The fascist German troops occupied an advantageous operational-strategic position and had superiority in strength. In total, the enemy ground forces operating against the USSR numbered 4,300 thousand. During the Battle of Smolensk, the fascist German troops suffered such damage that at the beginning of September 1941, the troops of Army Group Center were tasked with encircling and destroying Soviet troops in the area of ​​Bryansk and Vyazma. tank groups to cover Moscow from the north and south and simultaneous attacks by tank forces from the flanks and infantry in...

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Introduction

1. Battle of Moscow

2. Battle of Pearl Harbor

3. Battle of Stalingrad

4. Battle for the Caucasus

5. Battle of Kursk

6. Battle of the Dnieper

7. Berlin operation

Conclusion

List of sources and literature

Application

Introduction

The Second World War began in September 1939 with the invasion of Poland. At dawn on this day, German planes roared in the air, approaching their targets - columns of Polish troops, trains with ammunition, bridges, railways, unprotected cities.

The war became a fait accompli. The Second World War - prepared by the forces of international imperialist reaction and unleashed by the main aggressive states - fascist Germany, fascist Italy and militaristic Japan - became the largest of the wars.

61 states took part in the Second World War.

The causes of the Second World War were the imbalance of power in the world and the problems provoked by the results of the First World War, in particular territorial disputes.

The winners of the First World War, the USA, England, and France, concluded the Treaty of Versailles on conditions that were most unfavorable and humiliating for the losing countries, Turkey and Germany, which provoked an increase in tension in the world.

At the same time, adopted in the late 1930s by England and France, the policy of appeasing the aggressor made it possible for Germany to sharply increase its military potential, which accelerated the Nazis’ transition to active military action.

Members of the anti-Hitler bloc were the USSR, USA, France, England, China (Chiang Kai-shek), Greece, Yugoslavia, Mexico, etc. On the German side, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, China (Wang Jingwei), Thailand, Finland, Iraq, etc. participated in World War II.

Many states that participated in World War II did not take action on the fronts, but helped by supplying food, medicine and other necessary resources.

The purpose of this work is to highlight the main battles of the Second World War.

The main tasks on the way to achieving the goal were:

Analysis of the main events of the Second World War;

Theoretical justification for the victory of the Soviet people and Western countries in the war against fascism;

The structure of this work includes: introduction, seven chapters, conclusion, list of sources and literature.

1. Battle of Moscow

“When people ask me what I remember most from the last war, I always answer: the battle for Moscow.”

G.K.Zhukov

One of the first major battles of the Second World War was the battle for Moscow between the USSR and the countries of the fascist bloc, which unfolded in the spaces of the USSR. The Moscow battle lasted from September 30, 1941 to April 20, 1942 and ended with the defeat of the Nazi troops.

The period of the Battle of Moscow, in turn, can be divided into two large and operationally-tactically intense periods: defensive (September 30 - December 4, 1941) and offensive (December 5, 1941 - April 20, 1942)

The defensive stage of the battle for Moscow is characterized by extreme intensity of fighting, high mobility and significant movements of troops on both sides, and special climatic conditions.

The operational-tactical situation on the Soviet-German front by the end of September 1941 was extremely difficult for the Soviet troops. The fascist German troops occupied an advantageous operational-strategic position and had superiority in strength.

The Red Army, after heavy defensive battles, was forced to retreat to Leningrad and leave Smolensk and Kyiv.

The Wehrmacht, together with the armed forces of Germany's European allies, had 207 divisions here. The average strength of an infantry division was 15.2 thousand people, a tank division - 14.4 thousand people. and motorized - 12.6 thousand people. In total, the enemy ground forces operating against the USSR numbered 4,300 thousand people, 2,270 tanks, over 43 thousand guns and mortars and 3,050 aircraft. 1

Despite the fact that with its heroic struggle the Red Army thwarted the plans of the Hitlerite command for the lightning defeat of the USSR, the enemy stubbornly continued to move forward, regardless of losses.

During the Battle of Smolensk, the fascist German troops suffered such damage that at the beginning of September 1941, the fascist German command ordered the transfer of troops in the Moscow direction to temporary defense.

The troops of Army Group Center were tasked with encircling and destroying Soviet troops in the area of ​​Bryansk and Vyazma, then with tank groups to cover Moscow from the north and south and with simultaneous attacks by tank forces from the flanks and infantry in the center to capture Moscow. “The enemy’s plan was to dissect our Western Front with powerful strike groups, surround the main group of troops in the Smolensk area and open the way to Moscow.

A fierce battle broke out again near the walls of the ancient Russian city, which once stood as a formidable barrier on the way of Napoleonic troops to Moscow. It lasted two months...

During the Battle of Smolensk, the troops of the Red Army, the residents of the city and its environs showed the greatest resilience...” recalled Marshal of the USSR G.K. Zhukov. 2

The offensive was well organized logistically. The work of the railways was considered good, but there was so much motor transport that part of it was put into reserve by the German command.

The Wehrmacht promised the troops an imminent victory. Hitler's invaders were ready for desperate efforts in a new battle with Soviet troops; such a fight seemed to be their last.

The strategic initiative remained with the Hitlerite command; it determined the time and place of strikes, the conditions of the struggle, and this posed many tasks of unprecedented difficulty to the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

From the first weeks of the war, when the failures of our troops in the western direction became apparent. The State Defense Committee and the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command mobilized construction organizations, engineering troops, and labor forces to strengthen the defensive lines of the Moscow region. At the call of the Central Committee, Moscow, Smolensk, Tula and Kalinin regional party committees, hundreds of thousands of workers, collective farmers, employees, students and housewives took part in the construction of fortifications. They erected dugouts, dug trenches and anti-tank ditches. The Vyazemsk and Mozhaisk defense lines were created: the latter included Volokolamsk, Mozhaisk, Maloyaroslavets and Kaluga fortified areas.

By the beginning of the offensive of the Nazi troops in the Moscow direction, three Soviet fronts were defending on the distant approaches to the capital: Western (I.S. Konev), Reserve (S.M. Budyonny) and Bryansk (A.I. Eremenko). In total, at the end of September 1941, they included about 800 thousand people, 782 tanks and 6808 guns and mortars, 545 aircraft. 3

The Red Army concentrated its best aviation forces and guards mortar units on the defense of Moscow. High-power artillery was installed in the most important areas, including heavy batteries of naval artillery. Long-range bomber aircraft systematically bombed the deep rear and communications of Army Group Center. Frequent counterattacks by our troops caused serious damage to the enemy.

Back on September 27, 1941, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command gave directives to the troops of the Western direction to switch to a tough defense, but the fronts did not have the reserves and time to organize it to the full depth. Three to five days later, Army Group Center launched an offensive against Moscow. On September 30, 1941, from the Gadyach-Putivl-Glukhov-Novgorod-Seversky line, Guderian’s 2nd Tank Group, consisting of 15 divisions, of which 10 were tank and motorized, launched an attack on Orel and Bryansk, on Moscow. It was supported by almost all the forces of the 2nd Air Fleet, attached to Army Group Center. 4

The Soviet command in this direction, after intense fighting and the defeat of the Southwestern Front, had no operational reserves. The 13th Army of the Bryansk Front operating here and the group of troops of General A.N. Ermakov fought heroically, but the enemy, using superiority of forces, by the end of September 30, 1941, broke through the defenses and, not encountering reserves in its depths, walked non-stop towards the city. Orlu. The city was not prepared for defense, there was no time left to organize it, and German tank crews burst into its streets on October 3. At the same time, part of the forces of the 2nd Tank Group, advancing along the rear of the Bryansk Front from the south and southeast, captured Karachev on October 6 and captured Bryansk on the same day.

On October 2, 1941, the 3rd and 4th Tank Groups, the 9th and 4th Field Armies and the remaining forces of Army Group Center went on the offensive. Its command concentrated the main efforts of the troops in the direction of the cities of Bely, Sychevka and along the Roslavl-Moscow highway. The most powerful blows occurred at the junction of the 30th and 19th armies of the Western Front, where 4 Soviet divisions were attacked by 12 enemy divisions, including 3 tank divisions (415 tanks), and at the 43rd Army of the Reserve Front, where against 5 Soviet divisions, 17 enemy divisions were operating, of which 4 were tank divisions. Their advance was supported by hundreds of aircraft from the 2nd Air Fleet.

The shallow defenses of the Soviet divisions could not withstand massive attacks by aviation, tank groups and army infantry corps. They broke through in the center of the Western Front and on the left flank of the Reserve Front and delved into their operational rear areas. In areas where enemy attacks were repelled, enemy tank formations bypassed the positions of staunchly defending armies and divisions, covering their flanks.

The autumn days of 1941 were among the most formidable in the history of our Motherland. The German command was unanimous in its optimistic assessment of the prospects for an attack on Moscow. But the encircled armies of the Western and Reserve Fronts pinned down the enemy forces in battles near Vyazma. They, attacked from all sides by tanks and infantry, under massive air and artillery attacks, deprived of ammunition supplies, continued the unequal heroic struggle. This struggle was of great operational and strategic importance: the enemy suffered losses in men and military equipment and lost time, during which the Soviet command brought up reserves, created new centers of defense, and then a continuous front.

On October 4, 1941, by decision of the Supreme Command Headquarters, the Tula combat area was formed. On October 6, 1941, the Supreme Command Headquarters issued a directive to stop the enemy on the Mozhaisk defense line. On October 10, 1941, the troops of the Western and Reserve Fronts were united into one Western Front. General G.K. Zhukov was appointed commander of the front. In connection with the approach of hostilities to Moscow, by decision of the State Defense Committee of October 12, another line of defense was created on the immediate approaches to the capital, in the construction of which the working people of the city and region took an active part. On October 17, the Kalinin Front was formed under the command of General I. S. Konev. Despite the complexity of the situation, firm control of the troops was again organized by the front-line commands and Headquarters. All these critical days and nights, reserves were tirelessly formed, which quickly and immediately entered into battle in the most dangerous directions.

By the second half of October 1941, when the armies of the Center group, having broken the resistance of the units encircled at Vyazma, moved towards Moscow, they again encountered an organized defense front and were forced to break through it again. From October 13, 1941, fierce battles broke out on the borders of the Mozhaisk and Maloyaroslavets, and from October 16, 1941, the Volokolamsk fortified areas.

For five days and nights, the troops of the 5th Army of the Red Army repelled the onslaught of the motorized and infantry army corps. Only on October 18, 1941 did enemy tanks break into Mozhaisk. On the same day Maloyaroslavets fell. The situation near Moscow has worsened. The enemy suffered irreparable losses in people, military equipment and time, but his forces were still far superior to those of the Western Front.

