A Russian war blockbuster "The Battle of Lezhev" let people know that there was such a bloody battle in World War II. It may also be that the Battle of Stalingrad was taking place at the time, so the brilliance and recognition of this Soviet-German war was overshadowed by the Battle of Stalingrad in the same period, but the fierceness of the Battle of Lezhev and the number of troops invested by both sides were even worse than those of the Battle of Stalingrad.
The Battle of Lezhev was not a victory for the Red Army, but it laid the foundation for decisive victories in the prominent positions of Stalingrad and Kursk. Perhaps because it was not a victory for the Red Army, many Soviet military historians have ignored this part of the history of the Soviet-German war.
In December 1941, the Red Army began a counterattack near Moscow, and the Germans were forced to retreat to about 300 kilometers from the capital. Adolf Hitler had to admit that, for the first time in this war, an order was given to withdraw a large part of the front. However, it proved too early for Soviet commanders to hope of crushing the German Army Group Center in a short period of time.
Despite enormous pressure from the Soviet army, the Germans gained a foothold on the bridgehead between Lezhev and Vyazma, just 200 kilometers from Moscow. For several years, this prominent place had been a thorn in the soviet side, because with it the Germans could launch new attacks on the capital at any time.
Between October 1941 and March 1943, one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, the Battle of Lezhev, took place. It is worth noting that the Soviets did not use the term "campaign" because they believed that each offensive by the Red Army to destroy the dangerous bridgehead was a separate operation. Many contemporary historians share this view.
The Germans turned the Lezhev-Vyazma salient into a real fortress. In Lezhev alone they built 559 earthwork and timber bunkers and bomb shelters, as well as 7 km of anti-tank trenches. As much as half of Army Group Center was concentrated in the area. German propaganda called it "the Führer's impregnable line of defense", claiming that "losing Lezhev is equivalent to losing half of Berlin".
According to historian Alexey Isaev, Gerlev became "Verdun in World War II." This is not the place for blitzkrieg, but long and punitive trench warfare crushed thousands of lives in the meat grinder.
After a setback in the winter of 1942, the Red Army made a new attempt in the summer. But underestimating the enemy's capabilities, Soviet commanders made mistakes (such as frequent "frontal" attacks) that distracted their efforts. In the first Lezhev-Sechovka offensive, the 500,000-man offensive failed to break through multiple enemy lines of defense. "Thousands of shrapnel, like poisonous scorpions, tore apart people's bodies and the earth... advance! Go ahead!' The surviving officers shouted before they fell to the ground and died, "Commander Boris of the 215th Infantry Division?" Gorbachev recalled.
In the summer and autumn battles, the Soviet army suffered heavy losses and only advanced a few tens of kilometers into enemy-controlled territory. Heavy rains came, greatly complicating air operations and the overall offensive of the Red Army. The water in the trenches barely exceeded our knees, underwater were the bodies of our soldiers and German soldiers, and something soft and slippery would move under our feet, while you, balancing at the bottom of the potholed anti-aircraft trenches, would try to dodge the fatal blows and do everything you could to deal with them, this is the scene of Peter Mikkin, commander of the 52nd Rifle Division's shooting platoon, recalling the hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. On 27 September, the 30th Army even forced its way into Lezhev, but was repulsed by the newly arrived enemy reserve.
However, the Germans also paid a high price for the "Gerlev meat grinder" in the summer and autumn of 1942. During the weeks of fighting in Grossdeutschland (up to 18,000 men), the wehrmacht's largest division, suffered about 10,000 casualties. The Ninth Army, commanded by Modell, fought to defend the Salient of Lezhev-Vyazma, killing all veterans who had fought in the Polish and French campaigns and the 1941 offensive. They were replaced by recruits from Western Europe, who had no combat experience.
