] and [[Basarabia]]).
===The decision for war===
For nearly two years the border was quiet while Germany conquered [[Operation Weserübung|Denmark, Norway]], [[Battle of France|France]], and the [[Balkans Campaign|Balkans]]. Hitler had however always intended to renege on the pact with the Soviet Union and invade, and appears to have made his decision of when to do so in spring 1940. Retrospectively foolish, Hitler believed that the Soviets would quickly capitulate after an overwhelming German offensive and that the war could largely end before the onset of the fierce Russian winter.
[[Joseph Stalin]] was fearful of war with Germany or just did not expect Germany to start a [[two-front war]], and was reluctant to do anything to provoke Hitler. Even though Germany had been assembling very large numbers of troops in eastern Poland and making clandestine [[reconnaissance]] flights over the border, Stalin ignored the warnings of his own as well as foreign intelligence. Moreover, on the very night of the invasion, Soviet troops received a directive undersigned by [[Marshal]] [[Semyon Timoshenko]] and [[General of the Army]] [[Georgy Zhukov]] that commanded (as it was demanded by Stalin): "do not answer to any provocations" and "do not undertake any actions without specific orders". The German invasion therefore caught the Soviet military and leadership largely by surprise, even though Stalin did receive a message from his spy detailing information on the attack.
As Soviet archives were closed throughout the Cold War and many Russian archives still remain so, the pre-war decisions and strategy of the Soviet leadership remain unclear. Alternatives to mainstream theory of Soviet unpreparedness and defensive strategy have been offered by [[Viktor Suvorov]], author of many controversial works. While rejected by most researchers, his theory has gathered some support among Russian academic historians as well ([[Mikhail Meltyukhov]], [[Vladimir Nevezhin]], V. D. Danilov).
For Soviet preparations, see [[Operation Barbarossa#Soviet preparations|Soviet preparations]].
==Operations==
===The German Invasion of the Soviet Union: Summer 1941===
[[Image:Eastern Front 1941-06 to 1941-12.png|thumb|300px|[[Operation Barbarossa]]: the German invasion of the [[Soviet Union]], [[21 June]] [[1941]] to [[5 December]] [[1941]]
{{legend|#fff8d5|to 9 July 1941}}
{{legend|#ffd2b9|to 1 September 1941}}
{{legend|#ebd7ff|to 9 September 1941}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|to 5 December 1941}}
]]
[[Image:Agitplakat.jpg|thumb|225px|Soviet propaganda poster of 1941. The inscription reads: "Join the ranks of the front female helpmates, a companion is an aid and friend for fighter!"]]
''Main article: [[Operation Barbarossa]] [[Battle of Bialystok-Minsk]]''
At 04:45 on [[22 June]] [[1941]], three million German soldiers, to be joined by their Italian, Romanian and other allies over the next weeks, burst over the borders and stormed into the Soviet Union. For a month the three-pronged offensive was completely unstoppable as the ''[[Panzer]]'' forces [[Encirclement|encircled]] hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops in huge pockets that were then reduced by slower-moving [[infantry]] divisions while the panzers charged on, following the ''[[Blitzkrieg]]'' [[Military doctrine|doctrine]]. As part of this lightning campaign the German airforce began immediate attacks on Soviet airfields destroying most of the initially antiquated and inept Soviet Air Force before it left the ground.
Army Group North's objective was [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] via the Baltic States. Comprising the 16th and 18th Armies and 4th Panzer Group, this formation drove through [[Lithuania]], [[Latvia]], [[Estonia]] and the Russian cities of [[Pskov]] and [[Novgorod]].
Army Group Centre comprised two Panzer groups (2nd and 3rd), which rolled east from either side of [[Brest-Litovsk]] and converged ahead of [[Minsk]], followed by 2nd, 4th and 9th Armies. The combined Panzer force reached the [[Berezina river|Beresina River]] in just six days, 650 km (400 miles) from their start lines. The next objective was to cross the [[Dnieper river]], which was accomplished by [[11 July]]. Following that, their next target was [[Smolensk]], which fell on [[16 July]], but the [[battle of Smolensk (1941)|engagement in the Smolensk area]] blocked the German advance until mid-September, effectively disrupting the ''blitzkrieg''.
Army Group South, with 1st Panzer Group, 6th, 11th and 17th Armies, was tasked with advancing through [[Galicia (Central Europe)|Galicia]] and into [[Ukraine]]. Their progress, however, was rather slow, with only the corridor towards [[Kiev]] secure by mid-July. 11th Army, aided by two Romanian armies, fought its way through [[Bessarabia]] towards [[Odessa]]. The 1st Panzer Group turned away from Kiev for the moment, advancing into the Dnieper bend. When it joined up with the southern elements of Army Group South at [[Uman, Ukraine|Uman]], the group [[Battle of Uman|captured 100,000 Soviet prisoners]] in a huge pocket.
As the [[Red Army]] withdrew behind the Dnieper and [[Daugava|Dvina]] rivers, the Soviet hierarchy turned its attention to moving as much of the region's heavy industry as it could, dismantled and packed onto flatcars, away from the [[front line]], re-establishing it in more remote areas behind the [[Ural Mountains|Urals]] and in [[Central Asia]]. Most civilians could not be evacuated along with the equipment and were left behind to the mercy of the invading forces.
With the capture of Smolensk and the advance to the [[Luga river]], Army Groups Centre and North had completed their first major objective: to get across and hold the "land bridge" between the Dvina and Dnieper. The route to [[Moscow]], now only 400 km (250 miles) away, was wide open.
[[Image:German troops in Russia, 1941.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Wehrmacht troops in training]]
The German generals argued for an immediate drive towards Moscow, but Hitler overruled them, citing the importance of Ukrainian grain and heavy industry if under German possession, not to mention the massing of Soviet reserves in the [[Gomel]] area between Army Group Centre's southern flanks and the bogged-down Army Group South to the south. The order was issued to 2nd Panzer Group to turn south and advance towards Kiev. This took the whole of August and into September, but when 2nd Panzer Group joined up with 1st Panzer Group at [[Lokhvytsia|Lokhvitsa]] on [[5 September]] 665,000 Soviet prisoners were taken and [[Battle of Kiev (1941)|Kiev fell]] on [[19 September]].
===Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941===
''Main articles: [[Operation Typhoon]] and [[Battle of Rostov (1941)|Battle of Rostov]]'' [[Image:Chapay.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A [[1941]] poster reminding Russians about the traditions of [[Alexander Nevsky]], [[Alexander Suvorov]], and [[Vasily Chapayev]].]]
Hitler then decided to resume the advance to Moscow, renaming the Panzer Groups to Panzer Armies for the occasion. [[Operation Typhoon]], which was set in motion on [[30 September]], saw 2nd Panzer Army rush along the paved road from [[Orel]] (captured [[7 October]]) to the [[Oka river]] at [[Plavskoye]], while the 4th Panzer Army (transferred from Army Group North to Centre) and 3rd Panzer Armies surrounded the Soviet forces in two huge pockets at [[Vyazma]] and [[Bryansk]]. Army Group North positioned itself in front of [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] and attempted to cut the rail link at [[Tikhvin]] to the east. Thus began the 900-day [[Siege of Leningrad]]. North of the [[Arctic Circle]], a German-Finnish force set out for [[Murmansk]] but could get no further than the Litsa river, where they settled down.
[[Image:Lamenting the dead.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Lamenting the dead. [[Kerch]], the [[Crimea]].]]
Army Group South pushed down from the Dnieper to the [[Sea of Azov]] coast, also advancing through [[Kharkov]], [[Kursk]] and [[Stalino]]. The 11th Army moved into the [[Crimea]] and had taken control of all of the [[peninsula]] by autumn (except [[Sevastopol]], which held out until [[3 July]] [[1942]]). On [[21 November]] the Germans [[Battle of Rostov|took Rostov]], the gateway to the [[Caucasus]]. However, the German lines were over-extended and the Soviet defenders counterattacked the 1st Panzer Army's spearhead from the north, forcing them to pull out of the city and behind the [[Mius River]]; the first significant German [[Withdrawal (military)|withdrawal]] of the war.
Just as Operation Typhoon got going, the Russian weather struck. For the second half of October it rained solidly, turning what few roads there were into endless mud that trapped German vehicles, horses and men alike. With 160 km (100 miles) still to go to Moscow, there was worse to come when the temperature plunged and snow started falling. The vehicles could move again, but the men could not, freezing with no winter clothing. The German leadership, expecting the campaign to be over in a few months, had not equipped their armies for winter fighting, and the Germans were in their summer uniforms. In addition to that, the gauge difference in railroad tracks between German and Soviet railroads delayed uniform and overall supply.