Terrible messages from the fronts near Moscow mobilized all the working people of the capital. Hundreds of thousands of Muscovites joined the people's militia divisions, extermination squads, and built fortifications. Moscow responded to the increasing danger with new tens of thousands of volunteers. From October 20, 1941, by decision of the State Defense Committee, the capital and surrounding areas were declared under a state of siege. By that time, Moscow had been transformed, became a front-line city, bristling with steel anti-tank “hedgehogs” and gouges. Barricades blocked the streets and entrances to the capital. There was a massive evacuation of the population, institutions and enterprises, and at the same time, the production of military products was again being established in the workshops of the evacuated factories. Moscow became a reliable rear of the front. She supplied him with weapons, ammunition, reserves, inspired soldiers to heroic deeds, and strengthened their faith in victory: “On the initiative of Muscovites, already in the first months of the war, 12 divisions of the people’s militia were formed. Military bodies and party organizations continued to receive thousands of applications from citizens with a request to send them to the front,” recalled G.K. Zhukov. 5

Every day the enemy's advance became slower and he suffered more and more losses. The entire center of the Western Front held out. Although the enemy tried to bypass Moscow from the north, this turned out to be impossible, because the Kalinin Front pinned down the German 9th Army with defenses and counterattacks and threatened the northern flank of Army Group Center. It was not possible to break through to the Soviet capital from the south either.

By the end of October and beginning of November, Army Group Center began to run out of steam. Its advance on Moscow was stopped by the iron steadfastness of our soldiers.

On November 7, 1941, a military parade of the Red Army troops took place on Red Square in Moscow. The German command urgently ordered its aircraft to bomb Red Square, but German planes were unable to break through to Moscow.

After the October offensive, Army Group Center needed a two-week pause to prepare a new offensive. During this time, the enemy troops were put in order, replenished, regrouped, and were reinforced from the reserve with men, tanks, and artillery. They sought to take starting positions advantageous for the offensive. Hitler's command was preparing to finally break the resistance of the Soviet troops and capture Moscow.

In the November 1941 offensive directly towards Moscow, 51 divisions took part, including 13 tank and 7 motorized divisions, armed with a sufficient number of tanks, artillery and supported by aviation.

The Soviet Supreme High Command, having correctly assessed the situation, decided to strengthen the Western Front. From November 1 to November 15, 1941, rifle and cavalry divisions and tank brigades were transferred to him. In total, the front received 100 thousand soldiers, 300 tanks and 2 thousand guns. The Western Front at this time already had more divisions than the enemy, and Soviet aviation was 1.5 times superior to the enemy. But in terms of the number of personnel and firepower, our divisions were significantly inferior to the German ones.

The Soviet troops faced extremely responsible and difficult tasks. The enemy approached Moscow within 60 km in a number of places, and a breakthrough by tanks could become extremely dangerous in any operational direction. The Soviet fronts did not have sufficient reserves. There were not enough weapons supplies. Under these conditions, it was necessary to repel the enemy’s onslaught, defend Moscow and their positions, and gain time until the decisive reserves arrived.

The attack on Moscow began on November 15, 1941 by the 3rd Tank Group of General Hoth in the zone between the Moscow Sea and Klin. To the south, the positions of the Soviet troops were attacked by the 4th Panzer Group of General Hepner. The blows hit the 30th Army of General Lelyushenko and the 16th Army of General Rokossovsky. The tank groups had the task of separating both of these armies, pushing the 30th Army back to the Moscow Sea and the Volga, crossing the Moscow-Volga Canal, and the 16th Army, covering its northern flank, throwing it back from the Leningrad and Volokolamsk highways, along which to break through to the northern outskirts of the capital.

Despite stubborn resistance, the 30th Army was unable to repel the blow of superior enemy forces. Its front was broken through, and one part of the army fought heavy battles south of the Moscow Sea and was pushed back to the Volga, while the other retreated from the Leningrad highway to the canal. The northern flank of the 16th Army was exposed. Anticipating the enemy's attack, the Headquarters ordered General Rokossovsky to forestall the enemy and attack him with his left flank in the direction of Volokolamsk. The 16th Army struck, but at the same time the enemy's 4th Tank Group began to attack. Oncoming battles unfolded, in which Hepner's troops attacked the right flank of Rokossovsky's army, and the latter attacked the right flank of the enemy tank army. At the same time, fierce heavy battles broke out for Klin, Solnechnogorsk, Istra, on the Leningrad and Volokolamsk highways.

Possessing superiority, especially in tanks, the enemy broke through to the area of ​​Rogachev and Yakhroma. He managed to force the Moscow Canal in one of the sections and seize a bridgehead for an offensive bypassing the Soviet capital from the north-west. Having achieved success northeast of Volokolamsk, capturing Klin, Solnechnogorsk, Yakhroma and reaching the eastern bank of the canal, the enemy sharply increased the pressure on the Volokolamsk highway, trying to break through to the northern outskirts of Moscow.

Units of the 16th Army defended in the Volokolamsk direction. With their fighting they slowed down the advance of the 4th Panzer Group. Only at the cost of huge losses did the enemy manage to capture Istra and break through to Kryukov, thus approaching Moscow from the north to a distance of 25 km. The enemy intended to start shelling the city from here with heavy long-range guns. “The battles of November 16-18 were very difficult for us. The enemy, regardless of losses, pushed ahead, trying to break through to Moscow with his tank wedges at any cost,” recalled G.K. Zhukov. 6

The enemy's attack north-west of Moscow was supported by an offensive south of the Volokolamsk Highway, which began on November 19, 1941 and did not stop for a single day. Here the 9th and 7th Army Corps attacked the troops of the 5th Army of General L.A. Govorov. Having captured a number of settlements, the enemy approached Zvenigorod and broke through to the north of it into the area of ​​Pavlovskaya Sloboda. From here, the infantry divisions, whose attack was now merging with the onslaught of the tank divisions operating in the Istra region, were very close to Krasnogorsk and Tushin and to the western outskirts of Moscow.

The 4th Field Army of General Field Marshal Kluge in November 1941 was limited to an offensive on Zvenigorod and north of it, as well as pinning actions in the center of the Western Front. But with the arrival of the 4th Tank Group to the Moscow-Volga Canal and the 2nd Tank Army to Kashira, when conditions seemed to have been created on the flanks to bypass Moscow, the enemy struck on December 1, 1941 in the center. Two infantry divisions with 70 tanks broke through the front of the 33rd Army in the sector of the 222nd Infantry Division north of Naro-Fominsk. They rushed to Kubinka, and then to Golitsyn and Aprelevka, threatening the rear of the 33rd and 5th armies.

In search of weak points in the defense, fascist troops tried to break through to Nakhabino and Khimki, but were repulsed. The tank unit of the 4th Panzer Group, which crossed the canal, was also unable to develop an offensive bypassing Moscow. On its western bank it was counterattacked by defense troops, and from the bridgehead on the eastern bank it was dropped by rifle brigades that arrived in time on the orders of the Supreme High Command Headquarters.

Meanwhile, by order of the Supreme Command Headquarters, the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps of General P. A. Belov and the 112th Tank Division of Colonel A. L. Getman were hastily sent to the Kashira direction. The enemy was driven back by flank attacks by tank crews and cavalry attacks and began to retreat. He was pursued by cavalry divisions. And the 112th Tank Division, having advanced to the village. Revyakino immediately attacked the enemy, who intercepted the highway and railway from Tula to Moscow. The city's defenders attacked the tankers. The enemy was defeated, and communications connecting the city of gunsmiths with Moscow were restored.

In the second half of November 1941, the Soviet command was faced with the task of taking urgent measures to secure the flanks of the Soviet-German front, along with the defense of the main Moscow strategic direction. To accomplish this task, all available opportunities were used.

The crushing blows of the Red Army in December 1941 led to the defeat of the enemy and the retreat of his troops from Moscow, Rostov and Tikhvin. But despite this, the situation in our country remained dangerous. The main forces of Hitler's army, Army Group Center, were at such a distance from Moscow that the capital of our Motherland could again come under their attack. The Soviet command was faced with the task of thwarting the enemy's plans, preventing his troops from gaining a foothold on the lines to which they had been driven back by the December counteroffensive, and defeating them in new battles.

In January 1942, following the directive of the Supreme Command Headquarters, the soldiers of the Red Army again went on the offensive against the enemy. Having defeated and thrown back the enemy 150400 km, the Red Army eliminated the immediate threat to the capital. The entire Moscow, Tula, and Ryazan regions were liberated. During the winter offensive on the northern and southern sectors of the front, a significant part of the areas of the Kalinin, Leningrad, Smolensk, Oryol, Kursk, Kharkov, Stalin, Rostov regions, and the Kerch Peninsula were cleared of the enemy.

Defeat of the Nazi troops in the winter of 1941-1942. radically changed the situation on the Soviet-German front. However, despite the enormous significance of these events, they could not yet finally turn the tide of the war in favor of the USSR. Although the Red Army inflicted strong blows on the enemy, this was not yet enough to disable Hitler’s war machine.

The victory near Moscow raised the political and moral state of the Red Army, the fighting spirit of its soldiers, who saw how the “invincible” Nazi troops were fleeing in panic under their blows. She strengthened the faith of the Soviet people in their Red Army, in its victory, and inspired new efforts to help the front. 7

The defeat of the Nazis near Moscow stirred up all progressive humanity, strengthened sympathy for the USSR and faith in it on the part of working people around the world. The forced transfer of German divisions from the countries of occupied Europe to the Eastern Front made it easier for the peoples of these states to resist the invaders. The military-political situation of Hitler's Germany worsened.

2. Battle of Pearl Harbor

A sudden combined attack by Japanese carrier-based aircraft from the carrier force of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo and Japanese midget submarines, delivered to the site of the attack by submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy, on American naval and air bases located in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu (Hawaii Islands) ), occurred on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.

The attack consisted of two air raids, in which 353 aircraft took off from 6 Japanese aircraft carriers. The attack resulted in the sinking of 4 US Navy battleships (2 of which were recovered and returned to service at the end of the war), 4 more were damaged.

The Japanese sank or damaged 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, 1 minelayer; destroyed 188 - 272 aircraft (according to various sources). The losses of the US armed forces in people amounted to 2,402 people. killed and 1282 people. - wounded.

At the same time, it should be noted that mainly combat units of the US Army, Air Force and Navy were subjected to air strikes. The power plant, shipyard, fuel and torpedo storage facilities, piers, as well as the main control building were not damaged by the attack.

