Eastern Front
The Eastern Front refers to a theatre of war located relative to Germany, primarily Eastern Europe, in either of the two World Wars. It is in contrast to the Western Front, which refers to the Front west of Germany. In both cases, it was primarily between Germany and Russia (the Soviet Union in WWII).
Geography
The georgraphy of the Eastern front and Eastern Europe in general has played a key role in how both World Wars' Eastern Front conflict played out. The Eastern Front spans over 1,000 miles East to West, with respect to the capitals of Berlin, Germany and Moscow for Russia/Soviet Union. The Front can span anywhere from a few hundred miles to almost 1,000 miles from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Eastern Europe is, for the most part, very flat and lots of treeless plains. This had a drastic effect on the nature of warfare. While World War I on the Western Front developed into Trench Warfare, the Eastern Front moved much slower and Trench War never truly developed. During World War 2, the vast expanse was also a factor. It presented problems of time and travel, factors not a common luxury in Blitzkrieg warfare.
World War 1
The Eastern Front in World War 1 was a very slow war in comparison to the Western Front. Because the German and Austrian armies did not attempt the initiative against the Russians, the Russian Army was forced to invade the two countries, which quickly turned to a disaster following the Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914. Early Russian success in 1914 on the Austro-Russian border caused a reason to concern the Central powers. Following the failure of the Schlieffen Plan, German troops were diverted to the East and by mid-1915, the Eastern Front turned into a Russian defensive and retreat. While the Central powers were gaining much land and victories in the East, the war was still relatively slow because of the long trek the Germans had before getting anywhere near Moscow. By 1917, the Russians were poorly equipped and dying by the thousands. Nearly 2 million had died by 1917 and the frontline was destabilizing fast. Two revolutions that year would causefirst the Czar to step down from power, and then for the Communist Bolsheviks to seize power under their leader, Vladimir Lenin. Lenin would quickly push for withdrawal from the War. In March of 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed and the Eastern Front collapsed. In the end, Germany and Austria would end up losing their captured lands under the Treaty of Versailles
World War II
The Eastern Front in World War II was similar to the Western Front of World War I. Here, many of the largest, most brutal, and key strategic battles were fought. The was the war of both race and ideology, Communism vs. Nazism.
1941
World War II's Eastern Front began on June 22, 1941. Over 3 million German, Romanian, and Bulgarian soldiers were amassed, along with 3,300 Panzer Tanks, and over 2,000 fighter planes of the Luftwaffe. The early part of the war was devastating for the Soviet Union. The German/Axis armies marched 200 miles into Soviet land in the first month alone. The problem with Operation Barbarossa was the geography. Blitzkrieg tactics worked against countries the size of France, but against a country 40 times the size had yet to be tested. In the end, it would be the failure of 1941. Original plans had stated that the German army would have captured Moscow in 6 weeks. 6 weeks into the war, the army was just reaching the gates of Minsk and Kiev. The German attack went in three flanks. The First, or Northern flank, was targeted at the city of Leningrad. The Second, or middle flank, was targeted at Minsk, and later Moscow. The Third, or southern flank, was targeted at Ukraine and the city of Kiev. By September, German troops were closing in on Moscow. Time was running out as the Russian winter came in. Even further to the disheartening, Hitler, against suggestion by his Army staff, ordered troops to be diverted from the Center flank to the Southern Flank where the army was being bogged down by Soviet resistance. The attack on Moscow, Operation Typhoon was delayed another month and wouldn't begin until October 2, 1941. The Winter grounded troops and froze up supply lines on the poorly built Russian roads. Hitler ordered his troops to dig in and hold out until the winter ended instead of pull them back and establish a stronger supply line. The winter, along with a Soviet counter-attack by General Zhukov. The front would end in a failure of the Blitzkrieg and devastation on both sides.
1942
1942 was the last hope for a German victory. With the United States now at war with Germany, supplies were flowing into Russia and supplying the massive army of the Russians with heavy equipment. The German General Staff suggested Hitler divert all the resources and man power into capturing Moscow, which was still only 100 miles from the frontline. Hitler feared another failure and believed that seizing the oil fields of Southern Russia would deprive the Russians of vital resources for fighting. The cauasian oil was also desparately needed by German industry and military. The summer of 1942 was marked by a massive offensive into Caucasia and towards Stalingrad. Hitler wanted to take the city with Stalin's name as his own prize and a symbol to Russia's doom in spite of the failure at Moscow. By September, the German army was fighting in the Caucas Mountains and at the gates of Stalingrad. The 6th and 17th Armies and the 4th and 7th Panzer Armies marched into the city of Stalingrad slowly. City fighting presented heavy losses on both sides. The city was eventually mainly captured, but a flaw existed. Less determined and equipped German allies were covering the supplyline into the city. In November Russian armies launched a massive counter-attack on the single supplyline. The axis forces were pushed back and Stalingrad was surrounded, along withe the 6th army and the 7th Panzer division under General Friedrich Paulus. Paulus asked Hitler to be allowed to punch out and pull out of the city, fearing that the encirclement would become too strong. Hitler refused and promised aerial supply of Paulus' army. The Luftwaffe would end up failing to deliver the necessary supplies as anti-aircraft guns were set up. The German army of over 300,000 inside the city was trapped, starving, and running out of supplies through the winter.
1943
1943 was the turning year. On February 2, 1943, Paulus in Stalingrad surrendered (with 100,000 remaining soldiers) against Hitler's orders. With two major failures against the Soviets, moral of the German armies was collapsing. Russian offensives in winter and spring pushed the German armies back almost 100 miles all along the Eastern front. In the south German forces in the caucasus
The industrial city of Kursk was re-taken and a bulge developed. Hitler, hoping for a major victory to restore the moral, ordered a massive build-up to prepare for an offensive on the city. Russian spies reported the troops build-up. Russian armies poured into the Kursk bulge and set up heavy defenses. The Battle of Kursk began on July 4, 1943 and ended July 22. The German offensive at Kursk was a failure. Trenches dig helped the Russians keep the German army from advancing. New Russian rocket-launchers, called Stalin's vengeance weapon, launched massive number of shreaking rockets into the German lines and devastated the offensive. With an allied invasion of Sicily, Hitler called off the offensive to re-deploy troops. Hitler bagan making plans for the building of an Eastern line, much like what was being built in Normandy, but it would never be built, especially with massive Russian offensives. By the end of 1943, Ukraine had been recaptured.
1944
1944 was marked by massive German retreat and liberation of Eastern Europe. Many of Germany's allies surrendered such as Romania in August and Bulgaria in September. At the beginning of 1944, the Russians began a massive offensive. Hitler didn't have the time or resources to build a Eastern Wall. By April, Leningrad, which had fallen under siege in 1941 (the Siege of Leningrad, also called the 900 days Siege), was freed. A soviet attack starting on June 22 led to the destruction of the German army group center. The Romanian surrender tore a hole in the southern German Eastern Front causing the loss of the whole Balkans.
1945
1945 was the last year of the Eastern front war and the final blow to Nazism. In February, Soviet troops entered the first areas of Germany, East Prussia. The Soviet advance in Germany (unexpected by the German population) drove a wave of German refugees in front of itself. Reprisals and murder were committed against the Germans that did not flee in time, in retaliation for the horrors the German armies had inflicted on the Russian and Slavic peoples. By April, the German capital, Berlin, had come under fire by Soviet troops.
See also
References
- Sajer, Guy; The Forgotten Soldier. Brassey's Inc. (2001): ISBN: 1574882864. Excellent, personal telling of a regular German soldier's experience of the Eastern Front in WWII.