After Stalingrad

The Red Army's Winter Offensive, 1942-1943

David M. Glantz

• Publisher: Helion and Company
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN: 9781907677823
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War II
• Index: History

In the wake of the Red Army's signal victory at Stalingrad, which began when its surprise counteroffensive encircled German Sixth Army in Stalingrad region in mid-November 1942 and ended when its forces liquidated beleaguered Sixth Army in early February 1943, the Soviet High Command (Stavka) expanded its counteroffensive into a full-fledged winter offensive which nearly collapsed German defenses in southern Russia. Exploiting newly released Russian archival materials, After Stalingrad reveals the unbounded ambitions that shaped the Stavka's winter offensive and the full scope and scale of the Red Army's many offensive operations. For example, it reflects on recently rediscovered Operation Mars, Marshal Zhukov's companion-piece to the more famous Operation Uranus at Stalingrad. It then reexamines the Red Army's dramatic offensive into the Donbas and Khar'kov region during February, clearly demonstrating that this offensive was indeed conducted by three rather than two Red Army fronts. Likewise, it describes how the Stavka expanded the scale of its offensive in mid-February 1943 by ordering major strategic efforts, hitherto ignored, by multiple Red Army fronts along the Western (Orel-Smolensk) axis and, in Zhukov's forgotten operation Polar Star, along the Northwestern (Demiansk-Leningrad) axis as well. Finally, by restoring the full scope of these failed or partially failed Red Army offensives to history, this volume also reassesses the impact of Manstein's dramatic counterstrokes in the Donbas and Khar'kov regions, concluding that their impact was equivalent to that of a full-fledged strategic counteroffensive. This new study includes over 100 operational maps to highlight key aspects of the offensives.

Table of contents

• List of Illustrations
• List of Maps
• List of Figures
• Preface
• 1. Overview
• PART 1 – SOVIET OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE STALINGRAD OFFENSIVE (NOVEMBER 1942-JANUARY 1943)
• 2. The Kalinin and Western Fronts’ 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive (Operation Mars) (25 November–16 December 1942)
• 3. The Northwestern Front’s Demiansk Offensive (28 November 1942–6 January 1943)
• PART 2 – SOVIET OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS ALONG THE SOUTHWESTERN AXIS (FEBRUARY-MARCH 1943)
• 4. The Southwestern Front’s Voroshilovgrad (Donbas) Offensive (Operation Gallop [Skachok]) (29 January–18 February 1943)
• 5. The Southern Front’s Mariupol’ (Donbas) Offensive (16–22 February 1943)
• PART 3 – SOVIET OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS ALONG THE WESTERN (CENTRAL) AXIS (FEBRUARY-MARCH 1943)
• 6. The Briansk Front’s Orel Offensive and the Voronezh Front’s (60th and 38th Armies’) L’gov and Sumy Offensives (26 January–12 February 1943)
• 7. The Central, Briansk, and Western Fronts’ Orel, Briansk, and Smolensk Offensive (15 February–6 March 1943)
• 8. The Kalinin, Western, Briansk, and Central Fronts’ Orel, Briansk, and Smolensk Offensive (7–21 March 1943)
• PART 4 – SOVIET OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS ALONG THE NORTHWESTERN AXIS (FEBRUARY-MARCH 1943)
• 9. The Leningrad, Volkhov, and Northwestern Fronts’ Operation Polar Star (Demiansk) (15–28 February)
• 10. The Leningrad, Volkhov, Northwestern Front’s Truncated Operation Polar Star (Staraia Russa) (4 March–2 April 1943)
• 11. Conclusions
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index