The background of the Soviet-German battlefield in World War II
Germany
193365438+1October 30th, in Central Europe, Austrian Adolf &; Middot Hitler served as Germany, and the German Nazi Party came to power. Although Hitler saved Germany, whose economy nearly collapsed in the Great Depression, he also pursued dictatorship at home and suppressed the opposition party. Announced to break the shackles of Versailles and seize the "living space."
1938 March 1 1, merged.
1938 On September 30th, Britain, France and Germany signed the Munich Treaty, and Germany occupied the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia.
1939 In March, Hitler tore up the Munich Agreement and occupied the whole territory of Czechoslovakia without bloodshed.
1939 On August 23rd, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Treaty of Non-Aggression between the Soviet Union and Germany, dividing their respective spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union actually became Germany's accomplice.
1 September 19391day, Germany declared war on Poland, and World War II officially broke out.
1September 25, 939, after Germany conquered Poland, the Soviet Union and Germany divided Poland.
1940 In April, Germany attacked France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, forcing France to accept the peace treaty. 1940 On June 22nd, Vichy France was founded. Later, Germany lost in the "Sea Lion Project" and was forced to suspend its plan to conquer the British Isles.
1941April 6, Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece and conquered them. At this point, except Britain, the allies in Europe have collapsed, and Germany has basically cleared the obstacles to conquering the Soviet Union.
the Soviet Union
During the "great cleansing" movement in the Soviet Union before the war, a large number of Soviet officers were arrested or even shot, which greatly weakened the military command ability of the Soviet Red Army in the early days of the war. In the "agricultural collectivization" movement, a serious famine occurred in the Soviet Union, especially in Ukraine, and a large number of Ukrainians starved to death, leading to a large number of rebellions in Ukraine. Ukraine is increasingly dissatisfied with Moscow and even hopes that the German army will "liberate" Ukraine.
After the signing of the non-aggression treaty between the Soviet Union and Germany, the Soviet Union became a servant country of Germany in a relative sense, and began a large-scale foreign aggression like Germany.
1On September 25th, 939, the Soviet Union carved up Poland.
1939165438+1October 30, the Soviet Union invaded Finland, won after paying a huge price, and won the Karelia region of Finland and the Turku military port.
1June, 940, the Soviet Union annexed the three Baltic countries. Almost at the same time, the Soviet Union annexed the Bissalabia region of Romania. This behavior directly led Finland and Romania to join the Axis countries, and caused the Baltic people to launch a large-scale anti-Soviet struggle. When the Germans entered the Baltic countries, people lined up to welcome them.
In the Far East, the Soviet Union and Japan are also in constant conflict, and the Zhanggufeng incident and the Nomenkan incident occurred one after another. In order to alleviate the pressure from the Far East, the Soviet Union quickly changed its previous hostile attitude towards the National Government of the Republic of China, turned to support War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression of the National Government, and provided large-scale economic and military assistance to the National Government.
When the possibility of a war between China and Germany became more and more serious, the Soviet Union greatly changed its strategy in the Far East. The Soviet Union and Japan signed the Treaty of Neutrality between the Soviet Union and Japan on April 194 13, 2003. The Soviet Union decided to adopt a neutral attitude in the Sino-Japanese war, instead of providing assistance to the Japanese Kuomintang government, and acknowledged the status quo of the puppet Manchukuo, hoping to locate the Soviet Red Army in the Far East. However, after the signing of the Treaty of Neutrality between the Soviet Union and Japan, the Soviet Union still failed to transfer troops from the Far East, but only after the Soviet Union was convinced that Japan was going south instead of north.
Britain, England
As early as September when the Germans invaded Poland, Britain had already gone to war with Germany. After the defeat of France, Britain was even in danger of being invaded by Germany. In North Africa, due to the intervention of the German army, the British army was forced to retreat from the previously occupied Italian colony in Libya. In the Balkans, Germany and Italy conquered Britain's ally Greece. Therefore, Britain's biggest enemy at this time is Germany. The British people did not like the Soviet Union, but since the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in 194 1, the Soviet Union was no longer regarded as Britain's imaginary enemy, but Britain's ally against Germany.
