COUNTERPOINT TO STALINGRAD. Operation Mars (November-December 1942)

Planning

Marshal Zhukov played a significant role in September and October 1942 Stavka planning sessions⁵. This was so because he had earned Stalin's trust by proving to be a tenacious and often victorious fighter. A former cavalry officer, Zhukov had earned much of his reputation as a fighter in action against the Japanese in August and September 1939. Forces under his command had utterly routed Japanese forces at Khalhin Gol in eastern Mongolia, a defeat that later contributed to the critical Japanese decision to remain aloof from the German-Soviet War. Few now recall, however, the ruthlessness of Zhukov's assaults along the Khalhin Gol [River], which had cost him about forty percent of his attacking force and had prompted sharp criticism from the Red Army General Staff⁶.

After beginning the war as Chief of the Red Army General Staff, Zhukov received field command and was instrumental in bloodying the German's nose in the terrible battles around Smolensk in July and August 1941. In September Stalin relieved Zhukov of his command along the Western axis and dispatched him to Leningrad, ostensibly because Zhukov disagreed with Stalin's disastrous decision to defend Kiev. After stabilizing

Soviet defenses around Leningrad, in October Stalin summoned Zhukov to Moscow, where he needed a fighter to halt the German juggernaut. Zhukov answered Stalin's call by planning and leading the victorious Soviet Moscow counteroffensives in winter 1942.

Subsequently, in spring and summer 1942, he commanded Soviet forces along the Moscow axis. While the Germans were advancing on Stalingrad, Zhukov orchestrated several offensives against German forces in the central sector of the front, including a major attack on the Rzhev salient in August, which was a virtual rehearsal for Operation Mars⁷.

Based on his own strategic analysis and personal combat experiences, Zhukov believed in a "northern" strategy for winning the war. Frustrated over his failure to destroy German forces at Moscow in winter 1941-42 and in lesser operations during the German advance across southern Russia during 1942, Zhukov believed that the Soviet Union could best achieve strategic victory by smashing German forces along the Moscow axis. In short, Zhukov considered that German Army Group Center, whose forces were lodged in the Rzhev salient menacingly close to Moscow, posed the most serious threat to Moscow and the Soviet war effort In his view, the Rzhev salient, a legacy of the chaotic fighting of winter 1941-42, which measured 150 x150 kilometers and which contained Army Group Center's powerful German Ninth Army, represented a dagger aimed at Moscow. Therefore, argued Zhukov, the Soviet Union could best achieve strategic victory in 1942 by smashing German Ninth Army in the salient and, thereafter, all of German Army Group Center⁸.

From his earlier combat experiences, Zhukov well understood that this would be no easy task. General Walter Model's German Ninth Army had erected strong defenses around the salient and had fortified all cities and towns along the salient's periphery, including the key cities of Rzhev, Belyi, and Sychevka. The Germans had fortified the rivers flanking the salient and had cleared timber from the main north-south and east-west roads and rail lines, which traversed the salient. Zhukov and Model both understood that whoever controlled the roads would control the salient. Although heavy forests and swamps dominated the terrain in the salient's western and central regions, the Germans had cleared sufficient terrain to permit both firm defense and the maneuver of mobile tactical and operational reserves within it. In addition, by late October, the dirt roads and many rivers criss-crossing the salient should be frozen or close to frozen.

Zhukov also realized that General Model would be a formidable opponent, for he too was a fighter. Model had delivered a stinging rebuff to Soviet forces in the region in winter 1941, and combat in 1942 provided Model's forces with a keen appreciation of literally every inch of terrain in the region. Nevertheless, Zhukov was convinced that his forces, together with the massive strategic reserves which the Stavka had assembled at near-frenzied pace in summer 1942, were strong enough to permit the Red Army to deliver two major, mutually supporting strategic counteroffensives, one, which he advocated, against German Army Group Center and the other, which others supported, against overextended German Army Group South at Stalingrad.

