"Russia is big, but we have no way back, and Moscow is behind us!"
This tragic slogan came from the Soviet-German battlefield on the eastern front of World War II, and then spread around the world, becoming one of the symbols of World War II. The slogan was shouted by Klochkov Diyev, a Red Army soldier who took part in the defense of Moscow, who subsequently died on the battlefield. It was late 1941, and Germany had been delayed for a month by the Battle of Kiev, giving the Soviet Union plenty of time to prepare for the defense of Moscow. During the campaign, 2 million Soviet soldiers followed in succession, with millions of casualties, and finally crushed the German offensive.
Fast forward to 1942, and the Soviets and Germany began to face each other on a long front. Operation Typhoon failed, but the german Army Group Center was only 150 kilometers away from Moscow, and the Soviet Union was still not out of danger. In the history of World War II, the Battle of Stalingrad in the south was written as a turning point in the Soviet-German War. During the period from the beginning of 1942 to the victory at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, a major war between the Soviet Union and Germany did not receive much attention, and was even "selectively forgotten" for a time.
This was the year-long "Battle of Lezhev-Vyazima-Serchovka", in which the Soviets fought several major battles around the Lezhev area, and Germany finally won a tactical victory. The series of battles lasted from the end of the Battle of Moscow until the victory at the Battle of Stalingrad. The Soviets, with millions of troops and 1.5 million casualties, still had not defeated the Ninth Army, led by General Modell of Germany. In particular, the two battles at the end of 1942 were considered to be a stain on the life of the famous general Zhukov, and the Soviet army with the superiority of manpower was defeated by the Germans and suffered heavy casualties.
The Battle of Lezhev-Sechovka is recognized worldwide as a classic of defensive warfare, and Modell used the 9th Army to block several times the enemy, so he was known as the "Lion of Defense". So, how did Modell win more with less and fight such a legendary defensive battle?
In January 1942, the Soviet-German defensive line stayed about 200 kilometers in front of Moscow, of which the German 9th Army garrisoned by Lezhev was more special, which was the "salient point" of the German defense line. The Lezhev protrusion was a wedge more than 100 kilometers long and wide, thrust into the chest of the Soviet Union. The "salient" of the defensive line was a dangerous place, and the defenders would fall into encirclement once they were cut off, and Marshal Modell, the commander of the 9th Army, knew this and had been applying to abandon Lezhev to save the army, but the Nazi core resolutely refused.
At this time, the Soviet-German war entered a confrontational phase, and any active withdrawal of either side would have political repercussions, and Nazi Germany would not allow any retreat on the Eastern Front. And Lezhev is the closest place of the German army to Moscow, only 150 kilometers, to keep Lezhev, is to maintain the momentum of the German offensive, can boost the morale of the eastern battlefield.
The 9th Army had already shrunk at this time, with only 50,000 men and less than 100 tanks, and as long as the Soviets were ready to attack, these 50,000 men could be encircled at any time.
Directly in front of Lezhev, the Soviets sent General Zhukov with 2 million men to two armies, and after the victory in the defense of Moscow, General Zhukov's position was as good as the sun. As a hero of the Soviet Union, he was most anxious to solve the threat of The German Army Group Center. Beginning in January 1942, Zhukov commanded soviet attacks on Lezhev four times, engaging in a bloody offensive and defensive battle with Modell.
In each of the four battles around Lezhev in 1942, the Soviets were fierce, but ultimately lost to Modell. With more than 1.5 million Soviet casualties in the Battle of Lezhev, Modell stepped on a pool of blood and became one of the masters of human defense warfare.
In January 1942, the Soviets launched the "First Battle of Lezhev-Vyazma" around the German Army Group Center, with the Kalinin Front and the Western Front attacking the Vykiama-Lejev front with superior forces. The Soviets dispatched airborne troops in this battle, and the airborne Fourth Army surprised the German enemy behind the enemy lines, and cooperated with the Soviet 1st Cavalry Division to occupy the south of Vyazma.
At a critical juncture, the 9th Army was supported by 5 divisions in the rear, including the elite of the German elite and the pride of the SS, the Imperial Division. Under modell's command, the Germans cut off the road with the help of movement, divided and surrounded the Soviet troops who had burst into Lezhev, and finally ate two Soviet army groups.
The 9th Army, in conjunction with the 4th Army, crushed the Soviet offensive, killing 200,000 people, wounded and captured 500,000, the elite 33rd Army was completely annihilated, and the commander Yevlemov committed suicide after being wounded.
