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Operation Blau
Case Blue (German: ''Fall Blau'') was the German Armed Forces' plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II. The objective was to capture the oil fields of the Caucasus for two purposes: to enable the Germans to re-supply their low fuel stock and also to deny their use to the Soviet Union, thereby bringing about the complete collapse of the Soviet war effort. After Operation Barbarossa failed to destroy the Soviet Union as a political and military threat the previous year, Adolf Hitler, the ''Führer'' of Nazi Germany, recognised that Germany was now locked in a war of attrition, and he was also aware that Germany was running low on fuel supply and would not be able to continue attacking deeper into enemy territory without more stock. With this in mind, Hitler ordered for the preparation of offensive plans for summer 1942 to secure the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus. The operation involved a two-pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe ( Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans) from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. It was known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union – and still is in some of its successor states, while almost everywhere else it has been called the ''Eastern Front''. In present-day German and Ukrainian historiography the name German-Soviet War is typically used. The battles on the Eastern Front of the Second World War constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterised by unprecedented ferocity and brutality, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. Of the estimated 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II, around 30 million occurred on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Ludwig Ewald Von Kleist
Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist (8 August 1881 – 13 November 1954) was a German field marshal during World War II. Kleist was the commander of Panzer Group Kleist (later 1st Panzer Army), the first operational formation of several Panzer corps in the Wehrmacht during the Battle of France, the Battle of Belgium, the Invasion of Yugoslavia and Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. During the Battle of France, units under Kleist's command included Heinz Guderian's armoured corps and spearheaded the ''"blitzkrieg"'' attack through the Ardennes forest, outflanking the Maginot Line. His panzer divisions eventually pushed deep into France, resulting in Allied defeat. Kleist was appointed commander-in-chief of Army Group A during the last days of Case Blue, the 1942 German summer offensive in southern Russia. His disagreements with Hitler over strategic decisions led to his dismissal in March 1944 after the German defeat in right-bank Ukraine. Following the war, Kleist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodion Malinovsky
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky (russian: Родио́н Я́ковлевич Малино́вский, ukr, Родіо́н Я́кович Малино́вський ; – 31 March 1967) was a Soviet military commander. He was Marshal of the Soviet Union, and Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and 1960s. During World War II, he contributed to the defeat of Nazi Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Budapest. During the post-war era, he made a pivotal contribution to the strengthening of the Soviet Union as a military superpower. Early life Before and during World War I A Ukrainian, Malinovsky was born in Odessa to a single mother (a version has Malinovsky being born after the death of his father, others simply have the father as unknown). Malinovsky's mother soon left the city for the rural areas of Southern Russia, and married. Her husband, a poverty-stricken peasant, refused to adopt her son and expelled him when Malinovsky was only 13 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Filipp Golikov
Filipp Ivanovich Golikov (russian: Фили́пп Ива́нович Го́ликов, links=no; July 30, 1900 – July 29, 1980) was a Soviet military commander. As chief of the GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate), he is best known for failing to take seriously the abundant intelligence about Nazi Germany's plans for an invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, either because he did not believe them or because Joseph Stalin did not want to hear them. He served in subsequent campaigns and was promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1961. Early career Golikov was born into a peasant family of Russian ethnicity in Borisova, in the Perm Governorate of the Russian Empire. His father served as a medical orderly with the garrison in Tobolsk. Father and son both joined the Russian Communist Party (b) in April 1918. A month later, Golikov enlisted in the Red Army as a volunteer. He was a political commissar through most of the Russian Civil War, and for 11 years afterw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semyon Budyonny
Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonnyy ( rus, Семён Миха́йлович Будённый, Semyon Mikháylovich Budyonnyy, p=sʲɪˈmʲɵn mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bʊˈdʲɵnːɨj, a=ru-Simeon Budyonniy.ogg; – 26 October 1973) was a Russian cavalryman, military commander during the Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War and World War II, and politician, who was a close political ally of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Born to a poor peasant family from the Don Cossack region in southern Russia, Budyonny was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army in 1903. He served with distinction in a dragoon regiment during the First World War, earning all four classes of the Cross of St. George. When the Russian Civil War broke out Budyonny founded the Red Cavalry, which played an important role in the Bolshevik victory; Budyonny became renowned for his bravery and was the subject of several popular patriotic songs. As a political ally of Joseph Stalin, he became one of the original five Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivan Tyulenev
