The Soviet Union and Germany were sworn enemies in World War II, and countless battles took place between the two sides, and the battles between the Soviet Union and Germany were also one of the most impressive in World War II. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, countless fierce battles took place on the Soviet battlefield, and the casualties of both countries reached an incomparable point, Germany suffered more than eleven million casualties in the Soviet-German War, and the Soviet Union suffered even more heavy losses, with nearly thirty million casualties, you must know that the total population of the Soviet Union at that time was less than 200 million, and the casualties accounted for more than fifteen percent. The Soviet Union and Germany were already relatively mature industrial countries at that time, which not only meant that the industrial strength of the two countries was strong, but also that more lethal weapons were used in the war, so the casualty number was far more than in previous wars. After the German army entered the Soviet Union, it was like a bamboo and swept away, but it suffered the first defeat in the moscow defense war, the Soviets blocked the pace of the German army for the first time, and it was also the first major victory in the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War, which boosted the confidence of the whole Soviet Union in resisting the German invaders, and also broke the myth of the invincibility of the German army, and it was also the biggest setback encountered by the German Army since the start of the war. However, before this war, the Soviets and Germans had a big battle in Kiev, and the defense of Moscow was only two months apart, but the results of these two battles were completely different, and the reasons for this were really intriguing, so today let us take a look at the Battle of Kiev that took place on the eve of the Moscow Defense War and explore this history.
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<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > the Battle of Kiev</h1>
The Battle of Kiev, which took place on July 7, 1941, was the largest encirclement campaign in the history of all mankind to date, and the battle was unprecedentedly fierce, with great losses on both sides. Kiev was the capital of Ukraine, strategically located in an extremely important position, as the gateway city for the Germans to attack the entire Soviet Union, as well as the western center of the Soviet Union, both economically and politically.
Battle of Kiev
Since the beginning of World War II, Germany has rapidly advanced on the Western Front, occupying more than a dozen countries and regions in Western Europe in more than a year, and even forcing the powerful France to surrender in only 41 days, leaving only Britain in the whole of Europe to fight fascism. In this case, the Soviet Union began to realize the German threat, so Stalin began to carry out a series of measures to prepare for a possible war.
Although the Soviet Union occupied a vast land area, the real core area was still in the western quarter of the European part, and many economic centers and industrial production areas involving the lifeblood of the country were also concentrated in this area. Anticipating the possibility of war, Stalin moved numerous heavy industrial zones eastward in order to gain greater strategic buffers.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="52" > Soviet-German war</h1>
At the same time, in order to ensure the security of its eastern front, the Soviet Union also signed a non-aggression pact with Japan, which was already very large in scale at that time and was temporarily unable to attack the Soviet Union, and at the same time, in order to avoid one more enemy, both sides were happy to sign a temporary covenant. Germany's confidence had swelled beyond recognition by this time, and the great victory in the European theater made them think that the Soviet Union was also in the bag, but they completely forgot that no invader in history could retreat from the cold Soviet Union.
On June 22, 1941, Hitler unilaterally tore up the Soviet-German pact and began his plan to attack the Soviet Union. At that time, Germany delineated three relatively large key targets in the Soviet Union, namely Leningrad in the north, Moscow in the central Part of the Soviet Union, and Kiev in the south. In order to advance the rapid progress of the war, the Germans gathered more than one hundred and forty divisions and divided them into three major corps in the north, central and south, and marched towards these three goals.
The Germans who attacked Kiev had thirty-nine divisions, and the commander was Renstezvous. When the Germans attacked the Soviet Union, they still used their best blitzkrieg, attacking from three directions at the same time, leaving the Soviet troops to take care of themselves, and then occupying the three previously set targets with lightning speed, and planning to eliminate the main force of the Soviet Red Army in this series of wars. After that, it could advance all the way to the east, ending in the Volga River, completely destroying the entire Soviet army and industrial system, and the Soviet Union would be forced to surrender.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="54" > went well</h1>
The Soviet Union, despite its premonitions and a series of preparations before the war, underestimated the Wolf Ambitions of the Germans. Soviet intelligence at the time had already discovered that Germany would launch an offensive against the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, but Stalin thought it was false news, and felt that Germany would not let itself be trapped in a two-sided battle until the battle between Britain and Germany was won or lost, but the idea of hitler, a war maniac, could not be inferred by common sense.
