German tanks line up to attack in the open, which was typical of the first phase of hostilities on the Eastern Front in July 1941.
The location of the operator and the lack of uniform weapons among the members of the detachment suggests that this volley of anti-tank guns on Soviet armored vehicles can be dated to the end of June - the beginning of July 1941.
The German army remained two-tier, with modern tank formations and grenadier units from the last war. The photograph shows German cavalry crossing a bridge in Russia, summer 1941.
The wide Russian rivers turned out to be a less reliable barrier than the defenders had hoped. Pictured are German troops in rubber boats crossing the Dnieper in July.
In Russia in 1941, the Germans won battle after battle as they had before in Poland in 1939 and France and the Netherlands in 1940 with effective air support. This picture shows a camouflaged Russian airfield under a "hail of bombs".
March into the depths of Russia, September 1941. Most German soldiers, like their fathers and grandfathers, went into battle on foot or on horseback.
Rapid German tank strikes created huge "cauldrons" into which many army units fell: according to German data, as of July 11, there were already more than 400 thousand prisoners of war.
German machine gun post controls the street in Kharkov October 1941
Narva, located on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, witnessed the Russian defeat by the Swedish army of Charles XII in 1700. The photo shows German infantry passing under the old fortifications, September 1941.
Ukrainian peasants are following the orders of German soldiers. Most of the population of the areas occupied by the Germans did not perceive what was happening as getting rid of the Soviet yoke and the Germans' inability to recognize this fact was their main political and strategic failure.
This photograph, taken in January 1942, shows civilians being shot by the Germans in a schoolyard in Rostov-on-Don.
The German occupation was tough and helped alienate the masses of people who initially welcomed the Germans. In this photograph without a date found on a prisoner German soldier we see how German officer hangs the arrested.
The Russian December counter-offensive used troops trained and equipped for warfare in harsh winter conditions. The German command was shocked and Hitler demanded by personal order to keep the defense regardless of the losses.
A nation at war: Moscow Komsomol members are digging anti-tank ditches on the outskirts of the Russian capital.
German prisoners of war captured during the winter offensive
Plan:
- Introduction
- 1 Poland. Finland. Baltic. (September 1939 - June 1941)
- 2 Invasion of the USSR. Moscow battle
- 3 Summer Campaign 1942. The initial period of the Battle of Stalingrad (June 1942 - November 1942)
- 4 Radical fracture (November 1942 - December 1943)
- 5 Offensive in Belarus and Western Ukraine (December 1943 - September 1944)
- 6 Offensive in Karelia and the Balkans (September 1944 - January 1945)
- 7 The final stage of the war. The surrender of Germany (January - May 1945) Notes
Introduction
Eastern European Theater of World War II (1939−1945) – fighting in Eastern Europe during World War II.
In Russia, the period of the Soviet-German war of 1941-1945 is called the Great Patriotic War.
1. Poland. Finland. Baltic. (September 1939 - June 1941)
September 1, 1939 Germany attacks Poland. Great Britain and France declare war on Germany, but do not take any active steps in the West ("Strange War"). Despite the desperate resistance of the Polish troops, by September 8, the Germans broke all pockets of resistance and laid siege to Warsaw. On September 17, the USSR, relying on a secret annex to the Non-Aggression Treaty between Germany and the USSR on the division of spheres of influence, invades Poland from the east and occupies Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. The Polish government flees the country, the Polish army is left without command. Warsaw fell on 28 September. By October 5, the USSR and Germany complete the partition of Poland.
November 30, after a series of failed negotiations on the exchange of territories, the USSR declares war on Finland, and invades its territory. However, the Soviet troops were unable to break through the fortified Mannerheim Line on the move. After fierce fighting in February 1940, the Red Army finally breaks through the fortified line, but due to the difficult international situation, the USSR decides to stop the offensive and enters into negotiations with Finland. Under the terms of the agreement, the border on the Karelian Isthmus was moved away from Leningrad from 32 km to 150 km.
In June 1940, Bessarabia joined the USSR, and in August, the Baltic states.
Germany in the spring of 1941 concludes alliance treaties with Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland and Slovakia and begins intensive preparations for a war against the USSR.
