Slaughterhouse: The Handbook of the Eastern Front

521 Pages·2005·33.26 MB·english

by  David Glantz

SLAUGHTERHOUSE
T HE HANDBOOK OF T HE E A S T E RN F R O NT
SLAUGHTERHOUSE
S L A U G H T E R H O U SE
THE HANDBOOK
OF THE EASTERN FRONT
THE ABERJONA PRESS
BEDFORD, PA
German Army and Luftwaffe Order of Battle Information: Steve Myers,
Hugh Foster, Keith E. Bonn
Waffen-SS Order of Battle Information: Mark Rikmenspoel
Soviet Order of Battle Information: Scott McMichael, and Yuri and Natalya
Khonko
German Biographical Sketches: Keith E. Bonn, Steve Myers, and Hugh Foster
Soviet Biographical Sketches: Scott McMichael
Chronology and Forgotten Battles Chapters: David Glantz
Finnish, Hungarian, Romanian, and Italian Unit Histories: Keith E. Bonn
Weapons Tables: Hugh Foster and Keith E. Bonn
Acknowledgements
In addition to graciously giving permission to use edited versions of some
of his privately published work, David Glantz contributed much of the
material used in the chapter about the Soviet WWII order of battle.
Special thanks to George Nafziger for his information about the Hungari-
an and Romanian orders of battle.
Special thanks to Mikko Härmeinen for his contributions about the Finns.
Editor: Keith E. Bonn
Production: Aegis Consulting Group, Inc.
Printer: Mercersburg Printing
The Aberjona Press is an imprint of Aegis Consulting Group, Inc.,
Bedford, Pennsylvania 15522
©2005 Bookspan
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 09 08 07 06 05 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN: 0-9717650-9-X
Originally published by The Military Book Club as Slaughterhouse: The
Encyclopedia of the Eastern Front
Visit us at www.militarybookclub.com
This edition published in cooperation with BOOKSPAN
All photos are from the National Archives, College Park, Maryland (NA),
or from the Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pennsylvania (MHI).
Contents
German Rank Abbreviations vii
Rank Equivalents viii
Introduction 1
Chronology 15
Events Leading Up to the War 15
BARBAROSSA, 22 June-31 December 1941 17
January-April 1942 22
April-October 1942 26
November 1942-April 1943 31
May-December 1943 36
January-April 1944 41
May-December 1944 47
January-4 April 1945 53
4 April-8 May 1945 57
Conclusions 62
Biographies of Important Germans and Their Allies 67
Biographies of Important Soviets 113
German and Their Allies' Units on the Eastern Front 147
Army Groups 147
Armies 150
Corps 154
Divisions 160
Luftwaffe Command Level Organization-Eastern Front, 1941-45 273
Finnish Army Divisions 277
The Royal Hungarian Army 280
Italian Units 287
Romanian Units 289
Soviet Units on the Eastern Front 299
Directions 299
Fronts 300
v
vi CONTENTS
Armies 306
Corps 340
Divisions 354
Air Forces 384
Airborne 387
Organization of Military Units on the Eastern Front 391
Germany 392
Finland 407
Hungary 409
Italy 415
Romania 419
USSR 426
Weapons of the Eastern Front 439
Forgotten Battles 471
Bibliography 497
German Rank Abbreviations
Deutsche Heer Abbreviation
Generalfeldmarschall Gen.Feldm.
Generaloberst Gen.Oberst
General der...
Artillerie Gen.d.Art.
Gebirgstruppen Gen.d.Geb.
Infanterie Gen.d.Inf.
Kavallerie Gen.d.Kav.
Luftwaffe Gen.d.Luft.
Panzertruppen Gen.d.Pz.Tr.
Pionerie Gen.d.Pio.
Generalleutnant Gen.Lt.
Generalmajor Gen.Major
Oberst Oberst
Oberstleutnant Obstlt.
Major Major
Rittmeister (cav) Rittm.
Hauptmann Hptm.
Oberleutnant Obit.
Leutnant Lt.
SS
Reichsführer-SS
SS-Oberstgruppenführer SS-Oberstgruf.
SS-Obergruppenführer SS-Ogruf.
SS-Gruppenführer SS-Gruf.
SS-Brigadeführer SS-Brif.
SS-Oberführer SS-Oberf.
SS-Standartenführer SS-Staf.
SS-Obersturmbannführer SS-Ostubaf.
SS-Sturmbannführer SS-Stubaf.
SS-Hauptsturmführer SS-Hstuf.
SS-Obersturmführer SS-Ostuf.
SS-Untersturmführer SS-Ustuf.
vii
Rank Equivalents
US Army Soviet Army German Army Waffen-SS
Generalissimus
General Marshal Generalfeldmarschall
of the Army Sovetskogo
Soyuza
General General Armiyi Generaloberst SS-Oberstgruppenführer
Lieutenant General General (der Infanterie, SS-Obergruppenführer
General Polkovnik der Artillerie, etc.)
Major General Generaleutnant SS-Gruppenführer
General Leytenant
Brigadier General Generalmajor SS-Brigadeführer
General Major
SS-Oberführer
Colonel Polkovnik Oberst SS-Standartenführer
Lieutenant Podpolkovnik SS-Obersturmbannführer
Oberstleutnant
Colonel
Major Major SS-Sturmbannführer
Major
Captain Kapetan SS-Hauptsturmführer
Hauptmann
1st Starshiy SS-Obersturmführer
Leytenant Oberleutnant
Lieutenant Leytenant
Mladshiy Leutnant SS-Untersturmführer
Leytenant
2nd
Stabsfeldwebel SS-Sturmscharführer
Lieutenant
Starshina Oberfeldwebel SS-Hauptscharführer
Sergeant Major*
Master
Sergeant/ Starshiy Feldwebel SS-Oberscharführer
First Sergeant Serzhant
Technical Unterfeldwebel SS-Scharführer
Sergeant
Serzhant Unteroffizier SS-Unterscharführer
Staff Sergeant
Mladshiy
Sergeant
Serzhant
Corporal
Yefreytor Hauptgefreiter SS-Rottenführer
Private
Obergefreiter
First Class
Gefreiter
Obersoldat SS-Sturmmann
(Obergrenadier,
Oberkanonier, etc.)
Private Krasnoarmeyets Soldat (Grenadier, SS-Mann
