The Soviet Union found itself in an increasingly favorable position. Military production was rapidly increasing. In the second half of 1942, 15,800 fighter planes were produced (as against 9,600 during the first half), 13,600 tanks (as against 11,000), 15,600 artillery systems (as against 14,000).
By mid-November some 2 million soldiers were taking part in the Battle of Stalingrad, almost equally divided between the two sides. The Soviets held an advantage in armament: 1.4 to 1 in tanks and motorized artillery, 1.3 to 1 in field guns and mortars, 1.1 to 1 in fighter planes.
The plan of the Soviet command was to use the forces of three fronts, the Southwestern, the Stalingrad, and the Don, to encircle the German armies between the Volga and the Don, and then destroy them.
The Soviet offensive began on November 19, 1942. By November 23 a German army group numbering 330,000 was surrounded in the Stalingrad area. Its commander, General von Paulus, was unable to obtain Hitler's permission to break out of the encirclement. He was ordered to organize the defense and await assistance from the troops of Field Marshal von Manstein. But fresh Soviet troops blocked Manstein's attempt to break the blockade of Paulus's group. On December 16 the Soviet forces on the outer ring of the Stalingrad "pocket" counterattacked and Manstein was forced to withdraw in haste. Initially, Paulus rejected all offers to surrender; Hitler had forbidden him to yield. The Soviet forces began the systematic destruction of the encircled Germans. At last, on February 2, 1943, Paulus surrendered. Ninety thousand soldiers, including twenty-four generals and Field Marshal von Paulus himself, were taken prisoner.
The German defeat at Stalingrad was a boost to the morale of the Soviet troops and the home front. It increased the prestige of the military and political command and Stalin's personal authority. The fact that victory had been achieved in the ruins of the city that bore his name led mystics and believers to see in this success an act of providence or fate. The propaganda machine used the victory to praise the party's organizational genius. Silence was maintained about the war's first twenty months and the responsibilities of the leadership. Finally, the Stalingrad victory increased the Soviet Union's international prestige.
Stalingrad was a major blow to the Reich. It created trouble and gave rise to doubts among Germany's allies, adding vigor to the resistance in Europe and strengthening the positions of the neutral states. The victory at Stalingrad was facilitated by the British victory in North Africa, at El Alamein, and the landing of American troops in Algeria in the fall of 1942. Those operations diverted a substantial part of the German air force from the Soviet front.
The Soviet offensive at Stalingrad soon developed into a general advance along an enormous front ranging from Leningrad to the Caucasus. The Caucasus, the North Caucasus, Rostov-on-the-Don, and part of the Donets Basin were liberated. In late January 1943 Voronezh was retaken, followed by Kharkov, Belgorod, and Kursk. However, the German command retook the city of Kharkov and the northeastern part of the Donets Basin. This counteroffensive took the Soviet front-line commanders and the general staff completely by surprise. They had believed that in this region the adversary had been routed and was in full retreat. On March 18 the Germans took Belgorod. The Red Army was forced once again onto the defensive. In the northwest, Demyansk was retaken and Rzhev liberated. On the western front, the Soviet offensive stopped at the approaches to Smolensk. By then the front was 270—300 kilometers from Moscow.
In January 1943 Soviet troops partly broke the blockade of Leningrad. The city had suffered terribly. In December 1941 Hitler had named Colonel General Kiichler commander of the newly formed Army Group North. His assignment had been to wipe Leningrad from the face of the earth. For almost 900 days this city of 2.5 million was subjected to endless artillery shellings. Residential electric power and water supply were disrupted. In
alone the city was shelled by artillery for 254 days. In spite of the indescribable suffering of the population, the factories in Leningrad continued to turn out weapons. Workers, engineers, and technicians remained at their posts. Many died of hunger and fatigue on the job. Eight hundred thousand residents died in the siege, but the city held out. Several times Soviet troops launched very costly offensives seeking to break the siege, but they all failed. The only access to the city, called the "road of life," was over the frozen Lake Ladoga. Not until January 1943 did Soviet forces manage to open a ten-kilometer-wide corridor providing a land link with the rest of the country. From that time on, the situation in Leningrad began to improve. But the blockade was not completely lifted until 1944.
KURSK: THE TURNING POINT OF THE WAR
In the spring of 1943 the German—Soviet front, from Leningrad to the Black Sea, was stabilized. As the German military historian General Tippelskirch has said, the Soviet military command showed increasing flexibility in attaining its strategic objectives, but in questions of tactics, the German army maintained its supremacy.
The number of regulars in the Red army and navy had increased from 2.9 million men in 1941 to 6 million in 1943.64 The Soviet war industry had greatly increased its production and, supplemented by American deliveries of materiel and foodstuffs, was meeting the needs of the armed forces.
Despite defeats, the German high command decided in the summer of
to try to regain the strategic initiative and deal a decisive blow to the Soviets, one that would put an end to the war. The new offensive began on July 5, 1943, in the Kursk-Belgorod region. This gigantic battle mobilized almost 2.25 million people on both sides, 6,000 tanks and over 4,500 planes. The Soviet army was far larger than the German one, not only in terms of troops (1,337,000 men against 900,000) but also in armaments.
On July 23 the German offensive was contained. On August 3 the Soviets counterattacked along the Orel-Kursk-Belgorod line. On August 23 they retook Kharkov, this time for good. The Battle of Kursk, which lasted fifty days, was won by the Red Army. The power of the German army was shattered.
The Battle of Kursk developed into a major strategic offensive, from Velikie Luki in the northwest to the Black Sea in the south. All of the
Ukraine east of the Dnepr, including its capital, Kiev, was liberated; bridgeheads were established on the right bank of the Dnepr, and many parts of Central Russia and a part of Byelorussia were liberated. In the south, the Germans were expelled from the Taman peninsula, including Kerch.
In the midst of the Kursk-Belgorod battle, on July 25, the landing of American and British forces in Italy began. In September, Mussolini's Fascist regime was overthrown and Italy surrendered. Nevertheless, the Germans invaded northern Italy, and the war there took on a prolonged character.
THE KATYN TRAGEDY
The Allied victories in Africa, at Stalingrad, and at Kursk and the events in Italy helped strengthen the resistance in the nations occupied by the Germans. Growing discontent in Europe boded ill for Hitler, with his predictions of a thousand-year reign for the "Great German Reich."
The Soviet attitude toward the resistance and the national liberation movements in Europe was two-sided. On the one hand, the USSR helped them with money, arms, and men when the resistance organizations were led by Communists who sought not only to expel the invader but also to set up their own political system. On the other hand, it felt obliged to support the legal governments in exile, with which the United States and Great Britain had diplomatic relations.
The touchiest aspect of this policy was in the area of Soviet—Polish relations. After the division of Poland in 1939, a Polish government in exile was formed abroad and recognized by Britain, the United States, and other countries. In 1941, at Britain's request, the Soviet Union and the Polish exile government restored diplomatic ties. Many Polish citizens, among them many prisoners of war in Soviet camps, were freed, and the formation of Polish units on Soviet territory began. At that point, there were almost 250,000 Polish prisoners of war. Moreover, after the Soviet annexation of the western Ukraine and western Byelorussia, a large part of the Polish population had been deported to Siberia and Central Asia: approximately 1,200,000 people.