2. Invasion of the USSR. Moscow battle
On June 22, 1941, Germany declared war on the USSR and at the same time began hostilities on the entire front of the Soviet-German border. Germany was supported by her allies: Italy, Finland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. As a result of a surprise attack, the German troops succeeded in the first weeks of the war to penetrate deeply into Soviet territory. By the end of the first decade of July, Germany captured Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, a significant part of Ukraine, part of Moldova. Soviet counterattacks ended in failure, a large number of soldiers and officers of the Red Army were captured.
As a result of the Smolensk battle at the cost of huge losses Soviet army managed to contain the offensive impulse of the enemy and prevent them from taking Moscow on the move. From July to October, the Germans occupied the eastern part of Ukraine, Crimea (with the exception of Sevastopol), Estonia, western regions RSFSR (Pskov, Smolensk, Bryansk, Kursk and others). The blockade of Leningrad began.
September 30 - October 2, German troops resumed their offensive against Moscow, again achieved serious success, but then were stopped. In December 1941, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive and pushed them back from Moscow, inflicting a tangible defeat on them. The threat to Moscow was eliminated.
However, the general offensive undertaken by the Red Army in January - April 1942 did not lead to the collapse of the Wehrmacht defense front. The decision on the possession of the strategic initiative was postponed until the summer campaign of 1942.
3. Summer campaign of 1942. The initial period of the Battle of Stalingrad (June 1942 - November 1942)
Both the Soviet and German sides expected the implementation of their offensive plans from the summer of 1942.
According to OKW Directive No. 41 of April 5, 1942, the Caucasus and Leningrad were the main targets of the 1942 campaign.
The general initial plans for the campaign in the East remain in force: the main task is to, while maintaining the position in the central sector, take Leningrad in the north and establish contact on land with the Finns, and make a breakthrough to the Caucasus on the southern flank of the front.
The main efforts of the Red Army, according to the plans of the Supreme Command Headquarters, were supposed to be concentrated on the central sector of the Soviet-German front. It was also planned to carry out an offensive near Kharkov, in the Crimea and break the blockade of Leningrad.
However, the offensive undertaken by the Soviet troops in May 1942 near Kharkov ended in failure. The German troops managed to parry the blow, defeated the Soviet troops and went on the offensive themselves. In addition, the German troops managed to defeat the Soviet troops in the Kerch region. The defense of the Soviet troops in the southern sector was weakened. Taking advantage of this, the German command launched a strategic offensive in two directions: towards Stalingrad and the Caucasus.
After fierce fighting near Voronezh and in the Donbass, the German troops of Army Group B managed to break through into the large bend of the Don. In mid-July, the Battle of Stalingrad began, in which the Soviet troops, at the cost of heavy losses, managed to tie down the enemy strike force.
Army Group A, advancing on the Caucasus, took Rostov-on-Don on July 23 and continued its offensive on the Kuban. On August 12, Krasnodar was taken. However, in the battles in the foothills of the Caucasus and near Novorossiysk, Soviet troops managed to stop the enemy.
Meanwhile in the central area Soviet command undertook a major offensive operation to defeat the Rzhev-Sychev enemy grouping (the 9th Army of the Army Group Center). However, the Rzhev-Sychev operation, carried out from July 30 to the end of September, was unsuccessful.
It also failed to break the blockade of Leningrad, although Soviet offensive forced the German command to abandon the assault on the city.
4. Radical fracture (November 1942 - December 1943)
On November 19, 1942, the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops near Stalingrad began, on November 23, parts of the Stalingrad and South-Western fronts united near the city of Kalach-on-Don and surrounded 22 enemy divisions.
The offensive on the central sector of the front, which began on November 25, 1942, ended in failure for the Soviet troops (see the Second Rzhev-Sychev operation), but diverted significant Wehrmacht forces.
The victory in the south was of tremendous importance for the development of events throughout the campaign. It was the first major German defeat in World War II and marked the beginning of a turning point on the Eastern Front.
