Most World War II enthusiasts believe that the Battle of Lezhev, which took place in the Soviet-German battlefield between December 1941 and March 1943, was an unspeakable battle for the Soviet Army and Zhukov, because the Soviet Army made sufficient preparations and had a relatively large advantage in strength, but the ending was eye-catching, not only in the "Mars Operation" suffered heavy losses, but also allowed Modell to use the "Buffalo Plan" to retreat perfectly. So, in which link did the Soviet army not do a good job?
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" >01 Lezhev, the Soviets forgot their home combat superiority, but helped Modell a lot. </h1>
From the perspective of the entire trend of World War II, the Battle of Lezhev is the continuation of the Moscow Campaign, but from the Soviet army to Lezhev launched four large-scale attacks, it is the Soviet and German sides to achieve an overall reversal of the battlefield environment, on September 30, 1941, the German army through the "Typhoon Operation" launched a crazy attack for more than 2 months, the Soviet army is in the form of defense to organize resistance; but from December 5, the Soviet army launched a major counterattack, the German army for the first time from the offensive to the defense, Modell's 9th Army even retreated to the Lezhev salient, Moscow is 200 km away.
However, during the whole year and month of offensive and defensive operations from early 1942 to March 1943, Modell maintained a passive mode of operation, that is, to regard defensive warfare as a housekeeping skill, and used climatic factors to offset the superiority of the Soviet army in terms of strength.
Seeing this, is there a sense of déjà vu? Yes, in the Battle of Moscow, the German armored forces were completely defeated because they were trapped in the muddy climate on the outskirts of Moscow, but the Soviets did not find the fighters in the climatic effects of the German campaign in Moscow, and in the summer and autumn of 1942, including operation Mars, Modell made good use of the climatic influences, and in the trenches on the battlefield, a large amount of water and muddy roads made the Soviets miserable and suffered huge losses.
In this sense, Modell built 559 forts and a 7-kilometer-long anti-tank trench, and when the Soviets jumped into the waist-deep trenches, the light and heavy machine guns in the German fortress opened fire together, and a large number of Soviet troops fell into the muddy water, just like the Germans encountered in the Battle of Moscow.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" >02 The price paid by both the Soviets and Germans was the same. </h1>
Why? Because after the four large-scale Offensives of the Soviet Army were defused by Modell, the German army itself also had a major crisis, and if the salient was not withdrawn in time, the 9th Army would be destroyed like Paulus's 6th Army.
From a historical point of view, the reason why the Soviet army did not put the Battle of Lezhev on the silver screen until 2020 was because the aura of the Battle of Stalingrad obscured the significance of this battle, and it can be said that when Moder used Operation Buffalo to withdraw from Lezhev, Stalin's tense nerves for two years were eased, and the threat of Moscow was over.
For the German army, the Battle of Lezhev was also of landmark significance, not only greatly depleting the soviet army's living forces in the central line, but also posing a threat to Moscow, but also a large number of Soviet troops in the middle line to the south, and even forcing Zhukov to use a strong reserve to put in Moscow for future trouble.
Of course, when the Soviet army braved the pressure of defending Moscow and charged to the death, the German army also suffered unprecedented blows and losses, and the indestructible defense line, which the Fuehrer called impregnable, was forced to retreat in the heavy casualties of the Soviet army. In the summer operations, the Large German Division, the largest German division, had more than 10,000 casualties of 18,000 men, and it is no wonder that people call this battle a meat grinder, which means that both sides have invested a large number of troops, and the casualties are huge.
In this sense, in the Battle of Lezhev, the losses of the warring sides were basically the same, but the results of the battlefield achieved the reputation of the Master of The Modell Defense, but zhukov's man-sea tactics paid expensive tuition.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" >03 Retreat to Lezhev was the first German defensive operation, and the Soviets misestimated Modell's defensive capabilities. </h1>
As mentioned earlier, the more the Soviets attacked in the summer and autumn, the more favorable it was to Modell's defenses, for he had learned from the muddy climate of the Battle of Moscow, but the Soviets did not consider that the German defense would be so strong, and they were slightly less considerive of Modell's defensive capabilities.
On the one hand, after the Soviet army launched a major counteroffensive in December 1941, because Guderian and other senior generals generally believed that the attack was hopeless, a large number of commanders were dismissed, and the German high command had to choose to retreat to the defense, retreating to the line of Lezhev and Vyazma, which was the last bottom line of the German army, and then retreated back to the prototype.
On the other hand, the more the Soviets attacked the Lezhev salient, the greater the role of Modell. After the Battle of Moscow, the German army adjusted the focus of the operation, due to the problem of the armor-based blitzkrieg, the German high command retained two of the 4 armored armies as the main force of the eastern front, and in the choice of operational direction, it will also occupy the resources of the Caucasus as the focus, while maintaining the strategic point of Ukraine, that is to say, the longer Modell persists in Lezhev, the greater the certainty of the German army's victory in the southern front, and at the same time, once the German army on the southern front has achieved its goal, it can also swing north with Modell to form a pinch attack on Moscow This is a good chess piece with one stone and two eagles.
From the above analysis, it can be seen that although Modell defended well in Lezhev, the Battle of Stalingrad was a decisive turning point, the southern front had lost its barrier, the Soviet army was also behind the 2nd and 9th Army to retake Oryol, Modell insisted that there was no chance of victory, and choosing buffalo to retreat without moving became the best option for Modell.
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