One last lunge on [[15 November]] saw the Germans attempting to throw a ring around Moscow. On [[27 November]] the 4th Panzer Army got within 30 km (19 miles) of the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]] when it reached the last tramstop of the Moscow line at [[Khimki]], while the 2nd Panzer Army, try as it might, could not take [[Tula, Russia|Tula]], the last Soviet city that stood in its way of the capital. After a meeting held in [[Orsha]] between the head of the [[Oberkommando des Heeres|Army General Staff]], [[General]] [[Franz Halder|Halder]], and the heads of three [[Army Group]]s and armies, it was decided to push forward to [[Moscow]] since it was better, as argued by head of [[Army Group Center]], [[Field Marshal]] [[Fedor von Bock]], for them to try their luck on the battlefield rather than just sit and wait while their opponent gathered more strength.
However, by [[6 December]] it became clear that the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' was too weak to capture Moscow and the attack was put on hold. [[General]] [[Zhukov]] thus began his [[counter-attack]], employing fresh, well-trained Siberian [[Military reserves|reserves]] transferred from the east following the guarantee of neutrality from Japan.
===Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941===
[[Image:Eastern Front 1941-12 to 1942-05.png|thumb|300px|The Soviet winter counter-offensive, [[5 December]] [[1941]] to [[7 May]] [[1942]]
{{legend|#ffd2b9|Soviet gains}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|German gains}}
]]
''Main article: [[Battle of Moscow]], [[Second Battle of Kharkov]]''
During the autumn, Zhukov had been transferring fresh and well-equipped Soviet forces from Siberia and the far east to Moscow (these troops had been stationed there in expectation of a Japanese attack, but [[Stalin|Stalin's]] master [[spy]] [[Richard Sorge]] indicated that the Japanese had decided to attack [[South-East Asian Theatre of World War II|Southeast Asia]] and [[Pacific War|the Pacific]] instead). On [[5 December]] [[1941]], these reinforcements attacked the German lines around Moscow, supported by new [[T-34 tank]]s and [[Katyusha rocket launcher]]s. The new Soviet troops were prepared for winter warfare, and they included several [[Ski warfare|ski battalions]]. The exhausted and freezing Germans were routed and driven back between 100 and 250 km (60 to 150 miles) by [[7 January]] [[1942]].
[[Image:WW2 MoscowBattle russian soldiers.jpg|thumb|300px|Soviet troops in winter camouflage advancing during the [[Battle of Moscow]], December 1941]]
A further Soviet attack was mounted in late January, focusing on the junction between Army Groups North and Centre between [[Lake Seliger]] and [[Rzhev]], and drove a gap between the two German army groups. In concert with the advance from [[Kaluga]] to the south-west of Moscow, it was intended that the two offensives converge on Smolensk, but the Germans rallied and managed to hold them apart, retaining a [[salient]] at Rzhev. A Soviet [[paratrooper|parachute drop]] on German-held [[Dorogobuzh]] was spectacularly unsuccessful, and those paratroopers who survived had to escape to the partisan-held areas beginning to swell behind German lines. To the north, the Soviets surrounded a German [[garrison]] in [[Demyansk]], which held out with air supply for four months, and established themselves in front of [[Kholm]], [[Velizh]] and [[Velikie Luki]].
In the south the Red Army crashed over the [[Donets River]] at [[Izyum]] and drove a 100-km (60-mile) deep salient. The intent was to pin Army Group South against the [[Sea of Azov]], but as the winter eased the Germans were able to counter-attack and cut off the over-extended Soviet troops in the [[Second Battle of Kharkov]].
===Don, Volga, and Caucasus: Summer 1942===
[[Image:Eastern Front 1942-05 to 1942-11.png|thumb|300px|[[Operation Blue]]: German advances from [[7 May]] [[1942]] to [[18 November]] [[1942]]
{{legend|#fff8d5|to 7 July 1942}}
{{legend|#ffd2b9|to 22 July 1942}}
{{legend|#ebd7ff|to 1 August 1942}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|to 18 November 1942}}
]]
''Main articles: [[Battle of Voronezh (1942)|Battle of Voronezh]], [[Battle of the Caucasus]], [[Battle of Stalingrad]]''
Although plans were made to attack Moscow again, on [[28 June]] [[1942]], the offensive re-opened in a different direction. Army Group South took the initiative, anchoring the front with the [[Battle of Voronezh (1942)|Battle of Voronezh]] and then following the [[Don River, Russia|Don river]] southeastwards. The grand plan was to secure the Don and [[Volga]] first and then drive into the Caucasus towards the [[oilfield]]s, but operational considerations and Hitler's vanity made him order both objectives to be attempted simultaneously. Rostov was recaptured on [[24 July]] when 1st Panzer Army joined in, and then that group drove south towards [[Maykop|Maikop]]. As part of this, Operation Shamil was executed, a plan whereby a group of [[Brandenburger commando]]s dressed up as Soviet [[NKVD]] troops to destabilise Maikop's defenses and allow the 1st Panzer Army to enter the oil town with little opposition.
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:wehrmachttroopsinthecaucases.JPG|thumb|200px|right|German troops in the Caucasus]] -->
Meanwhile, 6th Army was driving towards [[Stalingrad]], for a long period unsupported by 4th Panzer Army who had been diverted to help 1st Panzer Army cross the Don. By the time 4th Panzer Army had rejoined the Stalingrad offensive, Soviet resistance (comprising the 62nd Army under [[Vasily Chuikov]]) had stiffened. A leap across the Don brought German troops to the Volga on [[23 August]] but for the next three months the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' would be fighting the [[Battle of Stalingrad]] street-by-street.
Towards the south 1st Panzer Army had reached the Caucasian foothills and the [[Malka River]]. At the end of August Romanian mountain troops joined the Caucasian spearhead, while the Romanian 3rd and 4th Armies were redeployed from their successful task of clearing the Azov [[littoral]]. They took up position on either side of Stalingrad to free German troops for the proper fighting. Mindful of the continuing antagonism between Axis allies Romania and [[Hungary]] over [[Transylvania]], the Romanian army in the Don bend was separated from the Hungarian 2nd army by the Italian 8th Army. Thus all of Hitler's allies were in it — including a [[Slovakia]]n contingent with 1st Panzer Army and a [[Croatia]]n [[regiment]] attached to 6th Army.
The advance into the Caucasus bogged down, with the Germans unable to fight their way past [[Malgobek]] and to the main prize of [[Grozny]]. Instead they switched the direction of their advance to come at it from the south, crossing the Malka at the end of October and entering North [[Ossetia]]. In the first week of November, on the outskirts of [[Ordzhonikidze]], the 13th Panzer Division's spearhead was snipped off and the Panzer troops had to fall back. The offensive into Russia was over.
===Stalingrad: Winter 1942===
[[Image:Eastern Front 1942-11 to 1943-03.png|thumb|300px|Operations [[Operation Uranus|Uranus]], [[Operation Saturn|Saturn]] and [[Operation Mars|Mars]]: Soviet advances on the Eastern Front, [[18 November]] [[1942]] to March [[1943]]
{{legend|#fff8d5|to 12 December 1942}}
{{legend|#ffd2b9|to 18 February 1943}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|to March 1943 (Soviet gains only)}}
]]
''Main articles: [[Battle of Stalingrad]], [[Operation Saturn]], [[Second Rzhev-Sychevka offensive]], [[Third Battle of Kharkov]], [[Battle of Velikiye Luki]]''
While the German 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army had been fighting their way into Stalingrad, Soviet armies had congregated on either side of the city, specifically into the Don [[bridgehead]]s that the Romanians had been unable to reduce, and it was from these that they struck on [[19 November]] [[1942]]. In [[Operation Uranus]], two Soviet fronts punched through the Romanians and converged at [[Kalach]] on [[23 November]], trapping 300,000 Axis troops behind them. A simultaneous offensive on the Rzhev sector known as [[Operation Mars]] was supposed to advance to Smolensk, but was a failure, with German tactical flair winning the day.
The Germans rushed to transfer troops to Russia for a desperate attempt to relieve Stalingrad, but the offensive could not get going until [[12 December]], by which time the 6th Army in Stalingrad was starving and too weak to break out towards it. [[Operation Winter Storm]], with three transferred Panzer divisions, got going briskly from [[Kotelnikovo]] towards the [[Aksai river]] but became bogged down 65 km (40 miles) short of its goal. To divert the rescue attempt the Soviets decided to smash the Italians and come down behind the relief attempt if they could, that operation starting on [[16 December]]. What it did accomplish was to destroy many of the aircraft that had been transporting relief supplies to Stalingrad. The fairly limited scope of the Soviet offensive, although still eventually targeted on Rostov, also allowed Hitler time to see sense and pull Army Group A out of the Caucasus and back over the Don.
