Army Historical Series

Stalingrad to Berlin:
The German Defeat in the East

Earl F. Ziemke

CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY
UNITED STATES ARMY
WASHINGTON, D. C., 1987


U.S. Army Center of Military History

Brig. Gen. Douglas Kinnard, USA (Ret.), Chief of Military History

Chief Historian David F. Trask
Chief, Histories Division Col. James W. Dunn
Editor in Chief John Elsberg

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-60001

First Printed 1968--CMH Pub 30-5


CONTENTS

Chapter     Page
  Foreword iii
  The Authors iv
  Preface v
I.  INVASION! 3
  The German Command 4
  BARBAROSSA 10
  Hitler in Command 13
  Operation BLAU 15
II.  RETREAT 23
  The Soviet Command 23
  1942, Retreat and Recovery 32
III.  STALINGRAD, THE ENCIRCLEMENT 37
  The Advance on Stalingrad 37
  The Siege 41
  German Expectations 47
  Soviet Intentions 50
  Sixth Army Encircled 53
  WINTERGEWITTER 61
IV.  STALINGRAD, THE TURNING POINT 66
  Sixth Army Isolated 66
  Sixth Army Destroyed 75
V.  THE COUNTERMARCH 81
  The Fight for Survival 81
  The Last German Victory 90
VI.  THE CENTER AND THE NORTH 98
  At the End of Summer 1942 98
  Partisan Warfare 103
  A Companion Piece to Stalingrad 105
  The Quiet Front 109
  On the Defensive 111
VII.  OPERATION ZITADELLE 118
  The Lull in the Storm 118
  A Limited Offensive 124
  ZITADELLE 133
VIII.  THE FIRST SOVIET SUMMER OFFENSIVE 143
  Troops and Tactics 143
  The Fourth Battle of Kharkov 149
  The Front in Flames 157
  To the Dnepr 165
IX.  THE BATTLE FOR THE DNEPR LINE 174
  Army Group South 174
  The Dnepr Bridgehead, Army Group Center 189
X.  THE RISING TIDE 197
  Breakthrough at Nevel 197
  The German Allies 207
  Leadership, Manpower, Strategy 211
XI.  OFFENSIVES ON BOTH FLANKS--THE SOUTH FLANK 218
  The Battle Resumes West of Kiev 218
  The Cherkassy Pocket (Korsun' Shevchenkovskiy) 226
  Nikopol and Krivoi Rog 238
  Dubno-Lutsk-Kovel' 244
XII.  OFFENSIVES ON BOTH FLANKS--THE NORTH FLANK 248
  Operation BLAU 248
  An "Echo" in Finland 267
XIII.  PAYING THE PIPER 272
  Mud and Strategy 272
  A Soviet Spring Offensive 273
  The Crimea 291
XIV.  PRELUDE TO DISASTER 296
  Karelia 296
  Partisan Warfare at Its Height 303
  The West and the East 309
XV.  THE COLLAPSE OF THE CENTER 313
  Deception and Delusion 313
  The Battle for Belorussia 316
  The Battle Expands to the Flanks 329
  The Recovery 340
XVI.  THE SOUTH FLANK 346
  Escape to the Carpathians 346
  The Front Rebuilt 356
XVII.  RETREAT AND ENCIRCLEMENT 365
  The Balkan Peninsula 365
  Budapest 378
XVIII.  DEFEAT IN THE NORTH 387
  The Finnish Armistice 387
  Retreat From Northern Finland 391
  Army Group North's Retreat to Courland 403
XIX.  THE JANUARY OFFENSIVE 410
  Two Fronts, the Fuehrer's Will, and German Resources 410
  From the Vistula to the Oder 421
  East Prussia 428
  The Budapest Relief 433
XX.  THE DEFENSE OF THE REICH 438
  Missions 438
  The Soviet Offensive Falters 440
  Parry and Thrust--Vienna 450
  Closing In? 456
XXI.  BERLIN 467
  The Eve of the Battle 467
  The Encirclement 474
  The Last Act 483
XXII.  CONCLUSION 500
Appendix  
A.  TABLE OF EQUIVALENT RANKS 505
B.  COMPARATIVE SIZES OF MAJOR COMMANDS 506
 