During the Stavka's deliberations, Zhukov emphasized Soviet force superiority in the decisive central sector of the front. Here the Soviet Kalinin and Western Fronts, supported by the Moscow Defense Zone, numbered almost 1,900,000 men with over 24,000 guns and mortars, 3,300 tanks, and 1,100 aircraft⁹. On the other hand, in the southern Soviet Union, the 3 Soviet fronts in the Stalingrad region fielded over 1 million men with about 15,000 guns and mortars, 1,400 tanks, and over 900 aircraft¹⁰. Admittedly, the Rumanian, Italian, and Hungarian forces deployed in the south added to German vulnerability, and their presence there undoubtedly improved Soviet chances for success. However, Zhukov argued, eradication of the German threat to Moscow would inevitably contribute to success in the south as well. Should either Soviet offensive falter, Stavka reserves could develop and exploit the other offensive¹¹. Stalin accepted Zhukov's recommendations, for he too still seethed over previous failures to defeat German Army Group Center.

On the evening of 26 September, the Generalissimo ordered major strategic counteroffensives be conducted at both Rzhev and Stalingrad. Appropriately, Zhukov would command the former, and his contemporary, General A. M. Vasilevsky, would command the latter. Vasilevsky, then Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Minister of Defense, was a penultimate staff officer and a protege of former Chief of the General Staff, Marshal B. M. Shaposhnikov. At the outbreak of war, Vasilevsky had been chief of the General Staff's Operations Directorate, and, because of his obvious talents, he rose from colonel to colonel general in only four years. His wartime accomplishments as key General Staff planner and "fireman" in key operational sectors had won Stalin's confidence and appointment in July 1942 as Chief of the General Staff. Vasilevsky's calm demeanor and keen intelligence tended to moderate both Stalin's and Zhukov's excesses¹².

With Stalin's formal approval, the General Staff, Zhukov, and Vasilevsky planned the twin two-phased strategic offensives and assigned each of four planned operations with the code name of a planet. In Operation Mars, planned to commence in late October, forces of the Kalinin and Western Fronts would encircle and destroy German Ninth Army in the Rzhev salient. Two to three weeks later, in Operation Jupiter, the Western Front's powerful 5th and 33rd Armies, supported by 3rd Guards Tank Army, would attack along the Vyazma axis, link up with the victorious Mars' force, and envelop and destroy all German forces east of Smolensk¹³. Vasilevsky's initial operation code-named Uranus and tentatively timed for mid-November, was to envelop German Sixth Army in the Stalingrad region¹⁴. In Operation Saturn, set to begin in early December, Vasilevsky's forces would seize Rostov, envelop German Army Group B, pin its remnants against the Sea of Azov, and cut off the withdrawal of German Army Group A from the Caucasus¹⁵.

The Stavka dispatched the directive for Operation Mars to the Western and Kalinin Fronts on 28-29 September, and participating fronts issued orders to their armies on 1 October¹⁶. Although the offensive was slated to begin on 28 October, rainy weather delayed the usual October freeze and forced postponement of the operation until late November, less than a week after Vasilevsky launched Operation Uranus¹⁷. A revised Stavka directive, dispatched to Army General I. S. Konev's Western Front on 10 October, left the original objectives intact, stating: "The forces of the Western Front's right wing and Kalinin Front's left wing are to encircle the enemy Rzhev Grouping, capture Rzhev, and free the rail road line from Moscow to Velikie Luki"¹⁸. The directive required Western Front's 20th and 31st Armies, supported by 29th Army, to make the main attack against German defenses along the Osuga and Vazuza rivers northeast of Sychevka. Once these armies had penetrated German tactical defenses, a cavalry-mechanized group (6th Tank and 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps) was to exploit through 20th Army, capture Sychevka, roll up the German Rzhev defenses from the south, and link up with 41st Army forces attacking eastward from the Belyi region. 20th and 31st Armies would then mop up German forces in the salient in conjunction with supporting armies and prepare to attack southward toward Vyazma with 6th Tank and the fresh 5th Tank Corps.

