Yelnya offensive

Yelnya offensive

Part of: Second World War

date	August 30th to September 8th, 1941
place	Jelnya , Soviet Union
output	Soviet victory
consequences	First reconquest of Soviet territory

Parties to the conflict
German Empire	Soviet Union
Commander
Fedor von Bock	Georgi Zhukov Konstantin Rakutin †
Troop strength
IX. Army Corps XX. Army Corps 40,000 men 500 guns	24th Army 103,000 men and 800 guns
losses
10,000 dead, missing, wounded	10,701 dead and missing 21,152 wounded

Soviet military cemetery in Jelnya

The Soviet Yelnya Offensive (August 30 - September 8, 1941; Russian Ельнинская операция ) was a military enterprise of the Soviet Army at the same time as the Battle of Smolensk during the German-Soviet War . Jelnja is located around 50 kilometers southeast of Smolensk .

prehistory

On July 19, 1941, the German XXXXVI. Army Corps (mot.) ( General of the Panzer Troops von Vietinghoff ) entered Jelnja, broke through the defensive positions of the 19th Rifle Division and cut off the local railway line. The German 10th Panzer Division and the SS Division Das Reich formed the so-called Jelnja-Bogen. This threatened the supply of the Soviet 16th and 20th armies , which were encircled northwest of Jelnja in the Smolensk area. From the edge of the front, the German leadership had the opportunity to operate against the southern flank of the western front in the direction of Vyazma and to advance on the shortest route to Moscow.

After the first unsuccessful Soviet counter-attacks with the 19th and 120th Rifle Divisions, which were supported by the 104th Panzer Division, the command of the reserve front released the 105th Panzer Division and the 106th Motorized Rifle Division to reinforce the 24th Army. After the transfer of the 104th Panzer Division to the 28th Army of General Katschalow in the Roslavl area on July 21, the 105th Panzer Division took up their previous positions.

On August 17th, the troops of the 24th Army resumed their unsuccessful counterattacks on the bridgehead. At the time, five divisions of the XX. Army Corps of the German 4th Army were involved. On August 21, the Commander-in-Chief of the Reserve Front, Georgi Zhukov , ordered a decisive counter-offensive to lift the German threat from the front line. After the regrouping of the German Panzer Group 2 to the south, the German IX. Army Corps took over the security in the semicircular Jelnja front ledge.

course

On August 30th at 7 a.m. the Soviet 24th Army under Major General KI Rakutin launched a double-sided attack against the front arch. From right to left, the following major associations took part in the offensive:

• 102nd Armored Division (Colonel Ivan D. Illarionov)
• 100th Rifle Division (Major General IN Russijanov)
• 107th Rifle Division (Colonel PV Mironov)
• 303rd Rifle Division (Colonel NP Rudnev)
• 19th Rifle Division (Major General JG Kotelnikow)
• 309th Rifle Division (Colonel NA Ilyantzew)
• 103rd Motorized Rifle Division (Major General II Birichew)
• 120th Rifle Division (Major General KI Petrov)
• 106th Motorized Rifle Division (Colonel AN Pervuschin)

The attack took place with heavy use of artillery. Rakutin could muster 60 artillery pieces and grenade launchers per kilometer.

On the German side, the IX. Army corps under General of the Infantry Hermann Geyer and the XX. Army corps (General of the Infantry Friedrich Materna ) with six infantry divisions. From left to right the 263rd , 137th , 15th , 78th , 292nd , 268th and 7th Infantry Divisions stood in the front arc.

On September 2, the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Center Fedor von Bock reported "heavy losses of the troops" and decided to clear the sheet because, as he noted in his diary, "the divisions deployed there" would "bleed to death" over time. The offensive south of the front arc by the 43rd and 50th Armies began on September 2nd. The Soviet troops (217th, 279th, 273rd and 290th Rifle Divisions) encountered stubborn resistance from the enemy and were unable to break through the defense of the VII Army Corps .

By September 6th, the Soviet troops were able to recapture the city of Jelnja. Under heavy pressure on the flanks, the Wehrmacht evacuated the area on September 8, 1941, leaving behind a devastated and depopulated region.

consequences

In addition to the success of the 24th Army, the simultaneous offensive of the 43rd Army attacking from the south in the Roslavl-Novosybkov operation failed completely. The commander of the 43rd Army, General Dmitri M. Seleznev was then replaced by Major General PP Sobennikow . The Yelnya offensive was the first major setback the Wehrmacht suffered during Operation Barbarossa , and the first recapture of Soviet territory by the Red Army . After a series of devastating defeats by the Red Army at the beginning of the German-Soviet War, the victorious Yelnya offensive was highlighted by the Soviet propaganda aimed at raising troop morale. For the first time in the war, the Soviet units involved in the success were renamed and honored with the title of Guard Division.

literature

• David M. Glantz , Jonathan House: When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas 1995, ISBN 0-7006-0899-0 .
• Glantz, David; House, Jonathan (2015): When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-2121-7 .
• Glantz, David (2010): The Soviet-German War, 1941–1945: Myths and Realities . United States Army War College.
• Khoroshilov, G. (Col.); Bazhenov, A. (Maj.) (1974): Yelnya Offensive Operation of 1941 (Russian: Полковник Г. Хорошилов, майор А. Баженов, Ельнинская Ельнинская ельнинская наступательная-жосту жяеная насту “жяельная-циступательная-цисту" жяельная 1974 , жосту "жяенрая наступательная-насату" желеная-цисту "желеная 1974. Military Historical Journal (9).
• Stahel, David (2009): Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76847-4 .
• Werth, Alexander (1964): Russia at War 1941–1945. New York: EP Dutton & Co. OCLC 613727310.

Web links

• Situation map (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} David M. Glantz : Barbarossa Derailed. The German Offensives on the Flanks and the Third Soviet Counteroffensive, 25 August-10 September 1941 . Helion & Company Limited 2012, Volume 2, Chapter 7.
2. ^ Franz Halder : War diary. Daily records of the Chief of the Army General Staff 1939–1942 . Stuttgart 1962, Volume 3, p. 211.
3. ↑ Klaus Gerbet (Ed.): Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock. The war diary . Berlin 1995, p. 267.
4. ↑ An order from the reserve front to the troops announced a "brilliant victory". Order printed at: Alexander Hill: The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 1941-45. A documentary reader . Abingdon 2009, Document 45.