On [[31 January]] [[1943]], the 90,000 survivors of the 300,000-man 6th Army surrendered. By that time the Hungarian 2nd Army had also been wiped out. The Soviets advanced from the Don 500 km (300 miles) to the west of Stalingrad, marching through [[Kursk]] (retaken on [[8 February]] [[1943]]) and [[Kharkov]] (retaken [[16 February]] [[1943]]). In order to save the position in the south, the decision was taken in February to abandon the Rzhev salient, freeing enough German troops to make a successful [[riposte]] in eastern Ukraine. [[Manstein]]'s counteroffensive, strengthened by a specially trained SS Panzer Corps equipped with [[Tiger tank]]s, opened on [[20 February]] [[1943]], and fought its way from [[Poltava]] [[Third Battle of Kharkov|back into Kharkov]] in the third week of March, upon which the spring thaw intervened. This had left a glaring bulge in the front centered on Kursk.
===Kursk: Summer 1943 ===
[[Image:Eastern Front 1943-02 to 1943-08.png|thumb|300px|German advances at [[Third Battle of Kharkov|Kharkov]] and [[Battle of Kursk|Kursk]], [[19 February]] [[1943]] to [[1 August]] [[1943]]
{{legend|#ffd2b9|to 18 March 1943}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|to 1 August 1943}}
]]
''Main article: [[Battle of Kursk]]''
After the failure of the attempt to capture Stalingrad, Hitler had deferred planning authority for the upcoming campaign season to the [[German Army High Command]] and reinstated [[Guderian]] to a prominent role, this time as Inspector of Panzer Troops. Debate among the General Staff was polarised, with even Hitler nervous about any attempt to pinch off the Kursk salient. He knew that in the intervening six months the Russian position at Kursk had been reinforced heavily with [[anti-tank]] guns, [[tank trap]]s, [[land mine|landmines]], [[barbed wire]], [[trench warfare|trenches]], [[pillbox]]es, [[artillery]] and [[Mortar (weapon)|mortars]]. But if one last great ''[[blitzkrieg]]'' offensive could be mounted, just maybe the Soviets would ease off and attention could then be turned to the Allied threat to the [[Western Front (World War II)|Western Front]]. The advance would be executed from the Orel salient to the north of Kursk and from [[Belgorod]] to the south. Both wings would converge on [[Tim (Russia)|Tim]], and by that means restore the lines of Army Group South to the exact points that it held over the winter of 1941–1942.
Although the Germans knew that the Red Army's massive reserves of manpower had been bled dry in the summer of 1941 and 1942, the Soviets were still re-equipping, simply by drafting the men from the regions recaptured.
Under pressure from his generals, Hitler bit the bullet and agreed to the attack on Kursk, little realising that the ''[[Abwehr]]'''s intelligence on the Soviet position there had been undermined by a concerted ''[[Stavka]]'' misinformation and [[counter-intelligence]] campaign mounted by the [[Lucy spy ring]] in [[Switzerland]]. When the Germans began the operation, it was after months of delays waiting for new tanks and equipment, by which time the Soviets had reinforced the Kursk salient with more anti-tank firepower than had ever been assembled in one place before or since.
In the north, the entire 9th Army had been redeployed from the Rzhev salient into the Orel salient and was to advance from Maloarkhangelsk to Kursk. But its forces could not even get past the first objective at [[Olkhovatka]], just 8 km (5 miles) into the advance. The 9th Army blunted its spearhead against the Soviet [[land mine|minefields]], frustratingly so considering that the high ground there was the only natural barrier between them and flat tank country all the way to Kursk. The direction of advance was then switched to [[Ponyri]], to the west of Olkhovatka, but the 9th Army could not break through here either and went over to the defensive. The Soviets simply soaked up the German punishment and then struck back. On [[12 July]] the Red Army ploughed through the demarcation line between the 211th and 293rd Divisions on the [[Zhizdra river]] and steamed towards [[Karachev]], right behind them and behind Orel.
[[Image:Totenkopf-Kursk-01.jpg|thumb|300px|Waffen-SS ''[[Panzergrenadier]]s'' of the 3rd SS-Panzer-Division ''[[SS Division Totenkopf|Totenkopf]]'' at the start of the [[Battle of Kursk]]]]
The southern offensive, spearheaded by [[German 4th Panzer Army|4.Panzer-Armee]], led by [[Hermann Hoth|Gen. Col. Hoth]], with three Tank Corps made more headway. Advancing on either side of the upper Donets on a narrow corridor, the [[II SS Panzer Corps|SS Panzer Corps]] and the [[Grossdeutschland Division|Großdeutschland Panzergrenadier Divisions]] battled their way through minefields and over comparatively high ground towards [[Oboyan]]. Stiff resistance caused a change of direction from east to west of the front, but the tanks got 25 km (15 miles) before encountering the reserves of the [[Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army]] outside [[Prokhorovka]]. Battle was joined on [[12 July]], with about one thousand tanks doing battle. After the war, the battle near Prochorovka was idealized by the Soviet [[historian]]s as the biggest tank battle of all time. The meeting engagement at Prochorovka was a Soviet defensive success, albeit at heavy cost. The Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army, with about 800 light and medium tanks, attacked elements of the II SS Panzer Corps. Tank losses on both sides have been the source of controversy ever since. Although the 5th Guards Tank Army did not attain their terrain objectives, the German advance was halted. At the end of the day both sides had fought each other to a standstill, but regardless of the standstill in the north [[Manstein]] intended to continue the attack with the 4th Panzer Army. But all in all the Soviets could absorb the fearful losses of men and equipment that they did, and German strategic advance in [[Operation Citadel]] had been halted. Under the impression of the successful [[counter-attack]] operations in the south the Red Army started the strong offensive operation in the northern Oriel salient and achieved a breakthrough on the flank of the German 9th Army. Also worried by the Allies' [[Operation Husky|landing in Sicily]] on [[10 July]], Hitler made the decision to halve the offensive even as the German 9th Army was rapidly giving ground in the north. The Germans' final strategic offensive in the Soviet Union ended with their defense against a major Soviet counteroffensive that lasted into August. A detailed analysis of this campaign is available in the [[Battle of Kursk]] article.
The Kursk offensive was the last on the scale of 1940 and 1941 the ''Wehrmacht'' was able to launch, and subsequent offensives would represent only a shadow of previous German offensive might. Following the defeat, Hitler would not trust his generals to the same extent again, and as his own mental condition deteriorated the quality of German strategic decision fell correspondingly. The Battle of Kursk cost Hitler over 500,000 troops and 1,000 tanks, forever hampering future war efforts on the Eastern Front.
===Eastern Front in Autumn and Winter 1943===
''Main articles: [[Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket]], [[Battle of Smolensk (1943)]], [[Battle of the Lower Dnieper]] and [[Battle of Narva (1944)]]''
[[Image:Eastern Front 1943-08 to 1944-12.png|thumb|300px|Soviet advances from [[1 August]] [[1943]] to [[31 December]] [[1944]]
{{legend|#fff8d5|to 1 December 1943}}
{{legend|#ffd2b9|to 30 April 1944}}
{{legend|#ebd7ff|to 19 August 1944}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|to 31 December 1944}}
]]
The Soviet juggernaut got rolling in earnest with the advance into the Germans' Orel salient. The diversion of Hitler's favourite ''[[Grossdeutschland Division]]'' from Belgorod to Karachev could not halt the tide, and a strategic decision was made to abandon Orel (retaken by the Red Army on [[5 August]] [[1943]]) and fall back to the Hagen line in front of [[Bryansk]]. To the south, the Soviets blasted through Army Group South's Belgorod positions and headed for Kharkov once again. Though intense battles of movement throughout late July and into August 1943 saw the [[Tiger I|Tiger]]s blunting Soviet tanks on one axis, they were soon outflanked on another line to the west as the Soviets advanced down the [[Psel]], and Kharkov had to be evacuated for the final time on [[22 August]].
The German forces on the [[Mius]], now constituting the 1st Panzer Army and a reconstituted 6th Army, were by August too weak to sustain a Soviet onslaught on their own front, and when the Soviets hit them they had to fall back all the way through the [[Donbass]] industrial region to the Dnieper, losing the industrial resources and half the farmland that Germany had invaded the Soviet Union to exploit. At this time Hitler agreed to a general withdrawal to the Dnieper line, along which was meant to be the ''Ostwall'', a line of defence similar to the [[Westwall#Reactivation of the Siegfried Line, 1944|Westwall]] of fortifications along the German frontier in the west. Trouble was, it hadn't been built yet, and by the time Army Group South had evacuated eastern Ukraine and begun withdrawing across the Dnieper during September, the Soviets were hard behind them. Tenaciously, small units paddled their way across the 3-km (2-mile) wide river and established [[bridgehead]]s. A second attempt by the Soviets to gain land using parachutists, mounted at [[Kanev]] on [[24 September]], proved as luckless as at Dorogobuzh eighteen months previously, and the paratroopers were soon repelled — but not before still more Red Army troops had used the cover they provided to get themselves over the Dnieper and securely dug in. As September proceeded into October, the Germans found the Dnieper line impossible to hold as the Soviet bridgeheads grew and grew, and important Dnieper towns started to fall, with [[Zaporozhye]] the first to go, followed by [[Dnepropetrovsk]]. Finally, early in November the Soviets broke out of their bridgeheads on either side of Kiev and captured the Ukrainian capital, at that time the third largest city in the Soviet Union.
