The Battles of Rzhev (Russian: Ржевская битва, romanized: Rzhevskaya bitva) were a series of Red Army offensives against the Wehrmacht between 8 January 1942 and 31 March 1943, on the Eastern Front of World War II. The battles took place in the northeast of Smolensk Oblast and the south of Tver Oblast, in and around the salient surrounding Rzhev. Due to the high losses suffered by the Red Army, the campaign became known by veterans and historians as the "Rzhev Meat Grinder" (Russian: Ржевская мясорубка, romanized: Rzhevskaya myasorubka).
Overview
The major operations that were executed in this area of the front were:
- Rzhev–Vyazma strategic offensive operation (8 January – 20 April 1942) of the Kalinin Front, Western Front, Bryansk Front, and Northwestern Front
- Sychyovka–Vyazma offensive operation (8 January – 20 April 1942) of the Kalinin Front
- Mozhaysk–Vyazma offensive operation (Operation Jupiter) (10 January – 28 February 1942) of the Western Front
- Toropets–Kholm offensive operation (9 January – 6 February 1942) of the Northwestern Front and reassigned to the Kalinin Front from 22 January 1942
- Vyazma airborne operation (18 January – 28 February 1942) of the Western Front (see also Operation Hannover)
- Rzhev–Vyazma offensive (1942) (3 March – 20 April 1942)
- Operation Seydlitz and the Soviet defensive battles around Bely and Kholm-Zhirkovsky (2–23 July 1942) launched by 9th Army of Germany to eliminate the salient in the vicinity between Bely and Kholm–Zhirkovsky and annihilate the 39th Army and 11th Cavalry Corps of the Kalinin Front
- First Rzhev–Sychyovka offensive operation (30 July – 23 August 1942), (other sources say ending on 30 September or 1 October 1942) by forces of the Kalinin Front and Western Front
- Second Rzhev–Sychyovka offensive operation (Operation Mars) (25 November – 20 December 1942) by the forces of the Kalinin Front and Western Front
- Battle for Velikiye Luki (24 November 1942 – 20 January 1943) by 3rd Shock Army of the Kalinin Front
- Rzhev–Vyazma offensive (1943) (2–31 March 1943) by the forces of the Kalinin Front and Western Front, at the same time, the southern flank offensive operations on the Bryansk Front. These operations occurred during the planned German retreat from the salient known as Operation Büffel.
Rzhev–Vyazma strategic offensive operation
During the Soviet winter counter-offensive of 1941, and the Rzhev–Vyazma strategic offensive operation (8 January 1942 – 20 April 1942), German forces were pushed back from Moscow. As a result, a salient was formed along the front line in the direction of the capital, which became known as the Rzhev–Vyazma salient. It was strategically important for the German Army Group Centre due to the threat it posed to Moscow, and was therefore heavily fortified and strongly defended.
Initial Soviet forces committed by the Kalinin and Western Front included the 22nd, 29th, 30th, 31st, 39th Armies of the Kalinin Front, and the 1st Shock, 5th, 10th, 16th, 20th, 33rd, 43rd, 49th, and 50th armies and three cavalry corps for the latter. The intent was for the 22nd, 29th, and 39th Armies supported by the 11th Cavalry Corps to attack west of Rzhev, and penetrate deep into the western flank of Army Group Centre's 9th Army. This was achieved in January, and by the end of the month the cavalry corps found itself 110 km into the depth of the German flank. To eliminate this threat to the 9th Army's rear, the Germans had started Operation Seydlitz by 2 July. However, due to the nature of the terrain the supply route for the Soviet 22nd, 29th, and 39th Armies, which had attempted to enlarge the penetration, became difficult and they were encircled. The cutting of a major highway to Rzhev by the cavalry signalled the commencement of the Toropets–Kholm offensive.
Sychyovka–Vyazma offensive
The offensive was conducted in late 1942.
Toropets–Kholm offensive
This offensive was conducted across the northern part of the Western Front against the Wehrmacht's 16th Army and 9th Army.
Vyazma airborne operation
A Soviet airborne operation, conducted by the 4th Airborne Corps in seven separate landing zones, five of them intended to cut major road and rail lines of communication to the Wehrmacht's 9th Army.
Operation Seydlitz
In the aftermath of the Soviet winter counteroffensive of 1941–1942, substantial Soviet forces remained in the rear of the German Ninth Army. These forces maintained a hold on the primitive forested swamp region between Rzhev and Bely. On 2 July 1942, the Ninth Army under General Walter Model launched Operation Seydlitz to clear the Soviet forces out. The Germans first blocked the natural breakout route through the Obsha valley and then split the Soviet forces into two isolated pockets. The battle lasted eleven days and ended with the elimination of the encircled Soviet forces.
Second Rzhev–Sychyovka strategic offensive (Operation Mars)
The next Rzhev–Sychyovka offensive (25 November 1942 – 20 December 1942) was codenamed Operation Mars. The operation consisted of several incremental offensive phases:
- Sychevka offensive 24 November 1942 – 14 December 1942
- Belyi offensive 25 November 1942 – 16 December 1942
- Luchesa offensive 25 November 1942 – 11 December 1942
- Molodoi Tud offensive 25 November 1942 – 23 December 1942
- Velikiye Luki offensive 24 November 1942 – 20 January 1943
This operation was nearly as heavy in losses for the Red Army as the first offensive, and also failed to reach its desired objectives, but the Red Army tied down German forces which may have otherwise been used to try to relieve the Stalingrad garrison. An NKVD double agent known as Heine provided information about the offensive to the German Army High Command as part of the plan to divert German forces from any relief of those trapped at Stalingrad.