Army General M. A. Purkaev's Kalinin Front was to conduct its main attack south of Belyi with 41st Army and along the Luchesa River north of Belyi with 22nd Army, while 39th Army, at the northern extremity of the Rzhev salient, would launch a secondary assault southward across the Molodoi Tud River toward Olenino¹⁹. The crack Stalin 6th Volunteer Rifle Corps would spearhead 41st Army's attack. Once German defenses had been penetrated, 1st and 2nd Mechanized Corps would exploit eastward to link up west of Sychevka with 20th Army's cavalry-mechanized group. Kalinin Front's 22nd Army, spearheaded by 3rd Mechanized Corps, would advance eastward up the Luchesa River valley, pierce German defenses, assist in the capture of Belyi, and encircle German forces around Olenino in conjunction with 39th Army. After the main attacks had succeeded, other Soviet armies around the flaming circumference of the Rzhev salient would join the offensive, destroy German Ninth Army, and regroup to participate in Operation Jupiter²⁰.

In Operation Jupiter, Western Front's heavily reinforced 5th and 33rd Armies, deployed astride the Moscow-Vyazma road, would penetrate German defenses east of Vyazma. The 9th and 10th Tank Corps, followed by 3rd Guards Tank Army, would then exploit to capture Vyazma, link up with Kalinin Front forces, and, if possible, continue the attack toward Smolensk²¹. To insure success the Stavka provided extraordinary armor, artillery, and engineer support for Zhukov's two attacking fronts²². In fact, Zhukov's over 2,300 tanks and 10,000 guns and mortars exceeded the firepower the Stavka allocated to Vasilevsky to carry out Operation Uranus.

The long delay in the launch of the operation provided more than adequate time for Zhukov and the front commanders to assemble their imposing host and prepare the troops for combat. As usual, to insure the secrecy of the operation, troops were notified of the attack only days before it commenced. Typical of last minute preparations was this order to the 20th Army's 8th Guards Rifle Corps:

To the commanders of 8th Guards Rifle Corps formations.20.11.42

...the corps orders:

1. Fully occupy jumping-off positions by dawn on 23.11.42....Carefully conceal movement of personnel and equipment....[Move] infantry in small groups and tanks, vehicles, and transport individually.....

2. ...

3. Eliminate squads and platoons made up of "nationals" [ethnic non-Russians] by dividing them up among sub-units. For camouflage purposes, whitewash all guns and transporters....

4. During the day on 22.11.42 conduct study of the attack axes with command personnel....

5. ...

   1. Provide personnel with a chance for a good sleep and, without fail, feed [the troops] with warm food and distribute the required vodka norm before the attack...

   2. ...

   3. Provide all personnel with a bath and a pair of clean clothes...

   4. Obtain white camouflage overalls and felt boots...

8th Guards Rifle Corps chief of staff, Guards Colonel Posiakin
Chief of the corps' operation section, Guards Colonel Andrianov²³

The plan for Operation Mars bore all the characteristics of a Zhukov-style offensive operation. To maximize pressure on the Germans, his forces would attack simultaneously in all sectors. By launching his main attacks against the base of the Rzhev salient from both east and west, Zhukov sought to envelop German forces in the salient with frontal assaults without having to conduct complex maneuver with his mobile forces across the difficult terrain and in the harsh weather conditions. To achieve quick success in his attack sectors, Zhukov ordered his front commanders to mass their forces and commit all of their armor early in the battle. By doing so, he hoped that the Soviet armored spearheads could sever vital German communications routes, the key road and rail lines along the flanks of the Rzhev salient. By late November the long-awaited cold weather finally arrived, and area rivers, streams, and swamps froze, thus permitting operations to commence. The ensuing constant snowy weather, however, hampered mobile operations, hindered artillery observation, and grounded supporting aircraft on both sides.