Historian Svetlana Gerasimova wrote in her analysis that "the slaughterhouse of Lezhev – Zhukov's defeated victory" and that "for Hitler, the capture of Stalingrad without surrender was a matter of prestige; For Stalin to take Lezhev and not to abandon Stalingrad." The first Lezhev-Sechovka offensive failed to achieve this goal, but it thwarted preparations for a new offensive against Moscow and succeeded in dragging german troops intending to move south into the war, where the Battle of Stalingrad was fought.
The Second Lezhev-Sechovka Offensive (Operation Mars) was far less famous than its "twin brother", Operation Uranus in Stalingrad. On November 25, a week after Uranus, the Red Army began Operation Mars, with more soldiers and artillery at its disposal in the Lezhev region than Stalingrad. However, it did not succeed in defeating the Ninth Army in a pincer offensive, as it had done against Friedrich Paulus's Sixth Army. There were no weak Romanian troops defending the flank here, and the Soviet offensive continued to be repelled by the enemy's carefully prepared defenses. In mid-December 1942, the Red Army's Lezhev Offensive finally lost momentum. Operation Mars failed to achieve its objectives, but it pinned down German divisions and prevented them from going to Stalingrad to rescue the encircled Sixth Army.
After the defeat at Stalingrad, after the occupation of Velikiye Luki by Soviet troops behind the 4th and 9th Armies, the Germans in the prominent positions of Lezhev-Vyazma found themselves on the verge of extinction. Thus, in March 1943 in "Operation Buffalo", they completely abandoned the salient part, and the threat to Moscow was completely lifted.
In Alexei Isayev's view, the Battle of Lezhev was not only an important factor in the Red Army's victory at Stalingrad, but it also indirectly helped the Soviet Union to victory at the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943. Modell's Ninth Army, exhausted at the Battle of Lezhev, lost many experienced soldiers. Unable to regain combat strength before the engagement began, the offensive in the north of the prominent position in Kursk, which was seen as key, came to an almost immediate halt.
One of the bloodiest battles of World War II, the Red Army lost a total of 62,2664 casualties and wounded 115,685 in four offensives between October 1941 and March 1943. Losses in Germany are estimated to be between 400,000 and 700,000. In terms of casualties, it was a defeat for the Soviet army, but strategically, the Battle of Lezhev not only effectively coordinated with the Battle of Stalingrad but also laid the foundation for the subsequent victory in the Battle of Kursk. It can be said that although it is defeated, it is still glorious.
Between 8 January 1942 and 22 March 1943, the defensive zone along the Lezhev-Serchovska-Vyazma line in Modell was quite stable. During this time, the Soviets launched a total of 4 large-scale offensive campaigns against his defense zone of between 500,000 and 1.4 million Soviet troops, all of which were crushed by Modell's forces and paid the price of a total of 622,664 deaths, of which Operation Mars, led by Soviet Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Koonev, was defeated, which gave Modell the reputation of "Defense Master".
In March 1943, the 9th Army withdrew from the Lezhev salient as part of a plan to shorten the front line in order to save troops. In the weeks leading up to the retreat, the Germans launched a massive campaign to clear the guerrillas, killing some 3,000 Soviets. The retreat lasted two weeks and suffered only a small number of casualties: about 300,000 men, 100 tanks, and 400 artillery pieces were withdrawn. Modell's scorched-earth policy of razing more than 20 villages and towns in Operation Buffalo led the Soviets to declare Modell a war criminal. Modell was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Sword in the same month, while the headquarters of the 9th Army was moved to Oryol.
In June 2020, at the initiative of veterans of the Soviet-German war, the Monument to the Soviet Soldiers of the Lezhev Army, which was built through crowdfunding, was unveiled in the village of Khoroshev in the Lezhev District of Tver Oblast, Russia, and the Russian Military Historical Society organized and completed the project with the support of the Russian-Belarusian Union State, the Russian Ministry of Culture and the Government of Tver Oblast. The bronze statue is 25 meters high and weighs about 80 tons and was based on photographs of real participants in the battle. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attended the ceremony and presented flowers to the monument. (Power talks about the world / Zhang Mi)