Operation Mars - Zhukov's greatest defeat

[Gotthard Heinrici]

In V.P's thread about CALM discussion I alluded to the fact that the Eastern Front had a number of operations that have been overlooked by Students of the Conflict. here is a link to an article about one of them, Operation Mars, an offensive by the Soviets to destroy the Rzhev salient. It failed and also cost them dearly too and is an excellent example of how the Red Army in 1942 and its commanders still had a lot to learn. Here is the link and I hop you enjoy reading it:

http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/doc...t/countrpt.htm

[von Poop]

Sometimes the Internet amazes me.
Utterly superb account, of the very highest and most reasonable quality.
The expression "fought with grim abandon" is going to stay with me.
Seems Zhukov was lucky to have failed at this time, under the cover of the Stalingrad counter-offensive, a major failure a year earlier when things were more panicked or a year later when Stalin could afford to be a little calmer in looking for someone to blame could have cost him very dear.
Good stuff.


(Mossie? read this! it's good and it's free, and if it doesn't start satisfying your interest then I don't know what will)

[Gotthard Heinrici]

what I wondered about when I read this was why the Germans didnt make more of the victory? I know Stalingrad was in full swing but it was unlike goebbels to miss an opportunity to play up the superiority of the Wehrmacht.

[Gnomey]

Interesting stuff Gotthard!

[Kiwiwriter]

I have David Glantz's book on this battle. It was one of Walther Model's better moments on defense.

[Gotthard Heinrici]

Originally Posted by Kiwiwriter

I have David Glantz's book on this battle. It was one of Walther Model's better moments on defense.

Yes. This was where he started to earn his reputation as "Hitler's Fireman". He put this experience to good use when he took charge of what was left of the German line after Bagration or when he took charge in the West.

[Za Rodinu]

As this is a Soviet defeat I don't want to hear about it

[Kiwiwriter]

Originally Posted by Gotthard Heinrici

what I wondered about when I read this was why the Germans didnt make more of the victory? I know Stalingrad was in full swing but it was unlike goebbels to miss an opportunity to play up the superiority of the Wehrmacht.

I think the enormity of the Stalingrad disaster put many other battles into the shadows.

And don't forget that while Stalingrad was raging, so was Alamein, Torch, the race to Tunis, and the German Navy's disaster at the Barents Sea. Busy months at the FHQ.

[Gotthard Heinrici]

Originally Posted by Kiwiwriter

I think the enormity of the Stalingrad disaster put many other battles into the shadows.

And don't forget that while Stalingrad was raging, so was Alamein, Torch, the race to Tunis, and the German Navy's disaster at the Barents Sea. Busy months at the FHQ.

All the more reason to bring up a victory to boost morale! I do agree though, Christmas 1942 was not the most optimal for the fuehrer.

[Kiwiwriter]

Originally Posted by Gotthard Heinrici

All the more reason to bring up a victory to boost morale! I do agree though, Christmas 1942 was not the most optimal for the fuehrer.

Normally, I would agree with you. In fact, later in the war, German generals would do just that when briefing the Fuhrer. They would gloss over a major debacle by giving Hitler an extensive report on a small incident of courage, like some Volkssturm or Hitler Youth guy knocking out three T-34/85s with his Panzerfausts. That would put Hitler in a good mood and enable them to get through another report of defeat.

Goebbels' propaganda crew echoed the same thing...they would broadcast the announcement that some HJ kid had knocked out five Shermans near Aschaffenberg as if the Americans had been hurled back to Paris, again trying to obscure the horrible realities.

But in 1942 all that was in the future. The Wehrmacht was used to winning battle after battle. Defeat, and a brace of major and shocking defeats, was something new to Hitler and his court. Victories they often took in stride. They probably saw the sudden tide of defeat as a major aberration, and were more concerned with stanching this flow than celebrating another win.

My feeling is that Mars was simply obscured by the titanic scale of Torch, Alamein, and Stalingrad.

But it did a lot for Model.