United States of America
Before the outbreak of the Pacific War, the United States always adhered to the Monroe Doctrine and insisted on not directly intervening in the wars that broke out in Europe. However, after the outbreak of the Anglo-German War, the British Empire was tottering, and the United States could not tolerate the occupation of Europe by the Third Reich. So the United States has been giving British military assistance. After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, the United States also began to provide military assistance to the Soviet Union through Britain. It can be said that the British and American military assistance to the Soviet Union is a major reason why the Soviet Union can defeat the Germans.
Japan
As early as 1938, Japan had a border conflict with the Soviet Union (Zhanggufeng incident), and the Nomenkan incident occurred with the Soviet Union in 1939. The relationship between the two countries cannot but be tense. So the Soviet Union had to station a large number of troops in the Far East, and Japan also maintained a large-scale Kwantung Army. However, due to the growing contradiction between Japan and the United States (the United States insists on keeping China's "open door", Japan must withdraw its troops from China and use the oil embargo to force Japan to submit), and the Soviet Union is also afraid of Germany's growing strength, neither side has any intention of maintaining such a huge force against the other in the Far East. Therefore, the Soviet Union and Japan signed "April 194 13". At this point, there was no conflict between the Soviet Union and Japan until the August storm of 1945, when the Soviet Union transferred troops from the Far East to fight against the Germans. Japan dispatched Kwantung Army to conquer Southeast Asia. Due to Japan's passive cooperation, Germany was in a passive position in the Soviet battlefield.
Finland
1939165438+1On October 30th, the Soviet Union invaded Finland in order to force Finland to cede karelian isthmus and Hank military ports to the Soviet Union. After paying a heavy price, the Soviet Union won the war and Finland was forced to cede karelian isthmus, Hanke and some islands. This war obviously angered Finland, which directly led Finland to fall to the German side in order to recover the land occupied by the Soviet Union in the Soviet-German war. However, the backward direction of Finland is only partial. Finland just wants to recover its territory because it doesn't want to provoke the Soviet Union. Therefore, after recovering lost territory, we will no longer take the initiative to attack, but will sit quietly and watch the tigers fight. When Germany was inevitably defeated at the end of the war, the Finnish army also took military action to expel the German troops in Finland.
The course of the Soviet-German campaign in World War II
outbreak of war
1941At 3 am on June 22nd, German soldiers broke into the Soviet Union in three ways (see Barbarossa Plan for details). Before the war, the Soviet Union obtained information about the possible war from many sources, but many of them were contradictory. The information about the specific invasion time was so different that the Soviet government did not know the specific time of German invasion, or even whether Germany would invade the Soviet Union. The day before the war, the Soviet high command knew the specific attack time of the Germans, but it was too late.
In just 10 days, the Germans broke into the Soviet Union for 600 kilometers. On the first day of the battle, the Soviet Red Army lost 1200 planes, 800 of which were blown up before taking off. Hitler boasted that the Soviet Union would be destroyed in three months.
The northern front by German William &; middotriter & middot； The northern army group under the command of Marshal von middot Loeb is responsible for the attack. Within two weeks, the Soviet Red Army retreated 450 kilometers and abandoned the entire Baltic Sea coastal area. Twenty-four divisions of the Soviet Red Army were completely annihilated, and 20 divisions lost 60% of their personnel and equipment. The German Northern Army Group soon arrived at the gates of Leningrad. The people of the three Baltic countries have long been strongly dissatisfied with Soviet rule, so they launched a riot against the Soviet regime during the German invasion, which further promoted the failure of the Soviet Red Army.