Eighty miles west of Kiev, the 4th Panzer Army, still convinced that the Red Army was a spent force, was able to mount a successful riposte at [[Zhitomir]] during the middle of November, blunting the Soviet bridgehead via a daring outflanking strike mounted by the SS Panzer Corps along the river Teterev. This battle enabled Army Group South also to recapture Korosten and just gain some time to rest - but on [[Christmas Eve]] the retreat began anew when First Ukrainian Front (renamed from Voronezh Front) struck them in the same place. The Soviet advance continued along the railway line until the 1939 Polish-Soviet border was reached on 3 January 1944. To the south, Second Ukrainian Front (ex [[Steppe Front]]) had crossed the Dnieper at [[Kremenchug]] and continued westwards. In the second week of January 1944 they swung north, meeting Vatutin's tank forces who had swung south from their penetration into Poland and surrounding ten German divisions at Korsun-Shevenkovsky, west of [[Korsun Pocket|Cherkassy]]. Hitler's insistence on holding the Dnieper line, even when facing the prospect of catastrophic defeat, was compounded by his conviction that the Cherkassy pocket could break out and even advance to Kiev, but Manstein was more concerned about being able to advance to the edge of the pocket and then implore the surrounded forces to break out. By 16 February the first stage was complete, with panzers separated from the contracting Cherkassy pocket only by the swollen Gniloy Tikich river. Under furious shellfire and pursued by Soviet tanks and cavalry, the surrounded German troops, among whom were the [[SS Division (motorised) Wiking|SS Division Wiking]], fought their way across the river to safety, losing half their number and all their equipment. Surely the Russians would not attack again, with the spring approaching - but in March 3rd Ukrainian Front went over to the offensive. Having already isolated the Crimea by severing the neck of the [[Isthmus of Perekop|Perekop isthmus]], Malinovsky's forces advanced across the mud to the [[Romania]]n border, not stopping on the river [[Prut]].
[[Image:Kukryniksy-razgromim.jpg|thumb|200px|Soviet propaganda poster from World War II, depicting a Red Army soldier aiming a bayonet at Hitler's temple. The torn paper document is titled "The Agreement on non-Aggression between Germany and USSR". The poster title is "Mercilessly, we will humiliate and destroy the enemy!"]]
One final move in the south completed the 1943-44 campaigning season, which had wrapped up an advance of over 500 miles. In March, 20 German divisions of ''[[Generaloberst]]'' [[Hans-Valentin Hube]]'s [[German First Panzer Army|1st Panzer Army]] were encircled in what was to be known as [[Hube's Pocket]] near Kamenets-Podolskiy. After two weeks hard fighting, the 1st Panzer managed to escape the pocket, suffering only light to moderate casualties. At this point, Hitler sacked several prominent generals, Manstein included. April saw the capture of [[Odessa]] in April 1944, followed by 4th Ukrainian Front's campaign to recapture the Crimea, which culminated with the recapture of [[Sevastopol]] on 10 May.
Along Army Group Centre's front, August 1943 saw this force pushed back from the Hagen line slowly, ceding comparatively little territory, but the loss of Bryansk and more importantly, Smolensk, on [[25 September]] cost the Wehrmacht the keystone of the entire German defensive system. The 4th and 9th Armies and 3rd Panzer Armies still held their own east of the upper Dnieper, stifling Soviet attempts to reach Vitebsk. On Army Group North's front, there was barely any fighting at all until January [[1944]], when out of nowhere Volkhov and Second Baltic Fronts struck. In a lightning campaign, Leningrad was liberated and [[Novgorod]] was recaptured; by February the Red Army had reached the borders of [[Estonia]] after a 75-mile advance.
===Summer 1944===
''Main articles: [[Battle of the Crimea (1944)]], [[Belorussian Offensive]], [[Lvov-Sandomir Offensive]], [[Warsaw Uprising]], [[Slovak National Uprising]], [[Battle of Romania (1944)]], [[Battle of Debrecen]]''
''Wehrmacht'' planning was convinced that the Soviets would attack again in the south, where the front was fifty miles from [[Lvov]] and offered the most direct route to [[Berlin]]. Accordingly they denuded of troops Army Group Centre, whose front still protruded deep into the Soviet Union. The Belorussian Offensive (codenamed [[Operation Bagration]]) started on [[June 22]] [[1944]], it was a massive Soviet attack, consisting of four Soviet army groups totaling over 120 divisions that smashed into a thinly-held German line. They focused their massive attacks on Army Group Centre, not Army Group South as the Germans had originally expected. The Germans had transferred units to France to counter the [[Battle of Normandy|invasion of Normandy]] two weeks before. The Red Army achieved a ratio of ten to one in tanks and seven to one in [[aircraft]] over the enemy. At the points of attack, the numerical and quality advantages of the Soviets were overwhelming. More than 2.3 million Soviet troops went into action against the German Army Group Centre, which could boast a strength of less than 800,000 men. The Germans crumbled. The capital of [[Belarus]], [[Minsk]], was taken on [[July 3]], trapping 50,000 Germans. Ten days later the Red Army reached the prewar [[Poland|Polish]] border. The rapid progress cut off and isolated the German units of [[Army Group North]] fighting in [[Courland]]. ''Bagration'' was by any measure one of the largest single operations of the war. By the end of August 1944 it had cost the Red Army 765,815 dead, missing, wounded and sick, as well as 2,957 tanks and assault guns. The Germans lost approximately 670,000 dead, missing, wounded and sick, out of whom 160,000 were captured, as well 2,000 tanks and 57,000 other vehicles.
[[Image:Soivet Border restored 1944.jpg||thumb|200px|[[Red Army]] soldier restoring the USSR border sign. By the end of 1944 practically entire pre-war Soviet territory was liberated.]]
The neighbouring [[Lvov-Sandomir Offensive|Lvov-Sandomierz operation]] was launched on [[17 July]] [[1944]], rapidly routing the German forces in the western Ukraine. The Soviet advance in the south continued into [[Battle of Romania (1944)|Romania]] and, following a coup against Axis-allied government of Romania on [[August 23]], 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. The Romanian surrender tore a hole in the southern German Eastern Front causing the loss of the whole of the [[Balkans]].
In Poland, as the Red Army approached, the [[Polish Home Army]] launched [[Operation Tempest]]. During the [[Warsaw Uprising]], the Soviet Army halted at the [[Vistula River]], unable or unwilling to come to the aid of the Polish resistance. An attempt by the communist controlled [[1st Polish Army]] to relieve the city was unsupported by the Red Army and was thrown back in September with heavy losses.
In [[Slovakia]], the [[Slovak National Uprising]] started as an armed struggle between German ''Wehrmacht'' forces and rebel Slovak troops in August to October 1944. It was centered at [[Banská Bystrica]].
===Autumn 1944===
:''Main articles [[Baltic Offensive]] (September-November), [[Budapest Offensive]] (October-February)''
On 8 September 1944 the Red Army begun an attack on the [[Dukla Pass]] on the Slovak-Polish border. Two months later, the Russians won the battle and entered Slovakia. The toll was high: 85,000 Red Army soldiers lay dead, plus several thousand Germans, Slovaks and [[Czechoslovakia|Czechs]].
===Eastern Europe: January–March 1945===
[[Image:Eastern Front 1945-01 to 1945-05.png|thumb|300px|Soviet advances from [[1 January]] [[1945]] to [[7 May]] [[1945]]
{{legend|#ffd2b9|to 30 March 1945}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|to 11 May 1945}}
]]
''Main articles: [[Vistula-Oder Offensive]] (January-February) with the follow-up [[Pomeranian and Silesian Offensive]] (March), [[East Prussian Offensive]] (January-April), [[Vienna Offensive]] (March-April)''
The Soviet Union finally entered [[Warsaw]] in January [[1945]], after it was destroyed and abandoned by the Germans. Over three days, on a broad front incorporating four army [[Front (Soviet Army)|front]]s, the Red Army began an offensive across the [[Narew]] River and from Warsaw. The Soviets outnumbered the Germans on average by nine to one in troops, ten to one in artillery, and ten to one in tanks and [[self-propelled artillery]]. After four days the Red Army broke out and started moving thirty to forty kilometres a day, taking the Baltic states, [[Danzig]], [[East Prussia]], [[Poznań]], and drawing up on a line sixty kilometres east of [[Berlin]] along the [[Oder]] River. During the full course of the Vistula-Oder operation (23 days), the Red Army forces sustained 194,000 casualties and lost 1,267 tanks and assault guns.
