In just 10 days, the German army advanced 600 kilometers into the Soviet Union. On the first day of fighting, the Soviet Red Army lost 1,200 aircraft, 800 of which were bombed before they even took off. Hitler raved about the destruction of the Soviet Union in three months. The Soviet Union was completely unprepared for this war and fell into chaos at the beginning of the war.
On the northwest front, the Soviet Red Army retreated 450 kilometers in two weeks and abandoned the Baltic coastal areas. 24 divisions of the Soviet Red Army were completely defeated, and 20 divisions lost 60% of their personnel and equipment. The German army soon reached the city of Leningrad.
The Western Front was the focus of the German assault. The German army encircled the Soviet Union's Western Military District (i.e. the Western Front) from the direction of Grodno and Brest Fortress. Minsk, the capital of Belarus, fell and the Soviet Red Army retreated. 350 kilometers, 30 divisions were annihilated, and 70 divisions lost more than 50% of their personnel. The German army carried out three effective assaults in Minsk, Smolensk, Vyazma and other places, encircling and annihilating a large number of Soviet Red Army troops.
The Battle of Brest Fortress was the first battle in the Soviet-German War. In the early morning of June 22, the German army shelled and bombed the Brest Fortress, but when the German army advanced into the fortress At that time, they encountered stubborn resistance from the Soviet army, suffered heavy casualties, and were forced to withdraw from the fortress. However, under the powerful attacks of waves of German troops, the Soviet Union finally surrendered on July 22 after being outnumbered. At that time, Minsk, the capital of Belarus, had fallen for many days, and the fortress had already fallen. Become Germany's rear area.
On the southwest front, the main purpose of the German army was to destroy the Soviet agricultural and industrial bases in Ukraine and to obtain Black Sea ports as supply stations. Facing them were the Kiev Military District (Southwestern Front Army) and the Odessa Military District (Southern Front Army) of the Soviet Union. The Southwest Front Army was the strongest military district of the Soviet Union. In the early days of the war, due to the continuous counterattacks of the Soviet Red Army, the German army made the slowest progress in this direction. . However, since Germany's military strength was far superior to that of the Soviet Union at this time, the German army still marched straight to the Dnieper River. Due to the excessive losses of the Western Front and the failure to move the right wing of the Southwest Front in time, the German army surrounded the main force of the Soviet Southwest Front in the Battle of Kiev on September 15, 1941. The Supreme Command believed that Kiev should be abandoned and the army moved toward the capital and Southern Ukraine moved closer, but this proposal was not adopted by Comrade Stalin. 70 divisions of the Soviet army fought bloody battles for 10 days. A small number of the Soviet Red Army broke through and more than 660,000 people were annihilated, including 60,000 officers, including the commander of the Southwest Front, General Kirponos, and the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Tupkov. Many senior generals were killed in the breakout battle. Hitler called this encirclement and annihilation war "the largest encirclement and annihilation war in history"
When the Soviet Patriotic War broke out, the Soviet Red Army went to the front line
The Soviet Red Army's losses in the first four months of the war< /p>
From June to September 1941, the First Army of the Soviet Red Army lost 281,730 people, of which 212,967 were pure attrition (referring to those killed and missing in action), of which 23,637 were killed in action, 4,068 died of injuries, and 4,068 died of illness. 15,352 people, 169,910 missing; 68,763 injured, including 66,597 injured and 2,166 injured due to illness. According to incomplete statistics, the equipment losses are as follows: 41,728 pieces of light weapons, 15,601 tanks and self-propelled artillery, 7,057 various artillery pieces, and 7,237 combat aircraft.
Because in the first week of the war, a group of generals represented by the commander of the Western Front, General Pavlov, never effectively commanded the troops, exacerbating the chaos of the troops, resulting in extremely serious losses for the Western Front troops. loss. In July 1941, the Moscow military court sentenced four Soviet generals to death and executed them immediately: Commander of the Western Front, General Pavlov; Chief of Staff of the Western Front, Major General Klimovsky; Director of Communications of the Western Front, Major General Gerard Ligolyav; Commander of the 4th Army, Major General Korobkov.
Sent General Zhukov to Leningrad to reorganize and reorganize the troops. A large number of Red Navy sailors, militiamen, and residents joined the defense of Leningrad. The situation was finally stabilized, and the German offensive gained momentum. They were exhausted and could no longer move forward, and the two sides reached a stalemate.
However, from July 1941 to August 1944, 40 German divisions besieged Leningrad for 872 days, and these 40 divisions accounted for one-fifth of the total strength of Germany’s eastern front, giving the German army Caused passivity.
The number of residents who died during the German blockade of Leningrad was officially reported to be more than 64,200, but according to other data, the actual death toll may have exceeded 80,000. Only 3% of these deaths were caused by air strikes and explosions. After the war began, about 180,000 people left Leningrad. In the end, only 5.6 million people in Leningrad survived.
In order to prevent the German army from receiving supplies from the occupied areas, Stalin adopted the same resistance methods as before.
Stalin ordered the Soviet Red Army to carry out a scorched-earth war of resistance on November 17, 1941. They used artillery, rocket launchers, and the air force to destroy residential areas 40 to 60 kilometers deep on both sides of the road in the forward position, organized small teams, and set fire to them. Burning down villages and cities where there were no Germans. People were displaced, hundreds of thousands died, and the Soviet people suffered another disaster.
On September 30, 1941, the German army concentrated 74 divisions with about 1 million men. Supported by 1,700 tanks and 11,000 artillery pieces, the German army launched an offensive aimed at capturing Moscow, known as the Typhoon Plan (Battle of Moscow). . At the beginning of the war, the German army advanced rapidly and quickly occupied the outskirts of Moscow and destroyed several Soviet defense lines. At the critical moment, the Soviet Union carried out the largest industrial transfer plan in history, transferring more than 1 million trains of equipment and materials. At the same time, it mobilized 250,000 elite reserves from Siberia, Central Asia, and the Far East, with General Zhukov as the core The troops and defense lines of the Western Front were reorganized, a large number of women were organized to build fortifications, and a large number of engineering units carrying explosives and landmines (the famous Soviet hero Zoya was one of them) were sent to destroy the German logistics supply lines. At this time, the harsh winter in the Soviet Union had arrived, and the German combat troops and logistical support were greatly restricted. The Soviet Red Army carried out a desperate resistance against the German army, and many heroic figures and famous quotes emerged, such as "Russia is big, but behind it is < /p>