The central front is the key area of German assault, German fedor &; Marshal middot von middot Bok's central army group attacked from the direction of Grodno and Brest fortress, and completed the encirclement of the Soviet Western Military Region (that is, the Western Army) through the double-clamp offensive. Minsk, the capital of Belarus, fell, the Soviet Red Army retreated 350 kilometers, 30 divisions were wiped out, and 70 divisions lost more than 50%. Subsequently, the German Central Army Group launched the second pincer offensive in Smolensk. Because the Soviet Red Army effectively organized the defense, the German army made slow progress. However, after two months of the campaign, the Germans still completed the siege and annihilated 300,000 people of the Soviet Red Army.
On the southern front, the main purpose of the German Lund Stedt Southern Army Group was to occupy the Soviet Union's agricultural and industrial bases in Ukraine and obtain the Black Sea port as a supply station. Facing the Kiev Special Military Region (Southwest Army) and Odessa Military Region (VJ), the Southwest Army is the strongest military region in the Soviet Union. At the beginning of the war, because the Soviet Red Army had obvious advantages over the Germans in strength and equipment, the Germans made the slowest progress in this direction. However, because the quality of the Germans was far above that of the Soviet Red Army at this time, the Germans still marched straight into the Dnieper River. Due to the heavy losses of the marked army, the right-wing exposure of the Southwest Army was not transferred in time.
1941September 15, the army groups in central and southern Germany cooperated and surrounded the main force of the Soviet southwest army in Kiev. 70 Soviet divisions fought bloody battles 10 days. A few Soviet Red Army troops broke through and more than 660,000 people were wiped out. Among them, 60,000 officers, including Kirponos, commander of the Southwest Army, and Tupikov, chief of staff, were killed in the breakout battle. Hitler called this panic attack "the biggest panic attack in history". But later, in the battle against Rostov, the Germans were defeated because the main force moved to Moscow.
After the German army completed the siege of Leningrad, it was completely impossible to occupy Leningrad. In order to stabilize the flank, the northern army group launched an attack on Tihewen, but it was defeated. Therefore, the Germans adopted blockade tactics against Leningrad. Because the Soviet Red Army quickly gained a great advantage in the confrontation with the German army, the German army had to take a passive defensive posture on the northern line. At the same time, Finland didn't attack Leningrad because it didn't want to capture the Soviet area except karelian isthmus, which was cut by the Soviet Union in the winter war.
In order to prevent the Germans from getting supplies from the occupied areas, Stalin adopted the methods used in the Civil War. Stalin ordered the Soviet Red Army to wage a scorched-earth war of resistance at 194 1 17, using artillery and rockets, and sending out the air force to destroy 40&; Mdash organized teams to set fire to villages and cities in residential areas 60 kilometers deep, where there were no Germans. People were displaced, hundreds of thousands of people died, and the Soviet people suffered another disaster.
194 1 on September 30th, 2000, the Germans concentrated 74 divisions with about 1 10,000 men, and with the support of 1700 tanks and 1 1000 guns, they launched an offensive aimed at capturing Moscow, that is, the typhoon plan. The first stage of the campaign ended with the complete victory of the Germans in destroying more than 600,000 people of the Soviet Red Army in Vyazma. Then the Germans quickly occupied the periphery of Moscow and destroyed many Soviet defense lines. In times of crisis, the Soviet Union carried out the largest industrial transfer plan in history, transferring more than 6,543,800 wagons of equipment and materials. At the same time, 250,000 elite reserves were transferred from Siberia, Central Asia and the Far East, and the troops and defense lines of the Western Front with General zhukov as the core were reorganized, and a large number of women were organized to build fortifications, and a large number of engineering detachments carrying explosives and mines were sent to destroy the German logistics supply lines. At this time, the severe winter in the Soviet Union has arrived, and the German combat troops and logistics supplies are greatly limited. Because the Germans were not prepared for the winter, a large number of soldiers were frozen to death and frostbite, and many weapons could not be used. The Red Army of the Soviet Union fought to the death with the German army, and many heroes and famous sayings emerged, such as "Although the Soviet Union is big, it is already in no way back, with Moscow behind it".