[[Image:Kurlandfront.jpg|thumb|right|250px|German [[Wehrmacht]] soldiers advancing during combat in the [[Courland pocket]].]]
On [[25 January]] [[1945]], Hitler renamed three army groups. [[Army Group North]] became [[Army Group Courland]]; Army Group Centre became Army Group North and [[Army Group A]] became Army Group Centre. Army Group North (old Army Group Centre) was driven into an ever smaller pocket around [[Kaliningrad#Third Reich|Königsberg]] in [[East Prussia]].
A [[counter-attack]] by the newly created [[Army Group Vistula]], under the command of ''[[Reichsführer-SS]]'' [[Heinrich Himmler]], had failed by [[February 24]], and the Soviets drove on to [[Pomerania]] and cleared the right bank of the Oder River. In the south, three German attempts to relieve the encircled [[Budapest]] failed and the city fell on [[February 13]] to the Soviets. Again the Germans counter-attacked, [[Hitler]] insisting on the impossible task of regaining the [[Danube]] River. By [[March 16]] the attack had failed and the Red Army counterattacked the same day. On [[March 30]] they entered [[Austria]] and captured [[Vienna]] on [[April 13]].
On [[April 9]], [[1945]], [[Königsberg]] finally fell to the Red Army, although the shattered remnants of Army Group North continued to resist on the [[Heiligenbeil]] and [[Danzig]] beachheads until the end of the war in Europe. The East Prussian operation, though often overshadowed by the Vistula-Oder operation and the later battle for Berlin, was in fact one of the largest and costliest operations fought by the Red army through the war. During the period it lasted (13 January - 25 April), it cost the Red Army 584,788 casualties, and 3,525 tanks and assault guns.
By early April, the [[Stavka]] freed up General [[Konstantin Rokossovsky]]'s [[2nd Belorussian Front]] (2BF) to move west to the east bank of the Oder river. During the first two weeks of April the Soviets performed their fastest front redeployment of the war. General [[Georgy Zhukov]] concentrated his [[1st Belorussian Front]] (1BF) which had been deployed along the Oder river from [[Frankfurt an der Oder|Frankfurt]] in the south to the Baltic, into an area in front of the [[Seelow Heights]]. The 2BF moved into the positions being vacated by the 1BF north of the Seelow Heights. While this redeployment was in progress gaps were left in the lines and the remnants of the German 2nd Army which had been bottled up in a pocket near [[Danzig]] managed to escape across the Oder. To the south General [[Ivan Konev]] shifted the main weight of the [[1st Ukrainian Front]] (1UF) out of [[Upper Silesia]] north-west to the [[Neisse]] River. The three Soviet fronts had altogether 2.5 million men (including 78,556 soldiers of the [[1st Polish Army]]); 6,250 tanks; 7,500 aircraft; 41,600 [[artillery]] pieces and [[Mortar (weapon)|mortars]]; 3,255 [[truck]]-mounted [[Katyusha]]s [[rocket]]s, (nicknamed "Stalin Organs"); and 95,383 motor vehicles, many manufactured in the USA.
===End of War: April–May 1945===
''Main articles: [[Battle of Berlin]], [[Battle of Halbe]], [[Prague Offensive]]''
All that was left for the Soviets to do was to launch an offensive to capture what was to become [[East Germany]]. The Soviet offensive had two objectives. Because of [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]'s suspicions about the intentions of the [[Western Allies]] to hand over territory occupied by them in the post-war Soviet [[Sphere of influence|zone of occupation]], the offensive was to be on a broad front and was to move as rapidly as possible to the west, to meet the Western Allies as far west as possible. But the overriding objective was to capture Berlin. The two were complementary because possession of the zone could not be won quickly unless Berlin was taken. Another consideration was that Berlin itself held strategic assets, including Adolf Hitler and the [[History of nuclear weapons#World War II|German atomic bomb]] program. [[Image:Ruslanova.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Lidiya Ruslanova]] performing for Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War.]]
The [[Battle of Berlin|offensive to capture East Germany and Berlin]] started on [[April 16]] with an assault on the [[Battle of Berlin#The battle of Oder-Neisse|German front lines on the Oder and Neisse rivers]]. After several days of heavy fighting the Soviet 1BF and 1UF had punched holes through the German front line and were fanning out across East Germany. By the [[April 24]] elements of the 1BF and 1UF had completed the [[encirclement]] of Berlin and the [[Battle of Berlin]] entered its final stages. On [[April 25]] the 2BF broke through the German 3rd Panzer Army's line south of [[Stettin]]. They were now free to move west towards the [[British 21st Army Group]] and north towards the Baltic port of [[Stralsund]]. The [[Soviet 58th Guards Division]] of the [[5th Guards Army]] made contact with the [[US 69th Infantry Division]] of the [[U.S. First Army|First Army]] near [[Torgau]], Germany at the [[Elbe]] river.
On [[April 30]], as the Soviet forces fought their way into the centre of Berlin, Adolf Hitler married [[Eva Braun]] and then [[Hitler's death|committed suicide]] by taking [[cyanide]] and shooting himself. [[Helmuth Weidling]], defence commandant of Berlin, surrendered the city to the Soviets on [[May 2]]. Altogether, the Berlin operation (16 April - 8 May) cost the Red Army 361,367 casualties (dead, missing, wounded and sick) and 1,997 tanks and assault guns. German losses in this period of the war remain impossible to determine with any reliability.
At 02:41 on the morning of [[May 7]], [[1945]], at the [[SHAEF]] headquarters, German Chief-of-Staff General [[Alfred Jodl]] signed the [[unconditional surrender]] documents for all German forces to the Allies. It included the phrase ''All forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European time on [[May 8]] [[1945]]''. The next day shortly before midnight, Jodl repeated the signing in Berlin at Zhukov's headquarters. [[The end of World War II in Europe|The war in Europe was over]].
In the Soviet Union the end of the war is considered to be [[May 9]], when the surrender took effect [[Moscow]] time. This date is celebrated as a [[national holiday]] - [[Victory Day (Eastern Europe)|Victory Day]] - in [[Russia]] and some other post-Soviet countries. The [[Moscow Victory Parade of 1945|ceremonial Victory parade]] was held in Moscow on [[June 24]].
German [[Army Group Centre]] initially refused to surrender and continued to [[Prague Offensive|fight in Czechoslovakia]] until about [[May 11]].
A small German garrison on the island of Bornholm (Denmark) refused to surrender until after being bombed and invaded by the Russians. The island was returned to the Danish government four months later.
===Manchuria: August 1945===
''Main article: [[Operation August Storm]]''
The Battle of Manchuria began on August 8, 1945, with the Soviet invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo; the greater invasion would eventually include neighbouring Mengjiang, as well as northern Korea, southern Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. It marked the initial and only military action of the Soviet Union against the Empire of Japan; at the Yalta Conference, it had agreed to Allied pleas to terminate the neutrality pact with Japan and enter the Second World War's Pacific theatre within three months after the end of the war in Europe.
==Leadership==
The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were ideologically driven states in which the leader had near-absolute power. The character of the war was thus determined by the leaders and their ideology to a much greater extent than in any other theatre of World War II.
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Adolf Hitler Bigger.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Adolf Hitler]] led Germany during World War II]] -->
[[Adolf Hitler]] exercised a tight control over the war, spending much of his time in his command bunkers (most notably at [[Rastenburg]] in [[East Prussia]], at [[Vinnitsa]] in [[Ukraine]], and under the garden of the [[Reich Chancellery]] in [[Berlin]]). At crucial periods in the war he held daily situation conferences, at which he used his remarkable talent for public speaking to overwhelm opposition from his generals and the OKW staff with rhetoric.
He believed himself a military genius, with a grasp of the total war effort that eluded his generals. In August 1941 when [[Walther von Brauchitsch]] (commander-in-chief of the [[Wehrmacht]]) and [[Fedor von Bock]] were appealing for an attack on Moscow, Hitler instead ordered the encirclement and capture of Ukraine, in order to acquire the farmland, industry, and natural resources of that country. Some historians believe that this decision was a missed opportunity to win the war.
