Waffen-SS: Russia, Winter 1941-42BackgroundThe Waffen-SS divisions that took part in Barbarossa had entered Russia with high morale and a conviction that their National Socialist zeal would easily overcome the Red Army. But six months of continuous fighting had depleted their ranks alarmingly, and the Russian winter also took its toll. Then, the "beaten" Red Army counterattacked along the whole front to drive the Germans back. The advance to the gates of Moscow in the final days of November 1941 was the high-water mark of Operation Barbarossa. Huddled together in freezing trenches with little food and ammunition, the German soldiers of the Eastern Front were soon at the end of their endurance. Thousands of men were succumbing to frostbite, and disease was rampant. Hope was in short supply. The Soviet counterattackOn 5 December the Soviets struck back in dramatic fashion. In secret they had brought up 50 fresh divisions totalling 770,000 men and some 2000 tanks to form a strike force behind Moscow. While the Germans weakened themselves further in a final lunge for the city, Marshal Georgi Zhukov (who in January 1941 had been made chief of staff of the Red Army) kept his reserves out of the battle. Once it was clear that the German offensive was spent, he ordered the trap to be sprung. Thousands of guns and "Stalin's Organ" rocket launchers pounded the demoralized German troops in the Klin salient north of Moscow, and in the Tula bulge south of the capital. Waves of new T-34 tanks raced forward with white-clad Red Army submachine-gunners riding behind their turrets. The shock was dramatic and, all along Army Group Centre's front, German units fell back. Those that held their ground were overrun or surrounded in their improvised strongpoints. Fleeing from the Soviet tanks was an equally dangerous proposition. German units that were caught in the open at nightfall had to endure temperatures below -50¼C (-58¼F), further reducing their numbers and rendering their remaining equipment inoperable. Das Reich in dangerThe 8000 men of the Das Reich Division who were still capable of fighting were caught up in this maelstrom around Istra, 49km (30 miles) to the west of Moscow. The Soviet Sixteenth Army committed two divisions of fresh troops from its Siberian reserve force against the Waffen-SS men. In a day of brutal fighting, the Das Reich Division was overwhelmed. Its flank was smashed open and the division had little option but to pull back. The retreat was far from orderly, and scores of SS men were captured by the Soviets and paraded in front of propaganda cameras. The images of dead and captured SS troops represented a great morale booster for the Soviet public, who were now beginning to believe that perhaps they had a chance of defeating the Nazi Blitzkrieg. prev | next |
