31.03.1943.
Added 2018-11-11 19:30:08 +0000 UTCIn the South the German forces had caught the Red Army out of balance and pushed North taking back Kharkov. It was planned to launch another offensive from the North towards the advance of the 1st SS Panzer Corps and take Kursk catching the Soviet forces between two spearheads. In order to get enough troops for the offensive, the large German salient West of Moscow (around Rzhev and Vyazma) was abandoned and the units rushed South. They stopped the Soviet advance in the sector, but were too weak to go on offensive and Kursk remained in Soviet hands. As the Red Army in the South had been on offensive for several months, its forces too had become exhausted and both sides stopped to rest and reorganise. So did the 1942/43 winter campaign in the South, that had began with the encirclement of the German forces in Stalingrad, come to an end.
For the next three months the the Wehrmacht and the Red Army would build up in order to launch a massive offensive towards the opposition and the Eastern front as a whole would be relatively quiet. It would be the quiet before the storm.
Unit symbol explanations: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WN22bJq3tw6yW-kj0X5PM-fEK-ukgpxh/view?usp=sharing
Comments
Its mind blowing to think how much logistical hassle it may have been for both sides to sustain their war efforts. I just read from Quora today how partisans sabotaged the railway lines continuously and how they were dropping iron filings into the gas tanks of unattended trucks to destroy their engines from inside. I love your material! Thank you!
Martin Raadik
2018-11-11 22:47:33 +0000 UTC