The Battle of Stalingrad, which had not yet begun, was the bloodiest battle since the beginning of the War on the Eastern Front. German soldiers recalled the battlefield of Lezhev: "There were Soviet corpses and cries of wounded soldiers everywhere, and if even we were exhausted, then soviet soldiers should be struggling in hell." "Front-line Soviet war correspondents came to Lezhev to shoot, many people suffered from mental illness after witnessing the tragic situation, and the name of "Lezhev Meat Grinder" did not go away.
In the summer of 1942, on the first anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, the Soviets again decided to launch a decisive battle against the German Army Group Center to prevent the latter from moving south to support Stalingrad, and the first Battle of Lezhev-Sechovka broke out. The 30th Army of the Kalinin Front and the 20th, 29th and 31st Armies of the Western Front marched into the area of Lezhev-Serchovka, the Soviets won first and then lost, and Modell used the "elastic defense" style of play to eliminate a large number of Soviet forces.
Modell pushed the attacked troops on the front back into the defensive line, often elite armored divisions, which he used as bait to lure the Soviets deeper. Modell then divided the troops into small formations at the regimental or battalion level, allowing the infantry to delay the other side's attack, and then concentrated the armored army to encircle the Soviet army, tanks cut off the road, blocked reinforcements, and surrounded the Soviet attacking troops.
Elastic defense is a "high-risk, high-return" tactic that requires putting the enemy in the heart of their own defense zone, and if the enemy gets out of control, it may cause a rout on its own side. The decision to carry out flexible defense requires a high degree of trust in the combat effectiveness of the troops, and of course, the commander himself has a superb command art. The 9th Army of 1942 had the full strength to use "elastic defense", it had such elites as the "Imperial Division" and the "Great German Division", and reinforcements from multiple armored divisions in the rear.
The Soviet offensive was blocked by the 9th Army along the Vazuza and Gezati rivers, resulting in 50,000 casualties and 150,000 wounded and captured.
The Kalinin Front and the Western Front suffered greatly, but the Soviet recruits in the rear were constantly replenished. The Soviet army was numerous, but the weapons and ammunition were seriously insufficient, according to the recollections of Soviet veterans, many Soviet troops had little training before going to the front line, and there was very little ammunition, and a rifle could only be equipped with 3 rounds of ammunition. The artillery company could only fire two shots a day, and many of the young soldiers went to the front without completing their registration, and no one even knew their names.
In November 1942, the Soviets launched Operation Uranus at Stalingrad, encircling the German 6th Army, the Romanian Army, and part of the German 4th Panzer Corps at Stalingrad with the intention of annihilating it. The German High Command ordered Army Group Center to reinforce the southern front, and in order to block the southward movement of the 9th Army, Zhukov began the second "Battle of Lezhev-Serchovka", i.e. Operation Mars.
Zhukov with an army of 2 million menacingly, the Soviet army equipped with 24,000 artillery, more than 3,000 tanks, more than 1,000 aircraft, from the east, west and north of the three sides of the attack on the Lezhev salient, to completely eliminate the 9th Army. But the 9th Army received intelligence from spies and was prepared for an attack.
On November 24, a tidal wave of Red Army soldiers poured into the battlefield and was overwhelmed by waves of German machine guns, but the following troops continued to flow. By this time the 9th Army was already well aware of Lezhev and its surroundings, and they used the terrain and fortress strongholds to kill and wound the Soviets in large numbers. Modell again divided his army into small units, with battalions and companies as units to hold important roads and riverbanks, with the goal of maximizing the killing of the Soviets, waiting for reinforcements to arrive.
The Germans showed extraordinary resilience in the battle, and the German 102nd Infantry Division alone blocked the Soviet 31st Army for three full days.
Four days after the offensive began, the Soviets suffered heavy casualties, but the Viazima Railway and the Serchovka Highway remained in German hands. General Zhukov, convinced that the 9th Army was at the end of its crossbow, insisted on a frontal attack, only to encounter the reserves of Army Group Center, 6 fully loaded armored divisions.
Modell's art of command was once again miraculous at this time, and the German line of defense was constantly shrinking under the Attack of the Soviet Army, but there would be no rout, because he had a large number of small troops in his hands, and once there was a breach of the defensive line, these "chess pieces" would be filled in immediately. With the lessons of the last battle, the Soviets did not dare to directly rush into the German defensive center, and could only continue to attack on the periphery. The Soviet First Mechanized Army, which had entered the German defensive line, was blocked by the German ace "Großdeutsche Division" and could not move.
A week after the battle began, the Soviets had to turn from attack to defense, waiting for further orders.