Kanonier, etc.)
*Not a rank in the US Army during WWII. NCOs serving as sergeants major during that era were
usually Master Sergeants.
viii
Introduction
by David M. Glantz
Suddenly and without warning, early on the morning of 22 June
1941, over three million German and German-allied soldiers lunged
across the Soviet state border and commenced Operation BAR-
BAROSSA. Spearheaded by four powerful panzer groups and protect-
ed by an impenetrable curtain of air support, the seemingly invinci-
ble Wehrmacht advanced from the Soviet Union's western borders to
the immediate outskirts of Leningrad, Moscow, and Rostov in the
shockingly brief period of less than six months. Faced with this sud-
den, deep, and relentless German advance, the Soviet Army and
state were forced to fight desperately for their very survival.
The ensuing struggle, which encompassed a region totaling
roughly 600,000 square miles, lasted for almost four years before the
Soviet Army triumphantly raised the Soviet flag over the ruins of
Hitler's Reich's Chancellery in Berlin in late April 1945. The war on
the Eastern Front —the Soviet Union's self-proclaimed "Great Patri-
otic War" — was one of unprecedented brutality. It was a war to the
death between two cultures, which killed as many as 35 million
Russian soldiers and civilians; almost 4 million German soldiers and
countless German civilians; and inflicted unimaginable destruction
and damage to the population and institutional infrastructure of
most of central and eastern Europe.
By the time this deadly conflict ended on 9 May 1945, the Soviet
Union and its army had occupied and dominated the bulk of central
and eastern Europe. Less than three years after victory, an Iron Cur-
tain descended across Europe that divided the continent into oppos-
ing camps for over four decades. More important still, the searing
effect of this terrible war on the Russian soul endured for genera-
tions, shaping the development of the postwar Soviet Union and,
ultimately, contributing to its demise in 1991.
Despite its massive scale, scope, cost, and global impact, it is
indeed ironic that much of the war on the Eastern Front remains
Based on the first two chapters of The Soviet-German War, 1941-1945: Myths and Real-
ities, A Survey Essay, © David M. Glantz. Self-published. Used by permission.
1
2 INTRODUCTION
obscure and imperfectly understood by Westerners and Russians
alike. Worse still, this obscurity and misunderstanding has pervert-
ed the history of World War II overall by masking the Soviet Army's
and State's contributions to ultimate Allied victory.
Those in the West who understand anything at all about the East-
ern Front regard it as a mysterious, brutal four-year struggle be-
tween Europe's most bitter political enemies and its largest and most
formidable armies. During this struggle, the Wehrmacht and Soviet
Army waged war over an incredibly wide expanse of territory; the
sheer size, physical complexity, and severe climatic conditions in the
theater of war made the conflict appear to consist of a series of suc-
cessive and seamless offensives punctuated by months of stagnant
combat and periodic dramatic battles of immense scale such as the
Battles of Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk, Belorussia, and Berlin. The
paucity of detailed information on the war available in the English
language reinforces the natural American (and Western) penchant
for viewing the Soviet-German War as a mere backdrop for more
dramatic and significant battles in western theaters, such as El Ala-
mein, Salerno, Anzio, Normandy, and the Ardennes Offensive.
This distorted layman's view of the war so prevalent in the West
is understandable since most histories of the conflict have been, and
continue to be, based largely on German sources, sources which rou-
tinely describe the war as a struggle against a faceless and formless
enemy whose chief attributes were the immense size of its Army and
the limitless supply of expendable human resources. Therefore, only
truly sensational events stand out from the pale mosaic of four years
of combat.
Even those who are better informed about the details of the war
on the Eastern Front share in these common misperceptions. While
they know more about the major battles that occurred during the
war and have read about others —such as Manstein's counterstroke
in the Donbas and at Kharkov; the fights in the Cherkassy Pocket
and at Kamenets-Podolsk; the collapse of Army Group Center; and
Soviet perfidy at the gates of Warsaw — the very terminology they
use to describe these struggles is indicative of an understanding
based primarily on German sources. More important, most laymen
readers and historians alike lack sufficient knowledge and under-
standing of the Soviet-German War to fit it into the larger context of
World War II and to understand its relative importance and region-
al and global significance.
Who, then, is at fault for promoting this unbalanced view of the
war? Certainly, Western historians who wrote about the war from