The Battle of Lezhev-Serchovka on the Soviet-German battlefield of World War II was not only more tragic than the Battle of Stalingrad, but also the losses of the Soviet army were even greater, in a sense, it was the aura of the Battle of Stalingrad that covered up the Battle of Lezhev. So, how many German troops were put into the battle? Is it really the habit of people to think that Modell commanding the 9th Army of 250,000 horses can defeat Zhukov's million army? The reality is probably beyond people's imagination, otherwise Modell would not have secretly used Operation Buffalo to escape the battlefield in March 1943.
The Battle of Lezhevsechovka began in January 1942 and ended in March 1943, after 13 months of tug-of-war, from the propaganda materials, the Soviet army lost 1.77 million people, the German army was a quarter of the Soviet army, but also reached about 500,000, from here it can be seen that Modell alone a 9th Army can not block the Soviet attack, the 9th Army 250,000 men and horses can not make up 500,000.
Due to the large span of time, this battle has experienced 4 major battles and countless small battles, and the 9th Army has only participated in some of them.
When Modell took office in January 1942, the 9th Army's combat effectiveness was significantly reduced, not only one tank remained, but also only four assault guns, and the 260,000 troops were sharply reduced to more than 60,000. However, after Modell went to the headquarters to argue, the German army equipped Modell with 3 armored divisions, the SS "Imperial" motor rifle division, 3 infantry divisions and security regiments within half a month, and the Air Force also transferred 5 anti-aircraft artillery battalions, all equipped with 88 mm heavy artillery. As the campaign expanded, Modell also received the 41st and 56th Panzer Corps for his command, so that the 9th Army had 24 divisions, totaling more than 300,000.
In fact, at the operational meeting on January 5, 1941, the Soviet army did not take the direction of Lezhev as the focus of the counter-offensive, the Soviet idea was to consolidate the existing achievements by virtue of the victory in the Moscow Campaign, and focused on the direction of the German army in Leningrad, objectively speaking, as long as the 70 divisions of the German army retreated from the direction of Moscow to the direction of Lezhev, the Soviet army was watching while fighting, which also bought time for Modell to strengthen the defense.
In addition to repelling the offensive of the Soviet Kalinin Front with his supplementary armored superiority after taking office, Modell also took the initiative to launch the "Operation Seidlitz" in July, this time Modell's 9th Army used 6 infantry divisions, 4 armored divisions and 1 motorized infantry division, the opponents were the Soviet 39th Army and the 11th Cavalry Army, causing heavy losses to the Soviet Army.
The 9th Army then participated in Operation Mars on 25 November, and with the cooperation of other German forces, the Soviets lost the operation and suffered heavy losses.
The last operation was Operation Buffalo in 1943, in which Moder, in addition to reinforcing the 4th Army with 2 panzer divisions and 7 infantry divisions to defend against the attack of the Soviet 16th Army, safely withdrew from the battlefield and indirectly supported Manstein's Kharkov counterattack.
In this sense, when Modell took over the command of the 9th Army, the Soviet offensive focused on the German 4th Army, and it was not until Modell completed his equipment that he gradually emerged, and his real fame was the "Cederitz Offensive Operation" and the heavy losses inflicted on the Soviet Army in "Operation Mars".
Since after the victory in the Battle of Moscow, some Soviet generals generally believed that the German blitzkrieg was nothing more than this, objectively breeding complacency, 1.9 million German troops did not take Moscow, and it was impossible for the German 16th and 18th Armies alone to occupy Leningrad. Thus, most of the Soviet operations in the spring of 1942 were to prevent the Germans from re-attacking Moscow and to focus on the rescue of the Leningrad Siege.
As for the Soviet army in how to deal with the 1.4 million German troops who retreated to Lezhev, the commander of the Western Front, Konev, did not show the real level of command, as early as 1941 after the German blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union, due to the mistakes of the Western Front, there were heavy losses, if Zhukov had not interceded to let him serve as a deputy, I am afraid that the Soviet army would not have been able to attack lezhev for a long time.