On 11 December, the Soviets were replenished and attacked again, with 300 tanks of the 5th and 6th Tank Corps storming German positions with 20,000 men. Zhukov was too anxious at this time, the young men of the Guards Division fell on the front line in brand new uniforms, and because of the lack of white paint, the Soviet army's replenished more than 300 tanks were completely destroyed in a day and a half. Operation Mars was a complete failure, with 800,000 Soviet casualties, nearly 300,000 of whom were killed and 1,800 tanks destroyed.
For the crazy attack of the Soviet army, the German 9th Army also pinched a cold sweat.
According to the war report of Operation Mars, the casualties of the 9th Army were around 40,000 people, which was far less than that of the Soviet army, but the Soviet army was full of recruits, and the German soldiers who died were all elite German soldiers, veterans who turned to Europe, and Modell was very sad about this.
The Germans were terrified of the Soviet attack, and the Germans, from the soldiers to the supreme commanders, said: The Soviet army's reckless impact without casualties was extremely tragic, and the Soviet soldiers were the best soldiers. The Soviet army never went around the bend when encountering a strong defensive line, but fought with human life, which left a great psychological shadow on the German soldiers.
In the spring of 1943, the 9th Army had been holding out in Lezhev for a year, and Army Group Center had sent more than a dozen divisions of reserves to it, half of which were panzer divisions, as well as two elite Imperial and Greater German divisions. The Germans paid such a heavy price, but they could not open the situation under the city of Moscow, and the Soviet army blocked the German iron hoof with fearless sacrifice.
Modell, the "master of defense", became famous in this battle, although Modell's defensive command was indeed very superb, and the "stronghold play" and "elastic defense" were talked about by later generations, but it did not help the big war situation. The defensive victory at the Battle of Lezhev-Serchovka was a small tactical victory and, on the whole, a victory for Army Group Center as a whole. The combat effectiveness of the German front-line troops was frighteningly high, and it was not uncommon for one division to block one soviet army and one army.
Although Operation Mars failed, General Modell, commander of the 9th Army, knew that if the Soviets made another attack of the same size, their own forces might not be able to hold on. With the Soviet 3rd Assault Army winning the Battle of Velikiye Luki, Modell knew there was no chance without retreating.
Eventually, both Modell and Manstein agreed to abandon the Lezhev salient, and with the advice of zetzler, the German Army Chief of Staff, Zeitzler, finally agreed to the retreat of the 9th Army. Modell decided to withdraw the 9th Army to the south of Army Group Center, an operation that took place under the noses of a million Soviet troops and was dubbed Operation Buffalo.
Demonstrating extraordinary command, Modell ordered his 300,000 troops to calculate the supplies needed and the equipment to be transported, to carry out road repairs, and when the roads and railways were kept open, the Germans withdrew from their positions in batches at night. Behind the Germans, 9 battle groups were responsible for the break, and they retreated as they walked, destroying roads, railways, bridges along the way, and laying minefields along the way.
The Soviets, after learning of signs of German retreat, launched the last Battle of Lezhev, but the Germans retreated quickly, and Operation Buffalo of the 9th Army was very successful. The Soviets failed to annihilate a large number of German troops in this battle, but they obtained the city of Lezhev, which was already in ruins, 90% of the houses were destroyed, and the city was full of mines, which caused great trouble for the Soviet army.
Sude fought in Lezhev for a year, and the two generals Zhukov and Modell mastered the move, and finally Modell won a tactical victory and Zhukov achieved a strategic victory. The Battle of Lezhev, especially Operation Mars, became Zhukov's scar and was selectively forgotten in later generations. However, there were 1.5 million Soviet soldiers killed and wounded in this battle, and although they only caused 300,000 German casualties, they prevented a large number of German troops from moving south, supporting the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. Most of these fighters were recruits, and many died in the cold snow without even leaving their names.
According to the recollections of the Soviet army, whenever the commissar shouted "For the motherland!" "Countless Red Army soldiers would rush to the German positions without hesitation until they fell in a pool of blood, and Lezhev was not mentioned, and their exploits should not be forgotten.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that the 9th Army carried out a brutal massacre in the occupied area of Lezhev in the spring of 1943 in order to keep Operation Buffalo secret. Large numbers of Russian civilians were shot as "guerrillas" and "spies," village wells were poisoned, and dozens of villages were razed to the ground. Because of the Lezhev massacre, Modell was accused of "war crimes" by the Allies, and two years later, in April 1945, after losing the "Battle of the Ardennes" on the Western Front, he refused to surrender to the Allies and chose to commit suicide.
Text/Shogakuno
Resources: 1. "The Eastern Defensive Master Modell's Three Classic Defensive Battles", Shi Jian 2. "Operation Mars" Marshal Zhukov's Biggest Fiasco, Aurora 3. "Lezhev Meat Grinder", Daisen