The Soviet command decided to use the favorable situation that arose after the encirclement and defeat of the German troops near Stalingrad and on the Upper Don (see the Ostrogozhsk-Rossosh and Voronezh-Kastornoe operations). New strategic plan included a major three-stage strategic operation (code name unknown): at the first stage, the Bryansk Front and the left wing of the Western Front, reinforced by the Central Front (renamed Don Front) being transferred from near Stalingrad, were supposed to defeat the enemy’s 2nd field and 2nd tank armies under the Eagle. At the second and third stages of the operation, Kalininsky and Western Front We were supposed to launch an offensive through Velizh and from Kirov to the rear of the enemy's Rzhev-Vyazma grouping and link up with the troops of the Central Front near Smolensk. A new strategic offensive was to begin on February 12 with an attack on Orel and continued on February 15, after the Central Front was brought into battle.
However, the German counter-offensive near Kharkov in February-March 1943 disrupted the implementation of Soviet plans and led to the stabilization of the front.
In July 1943, the German command tried to regain the initiative and defeat the Red Army on the Kursk salient. At the cost of huge losses, the Soviet troops held back and exhausted the German army and in the end were able to win the battle. After this defeat, the leadership of the Wehrmacht finally lost the strategic initiative, was forced to abandon the offensive strategy and went on the defensive until the end of the war.
In the autumn of 1943, the Red Army liberated most of Ukraine and part of Belarus from the Germans.
5. Offensive in Belarus and Western Ukraine (December 1943 - September 1944)
In the winter of 1943-1944, the Red Army launched an offensive in Ukraine, unblocked Leningrad, liberated the Crimea, reached the Carpathians and entered the territory of Romania. The grandiose offensive of the Red Army in Belarus and Western Ukraine in the summer of 1944 ended with the defeat of the two largest strategic groups of the Wehrmacht in the center of the Soviet-German front, the breakthrough of the German front to a depth of 600 km, the complete destruction of 26 divisions and inflicting heavy losses on 82 Nazi divisions. Soviet troops reached the border of East Prussia, occupied the Baltic states, entered the territory of Poland and approached the Vistula.
6. Offensive in Karelia and the Balkans (September 1944 - January 1945)
By September 1944, Soviet troops conducted operations in Karelia and the Arctic. Finland withdrew from the war and broke off the alliance with Germany. However, the German troops refused to leave Finnish territory. As a result, the Finnish troops had to fight against their former allies.
In the Balkans, the Red Army carried out a major operation, as a result of which the governments of Romania and Bulgaria were overthrown, and Romania broke off the alliance with Germany. The new puppet pro-Soviet governments of both countries declared war on Germany. In October, Soviet troops entered the territory of Hungary and helped the anti-fascist uprising in Slovakia. In January 1945, the Red Army captured Budapest and forced Hungary to surrender. However, the pro-German puppet government proved much more popular in Hungary than in Romania or Bulgaria. The Hungarian communists never managed to raise an army for the war against Germany, and on the side of Germany, the Hungarian troops continued to fight until the end of the war.
7. The final stage of the war. The surrender of Germany (January - May 1945)
From January to April 1945, Soviet troops completely occupied Poland, East Prussia, and entered the territory of Austria. For the defense of Berlin, the German command concentrated more than 1 million people. After stubborn battles, Soviet troops broke into the city. On April 28, the Reichstag fell. On May 2, the fighting in Berlin ended and the city's garrison capitulated.
However german army continued resistance against the Soviet troops. On the territory of Czechoslovakia, a huge grouping of Field Marshal F. Schörner was surrounded. And although the act of surrender in Karlhorst was signed on the night of May 8-9, the battles of World War II in Europe ended only on May 11. More than 860 thousand Germans were taken prisoner as a result of the Prague operation alone.
Notes
- "Hitler needed Romania as a strategic foothold and as a supplier of oil. Therefore, he occupied it before the start of the war" (Marshal Ion Antonescu).
- V. I. Dashichev. Bankruptcy strategy of German fascism. Moscow, Nauka Publishing House, 1973. v. 2. Aggression against the USSR. The fall of the "third empire" - katynbooks.narod.ru/foreign/dashichev-02.htm/
- D. Glantz. The largest defeat of Zhukov The catastrophe of the Red Army in Operation Mars 1942 - M .: AST: Astrel, 2006.
The fighting on the Eastern Front in November 1943 was very different from the fighting of the previous two years. Although the autumn of both 1941 and 1942 was the time major operations(respectively, near Moscow and Stalingrad), for many units in other sectors of the front, it was time to prepare for wintering in more or less convenient places of deployment.