Japanese losses in this battle were minimal: 29 aircraft, 4 small submarines, along with 65 military personnel killed or injured.

The Japanese kamikaze attack was a preventive measure against the United States, aimed at eliminating the American navy, gaining air supremacy in the Pacific region and subsequent military operations against Burma, Thailand, and the Western possessions of the United States in the Pacific Ocean.

It was the attack on the US naval base - Pearl Harbor that caused the US entry into World War II - on the same day the US declared war on Japan and entered World War II.

Because of the attack, especially its nature, public opinion in America changed dramatically from an isolationist position in the mid-1930s to direct participation in the war effort. On December 8, 1941, US President Franklin Roosevelt spoke at a joint meeting of both houses of Congress. The President demanded that from December 7, from “a day that will go down in history as a symbol of shame,” to declare war on Japan. Congress adopted a corresponding resolution.

3. Battle of Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad began in July 1942. Having suffered a heavy defeat in the battle of Moscow, Germany decided to direct all its forces to Stalingrad in order to cut off the central part of the USSR from the grain regions and oil of the Caspian Sea.

To this end, the Nazi occupiers launched a massive attack on Stalingrad, the number of their soldiers noticeably exceeded the number of the Red Army. The Battle of Stalingrad lasted more than 200 days and nights.

On August 28, 1942, the Germans reached the Volga and began endless attempts to storm the city. In the fall, at the beginning of October 1941, large areas of Stalingrad fell into the hands of German soldiers. The defenders of Stalingrad courageously defended the city, thanks to their fierce resistance, the Germans did not manage to completely capture Stalingrad, and the advance of the German group slowed down.

The Soviet troops, having stopped the German offensive impulse, decided to go on the offensive. The offensive was developed in the strictest secrecy for almost three long months.

At Stalingrad, the Germans concentrated significant forces. The size of their army reached more than a million people. In the Battle of Stalingrad, the command of the Soviet troops concentrated its forces in two main directions south and north of Stalingrad.

From the south, Red Army troops attacked Romanian troops, whose morale was low. The offensive was preceded by hurricane artillery fire. After artillery preparation, the tanks went into battle.

The command of the enemy group gave the order to hold out until the last soldier. After two days of rapid advance by Soviet troops, the German armies found themselves surrounded.

Immediately after this, an offensive near Rzhev began in the northern sections of the Stalingrad Front in order to prevent the Germans from transferring forces from there to Stalingrad.

An enemy group of troops under the command of Mainstein tried to break through the encirclement. Their plans were greatly hindered by partisan detachments.

In January 1943, the outer ring of encirclement went west, in a new offensive. The position of the troops surrounded under the command of Paulus deteriorated sharply. He decided to surrender.

From January 31 to February 2, 1943, the Germans surrendered. In the Battle of Stalingrad, 32 German divisions were destroyed. The enemy lost more than 1.5 million people. At Stalingrad, a huge amount of equipment was destroyed: 3.5 thousand tanks and guns, 12 thousand guns and mortars, 3 thousand aircraft. A 3-day mourning period was declared in Germany.

The Battle of Stalingrad was of great importance in the development of subsequent events of the Great Patriotic War. Due to the defeat of German troops at Stalingrad, discord began in the command of the Allied forces. And in the occupied territories the partisan movement grew. The position of the Germans deteriorated sharply. After the victory of the USSR in the Battle of Stalingrad, faith in the final victory over fascism grew stronger.

4. Battle for the Caucasus

Simultaneously with the Battle of Stalingrad, there were fierce battles in the North Caucasus. On June 23, 1942, the German command issued secret directive No. 45 outlining the Edelweiss plan.

In accordance with this plan, the Nazis sought to capture the entire eastern coast of the Black Sea in order to deprive the USSR of ports and the Black Sea Fleet.

At the same time, another group of Nazi troops in the Caucasus was advancing towards the Georgian Military Road to capture the oil-bearing areas of Baku.

The enemy was opposed by the Red Army troops of the Southern Front, under the command of Lieutenant General R.Ya. Malinovsky, and part of the forces of the North Caucasus Front, under the command of Marshal S.M. Budyonny, with the support of the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Military Flotilla.

From July 25 to December 31, 1942, Red Army troops fought heavy defensive battles in the North Caucasus. Under the pressure of superior enemy forces, the Red Army troops were forced to leave the regions of the North Caucasus and retreat to the passes of the Main Caucasus Range and the Terek River.

In November-December 1942, the advance of enemy troops was stopped. The plans of the fascist German command to seize the oil-bearing regions of the Caucasus and drag Turkey into the war remained fruitless.

From January 1 to February 4, 1943, the North Caucasus offensive operation was carried out under the code name "Don". It was attended by troops of the Transcaucasian, Southern and North Caucasian fronts with the assistance of the forces of the Black Sea Fleet.

During the unfolding offensive, the Red Army troops inflicted a major defeat on the enemy Army Group A and reached the approaches to Rostov northeast of Krasnodar and to the line of the Kuban River. However, in the Kuban and Taman Peninsula, the enemy created powerful defensive fortifications - the Blue Line - from the Sea of ​​Azov to Novorossiysk. Soviet troops were unable to immediately overcome the Blue Line defenses and the offensive stopped.

Despite the fact that the plan for the offensive operation was not completely completed, and the main enemy forces managed to retreat to the Donbass, avoiding complete defeat, the plans of the German command to seize the Caucasus and its oil regions failed. The Red Army liberated the Stavropol Territory, the Chechen-Ingush, North Ossetian and Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, part of the Rostov Region and the Krasnodar Territory from the invaders. As a result of the offensive of the Red Army in January 1943, the Elbrus region was cleared of enemy troops.

On September 10, 1943, the Novorossiysk-Taman offensive operation of the Red Army began - the final operation of the Battle for the Caucasus, which lasted until October 9, 1943. It was carried out by troops of the North Caucasus Front, forces of the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Military Flotilla.

Red Army troops and naval forces defeated the formations of the enemy Army Group A, liberated Novorossiysk with landing strikes from the sea and army units from land, reached the coast of the Kerch Strait and completed the liberation of the Caucasus.

The enemy's Kuban bridgehead, which provided him with the defense of Crimea, was eliminated. The clearing of Novorossiysk and the Taman Peninsula from enemy troops significantly improved the basing of the Black Sea Fleet and created favorable opportunities for attacks on the enemy’s Crimean group from the sea and through the Kerch Strait.

For the battles in the Caucasus, thousands of soldiers and officers of the Red Army and navy sailors were awarded orders and medals. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 1, 1944, the medal “For the Defense of the Caucasus” was established, which was awarded to 600,000 people. In May 1973, Novorossiysk was awarded the title of Hero City.

5. Battle of Kursk

The Battle of Kursk occupies a special place in World War II. It lasted 50 days and nights, from July 5 to August 23, 1943. This battle has no equal in its ferocity and tenacity of struggle.

The general plan of the German command was to encircle and destroy the troops of the Central and Voronezh fronts of the Red Army defending in the Kursk region. If successful, it was planned to expand the offensive front and regain the strategic initiative.

To implement his plans, the enemy concentrated powerful strike forces, which numbered over 900 thousand people, about 10 thousand guns and mortars, up to 2,700 tanks and assault guns, and about 2,050 aircraft. Great hopes were placed on the latest Tiger and Panther tanks, Ferdinand assault guns, Focke-Wulf 190-A fighter planes and Heinkel 129 attack aircraft.

The Soviet military command decided to first bleed the enemy's strike forces in defensive battles and then launch a counteroffensive.

The battle that began immediately took on a grand scale and was extremely tense. Soviet troops did not flinch. They faced avalanches of enemy tanks and infantry with unprecedented tenacity and courage. The advance of enemy strike forces was suspended. Only at the cost of huge losses did he manage to wedge into our defenses in some areas. On the Central Front - 10-12 km, on Voronezh - up to 35 km.

The largest oncoming tank battle of the entire Second World War near Prokhorovka finally buried Hitler’s Operation Citadel. It took place on July 12, 1943. 1,200 tanks and self-propelled guns simultaneously participated in it on both sides. This battle was won by Soviet soldiers. The Nazis, having lost up to 400 tanks during the day of battle, were forced to abandon the offensive.

On July 12, 1943, the second stage of the Battle of Kursk began - the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops. On August 5, 1943, Soviet troops liberated the cities of Orel and Belgorod. On the evening of August 5, 1943, in honor of this major success, a victory salute was given in Moscow for the first time in two years of war. From that time on, artillery salutes constantly announced the glorious victories of Soviet weapons. On August 23, Kharkov was liberated. Thus the Battle of the Kursk Arc of Fire ended victoriously.

During the Battle of Kursk, 30 selected enemy divisions were defeated. Nazi troops lost about 500 thousand people, 1,500 tanks, 3 thousand guns and 3,700 aircraft.

For courage and heroism, over 100 thousand Soviet soldiers who took part in the Battle of the Arc of Fire were awarded orders and medals. The Battle of Kursk ended a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War.

6. Battle of the Dnieper

The Battle of the Dnieper is an operation of Soviet troops to liberate Left Bank Ukraine from the German occupiers. Combat operations within the framework of the Battle of the Dnieper operation lasted from August to December 1943.

Soldiers from the Voronezh, Central, Steppe, Southern and Southwestern fronts took part in the operation to liberate Left Bank Ukraine. The total number of Soviet soldiers and officers who took part in the Battle of the Dnieper was approximately 2.5 million people. The active armies included 51 thousand guns, more than 2.5 thousand tanks and about 3 thousand aircraft.

In the Battle of the Dnieper, Soviet troops were opposed by the 2nd German Army from Army Group Center and the entire Army Group South. The size of the German army in the areas where the fighting took place was 1.5 million soldiers and officers, who had at their disposal 13 thousand guns, 2 thousand tanks and the same number of aircraft. German troops were located along the Dnieper River, in well-fortified positions.

Even during the Stalingrad offensive operation of the Red Army, the eastern parts of Donbass were liberated. By mid-August 1943, the Red Army reached the city of Zmiev. On the river The Northern Donets created a springboard for a future successful offensive. On August 16, 1943, Soviet troops launched a new offensive. The German defense was well organized, and as a result the Soviet offensive stalled. The main result of the offensive was that the German command had to strengthen this section of the front at the expense of other armies.

By the end of August 1943, the bridgehead of Soviet troops was expanded to 100 km. wide, and up to 70 km. - in depth. Soviet troops liberated the cities of Ukraine one after another - Kharkov, Verkhnedneprovsk and others.

