Artillery offensive

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The artillery offensive was a tactical concept for the use of artillery in the Red Army or Soviet Army .

The concept was not only to carry out artillery preparation in the event of an attack, but also to offer the attacking troops permanent artillery support. A distinction was made between three phases:

  • Artillery preparation
  • Artillery support of the attack
  • Artillery support in the depths of enemy defenses

This resulted in the massive use of guns in direct aiming. The concept was introduced on January 10, 1942 by an order from Josef Stalin . For the first time it was used in full in Operation Uranus , the counter-offensive at Stalingrad . The beginning on November 19 is therefore still celebrated today as the day of the rocket troops and artillery .

Soviet authors praised it as a revolution in the art of war, which proved the superiority of Soviet teaching. In a study by German generals of their experiences in the war against the Soviet Union, it was claimed that the Soviet artillery only rarely succeeded in following the infantry; this often took away the momentum from Soviet attacks.

According to General Pawel I. Batow , a kind of department spirit of the artillerymen had to be overcome, who often believed that the artillery preparation was done. In order to increase contact, the artillery observation posts were relocated to the infantry positions. According to Batow, the fighting on the Volga established the brotherhood of arms between infantry, artillery and armored forces.

Analogous to this, there was the air offensive in the air force .

literature

  • Raymond L. Garthoff: The Soviet Army. Essence and teaching. Cologne 1955, p. 348 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Soviet Military Review. 1/1982, Moscow 1982, p. 40 ff. Full view in the Google book search
  2. ↑ United States Army. European Command. Historical Division: Russian combat methods in World War II: Historical study . Dept. of the Army, 1950, p. 20.
  3. ↑ Pawel I. Batow : From the Volga to the Oder . Berlin 1965, pp. 46 f and 133.
  4. ↑ Olaf Groehler : History of the air war . Berlin 1981, p. 348.