The weather was to their aid. After the first night frosts, thaw began - a time of slush, when the mud became impassable even for caterpillar vehicles. And behind it came the Russian winter, which greatly complicated the further advance of the troops. However, unlike the previous two years, in 1943 winter came late and was unusually mild.
This meant that the almost endless fighting after the failed summer offensive of the Wehrmacht near Kursk simply continued. In one of the reports, dated early December, it was written: "All parts have come to such a degree of exhaustion that it is no longer possible to overcome it." The defeat of the troops of the Eastern Front was, in fact, only a matter of time.
The so-called "Panther Line" (often also called the "Eastern Wall"), which Hitler agreed to organize only after much thought, was rather fragile in many of its stretches, because the Wehrmacht forces involved in it were exhausted by long battles. In many places, the Red Army, which greatly outnumbered the German troops in numbers, managed to break through the front line. In early November, she, in particular, managed to recapture Kyiv.
Battalions led by captains
Erich von Manstein, commander-in-chief of Army Group South, then left for Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia in order to fully describe to him the situation at the front. From the divisions, in fact, only regiments remained; the battalions commanded by the captains corresponded in strength to the companies; and only a couple of dozen vehicles remained in the tank corps.
First of all, Manstein demanded that the 17th Army be withdrawn from the Crimea, where it risked being cut off and destroyed, and transferred as a reserve force to the Southern Front, where it could be used for a counteroffensive. Manstein was supported at the same time by the head of the department for monitoring enemy forces on eastbound, the future head of the Federal Intelligence Service of Germany, Reinhard Gehlen, who, in turn, reported on the high concentration of Soviet tank troops in front of the positions of Army Group Center. According to him, without the urgent redeployment of the 17th Army on the Eastern Front, there was a "danger of defeat."
Hitler continued to stubbornly. He fixated on the idea that with the tap German forces the Red Army will have access to minerals on the territory of Ukraine and Romania. He did not think about the fact that this would have happened in the event of the defeat of the 17th Army. The only "concession" that the Fuhrer agreed to was the redeployment of two tank divisions from the western direction.
During the Kyiv Strategic offensive operation", as it was called in the Soviet historical documents The Red Army had 670 thousand soldiers, 7 thousand guns, 675 tanks and 700 aircraft. Thus, in mid-November, she managed to break through the defensive formations of Army Groups "Center" and "South" a gap more than a hundred kilometers wide.
No small success
In this situation, the first units of the 25th Panzer Division reached their unloading stations. A large unit was formed in France, but it was not yet fully armed. The soldiers had minimal necessary training, but had not yet had time to pass the exams in weapons possession in combat conditions, thanks to which the Wehrmacht forces still had at least tactical superiority over the Soviet troops.
Hitler ignored this. Unlike the Red Army, the German command was usually in no hurry to throw their military formations into battle until they were “grown together” from the inside, says historian Karl-Heinz Friser. The very first deviation from this important principle turned out to be problems for the Wehrmacht. For the first time, the entry into battle of the newly formed tank division did not bring even partial success. The 25th Division was destroyed before its tanks even arrived in the combat area.
Hitler was furious and looked for the guilty among the commanders at the scene. Hermann Goth, commander of the 4th Panzer Army and one of the most capable generals of this branch of the army, who a year before had participated in Battle of Stalingrad, was removed from office. Erich Raus was appointed in his place. By this point, the German defensive campaign was already on the verge of failure, writes the famous British military historian Basil Liddel Hart (Basil Liddel Hart). Stalin's approval during the celebration October revolution the fact that victory is already close, almost came true.
Harsh criticism of Stalin
That this did not happen is one of the turning points of World War II. In the 1990s, Russian historians, after studying numerous documents, allowed themselves to reproach Stalin that, despite a significant advantage in technology and manpower, the war was not brought to victory even at that moment. “The mistakes of the front command turned into a heavy burden for the soldiers,” says the latest edition of the Russian anthology on the Great patriotic war THE USSR. According to this publication, however, it was not Stalin who was to blame for the lost victory, but high-ranking front commanders.
But neither the Headquarters, nor the headquarters in Moscow, nor the command of the front headquarters were able to quickly use their own advantage. Stalin stubbornly continued to fight "according to the textbook", and his generals did not dare to raise objections.