There was the aura of Zhukov's command of the Western Front to win the Battle of Moscow, and there was also the conservative idea that Konev did not dare to give it a go after taking over. The reason why Modell was able to play an extraordinary role in "Operation Mars" was to exploit the loophole that Konev did not equip the armored forces on the front line, and objectively speaking, Konev had not yet woken up from the heavy losses of the Soviet army in the front encirclement, which only Zhukov could see clearly.
In fact, the defeat of the German army in the Battle of Moscow was not a bad fight, but that the armored attack was too affected by muddy roads and insufficient supplies, and Guderian also made a proposal to delay the attack after inspecting the troops and finding many disadvantages. For his part, Konev did not fully understand Zhukov's "Mars Plan", which Zhukov had spent more than two months elaborating, which itself had two meanings: on the one hand, it would not allow the German army on the central line to go south to reinforce Stalingrad, and on the other hand, it would use the "Operation Uranus" to encircle and annihilate the 9th Army.
Therefore, Konev is still using the old way of playing, putting a large number of infantry on the front line, but the mechanized troops and tank groups are deployed on the second line, thus creating conditions for Modell to launch a sudden and rapid attack.
In this sense, it is not right for some people to completely push the responsibility for the heavy casualties of the Soviet army in operation Mars on Zhukov's head, although Zhukov is the supreme commander of this operation, but he also holds the responsibility of the supreme deputy commander, not only to consider the Stalingrad battlefield, but also to grasp the rhythm of the German offensive in the middle line, so this responsibility should be borne by the commander of the Western Front, Konev.
So, while analyzing the factors of defeat in the Soviet "Operation Mars", there must be some people who wonder, isn't the 9th Army the main force in the Battle of Lezhev? Modell defeated Zhukov's million-strong army with 250,000 people, which is where he became a "defense master". In fact, this is neither possible nor meaningful, the battlefield is to be spelled out by real guns and knives, saying that the Soviet army is so unbeaten, then how did the 1.9 million German troops defeat and retreat when they attacked Moscow?
Judging from the battlefield environment at that time, after the defeat of the German army in the Battle of Moscow, it was necessary to set a typical example of defeating the Soviet army, and Modell was the best candidate for this typical.
On the one hand, the Battle of Moscow was lost, Adolf replaced a large number of senior generals, although Army Group Center still had 15 people with higher qualifications than Modell available, but Modell was brave in the early battles, from the 3rd Panzer Division to the 41st Motorized Army, he has been at the forefront, and is the best candidate for exemplary examples. Therefore, Modell was promoted three times in a row in half a year and became a dazzling figure on the Eastern Front.
On the other hand, the defeat of the Battle of Moscow must have a victory to prove that the German army was invincible. After Modell took office, he dared to ask for a car in front of Adolf, openly accusing Adolf of not interfering in the affairs of the 9th Army, he was the supreme commander of the 9th Army, that is, he was accurate to the mentality of the German army, and he did win the encirclement of the two Soviet army groups with the first battle, and proved his ability with strength.
In fact, after taking over the command of the 9th Army, Modell also played a miracle in "Operation Mars" and "Operation Buffalo", and later he not only served as the commander of the three army groups on the Eastern Front, but also as the commander-in-chief of the Western Front and the commander of Army Group B. To a large extent, the German army still set a benchmark for him as a model, but he basically lost a battle, and did not reflect the appearance of a defense master. Modell's order to disband the troops during the 1945 Ruhr defense operation was also a frustration with the prospects and the withdrawal of halos. It was precisely because of Modell's typical exemplary role that he himself was overthrown, and after Modell disbanded the troops, Adolf angrily informed the whole army that Modell was a traitor to Germany and that he was disappointed and resentful of him from the heart.
Through the above analysis, it can be seen that the Battle of Lezhev was indeed fought fiercely, but it cannot be mythical about the achievements of Modell's 9th Army, the 1.4 million German troops who withdrew from the Moscow battlefield, except for the 2nd Army and the 4th Panzer Army, were basically deployed along the minsk and Lezhevyazma front, the Soviet army was supposed to take the 9th Army as the main target, but Modell was able to preserve its strength in 13 months of perseverance, which is worth summarizing.
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