In mid-September 1943, there was a respite in the battle for the Dnieper River. The fighting resumed in mid-September 1943. Soviet troops liberated the city of Chernigov, and soon reached the river. Dnieper, near the city of Velikiy Bukrin. Here the preparation of troops for crossing the river began.

The Battle of the Dnieper continued until December 1943. Soviet troops created bridgeheads through which they could continue to advance westward. The Germans sought to destroy these bridgeheads.

Bloody and fierce battles broke out near the city of Kyiv. It was planned to take Kyiv by the Red Army in October 1943, but these attempts failed.

On November 3, 1943, a new offensive by Soviet troops began. The German command feared that their armies operating near Kiev would be surrounded. The enemy was forced to retreat. Kyiv was taken by Soviet troops on November 6, 1943.

By the end of December 1943, as a result of the “Battle of the Dnieper” operation, the entire lower reaches of the river. The Dnieper was cleared of German troops. German units were also blocked in Crimea.

During the offensive in Ukraine, through the efforts of five Soviet fronts, bridgeheads were created for a further offensive against the Germans in Belarus and the liberation of Right Bank Ukraine. During the Battle of the Dnieper operation, Soviet troops liberated 38 thousand settlements and 160 cities.

7.Berlin operation

In November 1944, the General Staff of the Soviet Army began planning military operations on the approaches to Berlin. It was necessary to defeat the German Army Group “A” and complete the liberation of Poland.

At the end of December 1944, German troops launched an offensive in the Ardennes and pushed back the Allied forces, putting them on the brink of complete defeat. The leadership of the USA and Great Britain turned to the USSR with a request to conduct offensive operations to divert enemy forces.

Fulfilling their allied duty, Soviet units went on the offensive eight days ahead of schedule and pulled back part of the German divisions. The offensive launched ahead of time did not allow for full preparation, which led to unjustified losses.

As a result of the rapidly developing offensive, already in February, units of the Red Army crossed the Oder - the last major obstacle in front of the German capital - and approached Berlin to a distance of 70 km.

The fighting on the bridgeheads captured after crossing the Oder was fierce. Soviet troops waged a continuous offensive and pressed back the enemy all along the river. Vistula to Oder.

At the same time, the operation began in East Prussia. Its main goal was to capture the Konigsberg fortress. Perfectly defended and provided with everything necessary, the fortress, which had a selected garrison, seemed impregnable. Before the assault, heavy artillery preparation was carried out. After the capture of the fortress, its commandant admitted that he did not expect such a rapid fall of Koenigsberg.

In April 1945, the Soviet army began immediate preparations for the assault on Berlin. The USSR leadership believed that delaying the end of the war could lead to the Germans opening a front in the west and concluding a separate peace. The danger of Berlin's surrender to Anglo-American units was considered.

The Soviet attack on Berlin was carefully prepared. A huge amount of ammunition and military equipment was transferred to the city. Troops from three fronts took part in the Berlin operation. The command was entrusted to Marshals G.K. Zhukov, K.K. Rokossovsky and I.S. Konev. 3.5 million people took part in the battle on both sides.

The assault began on April 16, 1945. At 3 a.m. Berlin time, under the light of 140 searchlights, tanks and infantry attacked German positions. After four days of fighting, the fronts commanded by Zhukov and Konev, with the support of two armies of the Polish Army, closed a ring around Berlin. 93 enemy divisions were defeated, about 490 thousand people were captured, and a huge amount of captured military equipment and weapons were captured. On this day, a meeting of Soviet and American troops took place on the Elbe River.

On April 21, 1945, the first assault troops reached the outskirts of the German capital and started street battles. German soldiers put up fierce resistance, surrendering only in hopeless situations.

On April 29, 1945, the assault on the Reisstag began, and on April 30, 1945, the Red Banner was hoisted over it.

On May 1, 1945, the Chief of the General Staff of the German Ground Forces, General Krebs, was delivered to the command post of the 8th Guards Army. He stated that Hitler had committed suicide on April 30 and proposed to begin armistice negotiations.

The next day, the Berlin Defense Headquarters ordered an end to resistance. Berlin has fallen. When it was captured, Soviet troops lost 300 thousand people. killed and wounded.

On the night of May 9, the act of unconditional surrender of Germany was signed. The war in Europe is over.

Conclusion

The Second World War had a huge impact on the destinies of mankind. Military operations took place on the territory of 40 states. 110 million people were mobilized into the armed forces. The total human losses reached 60-65 million people, of which 27 million people were killed at the fronts, many of them citizens of the USSR. China, Germany, Japan and Poland also suffered heavy human losses.

Military spending and military losses totaled $4 trillion. Material costs reached 60-70% of the national income of the warring states. The industry of the USSR, USA, Great Britain and Germany alone produced 652.7 thousand aircraft (combat and transport), 286.7 thousand tanks, self-propelled guns and armored vehicles, over 1 million artillery pieces, over 4.8 million machine guns (without Germany) , 53 million rifles, carbines and machine guns and a huge amount of other weapons and equipment. The war was accompanied by colossal destruction, the destruction of tens of thousands of cities and villages, and innumerable disasters for tens of millions of people.

As a result of the war, the role of Western Europe in global politics weakened. The USSR and the USA became the main powers in the world. Great Britain and France, despite the victory, were significantly weakened. The war showed the inability of them and other Western European countries to maintain huge colonial empires. The anti-colonial movement intensified in African and Asian countries. As a result of the war, some countries were able to achieve independence: Ethiopia, Iceland, Syria, Lebanon, Vietnam, Indonesia. In Eastern Europe, occupied by Soviet troops, socialist regimes were established. One of the main results of World War II was the creation of the United Nations on the basis of the Anti-Fascist coalition that emerged during the war to prevent world wars in the future.

In some countries, partisan movements that emerged during the war tried to continue their activities after the end of the war. In Greece, the conflict between communists and the pre-war government escalated into civil war. Anti-communist armed groups operated for some time after the end of the war in Western Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Poland. The civil war that has been going on there since 1927 continued in China.

Fascist and Nazi ideologies were declared criminal at the Nuremberg trials and prohibited. In many Western countries, support for communist parties grew due to their active participation in the anti-fascist struggle during the war.

Europe was divided into two camps: Western capitalist and Eastern socialist. Relations between the two blocs deteriorated sharply. A couple of years after the end of the war, the Cold War began.

List of sources and literature.

1. Grechko A.A. Years of war: 1941 1945 / A.A. Grechko. - M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1976. 574 p.
2. Zhukov, G.K. Memories and reflections / G.K. Zhukov. M.: Publishing house of the news press agency, 1970. 702 p.
3. Isaev A. Five circles of hell. The Red Army in “cauldrons” / A. Isaev. M.: Yauza: Eksmo, 2011. 400 p.
4. History of the Second World War: Vol.1. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1973. 366 p.
5. History of the Second World War: Vol.2. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1973. 365 p.
6. History of the Second World War: Vol.4. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1975. 526 p.
7. History of the Second World War: Vol.5. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1975. 511 p.
8. History of the Second World War: Vol.6. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1976. 519 p.
9. History of the Second World War: T.7. M.: MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, 1976. 552 p.
10. 1418 days of war: From memories of the Great Patriotic War. M.: Politizdat, 1990. 687 p.

1 History of the Second World War: 1939 - 1945: vol. 4. - M.: Order of the Red Banner of Labor MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE USSR MINISTRY OF DEFENSE. - 1975. - P.90.

4 Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections / G.K. Zhukov. Publishing house of news press agency. M.: 1970. P.320.

5 Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections / G.K. Zhukov. Publishing house of news press agency. M.: 1970. P.330.

6 Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections / G.K. Zhukov. Publishing house of news press agency. M.: 1970. P.274-275.

7 Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections / G.K. Zhukov. Publishing house of news press agency. M.: 1970. P.359.

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Since the 1920s, France has been at the forefront of world tank construction: it was the first to build tanks with projectile-proof armor, and the first to organize them into tank divisions. In May 1940, the time came to test the combat effectiveness of the French tank forces in practice. Such an opportunity already presented itself during the battles for Belgium.

Cavalry without horses

When planning the movement of troops to Belgium according to the Diehl plan, the Allied command decided that the most vulnerable area was the area between the cities of Wavre and Namur. Here, between the Dyle and Meuse rivers, lies the Gembloux plateau - flat, dry, convenient for tank operations. To cover this gap, the French command sent here the 1st Cavalry Corps of the 1st Army under the command of Lieutenant General Rene Priou. The general recently turned 61 years old, he studied at the Saint-Cyr Military Academy, and ended the First World War as commander of the 5th Dragoon Regiment. From February 1939, Priou served as Inspector General of the Cavalry.

The commander of the 1st Cavalry Corps is Lieutenant General René-Jacques-Adolphe Priou.
alamy.com

Priu's corps was called cavalry only by tradition and consisted of two light mechanized divisions. Initially, they were cavalry, but in the early 30s, on the initiative of the cavalry inspector General Flavigny, some of the cavalry divisions began to be reorganized into light mechanized ones - DLM (Division Legere Mecanisee). They were reinforced with tanks and armored vehicles, horses were replaced with Renault UE and Lorraine cars and armored personnel carriers.

The first such formation was the 4th Cavalry Division. Back in the early 30s, it became an experimental training ground for testing the interaction of cavalry with tanks, and in July 1935 it was renamed the 1st Light Mechanized Division. Such a division of the 1935 model should have included:

• reconnaissance regiment of two motorcycle squadrons and two squadrons of armored vehicles (AMD - Automitrailleuse de Découverte);
• a combat brigade consisting of two regiments, each with two squadrons of cavalry tanks - cannon AMC (Auto-mitrailleuse de Combat) or machine gun AMR (Automitrailleuse de Reconnaissance);
• a motorized brigade, consisting of two motorized dragoon regiments of two battalions each (one regiment had to be transported on tracked transporters, the other on regular trucks);
• motorized artillery regiment.

The re-equipment of the 4th Cavalry Division proceeded slowly: the cavalry wanted to equip its combat brigade only with the Somua S35 medium tanks, but due to their shortage it was necessary to use the light Hotchkiss H35 tanks. As a result, there were fewer tanks in the formation than planned, but the equipment of vehicles increased.

