Battle of Velikiye Luki

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German relief attempt

The Battle of Velikiye Luki ( Russian Великолукская операция ) was an offensive operation by the Red Army that lasted from November 24, 1942 to January 20, 1943. Bodo Scheurig , the biographer Henning von Tresckows , called it "a small Stalingrad" that was sacrificed "also as a result of extreme stubbornness".

prehistory

The left wing of the Kalinin Front under Maxim Purkayev had orders to support Operation Mars (attack on the Rzhev front arc) through the attack of the 3rd Shock Army under General Galitzki . The 3rd shock army should break through the front of the " Group of the Chevallerie " ( LIX. Army Corps ) between Chernosjem and Shirpina and first reach the line between Lake Jiwan via Novosokolniki and Lake Znamenskoye . The 2nd Mechanized Corps arrived as reinforcement on November 13th, consisting of 13,620 soldiers and 215 tanks, including 112 of the T-34 type .

course

Soviet offensive

On November 24, 1942, the advance units (9th, 46th and 357th Rifle Divisions and 21st Guards Divisions) attacked General Galitzkis' main force on the following day. Since the beginning of November the 3rd Mountain Division (General Kreysing ) and the East Prussian 291st Infantry Division (Major General Goeritz) had been relocated to the Novosokolniki area to secure the railway line between Newel and Velikije Luki. After bitter fighting in the area with numerous forests and swamps, the German defense lines were breached, the German 83rd Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Scherer ) smashed and Welikije Luki with around 7,500 members of the Wehrmacht enclosed by the Estonian 8th Rifle Corps (General Pärn ) . To the north of Chernozem, the Mountain Infantry Regiment 138 (Colonel Klatt ) together with the Grenadier Regiment 257 (Colonel Meyer) managed to contain the breakthrough of the Soviet 2nd Mechanical Corps (General Korchagin ) and until November 26th against the 5th Guards Rifle Corps (General Beloborodow ) to build a barrier front on the village line Jeschewitzy - Meschutkinio - Waraksino.

Among the units included in Velikiye Luki (which were subordinate to Army Group North ) were the Grenadier Regiment 277, the Launcher Regiment 3, the Army Flak Division 286, the Artillery Regiment 70, the Artillery Regiment 183 and the Army Artillery Division 736 as well various rear services. The command of these trapped units was transferred to Lieutenant Colonel von Saß, the commander of the 277th Grenadier Regiment.

By December 10th, the Soviet troops extended their area of ​​penetration to a depth of 25 to 30 kilometers and reached the railway line in two places, which connected the German army groups center and north. The OKW moved additional units and tried to relieve the German troops in the city. The Soviet 381st Rifle Division advanced north of the town of Novosokolniki, which had been expanded into a fortress by the 3rd Mountain Division, along the railway line to Gorky and Dno, while a tank brigade in the southwest of the fortress reached Schubino and Kozlova.

Unsuccessful German relief attempts

Several attempts at relief by the 8th Panzer Division under General Brandenberger , the Klatt group and the 291st Infantry Division failed. At the end of December, the German occupation had to give up the western part of the city and retreat to the Velikije Luki citadel. A last third relief attempt ( Operation Totila ) started on January 4th by the 8th Panzer Division by the 331st Infantry Division (Colonel Beyer), Kampfgruppe Tribukait and parts of the 205th Infantry Division came close to Velikije Luki, but remained just as unsuccessful. On December 14th, the 12th Panzer Division was brought in from the Lutschessa Valley near Belyi for relief.

On January 17, 1943, the German occupation under Lieutenant Colonel von Saß was finally overwhelmed and had to surrender. The Soviets took 3,944 prisoners (including 54 officers), captured 113 artillery pieces, 97 mortars, 20 tanks and assault guns. The Red Army lost 104,000 men (23,000 of them dead and missing).

War crimes allegations

In 1946, 8 members of the 277 Infantry Regiment, including the two regimental commanders Fritz-Georg von Rappard and Eduard Freiherr von Saß , were hanged in Velikiye Luki after being sentenced by a military tribunal of the Red Army. The allegation was war crimes and crimes against the population in Velikiye Luki and in the anti- partisan operation "Greif" in the Vitebsk area .

Board game about battle

The US board game White Death - Velikiye Luki, Stalingrad of the north about battle has existed since 1979 .

literature

  • Alexei W. Isajew (Алексей Валерьевич Исаев): Перелом 1942-Когда внезапности уже не было , - Moskwa Яуза, Эксмо-, 2012 ISBN 97837-5699-599-532-7
  • Paul Klatt : 3rd Mountain Division 1939–1945 , Podzun Verlag, Bad Nauheim 1958, pp. 107–125

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bodo Scheurig: Henning von Tresckow. A biography. Stalling, Oldenburg 1973, p. 136.
  2. ↑ ОБОРОНИТЕЛЬНАЯ ОПЕРАЦИЯ В ЛИТВЕ И ЛАТВИИ ( Memento from March 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Andreas Weigelt, Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944–1947) , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, p. 581; Excerpt from books.google.de
  4. ^ White Death - Velikiye Luki, Stalingrad of the north