In the winter of 1941–42 Hitler believed that his obstinate refusal to allow the German armies to retreat had saved [[Army Group Centre]] from collapse. He later told [[Erhard Milch]],
:I had to act ruthlessly. I had to send even my closest generals packing, two army generals, for example … I could only tell these gentlemen, "Get yourself back to Germany as rapidly as you can — but leave the army in my charge. And the army is staying at the front."
The success of this [[hedgehog defence]] outside Moscow led Hitler to insist on the holding of territory when it made no military sense, and to sack generals who retreated without orders. Officers with initiative were replaced with yes-men or fanatical Nazis. The disastrous encirclements later in the war — at [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]], [[Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket|Korsun]] and many other places — were the direct result of Hitler's orders. Many divisions became cut off in "fortress" cities, or wasted uselessly in secondary theatres, because Hitler would not sanction retreat or abandon voluntarily any of his conquests.
Frustration at Hitler's leadership of the war was one of the factors in the attempted [[coup d'etat]] of [[1944]], but after the failure of the [[July 20 Plot]] Hitler considered the army and its officer corps suspect and came to rely on the [[Schutzstaffel]] and Nazi party members to prosecute the war. His many disastrous appointments included that of [[Heinrich Himmler]] to command [[Army Group Vistula]] in the defence of Berlin in 1945 — Himmler suffered a mental breakdown under the stress of the command and was quickly replaced by [[Gotthard Heinrici]].
Hitler's direction of the war was disastrous for the German army, though the skill, loyalty, professionalism and endurance of officers and soldiers enabled him to keep Germany fighting to the end. [[F. W. Winterbotham]] wrote of Hitler's signal to [[Gerd von Rundstedt]] to continue the attack to the west during the [[Battle of the Bulge]]:
:From experience we had learned that when Hitler started refusing to do what the generals recommended, things started to go wrong, and this was to be no exception.
[[Image:Stalin1.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Joseph Stalin]] led the Soviet Union during World War II]]
[[Joseph Stalin]] bore the greatest responsibility for the disasters of beginning of the war, but can be equally praised for the subsequent success of the Soviet Army, which would have been impossible without the unprecedentally rapid industrializaion of the Soviet Union, which was the first prioriy of Stalin's internal policy throughout the [[1930s]].
The [[Great Purge]] of the [[Red Army]] in the 1930s on Stalin's orders consisted of the legal prosecution of many of the senior command, many of whom were convicted to death or imprisonment. Those executed included [[Mikhail Tukhachevsky]], the brilliant proponent of armoured [[blitzkrieg]] but also the person who had lost the [[Polish-Soviet war]], a defeat which had prevented Soviets from establishing a base for conquering Western Europe in [[1920s]]. Historians still disagree about whether or not an anti-Stalin conspiracy in the army, which was the reason for the prosecution, really existed. Stalin promoted some [[obscurantist]]s like [[Grigory Kulik]] (who opposed the mechanization of the army and the production of [[tank]]s), but on the other hand the purge of the older commanders who had had their positions since the [[Russian Civil War]] opened up those places to the promotion of many younger officers, many of whom proved excellent commanders. Soviet tank output remained the largest in the world. Distrust of the military led, since the foundation of the Red Army in 1918, to a system of "dual command", in which every high-ranking officer was paired with a [[political commissar]], a member of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] who ensured that the officer was loyal and implemented Party orders.
Following the Soviet occupation of eastern [[Poland]], the Baltic states and [[Bessarabia]] in 1939–40, Stalin insisted that every fold of the new territories should be occupied; this move westward left troops far from their depots in salients that left them vulnerable to encirclement. There was an assumption that the coming war would be fought outside the borders of the Soviet Union and few plans were made for defence. As tension heightened in Spring 1941, Stalin was desperate not to give Hitler any provocation that could be used as an excuse for an attack; this caused him to refuse to allow the military to go onto the alert even as German troops gathered on the borders and German reconnaissance planes overflew installations. This refusal to take the necessary action was instrumental in the destruction of the Soviet Air Force, lined up on its airfields, in the first days of the war.
Stalin's insistence on repeated counterattacks without preparation led to the loss of almost the whole of the Red Army's tank corps in 1941 — many tanks simply ran out of fuel on their way to the battlefield through faulty planning or ignorance of the ___location of fuel dumps. Some regard this offensive strategy as an argument for Soviet aggressive strategical plans.
[[Image:Georgij Žukov-1.jpg|thumb|140px|[[Georgy Zhukov]], considered by many as one of the most successful field commanders in the Soviet [[Red Army]].]]
Unlike Hitler, Stalin was able to learn lessons and improve his conduct of the war. He gradually came to realise the dangers of inadequate preparation and built up a competent command and control organization — the [[Stavka]] — under [[Semyon Timoshenko]], [[Georgy Zhukov]] and others. Incompetent commanders were gradually weeded out.
At the crisis of the war, in autumn 1942, Stalin made many concessions to the army: unitary command was restored by removing the Commissars from the [[chain of command]]. After the [[Battle of Stalingrad]], shoulderboards were introduced for all ranks; this was a significant symbolic step, since they had been seen as a symbol of the old regime after the [[Russian Revolution of 1917]]. Beginning in autumn 1941, units that had proved themselves by superior performance in combat were given the traditional "Guards" title. But these concessions were combined with ruthless discipline: [[Order No. 227]], issued on [[28 July]] [[1942]], threatened commanders who retreated without orders with punishment by [[court-martial]]. Infractions by military and ''[[politruk]]s'' were punished with transferal to [[penal battalion]]s and penal [[company (military unit)|companies]], and the [[NKVD]]'s [[barrier troops]] would shoot soldiers who fled.
As it became clear that the Soviet Union would win the war, Stalin ensured that propaganda always mentioned his leadership of the war; the victorious generals were sidelined and never allowed to develop into political rivals. After the war the Red Army was once again purged: many successful officers were demoted to unimportant positions (including [[Georgy Zhukov|Zhukov]], [[Rodion Malinovsky|Malinovsky]] and [[Ivan Koniev|Koniev]]).
==Occupation and repression==
[[Image:Einsatzgruppen Killing.jpg|right|thumb|200px|A member of ''Einsatzgruppe D'' murders a Jew who is kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, [[Ukraine]], in 1942. The back of the photo is inscribed "The last Jew in Vinnitsa"]]
The enormous territorial gains of 1941 presented Germany with vast areas to [[pacify]] and administer. Some Soviet citizens, especially in the recently annexed territories of Western Ukraine and the Baltic States greeted their conquerors as liberators from the Soviet rule. However, nascent national liberation movements among [[Ukrainians]] and [[Cossack]]s, and other were viewed by Hitler with suspicion; some (especially those from the Balitc States) were co-opted into the Axis armies and others brutally suppressed. None of the conquered territories gained any measure of self-rule. Instead, the [[racism|racist]] [[Nazism|Nazi ideologues]] saw the future of the East as one of [[Generalplan Ost|settlement by German colonists]], with the natives killed, expelled, or reduced to slave labour.
Regions closer to the front were managed by military powers of the region, in other areas such as Baltic states annexed by USSR in 1940, Reichscommissariats were established. As a rule, the maximum in loot was extracted. In September 1941, [[Erich Koch]] was appointed to the Ukrainian Commissariat. His opening speech was clear about German policy: "I am known as a brutal dog … Our job is to suck from Ukraine all the goods we can get hold of ... I am expecting from you the utmost severity towards the native population."
Atrocities against the Jewish population in the conquered areas began almost immediately, with the dispatch of ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'' (task groups) to round up Jews and shoot them. Local [[anti-semite]]s were encouraged to carry out their own [[pogrom]]s. In July 1941 [[Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski]]'s SS unit began to carry out more systematic killings, including the massacre of over 30,000 Jews at [[Babi Yar]]. By the end of 1941 there were more than 50,000 troops devoted to rounding up and killing Jews. The gradual industrialization of killing led to adoption of the [[Final Solution]] and the establishment of the [[Operation Reinhard]] extermination camps: the machinery of the [[Holocaust]]. In three years of occupation, between one and two million Soviet Jews were killed. Other ethnic groups were targeted for extermination, including the [[Roma people|Roma]] and [[Sinti]]; see [[Porajmos]].
The massacres of Jews and other [[Ethnic minority|ethnic minorities]] were only a part of the deaths from the Nazi occupation. Many thousands of Soviet civilians were executed, but millions died from [[starvation]] as the Germans requisitioned food for their armies and fodder for their draft horses. As they retreated from Ukraine and Belarus in 1943–44, the German occupiers systematically applied a [[scorched earth]] policy, burning towns and cities, destroying infrastructure, and leaving civilians to starve or die of exposure. Estimates of total civilian dead in the Soviet Union in the war range from seven million ([[Encyclopedia Britannica]]) to seventeen million (Richard Overy).
