1942, Spring - Battle for the Salients
Added 2018-08-30 20:05:51 +0000 UTCIn the summer of 1942 both the Red Army and the Wehrmacht planned to conduct a major war-winning offensive. The question was, who would be able to seize the initiative. Previous fighting had created many salients in the front that favoured the encirclement and destruction of the opposing forces. As the Germans had held the line during the winter, their position was better and they needed less time for redeployment. In spring and early summer they succeeded in all their offensives and destroyed a lot of Red Army units in vulnerable sectors, adding more than half a million of men to their prisoner count. Thus the Red Army failed to get the initiative and now the Wehrmacht got the chance to conduct its strategic offensive towards the Caucasus.
