On January 8, 1942, a series of Soviet offensives were launched within the salient in and around Rzhev and Velikie Luki. Collectively, the combat actions that ended on March 31, 1943 are called the Battles of Rzhev. However, for those Soviet soldiers that survived, it had a far more dark and grim name, the “Rzhevskaya Myasorubka” or “Rzhev Meat Grinder”.
There were four main Soviet offensives, beginning with the Rzhev-Vyazma Strategic Offensive which, itself, contained five successive operations that started on January 8, 1942 and ended on April 20, 1942. Committed to the battles were the Kalinin Front and Western Front each of which contained three to five armies. A single Soviet army contained between three to five divisions in addition to support units. All told, the Soviets committed 3,680,300 men to the offensives. The intent was to eliminate the German 9. Armee which was under Heeresgruppe Mitte (Army Group Center). 9. Armee held the salient which, while in German hands, kept the threat to Moscow from a renewed push on the Soviet city alive. One of the more interesting operations during this time was the Vyazma Airborne Operation in which the Soviet 4th. Airborne Corps was deployed in one of only two airborne operations conducted by the Soviets in World War Two. Beginning on January 18 through January 22, 1942, the 201st. Airborne Brigade and the 250th. Airborne Regiment night parachuted behind German lines with the goal to cut the Vyazma-Yukhov highway and the Vyazma-Bryansk railroad. The 8th. Airborne Brigade was deployed on January 27 but it was a disaster. There were not enough Tupolev TB-3 transport planes available to move the entire brigade and so the planes had to make the drops in waves. Without fighter cover, the TB-3 (a four-engine bomber that entered service in 1932) was extremely vulnerable and several were shot down. Due to the weather and losses, only three battalions were landed (2,100 troops) but due to the conditions and scattering, only 1,320 paratroopers were able to assemble into combat units. The main opposition to the Soviet paratroopers was the 4. Panzer-Armee and initially, the Soviets had some success against German forces but by February, the paratroopers had failed to encircle the Germans and so between February 16 and February 24, the 9th. Airborne Brigade and the 214th. Airborne Brigade landed 1,525 men and supplies near Zelanje. Despite the added men, the Soviets could not finish the encirclement and the offensive stalled in the face of determined German resistance.
On July 2, 1942, the 9. Armee launched Operation Seydlitz to deal with all of the Soviet troops in their rear area. Most of the forces were concentrated in the swamps between Rzhev and Bely. To ensure they ensnared the Soviet troops, the Obsha Valley was blocked as this was the escape avenue out of the swampland. Elements from the 9.Armee succeeded in dividing the Soviet forces into two pockets and after eleven days of combat, the trapped Soviet troops were wiped out.
From July 30, 1942 to March 31, 1943, the Soviets launched three more offensives, again using forces from the Kalinin Front and Western Front. The third (and last) attack was the Rzhev-Vyazma Offensive that kicked off on March 2, 1943. But this coincided with the final phases of the withdrawal of Heeresgruppe Mitte from the Rzhev Salient which was done under Unternehmen Büffel (Operation Buffalo). The Soviets had been aware of the German retreat but Soviet command reacted to the information too slowly to take advantage. So, when Soviet forces were ordered to advance, it was too late and by March 3, 1943, Soviet troops entered Rzhev without a shot. Now that the Germans had shrunk the front by some 230 miles, when the Soviets reached the new German lines, they were pounded hard to the point that, coupled with lack of ammunition and supplies, the Soviet offensive ground to a halt. It should be noted that Unternehmen Büffel was one of scorched earth, exterminations, and deportations of civilians for slave labor.
The losses on both sides are not fully known and at least on the Soviet side, have wildly varied numbers. Depending on the source, Soviet casualties ranged from 1,160,787 men killed, wounded, or missing to 2,300,000 killed, wounded or missing. German forces, of which 1,659,000 started the offensives, by the end, around 668,000 were either dead, wounded, or missing in action. With at least one million casualties, little wonder survivors called it a meat grinder.
The photograph shows German trenches somewhere on the Rzhev Salient, surrounded by the wreckage of Soviet tanks. The two tanks nearest the camera are Lend-Lease British Valentine infantry tanks. Numerous makes of Valentine tanks were sent to the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1944. Given the time period of the offensives, they are not Valentine Mk. IX or Valentine Mk. X and so both are likely Valentine Mk. VII tanks. The Valentine was a Lend-Lease tank the Soviets liked as they appreciated the tank's mobility, cross-country performance, and General Motors 6-71 engine reliability of Canadian built Valentine Mk. VII tanks. Overall, the tank had a weight of 16 tons, a maximum armor thickness of 65mm down to a minimum of 8mm, was equipped with a Quick Fire 2-pounder (40mm) gun and a co-axial 7.92mm BESA machine-gun, and had a top road speed of 15mph with a maximum operational range of 90 miles on roads. The tank in the background is a Soviet BT-7 Model 1937 Fast Tank (Bystrochodnij Tankov). It had a similar armament to the Valentine, using a 45mm gun with three 7.62mm DT machine-guns (co-axial, rear mounted, and anti-aircraft). Armor protection was much less, having a maximum of 22mm down to a minimum of 6mm. Weight was nearly 14 tons but speed was much better at 31mph cross-country and up to 53mph on the road and the BT-7 had a modestly better operational range of 120 miles.
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