The Nazi ideology and the maltreatment of the local population and Soviet POWs encouraged [[Partisan (military)|partisan]]s fighting behind the front, motivated even anti-communists or non-Russian nationalists to ally with the Soviets, and greatly delayed the formation of German allied divisions consisting of Soviet POWs (see [[Vlasov army]]). These results and missed opportunities contributed to the defeat of the ''Wehrmacht''.
==Industrial output==
[[Image:T34 1.jpg|frame|A [[T-34]] tank rolls off the line at the ''Krasnoye Sormovo'' Factory No. 112 in Gorki. The Soviet Union manufactured 58,000 T-34s during the war.]]
The Soviet victory owed a great deal to the ability of her war industry to outperform the German economy, despite the enormous loss of population and land. Stalin's [[five-year plan]]s of the 1930s had resulted in the industrialization of the Urals and central Asia. In 1941, the trains that shipped troops to the front were used to evacuate thousands of factories from Belarus and Ukraine to safe areas far from the front lines.
As the Soviet Union's manpower reserves ran low from 1943 onwards, the great Soviet offensives had to depend more on equipment and less on the expenditure of lives. The increases in production of war [[materiel]] were achieved at the expense of civilian living standards — the most thorough application of the principle of [[total war]] — and with the help of [[Lend-Lease]] supplies from the [[United Kingdom]] and the [[United States]]. The Germans, on the other hand, could rely on a large slave workforce from the conquered countries and Soviet [[POW]]s.
Germany's raw material production was higher than the Soviets' and her labour force was far greater, but the Soviets were more efficient at using what resources they had and chose to build low-cost, low-maintenance vehicles whilst the Germans built high-cost, high-maintenance vehicles.
Germany chose to build very expensive and very complicated vehicles and even though Germany produced many times more raw materials she could not compete with the Soviets on the quantity of military production (in 1943, the [[Soviet armored fighting vehicle production during World War II|Soviet Union manufactured 24,089 tanks]] to [[German armored fighting vehicle production during World War II|Germany's 19,800]]). The Soviets incrementally upgraded existing designs, and simplified and refined manufacturing processes to increase production. Meanwhile, German industry was forced to engineer more advanced but complex designs such as the [[Panther tank]], the [[King Tiger]] or the [[Elefant]].
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Summary of German and Soviet Raw Material production during the war<sup><small>1</small></sup>
|-
!rowspan="2"|Year
!colspan="2"|Coal<br />(million tonnes)
!colspan="2"|Steel<br />(million tonnes)
!colspan="2"|Aluminium<br />(thousand tonnes)
!colspan="6"|Oil<br />(million tonnes)
|-
!style="background:#ffffff"|German
!style="background:#ffffff"|Soviet
!style="background:#ffffff"|German
!style="background:#ffffff"|Soviet
!style="background:#ffffff"|German
!style="background:#ffffff"|Soviet
!style="background:#ffffff"|German
!style="background:#ffffff"|Soviet
!style="background:#ffffff"|Italian
!style="background:#ffffff"|Hungarian
!style="background:#ffffff"|Romanian
!style="background:#ffffff"|Japanese
|-
!1941
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|315.5
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|151.4
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|28.2
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|17.9
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|233.6
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|–
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5.7
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|33.0
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|0.12
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|0.4
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5.5
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|-
!1942
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|317.9
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|75.5
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|28.7
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|8.1
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|264.0
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|51.7
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|6.6
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|22.0
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|0.01
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|0.7
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5.7
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|1.8
|-
!1943
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|340.4
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|93.1
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|30.6
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|8.5
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|250.0
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|62.3
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|7.6
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|18.0
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|0.01
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|0.8
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5.3
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|2.3
|-
!1944
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|347.6
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|121.5
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|25.8
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|10.9
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|245.3
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|82.7
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5.5
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|18.2
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|1
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|3.5
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|1
|-
!1945<sup><small>2</small></sup>
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|–
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|149.3
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|–
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|12.3
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|–
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|86.3
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|1.3
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|19.4
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|0.1
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Summary of Axis and Soviet Tank and Self-<br />propelled Gun production during the war<sup><small>1</small></sup>
|-
!rowspan="2"|Year
!colspan="5"|Tanks and self-<br />propelled guns
|-
!style="background:#ffffff"|Soviet
!style="background:#ffffff"|German
!style="background:#ffffff"|Italian
!style="background:#ffffff"|Hungarian
!style="background:#ffffff"|Japanese
|-
!1941
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|6,590
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5,200<sup><small>3</small></sup>
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|595
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|595
|-
!1942
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|24,446
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|9,300<sup><small>3</small></sup>
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|1,252
!style="background:#ffffff" rowspan="3"|500
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|557
|-
!1943
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|24,089
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|19,800
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|336
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|558
|-
!1944
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|28,963
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|27,300
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|353
|-
!1945<sup><small>2</small></sup>
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|15,400
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|–
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|137
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Summary of Axis and Soviet Aircraft production during the war<sup><small>1</small></sup>
|-
!rowspan="2"|Year
!colspan="6"|Aircraft
|-
!style="background:#ffffff"|Soviet
!style="background:#ffffff"|German
!style="background:#ffffff"|Italian
!style="background:#ffffff"|Hungarian
!style="background:#ffffff"|Romanian
!style="background:#ffffff"|Japanese
|-
!1941
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|15,735
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|11,776
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|3,503
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
!style="background:#ffffff" rowspan="5"|1,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5,088
|-
!1942
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff|25,436
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|15,556
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|2,818
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|6
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|8,861
|-
!1943
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|34,845
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|25,527
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|967
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|267
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|16,693
|-
!1944
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|40,246
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|39,807
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|773
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|28,180
|-
!1945<sup><small>2</small></sup>
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|20,052
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|7,544
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|8,263
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Summary Of German and Soviet Industrial Labour (including those classified as handworkers), and Summary of Foreign, Voluntary, Coerced and POW Labour <sup><small>4</small></sup>
|-
!rowspan="2"|Year
!colspan="2"|Industrial Labour
!colspan="2"|Foreign Labour
!colspan="2"|Total Labour
|-
!style="background:#ffffff"|Soviet
!style="background:#ffffff"|German
!style="background:#ffffff"|Soviet
!style="background:#ffffff"|German
!style="background:#ffffff"|Total Soviet
!style="background:#ffffff"|Total German
|-
!1941
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|11,000,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|12,900,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|3,500,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|11,000,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|16,400,000
|-
!1942
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|7,200,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|11,600,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|50,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|4,600,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|7,250,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|16,200,000
|-
!1943
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|7,500,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|11,100,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|200,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5,700,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|7,700,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|16,800,000
|-
!1944
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|8,200,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|10,400,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|800,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|7,600,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|9,000,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|18,000,000
|-
!1945<sup><small>2</small></sup>
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|9,500,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|–
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|2,900,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|12,400,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|-
|}
Notes:
# Figures from Richard Overy, ''Russia's War'', p. 155 and ''Campaigns of World War II Day By Day'', by Chris Bishop and Chris McNab, pp. 244-52.
# If numbers are not stated then they are unknown. Soviet numbers for 1945 are for the whole of 1945 even after the war was over.
# German figures for 1941 and 1942 include tanks only. (Self-propelled guns cost 2/3 of a tank (mainly because they have no turret) and were more appropriate in a defensive role. The Germans therefore favored their production in the second half of the war.)
# Figures are from ''The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia'' by [[Richard Overy]] p. 498.
It should be noted that the Axis allies Italy, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria added to the German numbers. Two-thirds of Germany's [[Iron ore]], much needed for her military production, came from [[Sweden]]. Soviet production and upkeep was assisted by the [[Lend-Lease]] program from the United States and Britain. After the defeat at Stalingrad, Germany geared completely towards a war economy, as expounded in [[Goebbels]]' [[Sportpalast speech]], increasing production in subsequent years under [[Albert Speer]]'s astute direction, despite the intensifying [[Strategic bombing during World War II|Allied bombing campaign]].
==Casualties==
{{see|World War II casualties}}
The Eastern Front was unparalleled for its high intensity, ferocity, and brutality. The fighting involved millions of German and Soviet troops along a broad front. It was by far the deadliest single [[Theatre (warfare)|theatre of war]] in World War II, with over 5 million deaths on the Axis Forces; Soviet military deaths were about 10.6 million (out of which 2.6 million Soviets died in German captivity), and civilian deaths were about 14 to 17 million. Soviet and Russian historiography often uses the so-called irretrievable casualties term. According to the [[Narkomat]] of Defence order (№ 023, [[February 4]], [[1944]]), the irretrievable casualties include killed, missed, those who died due to war-time or subsequent wounds, maladies and [[chilblain]]s and those who were captured.