After the Germans entered the Soviet Union, the Northern and Central Fronts progressed smoothly and soon advanced a long way, but the German Army Group South, which was the smallest in number, encountered a fierce blockade on the Kiev front. At this time, the German army was faced with a choice, whether to give up support for the south and continue to advance from the north and the center, or to assist the southern army to eliminate the Red Army and then go back and forth.
Germany marches in
Finally, the Germans made up their minds and decided to advance together in accordance with the pre-war plan, so they separated some troops from army group center and began to move south to support the operations of army group south. The situation in Kiev was reversed in an instant, and the German army that supported it reached the eastern side of Kiev directly from north to south due to the long distance of advance, and Kiev was already facing the situation of being attacked on both the east and the west.
The Soviet commanders reacted slowly at this time, did not respond effectively to the German operation, and almost watched the Germans complete the encirclement, while the Soviet Red Army in the area exceeded half a million. At this time, the Red Army of the Soviet Union was facing the German Army Group South in the west and the armored forces of army Group Center in the east, and the situation had reached a very serious point.
After the battle began, the Red Army did not know the direction of the German offensive, but a series of defeat reports came from the southwest, which made the Soviet Union think that the main force of the German army was in the southwest direction, so it began to shift its strategic defenses to this area. Despite the constant arrival of support forces, there was no danger in this direction, and the Red Army could only gradually retreat, planning to retreat to the old Konstantinov and Proskurov line, and build fortifications along this section to block the German attack.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="56" > encirclement operation</h1>
This Soviet Red Army also faced a great test, and the German Army Group South marched in this direction, and their target was also this Soviet Red Army. The Germans planned to break through the Soviet defenses all the way east, and then turn the direction of the attack to the south, completely encircling the Soviet Red Army stationed in the southwestern defensive line, and annihilating them in the first battle.
At this time, the German Army Group South had not suffered major losses and was still strong. However, in many previous battles, the Red Army had already suffered relatively large losses, although slightly more numerous than the Germans, but not enough to form an advantage. Of the forty German divisions, there were ten full tank divisions, and the German artillery was almost twice as large as the Soviets, and the fighters also had an absolute numerical superiority.
Surrender of the Red Army
On 5 July, the Germans began to attack, and the Soviet defensive positions at that time were not fully established, and the German attack arrived. Less than two days into the battle, German tank units had broken through the red army's defenses and advanced the battle to the last layer of defensive lines set by the Soviet Union.
However, the Soviet Union did not last long, and in the next day or so, the German army broke through several key defensive areas of the Soviet Union, completely breaking the defensive line on this side, and in less than 6 days of fighting, the German vanguard was less than 20 kilometers away from Kiev. However, only the German infantry advanced near Kiev, after the Red Army's fortifications played a small role, blocking the German armored forces on the periphery and relieving the pressure on Kiev a little.
Armored units
Faced with this situation, the soviet top brass suggested that Stalin abandon Kiev and withdraw this part of the Red Army to defend Moscow with all his might. But Stalin completely disagreed with this proposal and chose to continue to defend Kiev with all his might.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="58" > support</h1>
On 16 July, the German Army Group Center made another breakthrough despite allocating some of its forces to support the south. One of the German troops successfully occupied Smolensk, and this place was the last gateway to Moscow, which had been completely exposed to the German army, and in the face of such a good situation, just when the German soldiers were full of ambition and ready to take Moscow in one fell swoop, Hitler suddenly ordered the suspension of the operation against Moscow, putting the main experience on the north and south fronts, and assisting the Southern Army to take Kiev.
In Hitler's case, Kiev and Leningrad, both north and south, were more important than Moscow, and although the German top brass did not agree with the plan, they had no choice but to implement it. Hitler's move also gave Moscow, which was on the verge of losing, a breather, and successfully mobilized more troops to defend Moscow, laying the groundwork for the german defeat in Moscow.
The German Army Group Center was led by Guderian, who devoted most of their energies to reinforcing the Southern Army, with Guderian personally leading an armored corps directly south, targeting Romney behind Kiev. Another unit of Army Group Center moved southeast to defend Guderian's flank while also encircling the Soviet forces in Kiev.
The forces of the Confederate Army began to move east and north, merging with Army Group Center and cutting the Red Army in Kiev into several parts. However, the Red Army was not willing to concede defeat, and a Soviet army in the northwest of Kiev, facing the siege of about ten divisions of German troops, never lost its position. They held out near Kolos, and the German attack was not smooth, and they did not take this position for a long time.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="60" > cup of water</h1>
Even this force carried out attacks on the Germans, which greatly affected the German movements. After a month of stubborn resistance, the Soviet army's equipment and material consumption had become so great that it could only retreat to the southwest, responsible for continuing to defend the defensive line north of Kiev.