Medium tank "Somua" S35 from the exhibition of the museum in Aberdeen (USA).
sfw.so

The motorized brigade was reduced to one motorized dragoon regiment of three battalions, equipped with Lorraine and Laffley tracked tractors. Squadrons of AMR machine gun tanks were transferred to a motorized dragoon regiment, and combat regiments, in addition to the S35, were equipped with H35 light vehicles. Over time, they were replaced by medium tanks, but this replacement was not completed before the start of the war. The reconnaissance regiment was armed with powerful Panar-178 armored vehicles with a 25-mm anti-tank gun.

German soldiers inspect a Panhard-178 (AMD-35) cannon armored vehicle abandoned near Le Panne (Dunkirque area).
waralbum.ru

In 1936, General Flavigny took command of his creation, the 1st Light Mechanized Division. In 1937, the creation of a second similar division began under the command of General Altmaier on the basis of the 5th Cavalry Division. The 3rd Light Mechanized Division began to form already during the “Phantom War” in February 1940 - this unit was another step in the mechanization of the cavalry, as its AMR machine gun tanks were replaced by the latest Hotchkiss H39 vehicles.

Note that until the end of the 30s, “real” cavalry divisions (DC - Divisions de Cavalerie) remained in the French army. In the summer of 1939, on the initiative of the cavalry inspector, supported by General Gamelin, their reorganization began under a new staff. It was decided that in open ground cavalry was powerless against modern infantry weapons and too vulnerable to air attack. The new light cavalry divisions (DLC - Division Legere de Cavalerie) were to be used in mountainous or wooded areas, where horses provided them with the best cross-country ability. First of all, such areas were the Ardennes and the Swiss border, where new formations developed.

The light cavalry division consisted of two brigades - light motorized and cavalry; the first had a dragoon (tank) regiment and a regiment of armored cars, the second was partially motorized, but still had about 1,200 horses. Initially, the dragoon regiment was also planned to be equipped with the Somua S35 medium tanks, but due to their slow production, the light Hotchkiss H35 tanks began to enter service - well armored, but relatively slow-moving and with a weak 37-mm cannon 18 calibers long.

The Hotchkiss H35 light tank is the main vehicle of the Priu cavalry corps.
waralbum.ru

Composition of the Priu body

The Prieu Cavalry Corps was formed in September 1939 from the 1st and 2nd Light Mechanized Divisions. But in March 1940, the 1st Division was transferred as a motorized reinforcement to the left flank 7th Army, and in its place Priou received the newly formed 3rd DLM. The 4th DLM was never formed; at the end of May, part of it was transferred to the 4th Armored (Cuirassier) Division of the reserve, and the other part was sent to the 7th Army as the “De Langle Group”.

The light mechanized division turned out to be a very successful combat formation - more mobile than the heavy tank division (DCr - Division Cuirassée), and at the same time more balanced. It is believed that the first two divisions were the best prepared, although the actions of the 1st DLM in Holland as part of the 7th Army showed that this was not the case. At the same time, the 3rd DLM that replaced it began to form only during the war; the personnel of this unit were recruited mainly from reservists, and officers were allocated from other mechanized divisions.

Light French tank AMR-35.
militaryimages.net

By May 1940, each light mechanized division consisted of three motorized infantry battalions, about 10,400 soldiers and 3,400 vehicles. The amount of equipment they contained varied greatly:

2ndDLM:

• light tanks "Hotchkiss" H35 - 84;
• light machine gun tanks AMR33 and AMR35 ZT1 – 67;
• 105 mm field guns – 12;

3rdDLM:

• medium tanks "Somua" S35 - 88;
• light tanks "Hotchkiss" H39 - 129 (60 of them with a 37-mm long-barreled gun of 38 calibers);
• light tanks "Hotchkiss" H35 - 22;
• cannon armored vehicles "Panar-178" - 40;
• 105 mm field guns – 12;
• 75-mm field guns (model 1897) – 24;
• 47-mm anti-tank guns SA37 L/53 – 8;
• 25-mm anti-tank guns SA34/37 L/72 – 12;
• 25-mm anti-aircraft guns "Hotchkiss" - 6.

In total, Priu's cavalry corps had 478 tanks (including 411 cannon tanks) and 80 cannon armored vehicles. Half of the tanks (236 units) had 47 mm or long-barreled 37 mm guns, capable of fighting almost any armored vehicle of that time.

The Hotchkiss H39 with a 38-caliber gun is the best French light tank. Photo of the exhibition of the tank museum in Saumur, France.

Enemy: 16th Motorized Corps of the Wehrmacht

While the Priu divisions were advancing to the intended line of defense, they were met by the vanguard of the 6th German Army - the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions, united under the command of Lieutenant General Erich Hoepner into the 16th Motorized Corps. Moving to the left with a large lag was the 20th Motorized Division, whose task was to cover Hoepner's flank from possible counterattacks from Namur.

The general course of hostilities in northeastern Belgium from May 10 to May 17, 1940.
D. M. Projector. War in Europe. 1939–1941

On May 11, both tank divisions crossed the Albert Canal and overthrew units of the 2nd and 3rd Belgian Army Corps near Tirlemont. On the night of May 11-12, the Belgians retreated to the line of the Dyle River, where the allied forces were planned to exit - the 1st French Army of General Georges Blanchard and the British Expeditionary Force of General John Gort.

IN 3rd Panzer Division General Horst Stumpf included two tank regiments (5th and 6th), united into the 3rd tank brigade under the command of Colonel Kühn. In addition, the division included the 3rd motorized infantry brigade (3rd motorized infantry regiment and 3rd motorcycle battalion), 75th artillery regiment, 39th anti-tank fighter division, 3rd reconnaissance battalion, 39th engineer battalion, 39th Signal Battalion and 83rd Supply Detachment.

The German light tank Pz.I is the most popular vehicle in the 16th Motorized Corps.
tank2.ru

In total, the 3rd Panzer Division had:

• command tanks - 27;
• light machine gun tanks Pz.I – 117;
• light tanks Pz.II – 129;
• medium tanks Pz.III – 42;
• medium support tanks Pz.IV – 26;
• armored vehicles - 56 (including 23 vehicles with a 20-mm cannon).

German light tank Pz.II is the main cannon tank of the 16th Motorized Corps.
Osprey Publishing

4th Panzer Division Major General Johann Shtever had two tank regiments (35th and 36th), united in the 5th tank brigade. In addition, the division included the 4th motorized infantry brigade (12th and 33rd motorized infantry regiments, as well as the 34th motorcycle battalion, 103rd artillery regiment, 49th anti-tank fighter division, 7th reconnaissance battalion , 79th Engineer Battalion, 79th Signal Battalion and 84th Supply Detachment.The 4th Tank Division consisted of:

• command tanks - 10;
• light machine gun tanks Pz.I – 135;
• light tanks Pz.II – 105;
• medium tanks Pz.III – 40;
• medium support tanks Pz.IV – 24.

Each German tank division had a serious artillery component:

• 150 mm howitzers – 12;
• 105 mm howitzers – 14;
• 75 mm infantry guns – 24;
• 88-mm anti-aircraft guns – 9;
• 37 mm anti-tank guns – 51;
• 20-mm anti-aircraft guns – 24.

In addition, the divisions were assigned two anti-tank fighter divisions (12 37-mm anti-tank guns in each).

So, both divisions of the 16th Tank Corps had 655 vehicles, including 50 “fours”, 82 “threes”, 234 “twos”, 252 machine-gun “ones” and 37 command tanks, which also had only machine-gun armament (some historians put the figure at 632 tanks). Of these vehicles, only 366 were cannon, and only medium-sized German vehicles could fight the bulk of enemy tanks, and even then not all of them - the S35 with its sloped 36-mm hull armor and 56-mm turret was too tough for the German 37-mm cannon only from short distances. At the same time, the 47-mm French cannon penetrated the armor of medium German tanks at a distance of over 2 km.

Some researchers, describing the battle on the Gembloux plateau, claim the superiority of Hoepner's 16th Panzer Corps over Priou's cavalry corps in terms of the number and quality of tanks. Outwardly, this was indeed the case (the Germans had 655 tanks against 478 French), but 40% of them were machine-gun Pz.I, capable of fighting only infantry. For 366 German cannon tanks, there were 411 French cannon vehicles, and the 20-mm cannons of the German “twos” could only cause damage to the French AMR machine-gun tanks.

The Germans had 132 units of equipment capable of effectively fighting enemy tanks (“troikas” and “fours”), while the French had almost twice as many - 236 vehicles, even not counting the Renault and Hotchkiss with short-barreled 37-mm guns.

Commander of the 16th Panzer Corps, Lieutenant General Erich Hoepner.
Bundesarchiv, Bild 146–1971–068–10 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

True, the German tank division had noticeably more anti-tank weapons: up to one and a half hundred 37-mm guns, and most importantly, 18 heavy 88-mm mechanically-propelled anti-aircraft guns, capable of destroying any tank in its visibility zone. And this is against 40 anti-tank guns in the entire Priu body! However, due to the rapid advance of the Germans, most of their artillery fell behind and did not take part in the first stage of the battle. In fact, on May 12–13, 1940, a real battle of machines unfolded near the town of Annu, northeast of the city of Gembloux: tanks against tanks.

May 12: counter battle

The 3rd Light Mechanized Division was the first to come into contact with the enemy. Its section east of Gembloux was divided into two sectors: in the north there were 44 tanks and 40 armored vehicles; in the south - 196 medium and light tanks, as well as the bulk of the artillery. The first line of defense was in the area of ​​Annu and the village of Kreen. The 2nd Division was supposed to take positions on the right flank of the 3rd from Crehan to the banks of the Meuse, but by this time it was only advancing to the intended line with its advanced detachments - three infantry battalions and 67 AMR light tanks. The natural dividing line between the divisions was the hilly watershed ridge that stretched from Anna through Crehen and Meerdorp. Thus, the direction of the German attack was completely obvious: along the water barriers through the “corridor” formed by the Meen and Grand Gette rivers and leading directly to Gemble.

Early in the morning of May 12, the “Eberbach Panzer Group” (the vanguard of the 4th German Panzer Division) reached the town of Annu in the very center of the line that Priou’s troops were supposed to occupy. Here the Germans encountered reconnaissance patrols of the 3rd Light Mechanized Division. A little north of Anna, French tanks, machine gunners and motorcyclists occupied Crehen.

From 9 a.m. to noon, tank and anti-tank artillery of both sides engaged in a fierce exchange of gunfire. The French tried to counterattack with the advance detachments of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, but light German Pz.II tanks reached the very center of Annu. 21 light Hotchkiss H35s took part in the new counterattack, but they were unlucky - they came under fire from German Pz.III and Pz.IV. The thick armor did not help the French: in close street battles at a distance of a hundred meters, it was easily penetrated by 37-mm German cannons, while short-barreled French guns were powerless against medium German tanks. As a result, the French lost 11 Hotchkisses, the Germans lost 5 vehicles. The remaining French tanks left the city. After a short battle, the French retreated to the west - to the Wavre-Gembloux line (part of the pre-planned "Diele Position"). It was here that the main battle broke out on May 13–14.