The Red Army attacked the troops of the Army Group "South" in the forehead, and Manstein managed to hold his ground. And in mid-November, he launched a counteroffensive that turned into a real sensation.
Under the influence of the political situation during the XIX - XXI centuries. the concept of "Eastern Europe" was changing. Currently, "Eastern Europe" consists of Poland, Hungary and Romania, as well as the Czech Republic and Slovakia that have appeared on the political map of the world since 1993. political map Europe dated September 1, 1939, included the Republic of Poland, the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the Republic of Slovakia, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Romania into the Eastern European area.
Countries of Eastern Europe between the two world wars (1918 - 1939), with the exception of Romania, were formed by international arbitration (the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919) from the former regions of the German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires, which received (or restored after a long historical break) ) its state sovereignty.
All the political regimes of the countries of Eastern Europe by the beginning of the Second World War, sharing the common for many countries of Europe in 1920-1930. tendency, bore distinct features of authoritarianism (P. Thibault. The era of dictatorships). With the formal preservation of democratic institutions, various “leaders”, “fathers of the nation”, who relied primarily on the army, the police and political parties of a national-radical persuasion, classified as mass fascist ( , ) or . In the political practice of management, methods of radical suppression of the left opposition, which received support from a significant part of the population, were widespread. The national policy was aimed at stimulating the "national myth" of the titular nations and limiting the rights of national minorities. In all countries of Eastern Europe in the 1930s. there was a strong opposition to the ruling regimes, represented primarily by communist parties and political organizations of national minorities.
During the Second World War, some countries of Eastern Europe lost their sovereignty - part of the former Czechoslovakia (Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) and Poland. The administrative regime of management in them at different times was determined by the superpowers that absorbed them - Germany or the Soviet Union. Also, various "governments" formed in exile or in the regime of occupation, which were oriented towards one of the warring parties in the world conflict, claimed political influence.
Already since the beginning of the 1930s. the states of Eastern Europe became the object of claims of two powers gaining military power - Germany and Soviet Union, documented by additional protocols of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact of August 23, 1939.
Germany sought to regain its eastern territories lost after the defeat in the First World War - the cities of Poznan, Danzig, parts of West Prussia and Upper Silesia (after unification with Austria, also the Sudetenland), as well as control the economic resources of Eastern Europe.
The Soviet Union also wanted to return the territories that were previously part of the Russian Empire - Eastern Poland and Bessarabia. The incentive to spread his geopolitical influence in Eastern Europe was for him the doctrine of the export of the revolution.
In turn, almost all countries of Eastern Europe, having a mixed ethnic composition population and borders drawn by the initiative of third countries (the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 and subsequent treaties of the early 1920s), in the 1920s - 1940s. made territorial claims against their neighbors or were the object of these claims, which excluded the option of creating a common political union Eastern European countries.
Territorial claims became the reason for the outbreak of the German-Polish war on September 1, 1939, which turned into a world war within a few days. On September 17-28, 1939, without declaring war, the Soviet Union swallowed up the eastern regions of Poland. In October 1939 the territory of the Polish state was divided between the USSR, Germany, Slovakia and Lithuania. The former Polish territories became part of the Soviet Union as parts of the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSR. The Third Reich included the Polish lands in its system as a general government. On October 10, 1939, the Vilna region with the city of Vilna was transferred to Lithuania by the Soviet Union, and on October 24, 1939 Slovakia received the Teshin region.
In July 1940, the Soviet Union, through diplomatic pressure, forced Romania to transfer to it part of its northern territories - Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia.
In August 1940, Romania was also forced to transfer Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria, and Northern Transylvania to Hungary.
Participation in the Second World War allowed the states of Eastern Europe to start new stage revision of borders, compensate for territorial losses and claim new acquisitions. Therefore, all the countries of Eastern Europe, which had retained their statehood by the summer of 1941, accepted the patronage of Germany and became its allies in military operations against its opponents - Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece and the USSR.
In April 1941, for participation in the war against Yugoslavia, Hungary received the region of Vojvodina and the regions of Baranya, Bačka, Medimurje and Prekumje.
