The Rzhev-Sychevsk operation is one of those offensive operations that Soviet historians were silent about. It was not customary to talk about her, since she completely failed. The Rzhev-Sychevsk operation is divided into the First and Second offensive operations. It is about them that will be discussed in this article.
The first Rzhev-Sychevsk operation of 1942 (June 30 - October 1): goal
The goal of the offensive operation is to defeat the 9th German Army, Colonel-General V. Model, who was defending the ledge near Rzhev and Vyazma. After the Soviet troops heroically recaptured our capital, the Headquarters fell into a victorious euphoria. It seemed to everyone that the final turning point in the war had finally come. And since 1942, our army began offensive operations that nullified all the victories of the end of 1941. The Rzhev-Sychevskaya operation was a continuation of the previous, Rzhev-Vyazemskaya operation in the spring of 1942. During the last we lost about 700 thousand people.
The Rzhev-Sychevskaya offensive operation was carried out by the actions of the same two fronts that carried outRzhev-Vyazemsky operation: Kalininsky, led by Colonel General I. S. Konev and Western, under the command of Army General G. K. Zhukov. The latter led the entire operation.
Plan
The idea of the offensive was to surround the Model grouping with two fronts. On the left, the Kalinin Front acted in the Rzhev direction, on the right, the Western Front in the Sychevsky direction.
As a result of this operation, the Soviet troops intended to capture Rzhev, Zubtsovo, Sychevka, Gzhatsk, Vyazma. After that, it was possible to firmly gain a foothold at the turn of the Volga and close the direction of Stalingrad and the Caucasian oil fields from the Germans.
Components of an operation
The main operation is conditionally subdivided into several local ones:
- Rzhevskaya - carried out by the 30th Army of the Kalinin Front.
- Rzhev-Zubtsovskaya - carried out by the joint flank forces of the two fronts.
- Pogorelo-Gorodishchenskaya - by the troops of the Western Front (20th Army).
- Gzhatskaya - carried out by the forces of two armies of the Western Front (5th and 33rd).
Forces of the Soviet side
In total, six combined arms, 2 air armies and 5 corps participated. Excluding corps, the two fronts had 67 artillery units, 37 mortar battalions, and 21 tank brigades at their disposal. This whole grouping numbered about half a million people and more than 1.5 thousand tanks.
Start of the offensive of the Kalinin Front
On June 30, the offensive of the 30th and 29th armies began. It rained heavily that day, but the plan was not abandoned. As a result, the armies broke through the defenses to a width of 9 km and a depth of 7 km. Before Rzhev there were some 5-6 kilometers. Then the armies regrouped and on August 10 went on the offensive again.
The offensive operation was characterized by methodical slow - up to 1-2 km per day - piercing through the enemy's well-fortified defenses and huge losses. It is later, taking into account all the experience of 1942, the Soviet troops will rapidly advance in unexpected places, using sudden tactics (Operations Bagration, Saturn, Uranus, etc.). And in 1942, our troops launched frontal attacks on well-fortified positions without the support of aviation and artillery. Only by August 21, the 30th Army occupied Polunino.
Offensive of Zhukov's army (Western Front)
Zhukov's front was supposed to take advantage of the swift attack of the Kalinin front, after which, according to the plan of the Soviet command, the Germans were to transfer reinforcements from one sector to another, weakening one of the flanks. It was on him that the troops of the Western Front were supposed to hit on August 2.
However, the Kalinin Front had very modest success in weakening the German defense. Added to this were heavy torrential rains, which hampered the advance. Zhukov decided to postpone the offensive of his front to August 4.
August 4, the troops of the Western Front struck in the area of Pogorely Gorodishche. The successes were better than those of the troopsKonev: in two days they broke through a section of the front to a width of 18 km and a depth of 30 km. The 161st German Infantry Division was defeated. However, the ultimate goal of the strike - the capture of Zubtsov and Karmanovo - was not achieved.
From August 4 to August 8, there were battles to cross the Vazuza, and on August 9 there was a major tank battle, in which up to 800 Soviet and up to 700 German tanks participated in the Karmanov area. Defeat here threatened the left flank of our second front. As a result, the Soviet grouping was reinforced with reinforcements from other sectors of the front.
As a result of the maneuvering of the German forces, the Soviet attack bogged down. It was decided to take Karmanovo with the main forces, weakening the blow to Sychevka.
Throughout August and September, Soviet troops waged stubborn battles to capture heavily fortified small settlements. The most interesting thing is that after the defeat of the Soviet troops and the destruction of entire armies for insignificant towns and villages, the Germans themselves left them without a fight, in order to level the line of defense.
September 27, Rzhev managed to take, but the German reserves easily drove our troops out of the city. On October 1, the fighting ended.
Losses
As a result of the senseless Rzhev-Sychevsk operation, losses reached 300 thousand people. Most of the people died. The loss of tanks amounted to more than 1 thousand vehicles.
In total, the Germans lost about 60 thousand people, but almost 50 thousand of them were wounded, that is, they returned to duty after the hospital. The difference in losses is huge.
Second Rzhev-Sychev operation
The second operation took place from November 25 to December 201942 on the same two fronts as the First. And the same Zhukov led the actions of our troops, but this time he gave the Western Front to Colonel General M. A. Purkaev. The entire operation was codenamed Mars.
The purpose of the operation was the same as that of the First: the capture of the well-fortified Sychevka, where the headquarters of V. Model was located.
The operation ended with the complete defeat of the Soviet forces, but there is a version that the Germans were specifically notified of the operation in order to transfer all available forces to this area. As a result, it became possible to encircle the German group near Stalingrad (Operation Uranus) to the detriment of Zhukov's almost one million army. And the Germans simply did not have enough strength to release Paulus near Stalingrad, since almost all the reserves were concentrated near Rzhev.
Losses of the parties after Operation Mars
The Soviet side lost more than 420 thousand killed during the second Rzhev-Sychevsk operation. Taking into account the wounded, these figures reach 700 thousand - 1 million people.
The losses of the Germans amounted to 40-45 thousand people, taking into account the dead and wounded.
Results
The entire offensive campaign of 1942 practically leveled the advantage that was achieved by the counteroffensive near our capital. The success near Moscow seemed to cloud the mind of the military leadership of our country, and it forgot about the strength of the German military machine. Only the irretrievable loss of about one and a half million soldiers again forced a sober assessment of the entire catastrophe of the fascist invasion. It was the failures of 1942 that became the prerequisites for the issuance of Order No. 227, known as "Not a step back." Also, unsuccessful campaigns of this year led to the capture of the famous General A. Vlasov, who received a high award for the Battle of Moscow.