Tanks of the 1st battalion of the 35th German tank regiment tried to pursue the enemy and reached the city of Tins, where they destroyed four Hotchkiss, but were forced to return because they were left without motorized infantry escort. By nightfall there was silence at the positions. As a result of the battle, each side considered that the enemy’s losses were significantly higher than its own.

Battle of Annu May 12–14, 1940.
Ernest R. May. Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France

May 13: difficult success for the Germans

The morning of this day was quiet, only towards 9 o’clock a German reconnaissance plane appeared in the sky. After this, as stated in the memoirs of Priu himself, “the battle began with renewed vigor along the entire front from Tirlemont to Guy”. By this time, the main forces of the German 16th Panzer and French Cavalry Corps had arrived here; south of Anna, the lagging units of the 3rd German Panzer Division deployed. Both sides gathered all their tank forces for the battle. A large-scale tank battle broke out - it was a counter battle, as both sides tried to attack.

The actions of Hoepner's tank divisions were supported by nearly two hundred dive bombers of the 8th Air Corps of the 2nd Air Fleet. French air support was weaker and consisted mainly of fighter cover. But Priu had superiority in artillery: he managed to bring up his 75- and 105-mm guns, which opened effective fire on German positions and advancing tanks. As one of the German tank crews, Captain Ernst von Jungenfeld, wrote a year and a half later, the French artillery literally gave the Germans "volcano of fire", the density and efficiency of which was reminiscent of the worst times of the First World War. At the same time, the artillery of the German tank divisions lagged behind; the bulk of it had not yet managed to reach the battlefield.

The French were the first to launch an offensive on this day - six S35s from the 2nd Light Mechanized Division, which had not previously participated in the battle, attacked the southern flank of the 4th Panzer Division. Alas, the Germans managed to deploy 88-mm guns here and met the enemy with fire. At 9 o'clock in the morning, after an attack by dive bombers, German tanks attacked the village of Gendrenouille in the center of the French position (in the zone of the 3rd Light Mechanized Division), concentrating a large number of tanks on a narrow five-kilometer front.

The French tank crews suffered significant losses from the attack by dive bombers, but did not flinch. Moreover, they decided to counterattack the enemy - but not head-on, but from the flank. Deploying north of Gendrenouille, two squadrons of Somois tanks from the fresh 1st Cavalry Regiment of the 3rd Light Mechanized Division (42 combat vehicles) launched a flank attack on the unfolding battle formations of the 4th Panzer Division.

This blow thwarted German plans and turned the battle into a counter battle. According to French data, about 50 German tanks were destroyed. True, by evening only 16 combat-ready vehicles remained of the two French squadrons - the rest either died or required lengthy repairs. The tank of the commander of one of the platoons left the battle, having used up all the shells and having traces of 29 hits, but did not receive serious damage.

The squadron of S35 medium tanks of the 2nd Light Mechanized Division operated especially successfully on the right flank - in Crehen, through which the Germans tried to bypass French positions from the south. Here, Lieutenant Lociski's platoon was able to destroy 4 German tanks, a battery of anti-tank guns and several trucks. It turned out that German tanks were powerless against medium French tanks - their 37 mm cannons could penetrate the Somois armor only from a very short distance, while the French 47 mm cannons hit German vehicles at any distance.

Pz.III from the 4th Panzer Division overcomes a stone fence blown up by sappers. The photo was taken on May 13, 1940 in the Annu area.
Thomas L. Jentz. Panzertruppen

In the town of Tins, a couple of kilometers west of Annou, the French again managed to stop the German advance. The tank of the commander of the 35th Tank Regiment, Colonel Eberbach (who later became the commander of the 4th Tank Division), was also destroyed here. By the end of the day, the S35s had destroyed several more German tanks, but by the evening the French were forced to leave Tines and Crehan under pressure from approaching German infantry. French tanks and infantry retreated 5 km to the west, to the second line of defense (Meerdorp, Zhandrenouil and Zhandren), covered by the Or-Zhosh River.

Already at 8 o'clock in the evening the Germans tried to attack in the direction of Meerdorp, but their artillery preparation turned out to be very weak and only warned the enemy. A firefight between tanks at a long distance (about a kilometer) had no effect, although the Germans noted hits from the short-barreled 75-mm cannons of their Pz.IV. German tanks passed north of Meerdorp, the French first met them with fire from tank and anti-tank guns, and then counterattacked on the flank with the Somua squadron. The report of the 35th German Tank Regiment reported:

“...11 enemy tanks came out of Meerdorp and attacked the motorized infantry. The 1st Battalion immediately turned around and opened fire on the enemy tanks from a distance of 400 to 600 meters. Eight enemy tanks remained motionless, three more managed to escape.”

On the contrary, French sources write about the success of this attack and that French medium tanks turned out to be completely invulnerable to German vehicles: they left the battle with from two to four dozen direct hits from 20- and 37-mm shells, but without breaking through the armor.

However, the Germans learned quickly. Immediately after the battle, instructions appeared prohibiting light German Pz.IIs from engaging in battle with enemy medium tanks. The S35 was to be destroyed primarily by 88mm anti-aircraft guns and 105mm direct fire howitzers, as well as medium tanks and anti-tank guns.

Late in the evening the Germans went on the offensive again. On the southern flank of the 3rd Light Mechanized Division, the 2nd Cuirassier Regiment, already battered the day before, was forced to defend against units of the 3rd Panzer Division with its last forces - ten surviving Somuas and the same number of Hotchkisses. As a result, by midnight the 3rd Division had to retreat another 2-3 km, taking up defense at the Zhosh-Ramily line. The 2nd Light Mechanized Division retreated much further, on the night of 13/14 May, moving south from Perve beyond the Belgian anti-tank ditch prepared for the Dyle line. Only then did the Germans pause their advance, awaiting the arrival of the rear with ammunition and fuel. It was still 15 km from here to Gembloux.

To be continued

Literature:

1. D. M. Projector. War in Europe. 1939–1941 M.: Voenizdat, 1963
2. Ernest R. May. Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France. New York, Hill & Wang, 2000
3. Thomas L. Jentz. Panzertruppen. The Complete Guide to the Creation & Combat Employment of Germany's Tank Force. 1933–1942. Schiffer Military History, Atglen PA, 1996
4. Jonathan F. Keiler. The 1940 Battle of Gembloux (http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/the-1940-battle-of-gembloux/)

The Second World War was fought on the territory of 40 countries, and 72 states took part in it. In 1941, Germany had the strongest army in the world, but several critical battles led to the Third Reich's defeat.

Battle of Moscow (blitzkrieg failure)

The Battle of Moscow showed that the German blitzkrieg failed. In total, more than 7 million people took part in this battle. This is more than the Berlin operation, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest battle of World War II, and more than the enemy forces on the western front after the Normandy landings.

The Battle of Moscow was the only major battle of World War II that was lost by the Wehrmacht despite its overall numerical superiority over the enemy.

Moscow was defended “by the whole world.” Thus, the feat of the senior groom of the village of Lishnyagi, Serebryano-Prudsky district, Ivan Petrovich Ivanov, who on December 11, 1941 repeated the feat of Ivan Susanin, having led a German convoy of 40 vehicles into the deep ravine “Belgorod Pines”, has remained in history.

The victory over the enemy was also helped by a simple teacher from Krasnaya Polyana, Elena Gorokhova, who informed the Red Army command about the redeployment of German units with long-range artillery batteries.

As a result of the counter-offensive near Moscow and the general offensive, German units were thrown back 100-250 km. The Tula, Ryazan and Moscow regions, and many areas of the Kalinin, Smolensk and Oryol regions were completely liberated.

General Günter Blumentritt wrote: “It was now important for German political leaders to understand that the days of the blitzkrieg were a thing of the past. We were confronted by an army whose fighting qualities were far superior to all other armies we had ever encountered on the battlefield. But it should be said that the German army also demonstrated high moral fortitude in overcoming all the disasters and dangers that befell it.”

Battle of Stalingrad (radical turning point)

The Battle of Stalingrad was the main turning point of World War II. The Soviet military command made it clear: there is no land beyond the Volga. The assessments of this battle and the losses that Stalingrad suffered from foreign historians are interesting.

The book “Operation Survive,” published in 1949 and written by the famous American publicist Hessler, who is difficult to suspect of a pro-Russian position, stated: “According to the very realistic scientist Dr. Philip Morrison, it would take at least 1000 atomic bombs to harm Russia the damage caused during the Stalingrad campaign alone... This is significantly more than the number of bombs that we accumulated after four years of tireless efforts.”

The Battle of Stalingrad was a fight for survival.

The beginning was made on August 23, 1942, when German aircraft carried out a massive bombing of the city. 40,000 people died. This exceeds the official figures for the Allied air raid on Dresden in February 1945 (25,000 casualties).

In Stalingrad, the Red Army used revolutionary innovations of psychological pressure on the enemy. From the loudspeakers installed at the front line, favorite hits of German music were heard, which were interrupted by messages about the victories of the Red Army in sections of the Stalingrad Front. The most effective means of psychological pressure was the monotonous beat of the metronome, which was interrupted after 7 beats by a comment in German: “Every 7 seconds one German soldier dies at the front.” At the end of a series of 10-20 “timer reports,” a tango sounded from the loudspeakers.

During the Stalingrad operation, the Red Army managed to create the so-called “Stalingrad cauldron”. On November 23, 1942, the troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts closed the encirclement ring, which contained almost 300,000 enemy forces.

In Stalingrad, one of Hitler’s “favorites,” Marshal Paulus, was captured and became a field marshal during the Battle of Stalingrad. By the beginning of 1943, Paulus's 6th Army was a pitiful sight. On January 8, the Soviet military command addressed the German military leader with an ultimatum: if he does not surrender by 10 o’clock the next day, all the Germans in the “cauldron” will be destroyed. Paulus did not react to the ultimatum. On January 31 he was captured. Subsequently, he became one of the USSR's allies in the Cold War propaganda war.

In early February 1943, units and formations of the 4th Luftwaffe Air Fleet received the password “Orlog”. It meant that the 6th Army no longer existed, and the Battle of Stalingrad ended in the defeat of Germany.