The participation of the Eastern European countries - allies of Germany in the war with the USSR is divided into the following periods;
1. From September 1, 1939 to June 22, 1941 limited contingents and participated in major military operations of the German troops against Poland and Yugoslavia.
2. Since June 22, 1941, the Romanian army and expeditionary corps Hungary and Slovakia took part in the hostilities against the USSR. By the beginning of the winter of 1941/42. they were exhausted, most of them were taken to the rear to regroup.
3. During the summer offensive campaign of the German troops in 1942, large contingents of Romanian, Hungarian and Slovak troops began to arrive on the Eastern Front, acting as independent national armies. They were concentrated by the German command in the southern sector of the front - in the Don and the North Caucasus. In the winter of 1942/1943, and were defeated.
4. In the spring of 1943, most of the troops of the Eastern European countries - allies of Germany were sent home, and the rest until the summer of 1944 was used in the fight against partisans, to protect communications and the Black Sea coast.
5. In the spring of 1944, the troops of the countries of Eastern Europe - Germany's allies again occupy the sectors of the Eastern Front - the Romanian army in the southern, Black Sea direction, and the Slovak and Hungarian armies along the Carpathian mountains.
6. After the offensive of the Soviet troops in August 1944, Romania went over to the side of the anti-Hitler coalition, and in October there was an unsuccessful uprising in Slovakia against Germany, which occupied this country until the end of the war in Europe.
7. Until May 8, 1945, Hungary remained the last Eastern European country - an ally of Germany.
The shortage of weapons, the poor training of most soldiers and officers, as well as the lack of motivation for self-sacrifice turned the armies of the countries of Eastern Europe - Germany's allies into the weak link of the Eastern Front. These states did not have their own highly developed industrial potential (with the exception of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia), and with the outbreak of World War it became difficult for them to replenish their stocks of heavy weapons. As a result, they entered the war with outdated artillery, tanks, small arms and vehicles. The shortage of anti-tank weapons was especially felt. Germany tried to rectify the situation by transferring to them captured weapons captured in Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Belgium and the USSR, but even it turned out to be mostly obsolete pre-war models.
In the countries of Eastern Europe, in addition to the German-Soviet confrontation splitting society, the Second World War aggravated to the level of armed conflicts the internal social and interethnic problems that had existed in them for decades. In Poland in 1942 - 1945. they took on the character civil war, which was further complicated by sharp interethnic contradictions. During World War II society various countries Eastern Europe reacted differently to the occupation of their territories by German troops - in the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia as a whole (with the exception of individual excesses) calmly, and in Poland - by a massive underground and partisan movement.
Czechs on the territory of the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, performing labor service, had the opportunity to voluntarily join the Wehrmacht and the SS troops (Czechs in the SS). In addition, there was its own protectorate Armed Forces - Regierungstruppe des Protektorats Bhmen und Mhren (1939 - 1945).
Czech emigrants and former prisoners of war had the opportunity to participate in the war as part of the Czechoslovak formations in the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition.
The Poles managed to organize their own armed formations in the armies fighting against Germany, and mass partisan movements inside the country:
At the same time, relatively insignificant armed forces of Polish collaborators also existed in Poland.
With the entry in 1944 - 1945. Soviet troops on the territory of the countries of Eastern Europe, political regimes were established here, either pro-Soviet (Poland) or under strong pressure from the Soviet Union and the local left forces supported by it (Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania).
In general, the countries of Eastern Europe were active participants in the Second World War. They became in 1939 - 1945. the arena of not only a theater of military operations between the countries - members of the Steel Pact and the anti-Hitler coalition, but also an active zone of civil and ethnic conflict.
As a result of World War II, the countries of Eastern Europe entered the zone of political and ideological influence of the Soviet Union.
The distribution of forces by Germany and its allies on the Eastern and Western fronts in the 1st and 2nd MV
It seems that the losses of Germany and its allies in both world wars have long been calculated, incl. and broken down by the main fronts - Western and Eastern. But losses do not always reflect the true picture of the intensity of the fighting, the tension of the nation in one direction or another, and most importantly, the danger and "value" of the opponents. For example, a significant part of the prisoners captured by the Western Allies in April-May 1945 represented our legitimate booty.
Therefore, I decided to figure it out - what kind of forces was forced to put up Germany (and its allies) in the West and East, during these wars?
