The Rzhev-Sychevsky operation is one of those offensive operations that Soviet historians were silent about. It was not customary to talk about her, since she had completely failed. The Rzhev-Sychev operation is divided into the First and Second offensive operations. It is about them that will be discussed in this article.
The first Rzhev-Sychevsky operation of 1942 (June 30 - October 1): target
The purpose of the offensive operation is the defeat of the 9th German army, Colonel General V. Model, who defended the ledge near Rzhev and Vyazma. After the Soviet troops heroically recaptured our capital, the Headquarters fell into victorious euphoria. It seemed to everyone that finally came the final turning point in the war. And since 1942, our army began offensive operations, which brought to naught all the victories of the end of 1941. The Rzhev-Sychev operation was a continuation of the previous, Rzhev-Vyazemsky operation in the spring of 1942. During the last, we lost about 700 thousand people.
The Rzhev-Sychevsky offensive operation was carried out by the actions of the same two fronts that carried out the Rzhev-Vyazemsky operation: Kalininsky, headed by Colonel-General I.S. Konev and Zapadny, 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 Group of the Model with two fronts. On the left, the Kalinin Front operated on the Rzhevsky direction, on the right - the Western Front on the Sychevsky direction.
As a result of this operation, Soviet troops intended to seize Rzhev, Zubtsov, Sychevka, Gzhatsky, Vyazma. After that, it was possible to firmly gain a foothold at the turn of the Volga and close the lines of Stalingrad and the Caucasian oil fields from the Germans.
The constituent parts of the operation
The main operation is conditionally divided into several local ones:
- Rzhevskaya - was carried out by the 30th Army of the Kalinin Front.
- Rzhevsko-Zubtsovskaya - was carried out by the joint flank forces of two fronts.
- Pogorelo-Gorodishchenskaya - by the troops of the Western Front (20th Army).
- Gzhatskaya - was carried out by the forces of two armies of the Western Front (5th and 33rd).
Soviet forces
In total, six combined arms, 2 air armies and 5 corps took part. Excluding hulls, the two fronts had at their disposal 67 artillery units, 37 mortar divisions, and 21 tank brigades. The whole group consisted of about half a million people and more than 1.5 thousand tanks.
The beginning 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 army broke through the defense to a width of 9 km and a depth of 7 km. To Rzhev was some 5-6 kilometers. Then the armies underwent a regrouping and on August 10 they again went on the offensive.
The offensive operation was distinguished by a methodological slow - up to 1-2 km per day - gnawing into a well-fortified enemy defenses and huge losses. This 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" and others). And in 1942, our troops went into frontal attacks on well-fortified positions without the support of aviation and artillery. It was not until August 21 that the 30th Army occupied Polunino.
Offensive of the Zhukov Army (Western Front)
Zhukov’s front was supposed to take advantage of the rapid attack of the Kalinin Front, after which, according to the Soviet command, the Germans had to transfer reinforcements from one section to another, weakening one of the flanks. It was on him that the troops of the Western Front were to strike on August 2.
However, the Kalinin Front had very modest successes in weakening the German defense. To this could be added heavy torrential rains, which impeded the advance. Zhukov decided to postpone the advance of his front on August 4.
On August 4, troops of the Western Front hit the area of the Burned Hillfort. Success was better than that of Konev’s troops: 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 8, battles were held to force Vazuza, and on August 9 there was a major battle of tanks, in which up to 800 Soviet and up to 700 German tanks took part in the Karmanov area. The defeat here threatened the left flank of our second front. As a result, the Soviet group was reinforced with reinforcements from other sectors of the front.
As a result of the maneuvering of German forces, the Soviet attack was stifled. It was decided to take Karmanovo with the main forces, weakening the blow to Sychevka.
Throughout August and September, Soviet troops fought 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 knocked out our troops from the city. October 1, the fighting ended.
Losses
As a result of the meaningless Rzhev-Sychevsky operation, losses reached 300 thousand people. Most 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 injured, that is, they returned to duty again after the hospital. The difference in losses is huge.
The second Rzhev-Sychevsky operation
The second operation took place from November 25 to December 20, 1942 by 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. Purkayev. The entire operation took place under the code name "Mars".
The purpose of the operation was the same as that of the First: to capture the well-fortified Sychevka, where V. Model’s headquarters was located.
The operation ended in the complete defeat of the Soviet forces, however, there is a version that the Germans were specially informed about the operation to transfer all available forces to this section. As a result of this, it became possible to encircle a German group near Stalingrad (Operation Uranus) to the detriment of Zhukov’s almost million-strong 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 parties after the operation "Mars"
The Soviet side lost more than 420 thousand dead during the second Rzhev-Sychev operation. Given 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 killed and wounded.
Summary
The entire offensive campaign of 1942 almost eliminated the advantage that was achieved by the counter-offensive under our capital. 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 made us soberly evaluate the entire catastrophe of the fascist invasion. It was the failures of 1942 that became the prerequisites for the publication of Order No. 227, known as "Not a Step Back." Also, the unsuccessful campaigns of this year led to the capture of the celebrated General A. Vlasov, who received a high award for the Battle of Moscow.