1941165438+1On October 7th, when Germany was approaching Moscow, the Soviet Union still organized the Red Square military parade on time. This is one of the most famous military parades in history. After the parade, the troops under review went directly to the front.
19411On February 6th, the Soviets launched a counterattack, breaking through the German defense line and repelling 200-300 kilometers. The battle of Moscow ended in the victory of the Soviet Union, and the Germans lost more than 500,000 people and a lot of technical equipment. This is also the first time that arrogant Nazi Germany suffered heavy losses in World War II, and Hitler's madness of "destroying the Soviet Union in three months" was completely shattered. The situation in Moscow has stabilized.
194 1 winter, the Soviet red army launched a winter offensive on various fronts. In the south, the Soviet Red Army crossed the Kerch Strait and landed in Crimea. In the north, the Soviet Red Army tried to break the siege of Leningrad, annihilate the Germans who surrounded Leningrad, and recover Dimijan. However, due to the poor training, hasty preparation and improper command of the Soviet Red Army, the attacks in these two directions ended in failure, and the Soviet Red Army suffered huge losses. [2]
1942 in may, the Soviet union launched the first battle of kharkov without adequate preparation, trying to recover kharkov, but it was completely annihilated after being divided by the Germans. At the same time, manstein's German army swept the Crimean peninsula and conquered the fortress of Sevastopol, and the Red Army was completely annihilated in the Kerch campaign. In the end, the winter offensive of the Soviet Red Army ended in failure.
turning point
After successfully repelling the winter offensive of the Soviet Red Army, the Germans thought it was very difficult to occupy Moscow, so they changed the focus of the attack and turned to attack the Caucasus of the Soviet Union. At the beginning of the attack, the Germans first annihilated more than 200,000 Soviet Red Army in Kharkov, and quickly went south, sweeping the entire Caucasus. However, because the Soviet Red Army learned enough lessons from the defeat of the previous year, the Germans failed to annihilate the Soviet Red Army on a large scale in the Caucasus. Although the Soviet Red Army could not resist the attack of German armored forces, it was able to preserve its strength.
Subsequently, in order to cover the German army in the South Caucasus (in order to obtain oil from Baku Oilfield), the German army planned to occupy Stalingrad on the Volga River, and then launched a protracted general battle with the Soviet Red Army in Stalingrad (Stalingrad Battle). Before the battle began, the Germans bombed Stalingrad on a large scale, which blew the city into ruins. But it is actually a trouble for them, because Stalingrad is in ruins after the bombing, and the road is naturally blocked by ruins. Therefore, it is difficult for German tanks to fight in broken cities, and even driving is a problem. The battle was mainly fought in Stalingrad and its vicinity, and every street, every house and even every pile of ruins had to be contested repeatedly. Progress is often measured in meters, and the battle is extremely cruel and bloody. The total troops invested by both sides exceeded 3 million. The tenacious resistance of the Soviet Red Army made the Germans pay a heavy price for every step forward.
