Friends who have studied high school history know the basic historical fact that the turning point of the Second World War was the Battle of Stalingrad, after which the Soviet army turned to a strategic counteroffensive. But people overlook the fact that the Battle of Stalingrad ended in February 1943, but it was not until May 1945 that the Battle of Berlin, Germany, was fought for two years, bearing in mind that the German army reached Moscow in less than five months. Why was the Soviets slow, and who gave Nazi Germany two more years? And look at the editors of "5,000 Years of Vertical and Horizontal" lonely goose one by one!
The times create heroes, and heroes promote the times! Without the presence of this legendary figure, the fall of the Third Reich would have been at least one to two years in advance, and this person would have been one of the three most famous generals of the German Army, Marshal Fritz Erich von Manstein (hereinafter referred to as Manstein)! Manstein was born into the nobility and was a professional soldier, did he really have the ability to resist the Soviet counterattack? It all starts with a battle!
Later in the Battle of Stalingrad, Manstein was appointed commander-in-chief of Army Group South. Around the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets took the opportunity to launch an offensive to capture Kharkov, Belgorod and Kursk. Manstein was keenly aware of the warplanes and launched Operation Donetsk on 19 February 1943.
At that time, although the German army suffered heavy losses, with an average of only 70 to 80 tanks per panzer division to fight, it was replenished at this time, especially the Waffen-SS panzer division was also equipped with tiger tanks that were more advanced at that time. Although the Soviet army was numerous, it lacked heavy weapons such as tanks. As soon as the two sides fought, the Soviet army was defeated, and by March 15, the German army reoccupied Kharkov and won the battle.
According to the materials released by the Soviet side, in the Battle of Kharkov, the Soviet army died, disappeared, and was captured in a total of 100694, losing 1345 tanks and self-propelled guns, 5291 guns and mortars of various calibers, and 417 aircraft. The Germans lost 30,000 men and won a complete victory. When the Soviet army collapsed in its entirety, Manstein at this time had no reserve strength to launch a pursuit. Because of Hitler's haphazard command, the Germans no longer had enough strength to launch a new counterattack.
The Battle of Kharkov temporarily stabilized the situation on the Soviet-German battlefield, and Manstein won a high reputation for him, and even marshal Zhukov of the Soviet Union admired him. But Germany's defeat was decided, and a battle could not reverse the final outcome. Shortly after the Battle of Kharkov, Manstein launched Operation Fortress, engaging in a massive tank battle with the famous Soviet general Zhukov in Kursk.
In the end, Manstein's army was defeated due to lack of support, but the Soviet army paid a heavy price for the victory, and achieved the result of annihilating more than 500,000 enemy at a cost of 800,000 people. Years later, Zhukov praised Manstein in his memoirs. The battle between the two did not end, in the subsequent battles, the balance of strength between the two sides changed dramatically, Zhukov had thought that he could encircle Manstein many times, but he did not succeed. In March 1944, Hitler removed Manstein from office, and the end of the Third Reich was unstoppable!
In 1949, Manstein was sentenced to 18 years in prison, but in 1952 he was released early for health reasons. Since then, Manstein has been doing two kinds of work, one is to write his own war memoirs, and the other is to serve as a military adviser to the Federal Republic of Germany's Ministry of Defense, and play a residual heat in planning German defense. Manstein died of illness in June 1973 at the age of 86.
--------------------------------
Taste the millennium of change, feel the cold and warm life, more wonderful, please pay attention to [5,000 years]
WeChat public account: 5,000 years