The Soviet-German battlefield was the most brutal battlefield of World War II, and without one of them, the two major military powers engaged in a life-and-death duel, and the fierceness of their battles was unprecedented. The Soviet-German battlefield suffered heavy casualties, and the Soviet Union and Germany became the two countries with the largest number of casualties in the European battlefield in World War II. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union, it adopted blitzkrieg, and the German army not only pursued a large number of occupations of Soviet land, but also annihilated a large number of Soviet fresh forces. In order to achieve the goal of annihilating the soviet army, the German army adopted a pincer offensive, repeatedly encircling and annihilating the Soviet army in large numbers, causing huge casualties to the Soviet army.
The so-called pincer offensive was not the first of the German army, but a tactic created by Napoleon. Germany had suffered from Napoleon's pincer offensive in the battle against France, so in World War II, the German army used this tactic heavily against the Soviet army. The pincer offensive relied mainly on armored forces, which were in the limelight in the Soviet-German theater and even in the entire European theater. The German armored forces on the Soviet battlefield had 19 panzer divisions, which were equipped with two tank brigades with a motorized brigade and a tank brigade with two motorized brigades. During the pincer offensive, the Germans first sent armored troops from both flanks, penetrated deep into the depths of the Soviet army, and then closed the soviet rear like iron pincers, and then surrounded and annihilated the besieged Soviet troops. In the first period of the German attack on the Soviet Union, this tactic was tried and tested.
For example, at the Battle of Minsk, the German Army Group Center used a pincer offensive against the Soviet Western Front. The Germans first attacked the Soviets head-on with infantry, while sending two armored units deep into the Soviet rear. Guderian led The 2nd Panzer Group from the right flank through the Soviet lines and plunged into the Soviet rear, while Hoth led the 3rd Panzer Group from the left flank to attack the Soviets behind. The two iron streams, like two iron tongs, finally closed behind the Soviet army, and then clamped with force, hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops were either clamped to death or surrendered. At the Battle of Minsk, in just 20 days, most of the Soviet Western Front was annihilated, and 500,000 people became German prisoners.
The Battle of Kiev is known as the largest encirclement in the world's military history, and the German army actually completed the encirclement of the Soviet army by means of a pincer offensive. The Germans encircled Kiev from south to north with the 1st Panzer Group and the 17th Army, while the German 2nd Panzer Group and 2nd Army encircled Kiev from north to south. The two iron tongs of the German army converged at Lokhvica and completed the encirclement of the Soviet forces in the Kiev area. Under the strong offensive of the German army, the 650,000 Soviet troops under siege were forced to surrender.
These are just two larger pincer offensives used by the Germans against the Soviets, and in the course of the German offensive, the pincer offensive was actually used many times.
But in the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets, who were often dumplings by the Germans, finally learned the pincer offensive from their masters. Due to the fierceness of the German offensive, the Soviet fortifications in Stalingrad were breached, and Paulus led the German 6th Army into the city of Stalingrad, but the tenacious Soviet army fought the Germans to the death with street battles. The Germans even occupied ninety percent of the city, but they were never able to fully capture Stalingrad. In the almost ruined urban area, the German tanks lost their former prestige and could not be fully utilized, and the Logistics supply of the German army was also seriously problematic, and the German offensive was much worse than before.
At the same time as the Soviet and German armies were engaged in a tug-of-war in the city, the Soviet high command was actively dispatching troops, and the Soviet army sent reserves and reinforcements from the Far East. The Soviets attacked in a pincer offensive from both the north and the south, and to the west of Stalingrad, the Soviet forces of the north and south converged to encircle Paulus's 6th Army in the city. The stupid Hitler not only did not allow Paulus to break through, but also let Paulus wait for help. The Germans who came to the rescue were repulsed by the Soviets, and the Germans relied on air transport to provide supplies for the Germans in the city, but they were a drop in the bucket and could not be helped at all. In the end, Paulus surrendered to the Soviets in despair. The use of pincer tactics this time fought a beautiful encirclement and annihilation battle for the German army.
The Battle of Kursk in July and August 1943 was a failed pincer offensive launched by the Germans. After the victory at the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets counterattacked the Germans, regained some of the previous lost territory, advanced a lot towards the German-occupied areas, and formed a salient with Kursk as the center. The protrusion was 250 miles long on the front and less than 70 miles at the bottom, and the entire protrusion was garrisoned by soviet heavy troops. The Germans, seeing the opportunity, prepared for a pincer offensive against the Soviets at the salient, and named the attack plan "Fortress".
Responsible for the pincer offensive were Armies Center and Army Group South. Because the Soviets were informed of the "fortress" plan in advance, they took the lead in shelling the German positions, causing great losses and passivity to the Germans. Moreover, because the Soviet army invested far more troops in the Kursk region than the German army, the German army launched an attack and was met with stubborn resistance from the Soviet army. The iron tongs of the German army in the north and south directions not only failed to bite together, but were broken by the Soviet army. Even more tragically, the Soviets launched a counterattack against the Germans, crushing the German pincer offensive in one fell swoop and forcing the Germans to retreat. The defeat of the German army in the Battle of Kursk not only failed to complete the expected combat task of annihilating the Soviet heavy army group, but also lost the division and lost the strategic initiative, and the german army's great defeat and retreat began.
Since the Soviets entered the Great Counteroffensive, they always managed to annihilate the living forces of the German army. The pincer offensive was the best way to annihilate the german forces. In 1944, the Soviets carried out ten major surprise attacks on the Germans, including the frequent use of pincer offensives. For example, in the Battle of Korsson-Shevchenkovsky in the second assault in January 1944, the Soviets successfully used the pincer offensive. With the Soviet counteroffensive, the Germans formed a 130 km wide salient in the Korsson-Shevchenkovsky area, which was stationed in a heavy army group of the German Army Group South. The Soviet High Command decided to encircle and annihilate this force with superior forces. To this end, the Soviet High Command mobilized the Ukrainian 1st And 2nd Front to rapidly advance at the base of the salient, and the Soviet army quickly completed the encirclement of the German troops in the salient and established the external front of the encirclement. The Germans quickly sent troops to rescue the besieged Germans, but they were repelled by the powerful offensive of the Soviets. After that, the Soviet army surrounded and annihilated the besieged German army, annihilating more than 70,000 enemy troops, and inflicting heavy losses on the German Army Group South.
In short, the pincer offensive had a place in the Soviet-German battlefield, and when the German army attacked the Soviet Union, it caused heavy losses to the Soviet army. When the Soviet Union counterattacked, it dealt a fatal blow to the German army. The result of the frequent use of this tactic was to turn the Soviet-German battlefield into a meat grinder, with up to 10 million German casualties mainly lost in the Soviet-German battlefield, while the Soviet casualties of 27 million people were all lost to the Soviet-German battlefield.
Author: Tu Lao Hat
bibliography:
Liu Jun: "Unstoppable Armored War"
Su Zhen: "The Contest of Su-German on the Eastern Front of Blood"