Battle of Kursk (transition of initiative to the Red Army)

The victory in the battles on the Kursk Bulge was of cardinal importance due to a number of factors. After Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht had another chance to change the situation on the Eastern Front in its favor; Hitler had high hopes for Operation Citadel and stated that “The victory at Kursk should serve as a torch for the whole world.”

The Soviet command also understood the importance of these battles. It was important for the Red Army to prove that it could win victories not only during winter campaigns, but also in summer, so not only the military, but also the civilian population invested in the victory at Kursk. In record time, in 32 days, a railway was built connecting Rzhava and Stary Oskol, called the “road of courage.” Thousands of people worked day and night on its construction.

The turning point in the Battle of Kursk was the Battle of Prokhorovka. The largest tank battle in history, over 1,500 tanks.

Memories of that battle still boggle the mind. It was real hell.

The commander of the tank brigade, Grigory Penezhko, who received the Hero of the Soviet Union for this battle, recalls: “We lost the sense of time, did not feel thirst, heat, or even blows in the cramped cabin of the tank. One thought, one desire - while you are alive, beat the enemy. Our tankers, who got out of their wrecked vehicles, searched the field for enemy crews, who were also left without equipment, and beat them with pistols, grappling hand-to-hand...”

After Prokhorovka, our troops launched a decisive offensive. Operations “Kutuzov” and “Rumyantsev” allowed the liberation of Belgorod and Orel, and Kharkov was liberated on August 23.

Oil is called the “blood of war.” From the very beginning of the war, one of the general routes of the German offensive was directed towards the Baku oil fields. Controlling them was a priority for the Third Reich.
The Battle of the Caucasus was marked by air battles in the skies over the Kuban, which became one of the largest air battles of World War II. For the first time in history, Soviet pilots imposed their will on the Luftwaffe and actively interfered with and opposed the Germans in carrying out their combat missions. From May 26 to June 7, the Red Army Air Force conducted 845 sorties against Nazi airfields in Anapa, Kerch, Saki, Sarabuz and Taman. In total, during the battles in the skies of Kuban, Soviet aviation carried out about 35 thousand sorties.

It was for the battles over Kuban that Alexander Pokryshkin, the future three-time Hero of the Soviet Union and an air marshal, was awarded the first Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

On September 9, 1943, the last operation of the battle for the Caucasus began - Novorossiysk-Taman. Within a month, German troops on the Taman Peninsula were defeated. As a result of the offensive, the cities of Novorossiysk and Anapa were liberated, and the prerequisites were created for a landing operation in Crimea. In honor of the liberation of the Taman Peninsula on October 9, 1943, a salute of 20 salvoes from 224 guns was given in Moscow.

Operation of the Ardennes (disruption of the “last blitzkrieg” of the Wehrmacht)

The Battle of the Bulge is called “the last blitzkrieg of the Wehrmacht.” This was the last attempt of the Third Reich to turn the tide on the Western Front. The operation was commanded by Field Marshal V. Model, who ordered it to begin on the morning of December 16, 1944; by December 25, the Germans had advanced 90 km deep into the enemy’s defenses.

However, the Germans did not know that the Allied defenses were deliberately weakened so that when the Germans broke through to the West 100 kilometers, they would be surrounded and attacked from the flanks. The Wehrmacht did not foresee this maneuver.
The Allies knew about the Ardennes operation in advance, since they could read the German Ultra codes. In addition, aerial reconnaissance reported on the movements of German troops.

Despite the fact that the Allies initially had the initiative, the Germans were well prepared for the Ardennes. The timing of the offensive was chosen to ensure that Allied aircraft could not provide air support. The Germans also resorted to a trick: they dressed everyone who knew English in American uniforms and, under the leadership of Otto Skorzeny, created assault troops from them so that they would sow panic in the American rear.
Some of the Panthers were disguised as American tanks; they had bulwarks attached, muzzle brakes were removed from the guns, the turrets were covered with sheet metal, and large white stars were painted on the armor.

With the beginning of the offensive, the “false panthers” rushed to the rear of the American troops, but the Germans’ cunning was “seen through” due to stupidity. One of the Germans asked for gas and said “petroleum” instead of “gas”. The Americans didn't say that. The saboteurs were discovered, and their cars were burned with bazookas.

In American historiography, the Battle of the Bulge is called the Battle of the Bulge. By January 29, the Allies completed the operation and began the invasion of Germany.

The Wehrmacht lost more than a third of its armored vehicles in the battles, and almost all the aircraft (including jets) participating in the operation used up fuel and ammunition. The only “profit” for Germany from the Ardennes operation was that it delayed the Allied offensive on the Rhine for six weeks: it had to be postponed to January 29, 1945.

From the very beginning of World War II, the United States provided England with the maximum possible assistance. Hitler had every reason to declare war on the United States, but he held back for fear of the country entering the war. It is quite possible that the American government would not have been able to find sufficient reasons to enter the war in Europe if the war in the Pacific had not broken out. Conflict in the Pacific had been brewing since the outbreak of the war in Europe. Japan, taking advantage of the weakening of France, penetrated into Indochina. At the same time, she continued the war in China and developed plans to conquer Malaysia, hoping to establish control over the rubber plantations of that country.

The United States treated all these Japanese actions with restraint, not wanting to provoke a Japanese attack on Southeast Asia and Indonesia. The Japanese capture of Indochina in July 1941 changed US policy. The United States froze Japanese assets and cut off Japan from oil sources; the British and Dutch did the same. Japan could not continue the war without Indonesian oil and Malaysian rubber and tin.

While Japanese representatives were negotiating in Washington, events took an unexpected turn. On December 7, 1941, a squadron of Japanese aircraft made a surprise raid on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor (Hawaii Islands), where the US Pacific Fleet was concentrated. The results of the attack were horrifying: 4 out of 8 battleships were sunk, 18 warships were disabled, 188 aircraft were destroyed and 128 were damaged, and 3 thousand military personnel were killed. December 8 USA. declared war on Japan. In response, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, and on the same day the United States declared war on Germany and Italy. The United States became directly involved in the war.

America was not prepared for war. Although universal conscription was introduced in the United States in 1940, the army was small, untrained, and poorly equipped. American industry had not yet been transferred to a war footing, and the Japanese, taking advantage of the weakness of the American fleet, achieved rapid success.

At the first stage of the war, the main task of the Japanese was to cut off Southeast Asia from England, so the main blow was delivered to Singapore, which was the most powerful British naval base, which controlled all sea routes from Europe to the Pacific Ocean. On the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese aircraft raided Singapore and landed troops in Kota Bharu, 200 km from Singapore. Japanese troops reached Singapore within two months.
Singapore capitulated on February 15, 1942, offering virtually no resistance. The English garrison, which had powerful fortifications and was well armed, threw out the white flag without a fight. 100 thousand British soldiers surrendered, the Japanese received 740 guns, 2,500 machine guns and 200 tanks.

The fall of Singapore led to the collapse of the entire defensive system in the Pacific. By May 1942, Japan occupied Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Burma, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Guam, and the Solomon Islands, i.e., a territory inhabited by 400 million people. A real threat arose to India and Australia. However, the German offensive on the Soviet-German front in the summer of 1942 changed the strategic direction of the Japanese offensive. In anticipation of the fall of Stalingrad in November 1942, the best Japanese divisions were transferred to Manchuria. Half of all the artillery of the Japanese army and 2/3 of the tanks were concentrated here. This was a mistake by the Japanese leadership. The situation in the Pacific Ocean began to gradually change. The United States took advantage of the respite and concentrated its armed forces and re-equipped its air force and navy. Japan switched to defensive actions in the Pacific. The United States seized the initiative and maintained it until the end of the war.

Battle of Stalingrad

In the summer of 1942, the main events of World War II unfolded in Europe. The German army resumed its offensive in the Soviet Union on all fronts, but achieved success only on the Southern Front, where it reached the Caucasus Range, captured the oil-bearing regions of the North Caucasus and reached Stalingrad. Major General Sabir Rakhimov took an active part in the battles in the Caucasus.

The Battle of Stalingrad lasted six months, from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943, and marked the beginning of a fundamental change in the course of World War II. As a result of this battle, five armies of Nazi Germany were completely surrounded, and the encircled group of German troops was destroyed. The total losses of the Wehrmacht during the Battle of Stalingrad amounted to about 1.5 million people. 91 thousand soldiers, 26 thousand officers, 24 generals led by the commander of the 6th Army, Field Marshal Paulus, were captured. It was a disaster that signaled the beginning of the end of Hitler's Germany. Three days of mourning were declared in Germany.

After the Battle of Stalingrad, the strategic initiative in the war passed to the Red Army. The front rolled non-stop to the west. In the fall of 1944, German troops were expelled from the territory of the Soviet Union. Soviet troops began offensive operations in the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe occupied by the Nazis.

Liberation of the territory of the USSR

From July 5 to August 23, 1943, the Battle of Kursk took place. The goal was to disrupt the advance of German troops in the Kursk ledge area. After a tank battle near the village of Prokhorovka

On July 12, in which 1,200 tanks took part on both sides, the enemy’s retreat began. In the Battle of Kursk, Wehrmacht losses amounted to about 500 thousand people, 1.5 thousand tanks, over 3.7 thousand aircraft, and more than 3 thousand guns were destroyed.

From August to December 1943, the battle for the Dnieper continued. The Soviet troops were opposed by Army Group Center and the main forces of Army Group South. These two groups formed the Eastern Wall defensive line, the main part of which ran along the banks of the Dnieper. During the Battle of the Dnieper, Soviet troops captured a strategic bridgehead on the Dnieper and liberated over 38 thousand settlements, including 160 cities.

From July 10, 1941 to August 9, 1944, the defense of Leningrad lasted. Army Group North (29 divisions) had the task of defeating Soviet troops in the Baltic states and, interacting with part of the forces of Army Group Center, capturing Leningrad and Kronstadt. On September 8, 1941, German troops cut off Leningrad from land. The blockade of the city began. Only on January 18, 1943 did Soviet troops break through the blockade, and in January 1944 they completely liquidated it. On August 10, 1944, the battle for Leningrad ended.

From June 23 to August 29, 1944, the Belarusian operation to liberate Belarus continued. During this operation, the main forces of Army Group Center were surrounded and destroyed, the liberation of Belarus, parts of Lithuania and Latvia was completed

Offensive in Western Europe

On July 20, 1944, during a meeting held by Hitler at the main headquarters, an explosion occurred, as a result of which four officers were killed. Hitler himself was not injured. The assassination attempt was organized by Wehrmacht officers, and the bomb was planted by Colonel Stauffenberg. A series of executions followed, during which more than 5 thousand people involved in the conspiracy were shot.