Introduced a unit - division-month (such as a man-day). To account for the Allied divisions, he applied a reduction factor (it is clear that their combat capability was lower than that of the Germans) - 0.75 for the 1st MV and 0.5 for the 2nd (the increased role of equipment and maneuver operations made the gap larger), except for the Finnish army - it was considered equal to the German one. Didn't take into account separate brigades, confrontation during the "Strange War" of 1939-40, operations in Poland and Yugoslavia (where the Germans did not encounter the troops of the Western allies), the Italian and Serbian fronts of the 1st MV (except for the troops opposing the Anglo-French) and opposing the Romanians in the Eastern the front of the troops; not taken into account cavalry divisions. In the 2nd MV, it took into account various infantry (including motorized, mountain, etc.) and tank divisions. The calculations were carried out according to Zaionchkovsky (1st MV) and Muller, ours, Hillebrandt (2nd MV). Naturally rounded, but the general ratio and order of numbers are correct.
World War I:
2200 German division-months, 1500 (3/4) Austro-Hungarian, Turkish and Bulgarian division-months (including 350 - Caucasian front), TOTAL - 3700 division-months against Russia
Western front (with Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, Thessaloniki, Palestine, Italian front - opposing only the Anglo-French!):
6300 German division-months (including 4400 - until January 1918) and 450 other division-months (with a coefficient of 3/4, including 300 - until January 1918), TOTAL - 6750 division-months against the Entente and Americans (including 4700 - until January 1918)
TOTAL Germany and its allies fielded 10450 division-months (8400 - until January 1918), incl. about 2/3 - against the West (55% against the West before January 1918). Separately in Germany - a total of 8500 German division-months (6600 until January 1918), incl. almost 75% against the West (2/3 against the West before January 1918)
Thus, the West took over the main part of the troops of the Central Powers, especially the German ones - the most combat-ready and won, Russia was opposed by a smaller part of the enemy troops, but she lost the war.
The Second World War:
Eastern front:
7500 German division-months and 1000 division-months of Germany's allies (Finland, Romania, Italy, Hungary, etc., except for the first all with a reduction factor of 1/2), TOTAL: 8500 division-months against Russia
Western Front (including Norway-1940, Greece and Crete-1941, East and North Africa, Sicily, Italy and the Western Front - first and second):
1350 German division-months (including 1150 until June 1941) and 150 Italian division-months (with a coefficient of 1/2), TOTAL: 1500 division-months against the West (including 1250 until June 1941 )
TOTAL Germany and its allies fielded 10,000 division-months (8,750 - after June 1941), incl. 85% - against Russia. Separately in Germany - a total of 8850 German division-months (8650 after June 1941), incl. almost 85% against Russia.
Thus, in 1941-45 Russia endured the OVERALL part of the load on the land front, by an ORDER exceeding its relative load in 1914-17 ...
Even if you add pacific war, it turns out that the main part Japanese army was involved in China (including the Kwantung Army), a relatively small part opposed the West ground forces, mainly in fleeting operations (except for Burma) and it is unlikely that the total number of Japanese division-months deployed against the West can be estimated much more than 500 ...
In the 2nd MV, aviation began to play a much greater role, it is obvious that its ratio along the fronts will be significantly different - but this separate topic(especially for anti-aircraft artillery). At the same time, the forces of the German surface fleet, in the 1st MV involved almost exclusively against the West (except for episodic operations in the Baltic in 1915 and 1917, as well as the Goeben breakthrough into the Black Sea, the influence of which goes beyond mechanical calculation correlation of forces), in the 2nd MV they were forced to act (including simply by presence) with the main forces against the Northern convoys and the coastal flanks of the Russian troops in the Baltic. There was not much difference in the distribution of submarine forces - again the "Battle for the Atlantic", with the exception of the factor of the Northern convoys.
What is the conclusion? And it is very simple - supposedly a rapidly developing and advanced Russian empire was not able to oppose Germany on equal terms, while Russia, in the form of the USSR, passed a similar test, won (albeit with gigantic losses - human and material), and with such a distribution of German forces ( we are talking here only about ground operations!), what can we say about the Russian-German war of 1941-45 (WWII) with a slight influence on it operations on other fronts.