At this time, millions of Soviet reserves had been assembled on both sides, and at the end of 1942, they attacked the Germans on both sides and surrounded 330,000 Germans. On February 2, 1943, the whole army was wiped out. The Soviet Red Army won a decisive victory. The German Sixth Army and most of the Fourth Armored Army, the Romanian Third and Fourth Army and the Italian Eighth Army, as well as a large number of technical teams and support forces attached to them, were completely annihilated. The losses of both sides have never been accurately counted. It is generally believed that the losses of the Germans are around 850- 1 10,000, and the losses of the Soviet Union are even greater. The Battle of Stalingrad, together with the victories of the simultaneous Battle of Alamein and the Battle of Midway, constituted the turning point of the whole World War II (strictly speaking, the Battle of Alamein and the Battle of Midway are far from being compared with the Battle of Stalingrad in terms of strength, duration and losses. Some history textbooks used to think that the Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point of the whole World War II, which made sense. Here, the views of the East and the West blend together. )。
After the annihilation of the German Sixth Army, the Soviet army advanced Rostov, the Caucasian Germans retreated, and the Soviet army quickly recovered the Caucasus. However, due to the excessive expansion of the Soviet Red Army, when attacking Kharkov (the second battle of Kharkov), manstein countered and the attacking troops were defeated, which enabled the Germans to stabilize the front line that had been retreating since the failure of Stalingrad. At this time, the Kursk projection was formed on the front line, and the Germans hoped to use this projection to annihilate the main force of the Soviet Red Army in order to regain the initiative in the battlefield. 1on the morning of July 5, 943, the decisive battle in Kursk started, but the Soviet army was not ready for the full defensive position, and the German offensive was difficult. 12 On June 2nd, tank battle occurred in ProHolovka, south of Kursk, and the encounter between German armored forces headed by Imperial Division and Soviet armored forces headed by Guards' Fifth Tank Army lasted for a whole day. Although the Soviet losses were higher than those of the Germans, the Germans could not advance. With the Soviet attack near orel and the allied landing in Sicily, the Germans were forced to stop attacking and retreat to their starting positions. On August 23rd, the Soviets recaptured Kharkov, and the Battle of Kursk ended in Soviet victory.
At this point, the Germans never launched a strategic attack on the Soviet-German battlefield, but turned to strategic defense. The Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk were the turning points of the Soviet-German battlefield.
At this time, the Soviet economy has completely turned into a wartime track, producing a large number of weapons, equipment and materials. At the same time, according to the "Lease Act", it has obtained a lot of assistance from allies such as the United States and Britain, and its military strength has been greatly improved. On the other hand, due to the increasingly large-scale strategic bombing of the United States and Britain, Germany is littered with ruins, its industrial production capacity has dropped sharply, and it has been losing ground in the battlefield in North Africa. Its servant countries also began to show anti-war and anti-German tendencies, and Germany became increasingly unable to compete with the Soviet Union.
The Soviet red army counterattacked
With the defeat of Germany in the Battle of Kursk, the German Southern Army Group was forced to retreat and cross the Dnieper River, and at the same time, the villages in Ukraine and Russia were in ruins, and the crops were burned by the Germans.
Since then, the Soviet Red Army has continuously launched 10 large-scale counter-offensive campaigns (known as ten Stalin assaults), which completely drove the Germans out of Soviet territory. Then the Soviet Red Army swept through Southeast Europe. 1after the allied forces launched the Normandy landing on June 6, 944, the Germans had to deploy a large number of troops from the eastern front to defend the western front. The Red Army of the Soviet Union was even more unstoppable, and successively captured Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland and other countries.
On April 1945 and 16, the Soviet Red Army began its campaign to attack Berlin after crossing the Oder River. On April 2 1 day, the Soviet Red Army invaded downtown Berlin, completed the siege of Berlin on April 25, and broke into the city center on April 27. On the 30th, three Soviet Red Army soldiers planted the Soviet Red Flag on the roof of the Parliament Building in Berlin. On the same day, Hitler, the head of Nazi Germany, committed suicide.
1On May 8, 945, Germany surrendered unconditionally, and the Soviet Union also won the final victory of the Soviet-German war.
Reasons for the Soviet Union's Victory in the Battle of Soviet Union and Germany in World War II
The Soviet Union was able to turn the tide and finally win the war, mainly due to the following factors:
Powerful manpower and material resources.
194 1 year, the population of the Soviet union is about 65438+800 million. After the war broke out, the Soviet Union mobilized 34.5 million people. At the end of World War II, the total strength of the Soviet Red Army reached 6.5438+0.28 million. During the war, the Soviet Union produced 134 10000 aircraft, 102800 tanks and 825200 guns and mortars.
