George Zhukov – Robert Forczyk

Zhukov brought Rokossovsky in to take command of Don Front. Further west, Vatutin was given command of the South-western Front. Both Zhukov and Vasilevsky flew south to meet with Vatutin, Rokossovsky and Eremenko to begin transforming Operation Uranus from a concept in the Kremlin to a practical plan that would actually work on the battlefield. When all three front commanders informed Zhukov that their forces were too weak to consider a large-scale offensive within the next couple of weeks, Stalin demonstrated unusual forbearance and allowed the Stavka to spend the time necessary to gather replacements and supplies for a well-planned offensive.

Although the initial concept for Uranus was a single envelopment by Vatutin’s reinforced South-western Front against the 3rd Romanian Army, it was Eremenko who went to Moscow on 7 October and suggested a double envelopment of AOK 6 by using his Stalingrad Front as well. Eremenko was fed up with Zhukov ordering his troops into futile frontal attacks against prepared German defences and he believed that if he was given sufficient reinforcements he could break through the 4th Romanian Army south of Stalingrad and link up with Vatutin’s spearheads behind Paulus’ AOK 6.

Zhukov was not enamoured of Eremenko’s recommendations and he ensured that the Stalingrad Front received fewer reinforcements than Vatutin’s or Rokossovsky’s fronts. Indeed, Zhukov ensured that his own pet project – Operation Mars – received priority over Operation Uranus. Overall, the initial attacks by Operation Uranus would be conducted by four Soviet armies with 20 divisions and seven mobile corps, while Operation Mars would have six armies with 46 divisions and five mobile corps. However, apparently unnoticed by Zhukov, the correlation of forces was more favourable for Operation Uranus than it was for Operation Mars, because of the weakness of the Romanian units.

Zhukov made his last visit to the Stalingrad front three days before Operation Uranus began and then left Vasilevsky in charge while he returned north to handle Mars. The Soviet offensive caught the Romanian armies by complete surprise and routed them. On 23 November, Vatutin’s and Eremenko’s mobile groups met at Kalach, completing the encirclement of Paulus’ AOK 6 in Stalingrad.

Operation Mars, November–December 1942 Owing to Stalin’s confidence in Zhukov, the GKO provided both the Western and Kalinin fronts with reinforcements on a massive scale during the fall of 1942, including fresh guards divisions, two full-strength mechanized corps and one of the first artillery divisions. Victory seemed assured. Zhukov planned Mars to be a double envelopment, with the Kalinin Front attacking with two armies from the west while the Western Front attacked the east side of the salient with the heavily reinforced 20th Army.

the official face of the Red Army in World War II and one of the few Soviet generals recognizable in the West. (Author) INTRODUCTION When the German Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 its leaders did not realize that they were embarking upon a four-year-long fight to the death.

The Red Army appeared feeble after the Stalinist purge of its officer corps in 1937–39 and the botched Soviet invasion of Finland suggested gross organizational incompetence. Adolf Hitler confidently expected the blitzkrieg to cause a rapid collapse of the Soviet state, as had happened to the Wehrmacht’s earlier victims. Yet despite early, crushing battlefield victories the Wehrmacht could not destroy the Red Army’s will to resist.

Part of the ferocity of Soviet resistance was based upon the ironhanded tyranny of Josef Stalin that made surrender unthinkable, as well as the Communist Party’s ability to motivate its citizens through nationalistic propaganda and terror. However these factors could only delay defeat; in order to win, the Red Army had to demonstrate the ability to conduct successful offensives in order to drive out the hated invaders. In a conflict of this scale, involving armies of millions, the role of individuals seems secondary and perhaps even irrelevant.

Certainly on the German side there were a number of significant high-level commanders, including Bock, Kluge, Manstein and Rundstedt. Yet Hitler allowed his commanders to conduct only operational-level warfare and arrogated strategic decision-making to himself alone. Consequently, despite their individual talents, none of the senior German commanders on the Eastern Front emerged as primus inter pares and Hitler regarded each in turn as expendable.

In contrast, on the Soviet side, Marshal Georgy Zhukov was unquestionably the dominant figure in the Red Army throughout the entire period of the Russo-German conflict. Although frequently rotated between command and advisory roles, Zhukov provided the backbone of the Red Army’s efforts during the desperate defensive actions of 1941–42 and it was he who played a critical role in orchestrating the Red Army’s ability 5 to conduct successful multi-front offensive operations that ultimately determined the military fate of the Third Reich. After the Stalinist purges, Zhukov was the only surviving Soviet senior commander with the battlefield competence, political reliability and leadership abilities to command effectively large formations against the best that Germany had to offer.

Serving as a senior General Staff representative from the Stavka, Zhukov moved from one critical sector to the next, acting as adviser, coordinator and de facto front commander as required. There is no doubt that Zhukov played a critical role in salvaging the Soviet situation in the autumn of 1941 and leading the Red Army to an amazing reversal of fortunes in 1942–43 and eventual victory in 1944–45.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: b342473c9f282c0e
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• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781849082839, 9781846039614, 9781849083621, 9781849083188, 9781849084963, 9781849085298, 9781849083607, 9781849083690, 9781849084499, 9781849085564, 9781849085571, 9781780960449, 1213141516
• Pages: 67
• Language: English (en)

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