The genocidal death toll was attributed to several factors, including brutal mistreatment of POWs and captured partisans by both sides, multiple atrocities by the Germans and the Soviets against the civilian population and each other, the wholesale use of weaponry on the battlefield against huge masses of infantry. The multiple battles, and most of all, the use of [[scorched earth]] tactics destroyed [[Agriculture|agricultural land]], infrastructure, and whole towns, leaving much of the population homeless and without food.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Military losses on the Eastern Front during World War II<sup><small>1</small></sup>
|-
!colspan="5"|Forces fighting with the Axis
|-
!
!style="background:#ffffff"|Total Dead
!style="background:#ffffff"|KIA/MIA
!style="background:#ffffff"|POWs taken by the Soviets
!style="background:#ffffff"|POWs that died in Captivity
|-
!Greater Germany
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|4,300,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|3,100,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|3,300,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|474,967-1,200,000
|-
!Soviet residents who joined German army
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|215,000+
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|215,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|1,000,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|Unknown
|-
!Romania
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|281,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|81,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|500,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|200,000
|-
!Hungary
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|300,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|100,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|500,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|200,000
|-
!Italy
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|82,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|32,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|70,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|50,000
|-
!Total
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5,178,000+
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|3,528,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5,450,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|1,650,000
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Military losses on the Eastern Front during World War II<sup><small>2</small></sup>
|-
!colspan="5"|Forces Fighting with the Soviet Union
|-
!
!style="background:#ffffff"|Total Dead
!style="background:#ffffff"|KIA/MIA
!style="background:#ffffff"|POWs taken by the Axis
!style="background:#ffffff"|POWs that died in captivity
|-
!Soviet
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|10,600,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|7,600,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5,200,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|2,600,000
|-
!Poland
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|24,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|24,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|Unknown
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|Unknown
|-
!Romania
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|17,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|17,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|80,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|Unknown
|-|-
!Bulgaria
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|10,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|10,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|Unknown
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|Unknown
|-
!Total
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|10,651,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|7,651,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|5,280,000
|align="right" style="background:#ffffff"|2,600,000
|-
|}
1 Rűdiger Overmans, ''Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg''. Oldenbourg 2000. ISBN 3-486-56531-1
2 Vadim Erlikman, ''Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke: spravochnik''. Moscow 2004. ISBN 5-93165-107-1;
Mark Axworthy, ''Third Axis Fourth Ally''. Arms and Armour 1995, p. 216. ISBN 1-85409-267-7
Total Soviet losses includes Deaths Partisans-250,000 and Deaths Militia-150,000
KIA/MIA above = Killed in action / Missing in action
Polish forces, initially consisting of Poles exiled from Eastern Poland to other parts of the Soviet Union in 1939-1941, began fighting alongside the Red Army in 1943, and grew steadily as more Polish territory was liberated from the Nazis in 1944-1945.
When the eastern European countries were liberated by the Soviets they were forced to change sides and declare war on the Germans
Some of the Soviet citizens would side with the Germans and join [[Andrey Vlasov]] [[Russian Liberation Army]]. Most of those who joined were Russian POWs. Most who joined hated communism and actually saw the Nazis as liberators from communism. These men were mostly used in the Eastern Front but some were even placed on the beaches of [[Normandy]] (to the surprise of the Americans who found men running out of fox holes shouting "Russki!"). The other main group of men joining the German army were citizens of the Baltic countries annexed by the Soviet Union in [[1940]] or from [[Ukraine]]. They fought in their own Waffen-SS units.
A comparison of the losses demonstrates the cruel treatment of the Soviet POWs by the Nazis. Most of the Axis POWs were released from captivity after the war, but the fate of the Soviet POWs differed markedly. Nazi troops who captured Red Army soldiers frequently{{fact}} shot them in the field or shipped them to [[concentration camp]]s and executed them. Hitler's notorious [[commissar order|Commissar Order]] implicated all the German armed forces in the policy of war crimes.{{fact}}
3. [http://www.duel.ru/200517/?17_7_1 Duel.ru Владимир Литвиненко. ''Были ли потери Красной Армии в Великой Отечественной войне чрезмерными?'']
==See also==
[[Image:Victory_Park_(Moscow).jpg|thumb|250px|Victory Alley on [[Poklonnaya Hill]] in [[Moscow]].]]
* [[Timeline of the WWII Eastern Front]].
* [[Military history of Germany during World War II]].
* [[Operation Silberfuchs]], Axis attack on the Soviet Arctic.
* [[Operation August Storm]], the Soviet campaign against [[Japan]] in [[Manchuria]].
* [[Historiography of World War II]].
* [[Captured German equipment in Soviet use in Eastern front]]
* [[1812 and 1941 invasions of Russia]]
* [[Italian war in Soviet Union, 1941-1943]]
* [[Alpini#World War II|The Italian Alpini infantry corps in Russia]]
* [[Women in the Russian and Soviet military]]
==References==
<div class="references-small">
* [[Dunkan Anderson]] and others, ''[http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN076030923X&id=iHh4Z0Cps08C&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&dq=076030923X&sig=bxdcoaGKpklOS1hywSwpOvq7l4I The Eastern Front: From Barbarossa to Berlin the Campaigns of World War II]'', Zenith, 2001, ISBN 0-7603-0923-X
* [[Antony Beevor]], & Artemis Cooper, ''Stalingrad'', Viking, 1998.
* Antony Beevor, ''Berlin: The Downfall 1945'', Penguin, 2002.
* [[John Erickson]], ''The Road to Stalingrad'', Harper & Row, 1975.
* John Erickson, ''The Road to Berlin'', Harper & Row, 1982.
* John Erickson and [[David Dilks]], ''Barbarossa, the Axis and the Allies'', Edinburgh University Press, 1994.
* [[David Glantz]] and [[Jonathan House]], ''When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army stopped Hitler'', University Press of Kansas, 1995.
* [[Heinz Guderian]], ''[[Panzer Leader (book)|Panzer Leader]]'', [[Da Capo Press]], New York, 2001.
* [[Basil Liddell Hart]], ''History of the Second World War'', Cassel & Co; Pan Books, 1973.
* [[David Irving]], ''Hitler's War'', Hodder & Stoughton, 1977.
* [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=22785646 Rolf-Dieter Müller and Gerd R. Ueberschär. ''Hitler's War in the East, 1941-1945: A Critical Assessment'' (1997)]
* [[Rudiger Overmans]]''Deutsche militarische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg''
* [[Richard Overy]], ''Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941–1945'', Penguin, 1997.
* [[Albert Seaton]], ''The Russo-German War 1941–45'', Praeger, 1971.
* F. W. Winterbotham, ''The Ultra Secret'', Orion, 1974.
</div>
==External links==
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/soviet_german_war_01.shtml Prof Richard Overy writes a summary about the eastern front for the BBC]
* [http://www.iremember.ru/index_e.htm Russian veterans of World War II memories(In English and Russian)]
* [http://www.onwar.com/maps/wwii/eastfront1/index.htm OnWar maps of the Eastern Front]
* [http://www.wilhelm-radkovsky.de Memories of Leutnant d.R. Wilhelm Radkovsky 1940-1945] Experiences as a German soldier on the Eastern and Western Front
* [http://english.pobediteli.ru/ Pobediteli: Eastern Front flash animation] (photos, video, interviews, memorials. Written from a Russian perspective)
* [http://www.feldgrau.com/index.html Feldgrau.com] The German Armed Forces 1919-1945
* [http://www.daswolf.co.uk/index.php?p=Eastern+Front+Chronology Information about the Eastern front up to September 1943]
* [http://www.borodulincollection.com/war/ "Borodulin Collection"] excellent set of war photos.
{{WWIITheatre}}
{{World War II}}
[[Category:World War II Eastern European Theatre|*]]
[[Category:Soviet-German War|*]]
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[[ca:Front Oriental de la Segona Guerra Mundial]]
[[cs:Velká vlastenecká válka]]
[[da:Østfronten]]
[[de:Russlandfeldzug 1941 - 1945]]
[[es:Frente Oriental]]
[[fr:Front de l'Est (Seconde Guerre mondiale)]]
[[ko:동부 유럽 전선 (제2차 세계 대전)]]
[[it:Fronte Orientale (Seconda guerra mondiale)]]
[[he: החזית המזרחית במלחמת העולם השנייה]]
[[ja:独ソ戦]]
[[ro:Frontul de răsărit (al doilea război mondial)]]
[[ru:Великая Отечественная война]]
[[sk:Veľká vlastenecká vojna]]
[[sr:Источни фронт (Други светски рат)]]
[[fi:Itärintama (toinen maailmansota)]]
[[sv:det stora fosterländska kriget]]
[[vi:Chiến tranh Xô-Đức]]
[[uk:Велика Вітчизняна війна]]
[[zh:东方战线]]
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