The vast territory provided strategic depth for the Soviet Union to resist German aggression. The land area of the Soviet Union is 22.274 million square kilometers, spanning 1 1 time zones. At the beginning of World War II, although the Germans quickly occupied European countries, they could not swallow the huge Soviet Union in one gulp. When German soldiers arrived at the gates of Moscow, the Soviet government still controlled more than two-thirds of the country. In addition, the cold weather also helped the Soviet Union. The cold in Moscow caused the Germans to suffer a devastating blow at the gates of Moscow, just like Napoleon's army that invaded Russia in 18 12. [3]
Great assistance from countries such as the United States and Britain.
During the Soviet-German War, especially after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the United States and Britain gave the Soviet Union a lot of assistance, including guns and ammunition, tanks, planes, vehicles and other military supplies. Without the assistance of these allies, it would be more difficult for the Soviet Union to recover from the collapse of 194 1 and even defeat Germany.
Have advanced operational theory.
Marshal tukhachevsky, a military theorist of the Soviet Red Army, has long put forward the theory of deep combat. During the war, the Soviet Red Army successfully solved a series of military problems, such as organizing and implementing extensive, active and in-depth strategic attacks, and ensured the victory of the Great Patriotic War. In addition, a number of outstanding commanders and generals, represented by Marshal zhukov, emerged in the Soviet Red Army.
194 1 On June 30th, 2008, the Soviet National Defense Commission headed by Stalin was established, and it was put forward that "everything is for the front line! Everything is for war! " Slogan. In order to straighten out the command relationship, the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces was established on August 8. In order to strengthen the Party's leadership over the army, the Soviet Union sent 654.38+500,000 party member and 3.5 million members to the front. During the war, the Soviet Union absorbed 5,365,438 people+900,000 people from party member.
The fighting spirit of the Soviet people.
Fighting for the motherland, every Soviet killed the enemy heroically, and a number of typical heroes emerged, such as Petrovsky, Matro Soff and Zoya. According to statistics, during the war, more than 1. 1.6 million Soviet soldiers and civilians became "Soviet heroes", and 7 million Soviet soldiers won various medals and medals.
The influence of Soviet-German battlefield in World War II
In order to win the war, the Soviet people suffered heavy casualties. According to statistics, there were 27 million deaths in the Soviet Union, of which more than180,000 were civilians, and almost every family suffered casualties. The war also brought huge material losses to the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, 65,438+0,765,438+00 cities, more than 70,000 villages and towns and 365,438+0,850 industrial enterprises were totally or partially destroyed.
Germany, on the other hand, consumed a large number of troops because of the war with the Soviet Union, and a large number of Germans could not withdraw from the Soviet-German battlefield, or even were annihilated in large numbers, thus extremely strongly supporting the US-British operations in North Africa and Italy and the opening of the allied second battlefield. After the war, Germany was divided into the Federal Republic of Germany and the Democratic Republic of Germany, which were occupied by the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France respectively. Germany's economy was also destroyed by World War II, and it was not until the Marshall Plan after World War II received a lot of economic assistance that it was restored.
Eastern European countries, including GDR, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, were occupied by the Soviet Red Army to varying degrees, and the state power was purged by the Soviet Union and replaced by the puppet regime of the * * * production party that obeyed Moscow. Their regime forms were completely imitated by the Soviet Union, and a large number of Soviet Red Army troops were stationed in these countries, so these countries were satellite countries of the Soviet Union from the post-war to the period of drastic changes in Eastern Europe.
The Second World War brought profound changes to the world structure. Before the war, Germany, Japan, Italy and other old imperialist countries were completely defeated, and Britain and France were greatly weakened. This makes the United States and the Soviet Union become the leading powers in Europe. In order to compete for the control of Europe and the world, the United States and the Soviet Union moved from the alliance during the war to confrontation and even the cold war. The United States carried out large-scale economic assistance to Western Europe through the Marshall Plan to win over Western European countries; The Soviet Union achieved the goal of controlling Eastern Europe by supporting the * * * production party regime in Eastern Europe and Balkan countries.