NOTE ON SOURCES 507
GLOSSARY 515
CODE NAMES 518
INDEX 521

 
Maps
 
No.   Page
1.  The 1941 Campaign and the Soviet Winter Offensive 8
2.  The Situation, 1 May and 18 November 1942 16
3.  The Advance to Stalingrad, 17 July-18 November 1942 38
4.  Stalingrad, November-December 1942 51
5.  A Double Thrust at Rostov, 16 December 1942-19 January 1943 67
6.  Army Group A, 19 January-18 February 1943 82
7.  Army Groups B and Don, 30 January-18 February 1943 83
8.  The Army Group South Counteroffensive, 19 February-18 March 1943 95
9.  Soviet Offensive Against Army Groups Center and North, November-December 1942 99
10.  Army Group North, Winter, 1942-43 110
11.  Army Group Center, Winter, 1942-43 114
12.  Proposed Operations HABICHT, PANTHER, ZITADELLE, March-April 1943 125
13.  Operation ZITADELLE and the Withdrawal to the HAGEN Position, 5 July-18 August 1943 134
14.  The Fourth Battle of Kharkov, 3-27 August 1943 150
15.  The Soviet Advance to the Dnepr, 18 August-2 October 1944 155
16.  The Battle for the Dnepr Line, 2 October-21 December 1943 176
17.  The Dnepr Bridgehead, 1 October-26 December 1943 190
18.  Breakthrough at Nevel, 6 October 1943-18 January 1944 198
19.  The Battle West of Kiev, 24 December 1943-31 January 1944 219
20.  Breakout From the Pocket Near Cherkassy, 16 February 1944 230
21.  The Nikopol Bridgehead and Krivoi Rog, 10 January-29 February 1944 239
22.  Dubno-Lutsk-Kovel', 6 January-1 March 1944 245
23.  Army Group North, 14 January-31 March 1944 252
24.  The Soviet Spring Offensive, 4 March-15 April 1944 274
25.  The Crimea, 8 April-13 May 1944 292
26.  The Soviet Summer Offensive Against Finland, June-July 1944 297
27.  The Battle for Belorussia, 22 June-18 July 1944 317
28.  Army Group North Ukraine and the Ninth Army, 14 July-15 September 1944 331
29.  The North Flank of Army Group Center and Army Group North, 18 July-31 August 1944 334
30.  Army Group South Ukraine, 19 August-26 September 1944 347
31.  Army Group South, 5-29 October 1944 361
32.  The Southeastern Theater, September 1944-January 1945 366
33.  Army Group South, 29 October-30 December 1944 379
34.  The German Withdrawal From Finland, 6 September 1944-30 January 1945 392
35.  The Soviet Offensive Against XIX Mountain Corps, 7-28 October 1944 398
36.  Army Group North Retreat to Courland, 14 September-23 October 1944 402
37.  The January 1945 Offensive Against Army Groups A (Center) and Center (North) 415
38.  The Budapest Relief Operation, 1-26 January 1945 434
39.  The Soviet Offensive Falters, 4-24 February 1945 441
40.  The Vienna Offensive, March-April 1945 451
41.  Closing In, 24 February-30 March 1945 458
42.  Berlin, 16 April-7 May 1945 468

Note. Where solid-line boxes appear on a map, they denote Soviet units; where broken-line boxes appear, they denote German units.


Illustrations
 
  Page
A Russian Highway 7
Adolf Hitler Conferring with Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel and Generaloberst Walter von Brauchitsch 11
Street Scene in Voronezh 19
Soviet T34 Tank 27
Soviet POW's after the Battle of Kharkov 35
Germans Advancing Toward Stalingrad 40
Bridging an Arm of the Don 42
Stalingrad in Flames 43
The Swastika Over Red Square, Stalingrad 45
Germans Amid the Ruins of Stalingrad 47
Generalfeldmarschall Maximilian von Weichs, General der Panzertruppen Friedrich Paulus, and General der Artillerie Walter von Seydlitz-Kurzbach 60
Devastation Along a Railroad 77
Wrecked German Equipment 80
General Leytenant Nikita S. Khrushchev and General Armii Rodion I. Malinovskiy 87
Mounted Soviet Troops Pass Wrecked German Aircraft 88
Germans Attacking South Near the Mius Line 89
Generalfeldmarschall Fritz Erich von Manstein and Hitler 93
Soviet Gun Emplacement Near Rzhev 100
Partisans in the Bryansk Forest 104
Soviet Tanks Approach Velikiye Luki 107
Marshal Carl Mannerheim 108
Germans Checking Telephone Line, Northern Front 112
Russian Evacuees on the Road 116
Generaloberst Walter Model and General der Infanterie Karl Hollidt 139
Soviet Antiaircraft Gun Firing Near Orel 140
Soviet Troops Nearing Orel 153
Soviet Troops Storm a Burning Town 158
German Self-Propelled Assault Gun 161
Soviet Troops Boarding a Raft on a Branch of the Dnepr 172
Ukrainian Evacuees 173
The Dnepr Below Kiev 175
Soviet Artillery Near Kiev 178
Generals Armii Ivan S. Konev and Georgi K. Zhukov 182
Soviet Troops Crossing the Dnepr 183
Kiev Casualty 185
Panje Wagon in the Pripyat Marshes 194
A German Soldier Surrenders 201
A Mounted Cossack 202
Soviet Assault Gun, 1943 229
Wreckage-Strewn Path of German Breakout, Cherkassy 236
Soviet Rocket Fire Near Dzhurzhentsy 237
Searching for Mines Outside Tsarskoye Selo Palace 254
Civilians in Leningrad After the Siege 255
Narva 260
Soviet Ski Troops 263
Soviet Cavalry in Action 266
Typical Terrain Along the Dnepr 283
Bridge on the Dnestr 290
Sevastopol Harbor 294
Soviet Troops on Sapun Heights 295
A Partisan in Action 305
Russian Peasant Family 306
Soviet Motorcycle Troops 320
A Russian Woman Attacks a German Prisoner 322
Soviet Machine Gun Crew 327
German Prisoners of War in Moscow 330
Immobilized German Tank 338
Soviet Submachine Gunner Attacking 354
Soviet Tanks 357
Tito With Partisan Leaders 368
Yugoslav Partisans 376
German Outpost in Finland 393
German Troops With Reindeer and Sleds 397
Soviet Troops in American-Built Trucks 408
Soviet Planes on a Mission 417
Soviet Infantrymen Approach a Disabled German Tank 443
Soviet and U.S. Troops, Torgau 482
German Troops Clogging a Road 486
The Reichstag 489
The Chancellory 494
German Prisoner of War Camp 495
Generaloberst Alfred Jodl Arriving at Reims 497
Generalfeldmarschall Keitel Signing the Surrender Terms 499



Transcribed and formatted by Jerry Holden for the HyperWar Foundation