Time was working for the allies of the Soviet Union. By 1942, the United States transferred industrial production to wartime mode. During the entire war, the United States supplied 300 thousand aircraft, 86 thousand tanks and 2.1 million guns and machine guns to England and the USSR. Deliveries were carried out in accordance with Lend-Lease. The United States supplied England and the USSR with $50 billion worth of products during the war. US supplies and the increase in their own production of military equipment allowed the Allies to achieve superiority in military equipment over Nazi Germany already in 1942. In 1943, US industry was operating at full capacity. New technology and tactics made it possible to destroy almost the entire German submarine fleet in the Atlantic Ocean. American technology moved to Europe in a huge stream.

In November 1942, the Anglo-American landing began on the coasts of Algeria and Morocco. About 450 warships and transport vessels ensured the transfer of people and equipment across the ocean from the USA and England to the ports of Casablanca, Algiers and Oran. French troops, under the command of the Vichy government, offered no resistance. Anglo-American troops under the command of General D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) began an attack on Tunisia.

A little earlier, near the small town of El Atmein. located 90 km from Alexandria, a battle took place in which British troops under the command of Field Marshal B. Montgomery (1887-1976) inflicted a decisive defeat on the Afrika Korps under the command of Field Marshal E. Rommel (1891 - 1944). After Stalingrad, it was one of the most crushing defeats for Germany and Italy in World War II. The Battle of El Alamein began on October 23 and ended on November 4, 1942. Of the 249 tanks, Rommel only had 36 left; he lost 400 guns and several thousand vehicles. 20 thousand German soldiers surrendered to the British. After this battle, the Germans retreated non-stop for 2.5 thousand km. In May 1943, British troops and the Anglo-American Expeditionary Force met in Tunisia and inflicted a new defeat on the Italo-German forces. North Africa was cleared of Nazi troops, and the Mediterranean Sea came completely under Allied control.

Without giving the enemy the opportunity to recover from heavy defeats, Anglo-American troops in July-August 1943 carried out a landing in Sicily. The Italians did not offer serious resistance. In Italy there was a crisis of the fascist dictatorship. Mussolini was overthrown. The new government led by Marshal Badoglio signed an armistice on September 3, 1943, according to which the Italian troops stopped resistance and capitulated.

Saving Mussolini's regime, German troops moved to the center of Italy, captured Rome, disarmed Italian units and established a brutal occupation regime in Italy. Having fled to the protection of the Allied forces, the Badoglio government declared war on Germany on October 13, 1943.

On June 6, 1944, the landing of American-British troops began in northern France, in Normandy. This was a practical step in the long-promised opening of a second front by the Allies. By July 24, the number of Allied troops amounted to over 1.5 million people. The Allied forces outnumbered the enemy in personnel and tanks by 3 times, in aircraft by more than 60 times, they completely dominated the sea and air. On August 15, 1944, American and French troops landed in the south of France. On August 25, units of the French Resistance, by agreement with the American command, entered Paris, and the national banner soared over the capital of France.

The opening of the second front was an important event during the Second World War. Now Germany had to fight a war on two fronts in Europe, which limited the possibilities for strategic maneuver. American and British aviation completely dominated the air of Western Europe. All roads and communications were controlled by Allied aviation.

The scale of strategic bombing of Germany expanded, in which large forces of Anglo-American aviation began to be involved. During the day, American aircraft carried out raids on industrial facilities, railways, bridges, submarine bases, and factories for the production of synthetic gasoline and rubber. At night, British aircraft bombed mainly cities, trying to suppress the morale of the civilian population. As a result of the bombing, most of the defense enterprises located on German territory were destroyed, the air defense system was suppressed, and German aviation did not take active action. Civilians suffered the most from air raids. By the spring of 1945, almost a quarter of Berlin was destroyed by bombing. The transport system and the work of the rear of the fascist troops were practically destroyed and disorganized.

At the beginning of 1943, a turning point came in the war in the Pacific. Japan's economic situation deteriorated sharply. The food supply to the population first decreased and then stopped completely. Strikes began in the country. Anti-war sentiments were openly expressed. Thus, the military defeat was combined with a deep internal crisis. The political crisis in the country was expressed in a change of government. In July 1944, the Tojo cabinet, which started the war in the Pacific, was dismissed in April
1945 there was a new change in the Japanese government.

• Summary
  December 7, 1941 - Japanese bombing of the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. US declaration of war on Japan
  December 11, 1941 - Italy and Germany declare war on the United States
  February 15, 1942 - Japanese capture of the British naval base on the island of Singapore. Collapse of the defense system in the Pacific Ocean
  1942 - Japanese occupation of Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea. Burma, Philippines, Hong Kong and other territories
  July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943 - Battle of Stalingrad - a turning point in the Second World War
  October 23 - November 4, 1942 - defeat of the Italo-German troops at El Apamein (Egypt), transfer of strategic initiative to the British army
  May 1943 - liberation of North Africa from Italian-German troops
  July 5 - August 23, 1943 - Battle of Kursk
  August-December 1943 - Battle of the Dnieper
  September 3, 1943 - the capitulation of Italy marked the beginning of the collapse of the Nazi bloc
  June 6, 1944 - opening of the second front
  July 20, 1944 - unsuccessful attempt on Hitler's life
  August 10, 1944 - end of the Battle of Leningrad

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The main battles of the Second World War in 1941-1944. Updated: January 27, 2017 By: admin

This article will be devoted to the topic of the decisive battles of the bloodiest war in human history - World War II. And here we will name not only those battles that had an impact on the winning side, because we must not forget that at the beginning of the war the Germans had an advantage and they deserved this with a number of brilliant victories.
So, let's begin. What battles can be called the most significant and most decisive during the Second World War?
1. Capture of France.
After German troops took Poland, Hitler understood that he needed to get rid of the danger on the Western Front, this would ensure that the German army did not start a war on two fronts. And for this it was necessary to capture France.
Hitler managed to capture France in just a few weeks. It was a real blitzkrieg. Lightning-fast tank attacks helped break and encircle the most combat-ready armies of the French, Dutch and Belgians. However, this was not the main reason for the defeat for the Allies; their overconfidence became a catastrophic mistake for them, which led to the surrender of France and the decisive victory of the Germans on the Western Front.
During the attack on France there were no huge battles, there were only local attempts at resistance in individual parts of the French army, and when Northern France fell, German victory was not long in coming.
2. Battle of Britain.
After the French fell, it was necessary to destroy Great Britain, which was located on islands well protected from direct attack.
Hitler understood perfectly well that it would be possible to break the British only after their Air Force was defeated. At the initial stage, air attacks on Britain were successful, German bombers bombed the largest cities. But when the British acquired radar, they were able to intercept German planes while approaching the islands.
The amount of German military equipment in the air was greatly reduced, and a few months later a catastrophic shortage of not only aircraft, but also personnel began.
But the Royal Air Force, meanwhile, was gaining strength and completely gained air superiority over Britain. This victory allowed the British not only to protect themselves from German attacks, but also gave them time to rebuild their military potential after their defeat in the Battle of France. In addition, the British victory paved the way for an operation called “Overlord,” which will be discussed later.
3. Battle of Stalingrad.
Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the successful offensive of the Wehrmacht armies continued, which had already completely occupied Ukraine and were now ready to take the most important cities for the USSR, including Stalingrad. However, here they were forced to stop.
Having practically captured the city, the Germans met determined resistance from the Red Army, which could not be broken due to the enemy’s numerical advantage, problems with supplies and weapons, as well as severe frosts.
The battle for Stalingrad began in July 1941 and went well for the Germans until November of that year. But with the onset of winter, the Union forces launched a powerful counterattack, which forced the Germans to retreat. Thus, one of the best armies of the Wehrmacht under the command of Pauls was surrounded and defeated.
In total, during the battle of Stalingrad, the Germans lost about 1 million soldiers, as well as a huge number of weapons and military equipment. The morale of the Germans was so undermined that the advance of the Soviet troops could no longer be stopped. A radical change occurred not only during the Great Patriotic War, but also during the Second World War.
4. Battle of Kursk.
This battle can easily be called the last attempt by the Germans to launch a counterattack on the Eastern Front. The Germans decided to carry out a lightning attack along the Soviet defense line on the Kursk Bulge, but their plan was undermined and the offensive ended in complete failure. After this, the huge forces of the Red Army launched a counter-offensive, and thanks to their numerical advantage they managed to break the German defenses, which meant one thing - Germany’s defeat was already a foregone conclusion. The best armies were defeated, and the number of Wehrmacht soldiers was already inferior to the forces of the Red Army several times, and this is not to mention the fact that the Allied forces began to put pressure on the Western Front.
During the Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle also took place - the Battle of Prokhorovka, where Soviet tanks won, albeit with huge losses.
5. Battle of Leyte Gulf.
This battle can be called the last decisive attempt by the Japanese to seize the initiative in the war in the Pacific. The Japanese fleet attacked the US fleet in hopes of defeating it and launching a counteroffensive. This battle lasted from October 23 to October 26, 1944 and ended in complete American victory. The Japanese fought so desperately that they sacrificed themselves to destroy the enemy - we are talking about the so-called “kamikazes”. But this did not help them, they lost their most powerful ships and no longer made decisive attempts to stop the US fleet.
6. "Overlord".
In 1944, Germany was already on the verge of defeat, but it had to be accelerated, for this the Western Front was opened - Operation Overlord.
In June 1944, huge US and Allied forces landed in Northern France. Two months later, Paris was liberated, and two months later, the Allied forces approached the western borders of Germany. In order to contain the offensive on the Western Front, the Germans greatly stretched their forces and further weakened their positions on the Eastern Front, which accelerated the advance of the Red Army.
The opening of the Second Front was a decisive blow to Germany's military strength, followed only by the occupation and fall of Berlin.
7. Battle of Berlin.
Even though Germany had already lost, Berlin continued to stand. The city was encircled, and there was no way to wait for help, but the Germans stood.
The Battle of Berlin, which lasted throughout the spring of 1945, was completed by May 8th. During the defense of Berlin, the Germans put up powerful pockets of resistance, which is why a huge number of Red Army soldiers died, but their fate was still decided.
After Hitler shot himself, the morale of the Wehrmacht was completely destroyed and Germany capitulated - victory was won. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Ocean, the United States had almost subjugated Japan - World War II was coming to an end.
These were the decisive battles of World War II. Of course, this list could be supplemented with a dozen more important battles, but still these battles and operations were key.