In 1941 the Soviet Union had 25 000 tanks.
These were decimated during the German invasion, but during the next year the Soviets had produced
another 25 000 tanks.
The German operations that year were less impressive and could destroy only part of
them.
By the winter of 1942 the Soviets had enough tanks for a large counteroffensive.
A big thanks to Paradox Interactive who I'm collaborating with on this video.
They just released a new expansion for Hearts of Iron 4, a game, which can be summed up
as an interactive version of Eastory map videos.
It is one of the best world war two games I've ever played.
I'll talk more about it at the end of this video.
The Soviet armor was organized into armored corps.
These units would hit hard and move fast, but their tanks usually quickly broke down
or were destroyed by the enemy and these units could only be used once during the offensive.
The success of this offensive would be decided by how the Soviets would deploy their 29 armored
corps.
In November of 1942 the Soviets had half of their armored corps on the southern part of
the front.
Their mission was to cut off the German troops in the Caucasus.
The operation would have 3 stages, each completed by a different group of units.
First group would cut off and destroy the Axis forces around Stalingrad and secure the
eastern flank of the Soviet advance.
Then the second group would encircle and eliminate the Axis forces on the western flank.
Finally the third group would be brought in, advance to the sea and cut off the Germans
in the Caucasus.
6 armored corps were committed to the first phase of the operation.
The attack was successful and the Soviet troops linked up and the Axis forces around Stalingrad
were cut off.
But not all went according to the plan.
The German Stalingrad garrison was more numerous than expected and the Soviets could not make
them surrender.
Although encircling a large number of enemy soldiers was a good thing, it left the Soviet
forces tied up around the city and they had to delay the next phase of the offensive.
After several weeks they were ready to continue, but the Germans had meanwhile gathered all
of their available forces and attacked to reestablish land connection with Stalingrad.
The Red Army directed all of its efforts to prevent the Germans linking up and allowing
the encircled forces to escape.
To divert the German forces from the Stalingrad attack they began the second stage of the
operation.
The third group, which was originally to carry out the last phase, was sent to prevent the
Germans linking up near Stalingrad.
It turned out that the German attack was not that strong and the Soviets stopped it without
much difficulty.
At the same time the Soviet western attack was a massive success.
The armored corps cut off the Italian and Romanian forces, who withdrew but suffered
such a large number of casualties that they had to be removed from the front.
A large gap emerged in the German lines.
The Soviets could now attack towards the sea, but the forces that were to do that were already
sent to Stalingrad.
The Germans began to withdraw and the Soviet armored corps attempted to break through and
reach the sea from this direction, but they could not fully breach the German front and
depleted their tank strength without reaching their goal.
With this the German garrison in Stalingrad was doomed.
It would continue to hold up for another month until the last soldiers were forced to surrender.
With these offensives the Axis on the Eastern front had lost more than half a million men
out of 3,5 million and now had a large gap in the front.
To plug this gap they needed to free up forces by shortening the front line.
They decided to withdraw from the Caucasus to get 3 mobile divisions.
They also sent 4 elite mobile divisions from the west.
But it would take more than a month for these forces to arrive.
All of the Soviet armored corps on the southern part of the front were now committed and the
free corps were mostly in the north.
They shifted the operations north and starting from the gap in the front would encircle small
parts of the German forces in succession and in this way roll up all of their front.
For the first operation they deployed 2 armored corps.
These moved through the open flank deep behind the Italian and Hungarian forces and linked
up with the Red Army units coming from the other side, leaving a large group of Axis
forces encircled.
Then the offensive continued to the north and with the help of another corps several
German and Hungarian divisions were cut off.
A Large part of the Axis forces was able to escape the encirclement but the Hungarian
and Italian troops were soon sent away from the front.
This was a major success and the Soviets would continue rolling up the front with 3 of their
fresh armored corps.
The Germans wanted to prevent another encirclement at all costs.
They held a large salient from which they threatened Moscow.
To get the reinforcements to stop the Soviets, they had to abandon this advantageous position.
10 of the freed up divisions were used to strengthen their positions in the south.
These forces were enough to stop the next Soviet attacks and the Soviets had to abandon
their strategy of rolling up the German front.
Most of the Soviet uncommitted armored corps still remained in the north and only two were
sent to the southern part of the front.
Here the few remaining German forces could not form a continuous front and the Soviets
carried on with their advance.
In the center they used some of their partially depleted armored corps to advance and take
the important city of Kharkov.
Further south they deployed two of their last uncommitted armored corps in another attempt
to reach the sea and cut off the Germans.
The Soviet armor advanced behind the German lines.
By that time German reinforcements had arrived.
They had received 2 tank divisions from the Caucasus and had freed up 3 more by shortening
the front.
They launched a surprise attack and encircled and destroyed two of the Soviet armored corps.
4 German armored divisions had also arrived from the west.
They moved south and cut off and destroyed another Soviet armored formation.
The Germans turned north and continued to advance.
The Soviets now dispatched their armored corps from the north to halt the German offensive.
6 German mobile divisions proceeded north, and destroyed another two weakened Soviet
corps.
The Soviets deployed their armor to stop the Germans in the north, but they were too weak
and were beaten back.
3 of the fresh Soviet armored corps were deployed on the German path of advance and 2 more were
coming up.
But there was to be no clash between these forces because by that time the spring thaw
began making the roads unusable.
After the thaw ended neither side could go on the offensive, as their tank forces were
depleted.
It took three months to build them up once again and by the summer of 1943 the Soviets
had formed 34 armored corps , while the Germans had gathered 20 tank divisions to the Southern
part of the Eastern front.
These large armored forces would clash around the town of Kursk, in the largest tank battle
in history.
But that is another story.
I bet you have some ideas of what strategies the Soviets should have used to be more successful.
For example, they could have allowed Germans to link up with their Stalingrad garrison,
but at the same time launch an attack towards the sea and cut the communications for all
of their forces.
This would add to the 20 divisions encircled in Stalingrad also 30 more Axis divisions
cut off in other parts of the front.
If only there was a way to examine how this strategy could have played out…
If you like looking at units moving on the map, then you might be interested in giving
orders to them yourself in Hearts of Iron 4.
This is a grand strategy game set during World War Two that lets you test out all of your
battle strategies.
Research new tank models, design your armor from different components and put them into
production, form the tanks into divisions and tailor them for the exact task at hand,
deploy them to the front lines and assign them battle plans.
Encircle the enemy's forces on land, drop paratroopers behind their lines and launch
amphibious assaults to outflank their defences.
The new DLC “No Step back” makes the Eastern front experience even better with New focus
trees, the improved railroad supply system, and the ability of giving your army a proper
spirit.
And, last but not least, with No Step Back you can now use my native country of Estonia
to invade Scandinavia and force it to be recognized as a proper Nordic country.
Check out Hearts of Iron 4 and No Step Back from the link in the description and remember,
by trying out the game, you will also support our war effort!