History Bites EP1 Part 4
Winters coming
But Hitler had now taken command of the German Army, he ordered that the Army Group Centre’s Panzer Group led by Guderian should move south-east on to Kiev. 1 Panzer Group was also ordered north. This took away from the Centre group two of its most potent fighting forces. Guderian was very angered by this order but Hitler had always proved himself right in the war,so why argue with the Führer? Who, in fact, had the courage to oppose Hitler? But this caused issues, a loss of time. Winter was slowly coming. The Russians in an attempt to slow down the German advanced threw everything they had at them, causing massive losses, also Russia adopted two policies. A scorched earth policy, where the plan was to leave nothing to the enemy and Burn down every village before capture, destroy every rail line and and lines of communication. Leave nothing that the Germans could use.
The second policy was order No. 270, this order prohibited surrender of troops and Generals, who would be executed if the surrendered. Also any troops that retreated was to be shot and a traitor of the army. The Russians was desperate.
The stalemate
Russia's greatest allie had arrived, no not Britain or the US but the russian winter had set in, this was to be the coldest winter in many years and very few in the German Army were equipped to cope with the cold and the army, so used to advancing, found itself very much affected by the freezing temperatures.
The German army was grinding to a hault. Now the German offensives were running out of steam, as front-line units halted for resupply and replacements. Then drive on Moscow resumed on 2 October, codenamed Operation Typhoon.
Ten days later German units were within 90 miles of the Russian capital, but stubborn Soviet resistance and heavy German casualties, combined with heavy rain which turned bad roads into rivers of mud, slowed the advance to a crawl. By the beginning of December, German troops were within sight of the spires of Moscow. However, a massive Soviet counterattack, using fresh units brought in from the East, supported by T-34 tanks, drove the Germans back.
As Deep Russian winter set in, German offensive operations were abandoned. Operation Barbarossa had failed, all progress had halted.Despite enormous losses in territory, men and weaponry, the Soviets had fought on, and survived. They would face fresh German offensives in 1942, but as the immense manpower and resources of the Soviet Union were brought into play, time was on their side. The Eastern Front would become a graveyard of the German armed forces, as men, tanks and aircraft were thrown into an increasingly unwinnable conflict.
The end, I hope you all enjoyed. The topic of this one was Battle in ww2, next week its something interesting, heres a teaser:
Its September 1943 and a German General is finalising the most secret plan in Germany. Operation Valkyrie. The plan to stop Hitler.
[Link to Main thread]
Note: This wont be a weakly thing now, too time consuming and stressful.I shall do this every now and then.
Winters coming
But Hitler had now taken command of the German Army, he ordered that the Army Group Centre’s Panzer Group led by Guderian should move south-east on to Kiev. 1 Panzer Group was also ordered north. This took away from the Centre group two of its most potent fighting forces. Guderian was very angered by this order but Hitler had always proved himself right in the war,so why argue with the Führer? Who, in fact, had the courage to oppose Hitler? But this caused issues, a loss of time. Winter was slowly coming. The Russians in an attempt to slow down the German advanced threw everything they had at them, causing massive losses, also Russia adopted two policies. A scorched earth policy, where the plan was to leave nothing to the enemy and Burn down every village before capture, destroy every rail line and and lines of communication. Leave nothing that the Germans could use.
The second policy was order No. 270, this order prohibited surrender of troops and Generals, who would be executed if the surrendered. Also any troops that retreated was to be shot and a traitor of the army. The Russians was desperate.
The stalemate
Russia's greatest allie had arrived, no not Britain or the US but the russian winter had set in, this was to be the coldest winter in many years and very few in the German Army were equipped to cope with the cold and the army, so used to advancing, found itself very much affected by the freezing temperatures.
The German army was grinding to a hault. Now the German offensives were running out of steam, as front-line units halted for resupply and replacements. Then drive on Moscow resumed on 2 October, codenamed Operation Typhoon.
Ten days later German units were within 90 miles of the Russian capital, but stubborn Soviet resistance and heavy German casualties, combined with heavy rain which turned bad roads into rivers of mud, slowed the advance to a crawl. By the beginning of December, German troops were within sight of the spires of Moscow. However, a massive Soviet counterattack, using fresh units brought in from the East, supported by T-34 tanks, drove the Germans back.
As Deep Russian winter set in, German offensive operations were abandoned. Operation Barbarossa had failed, all progress had halted.Despite enormous losses in territory, men and weaponry, the Soviets had fought on, and survived. They would face fresh German offensives in 1942, but as the immense manpower and resources of the Soviet Union were brought into play, time was on their side. The Eastern Front would become a graveyard of the German armed forces, as men, tanks and aircraft were thrown into an increasingly unwinnable conflict.
The end, I hope you all enjoyed. The topic of this one was Battle in ww2, next week its something interesting, heres a teaser:
Its September 1943 and a German General is finalising the most secret plan in Germany. Operation Valkyrie. The plan to stop Hitler.
[Link to Main thread]
Note: This wont be a weakly thing now, too time consuming and stressful.I shall do this every now and then.
Forum Gang Divine Entity
Taking over the Forum 1 post at a time.
Forum Gang Commissar 
I missed it. 