The Soviets were now fighting the Germans southwest of Kiev, and the battle between the two sides was very fierce, with about twenty divisions of Soviet troops fighting with the Germans in this area. After the time entered August, the German army successfully encircled this force, the Soviet army stubbornly resisted, several times to organize a breakthrough without success, can only helplessly choose to surrender. In this battle, the Germans captured 100,000 Red Army troops and disintegrated almost all of their forces southwest of Kiev.
The remaining Soviet armies continued to fight, such as the Twenty-sixth Army of the Red Army, and never gave up fighting the Germans. They took the initiative to launch an attack on the German armored forces, but because the German firepower was too fierce and the armored troops were very mobile, when the Germans counterattacked, the Twenty-sixth Army could not be overwhelmed and could only gradually retreat. However, other Soviet troops did not give up resistance, in order to prevent the German army from successfully completing the encirclement, the Soviet Union launched a counterattack on all fronts, with remarkable results, many of the previously lost positions were reoccupied by the Soviet Union, and the Soviet army in Kiev was given a breathing space.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="62" > the encirclement</h1>
The stubborn resistance of the Soviet army forced the German army to increase its support for Army Group South, to transfer more troops from Army Group Center, and many german troops received different routes of march and targets that needed to be captured, which were connected into a huge encirclement. The goal of the German Sixth Army was to cross the Dnieper River and enter Kiev directly, encircling and annihilating the Soviet heavy regiment.
encircle
The main German forces advanced all the way to the vicinity of the Dnieper River, and the Soviet army also realized the German offensive plan and began to build positions along this defensive line. The Germans invested a large number of troops in this direction in an attempt to break through the Soviet defense line from here, and it turned out that the powerful firepower of the German army was indeed overwhelmed, and after a series of fierce battles, the Soviet defense line was in a hurry, and the German army made a breakthrough.
The Soviet commanders, believing that the situation was already very unfavorable, wanted to withdraw from the Kiev region, but Stalin made many demands for the withdrawal of the Soviet army, but these demands seemed difficult to achieve at the time. Stalin demanded that this force must launch an attack on the Germans, but could not completely abandon Kiev until it was ordered, but the situation of the Soviet army was already very bad at that time, so this proposal was basically meaningless.
By September, the Germans had basically cleared the periphery of the Soviets, made breakthroughs in many directions, and on September 12, the German tank units began to attack Lubny, at this time the Soviet defense line was already in danger. In order to preserve the living forces and prevent the Soviet army from being completely annihilated in this area, the Soviet front commander issued an order to retreat, but the Soviet high command did not think so, and they revoked this order, not only to prevent the Soviet army in this area from retreating, but to ask them to want the German army to launch a counterattack.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="64" > last chance</h1>
September 12 was the last chance for the Soviets to retreat, but Stalin's stubbornness completely missed the fighters and completely ruined the chances of the Red Army to survive. On 16 September, the commander of the Bryansk Front was unable to stop Guderian's army, and Guderian's Army Group Center and the armored forces of Army Group South converged near Lokhvica, successfully sealing the last escape of the Soviet Union, at which point the Soviet Southwestern Front was completely encircled by the German army, and the largest encirclement and annihilation in human history began.
The besieged Soviet army had five armies, but the Germans were trapped in the surrounding area of Kiev and could not be manipulated. The Germans, with the Second and Sixth Armies as sharp knives, began to conduct surprise operations against the Soviets. The Red Army began to fight along the defensive positions, but due to the fierce offensive of the German army, the effect was not good.
Captured Soviet troops
The German army under the leadership of armored vehicles and tanks continued to advance, the Soviet army continued to charge the enemy, trying to break through the encirclement, but the German defensive line had long been formed, and the defense line built by steel armor was extremely strong, even if the Soviet army was brave, it could not break through successfully.
German artillery fire continued to pour into soviet positions, the Red Army suffered heavy casualties, and the Red Army fell in pieces under the continuous harvest of machine guns and cannons. However, there were still troops in the continuous charge, and after a long period of effort, only a small number of troops luckily broke through the German defensive circle, but the overall encirclement was still stable, and the main Soviet forces were still trapped in it.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="66" > occupy Kiev</h1>
The Germans had successfully captured Kiev, but the Soviet army was still resisting, and although the city had been lost, the main force had not yet been wiped out. Both sides continued to transport soldiers to the front line, and the number of casualties in the war rose exponentially. The Soviets, supported by follow-up troops, tried to break through the defensive line, but were blocked by the Germans again and again.