German forces in the salient were eventually withdrawn by Hitler during Operation Büffel to provide greater force for the German offensive operation at Kursk.
Results
Politico-military result
Fighting in the area remained mostly static for 14 months. Losses and setbacks elsewhere along the front finally compelled the Germans to abandon the salient in order to free up reserves for the front as a whole.
Defending the salient required 29 divisions. Its abandonment freed up 22 of those divisions and created a strategic reserve which allowed the Germans to stabilize the front and somewhat recover from massive losses at Stalingrad.
German General Heinz Guderian had doubts about the strategic aims of the later Operation Citadel, since the Germans had to abandon the strategically important Rzhev–Vyazma salient for gathering troops to attempt to take a much less valuable one at Kursk. The retreat of the Germans in Operation Büffel was tactically and militarily successful, but the abandonment of the "Rzhev–Vyazma pistol" was a strategic loss for Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front.
The Soviet Army paid a high price for their victory at Rzhev, but the Germans were forced to withdraw from an important bridgehead which had enabled the Germans to threaten Moscow. The Germans, however, retreated to defensive positions that were as strong as the ones they held within the salients, contributing to the failure of Red Army offensives against Army Group Center in the summer of 1943.
Military losses
Losses for the entire series of operations around the Rzhev salient from 1941 to 1943 are difficult to calculate. These operations cover an entire series of battles and defensive operations over a wide area involving many formations on both sides.
For the whole series of Rzhev battles, the numbers are not clear. But, since the mobilized manpower of both sides was enormous and the fighting was violent, casualties would be expected to be very high. According to A. V. Isayev, the Soviet losses from January 1942 to March 1943 were 392,554 irrecoverable casualties (killed, missing, died before hospitalisation) and 768,233 sanitary (medical) casualties. The Soviet losses during the beginning period of 1942 (including "Operation Jupiter") were 272,320 irrecoverable and 504,569 sanitary; with 25.7% of the total manpower that participated in these battles being killed on the battlefield. According to V. V. Beshanov, the casualties of the July–September Rzhev offensive were 193,683 overall, and during Operation Mars the Soviets suffered 250,000 casualties with 800 tanks damaged or destroyed. Isayev provided a somewhat lower number: 70,340 irrecoverable and 145,300 sanitary casualties.
Russian historian Svetlana Gerasimova states that the official Soviet casualty count of 1,324,823 men for the four offensive operations against the Rzhev–Vyazma salient only accounts for approximately 8 out of the 15 months of fighting. Soviet operational losses from May–July and October–November 1942, and January–February 1943 are missing and not included in the official figure. Gerasimova states that with the inclusion of casualties from these seven months, and the official casualty figures of the four offensive operations, the total losses approach 2,300,000 men.
Retired German General Horst Grossmann did not provide the total casualties of the German side in his book Rzhev, the basement of the Eastern Front. According to his description, from 31 July to 9 August, one German battalion at the front line, after being exhausted in the violent battles, only had one commandant and 22 soldiers, and by 31 August there were battalions which had only one commandant and 12 soldiers (equal to one squad). According to Grossmann, during Operation Mars, the Germans suffered 40,000 casualties.
According to German reports, which are still stored at the Storage Center of National Documents of Germany, from March 1942 to March 1943 the casualties of the 2nd, 4th, 9th, 2nd Panzer, 3rd Panzer and 4th Panzer Armies (the latter only having data from March to April 1942) amount to 162,713 killed, 35,650 missing, and 469,747 wounded. However, according to Gerasimova, German casualties in the battle for Rzhev–Vyazma are uncertain, and the commonly cited 350,000–400,000 range lacks substantiation and references to documentary sources. The number of soldiers that died during hospital treatment is still unknown.
Civilian losses
Before the war, Rzhev had more than 56,000 people, but when it was liberated on 3 March 1943, there were only 150 people remaining, plus 200 in the surrounding rural area. The inhabitants were transported to Germany and Eastern Europe. Out of 5,443 houses, only 297 remained. Material losses were estimated at 500 million rubles (1941 value).
Vyazma was also virtually destroyed during the war. In the city, two transit camps of Nazi Germany named Dulag No. 184 and Dulag No. 230 were established. Prisoners in these camps were Soviet soldiers and civilians from the area of Smolensk, Nelidovo, Rzhev, Zubtsov, Gzhatsk, and Sychyovka. According to German data collected by the Soviet counter-espionage agency SMERSH, 5,500 people died of their wounds. During the winter of 1941–1942, in these camps, about 300 people each day were killed by diseases, cold, starvation, torture and other causes. After the war, two mass graves were discovered in the area, each 4 by 100 m in area and in total containing an estimated 70,000 bodies, all of them unidentified. Germans also discovered and executed 8 local political leaders, 60 commissars and political instructors, and 117 Jews at Dulag camp 230.