Ivan Vladimirovich Tyulenev (; 28 January 189215 August 1978) was a Soviet military commander, one of the first to be promoted to the rank of General of the Army in 1940. Biography Tyulenvev was born into a soldier's family in the Simbirsk Governorate (now Ulyanovsk Oblast) settlement of Shatrashany. He worked in factories and as a Caspian Sea fisherman before being drafted into the Imperial Russian Army in 1913. During World War I he fought with the Kargopolsky dragoons in Congress Poland and was awarded the Order of St George for his courage. Tyulenvev joined the Red Army after the revolution and served during the Russian Civil War with the 1st Cavalry Army. In 1918 he joined the Bolshevik Party. He also took part in suppressing the Kronstadt Rebellion and in the Polish Soviet War. In 1939 he commanded the 12th Army during the Soviet invasion of Poland. He was promoted to General of the Army in 1940. At the outbreak of the German-Soviet War in June 1941, he was in char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dmitri Timofeyevich Kozlov
Dmitry Timofeyevich Kozlov (russian: Дми́трий Тимофе́евич Козло́в; October 23 (November 4) 1896, Razgulyayka, now in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast – December 6, 1967, Minsk) was a Soviet military commander. Life 1914–1941 Born in the village of Razgulyayka, he left school in 1915 and joined the Russian Army at the rank of Praporshchik. He served in the First World War and graduated from officer training school in 1917. He moved to the Red Army in 1918, commanding a battalion then a regiment in the Russian Civil War. In December 1922 he became the commander of the 4th Turkestan Regiment, then of the 109th Regiment in September 1924. He moved to the staff in 1928, then to head the Kiev Infantry School in 1930. He then became the commander and commissar of 44th Rifle Division in January 1931. Next he became a general tactical lecturer at the RKKA Military Academy in December 1935, deputy commander of the troops in Odessa Military District in April 1940, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georgy Zhukov
Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov ( rus, Георгий Константинович Жуков, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐukəf, a=Ru-Георгий_Константинович_Жуков.ogg; 1 December 1896 – 18 June 1974) was a Soviet general and Marshal of the Soviet Union. He also served as Chief of the General Staff, Minister of Defence, and was a member of the Presidium of the Communist Party (later Politburo). During World War II, Zhukov oversaw some of the Red Army's most decisive victories. Born to a poor peasant family from central Russia, Zhukov was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army and fought in World War I. He served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. Gradually rising through the ranks, by 1939 Zhukov had been given command of an army group and won a decisive battle over Japanese forces at Khalkhin Gol, for which he won the first of his four Hero of the Soviet Union awards. In February 1941, Zhukov was ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsky ( ru , Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Василе́вский) (30 September 1895 – 5 December 1977) was a Soviet career-officer in the Red Army who attained the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1943. He served as the Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces (1942-1945) and Deputy Minister of Defense during World War II, and as Minister of Defense from 1949 to 1953. As the Chief of the General Staff from 1942 to 1945, Vasilevsky became involved in planning and coordinating almost all the decisive Soviet offensives in World War II, from the Operation Uranus of November 1942 to the assaults on East Prussia (January–April 1945), Königsberg (January–April 1945) and Manchuria (August 1945). Vasilevsky began his military career during World War I, earning the rank of captain by 1917. After the October Revolution of 1917 and the start of the Civil War of 1917–1922 he was conscripted into the Red Army, tak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Premier of the Soviet Union, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1941–1953). Initially governing the country as part of a Collective leadership in the Soviet Union, collective leadership, he consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s. Ideologically adhering to the Leninism, Leninist interpretation of Marxism, he formalised these ideas as Marxism–Leninism, while his own policies are called Stalinism. Born to a poor family in Gori, Georgia, Gori in the Russian Empire (now Georgia (country), Georgia), Stalin attended the Tbilisi Spiritual Seminary before joining the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He edited the par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italo Gariboldi
Italo Gariboldi (20 April 1879 – 3 February 1970) was an Italian senior officer in the Royal Army (''Regio Esercito'') before and during World War II. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross by German dictator Adolf Hitler for his leadership of Italian forces in the Battle of Stalingrad.Adolf Hitler, Max Domarus (ed). ''Hitler: Speeches and proclamations, 1932-1945''. Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004. P. 2777. Biography Gariboldi was born in Lodi, Lombardy. From the end of World War I and through the interwar Period, Gariboldi rose in the ranks and held various staff, regimental, and brigade level commands. Abyssinia In 1935, Gariboldi commanded the 30th Infantry Division "Sabauda" on the northern front during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. His division was part of the I Corps based in Eritrea. After Italy defeated Ethiopia (Abyssinia) in May 1936, Eritrea, Abyssinia, and Italian Somaliland were joined to form the colony of Italian East Africa on 1 June 1936 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantin Constantinescu-Claps
Constantin Constantinescu-Claps (February 20, 1884 – June 1961) was a Romanian general during World War II, in command of the Romanian Fourth Army at the Battle of Stalingrad. Biography He was born in Beceni, Bacău County in 1884. From 1903 to 1905 he attended the Military School of Artillery and Genius, graduating with the rank of second lieutenant, advancing to lieutenant in 1909 and captain in 1913. During the Second Balkan War and the Romanian Campaign of World War I he served with the 12th Artillery Regiment. He fought in the Battle of Transylvania in 1916 and the battle of Măgura Cașin in 1917. For his valor, he was promoted to major in 1917 and was awarded in 1917 the Order of the Crown, Knight rank. After the war, Constantinescu-Claps was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1919, and attended the Higher War School in 1919–1920. During the interwar period he rose through the ranks in the Romanian Army, being promoted to colonel in 1925 and brigadier general ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