At this time, the Soviet Southwestern Front had been completely divided into several pieces, and the end could not take care of each other, and lost the opportunity to strike a joint blow. On September 17, Stalin realized that the situation was not good, so he ordered this part of the Soviet army to break through, but this order was issued too late, and the Soviet army had lost the ability and opportunity to break through.
After the fall of Kiev, the Red Army had lost its greatest reliance, and although the large troops were still there, they allowed the war situation to continue to deteriorate, and it was only a matter of time before they were completely annihilated. Faced with such a situation, the Soviet Union had no good way but to constantly organize troops to break through, but the Germans were constantly coming, while the Soviet army was fighting less and less, and the Soviets who had lost their support had fallen into despair.
Occupation of Kiev
The German division tactics were still going on, and the Soviet army in the southwest was more carefully divided, and this part of the army was still trying to hold on, but the effect was not great, and the longest force held out for about ten days. Large forces were wiped out, and as long as a small number of The Red Army escaped from the Encirclement of the German Army, about 20,000 people, all the other troops fell into the battlefield.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="68" > suffered heavy losses</h1>
During the battle, many senior Soviet officers were killed, which dealt a great blow to the Soviet chain of command, and after the war, the German army entered the city of Kiev. There were many Jews in Kiev at that time, and the purge of Jews in the country extended to the city of Kiev, and the German army began to frantically capture Jews and launch a bloody massacre, and in just two days, tens of thousands of Jews died under the guns of the German army. Many of these Jews fled from Germany to the Soviet Union, thinking that they had escaped the disaster, but they did not expect to escape the fate of being slaughtered in the end.
slaughter
By September 26, the Battle of Kiev was basically over, and Germany had paid a heavy price in this war, and the Soviet Union's damage could only be described as heavy. The Red Army lost more than 700,000 men in this battle, and the loss of equipment and weapons was innumerable. After this battle, the Soviet Union's southern strength was almost completely lost, and the subsequent war should have been extremely unfavorable to the Soviet Union, but only two months later, the Soviet Union won a victory over Moscow.
According to historians, although the German army achieved a great victory in Kiev and successfully occupied Kiev, it even completely annihilated the main Soviet forces. In the war, the effective force of the enemy army was far more important than the siege, so in any way, this was worth celebrating for the German army.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="70" > reason</h1>
However, some people think that the Germans won the Battle of Kiev, but lost strategically, because they lost the best opportunity to attack Moscow, which gave Stalin time to rebuild Moscow's defense system, mobilize more troops to defend Moscow, and lay the groundwork for the subsequent defeat of the German army.
The Defense of Moscow
However, from the current point of view, in fact, the German army has no problem in the choice of attacking Kiev, when the German Army Group South did not progress smoothly, if you abandon the south and go deeper alone in the middle, it is likely to lead to more serious consequences. Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, must be heavily guarded. Even if the Germans could move south to Moscow, they would have to go through a long battle.
The Red Army in the south was likely to go north to support Moscow's operations, and it was likely that the German Army Group Center would be caught in the encirclement. Moreover, at that time, Germany's supply lines could not supply the operations of the three large armies for a long time at the same time, and it was inevitable that one day they would have to join forces.
Moreover, Kiev, as an important town in the south of the Soviet Union, occupies the main road of the southern oil fields and industrial production areas, and these materials are indispensable to Germany, so Kiev is somewhat more important to the German army than Moscow. The biggest reason for the defeat of the Germans was because their appetite and strength were not matched, and the Germans at that time simply did not have the ability to carry out such a large-scale campaign in the Soviet Union at the same time.
Germans
Many people believe that the cold weather and the delay of fighters led to the final defeat of the German army, and few people feel that Germany, which swept through Europe, lacked sufficient strength, but in fact, the lack of strength was the real reason for the defeat of the German army.
That's all there is to it about why Germany won so much in the Battle of Kiev and suffered a crushing defeat in Moscow just two months later, and if you have any thoughts on this, feel free to leave a comment in the comments section.
Video link
In the battle of Kiev, the German army annihilated more than a million Soviet troops, why was it defeated in Moscow two months later?