Battle of Rzhev, Summer 1942

The Battle of Rzhev in the Summer of 1942 was part a series of battles that lasted 15 months in the center of the eastern front. It is known in Soviet history of the second world war as the First Rzhev–Sychyovka Offensive Operation which was defined as spanning from the 30 July to the 23 August 1942, but it is widely documented that the fighting continued undiminished into September and did not finally cease until the beginning of October 1942. Rzhev lies 140 miles west of Moscow and was captured by the German Wehrmacht in Operation Typhoon in the autumn winter of 1941 which took them to the gates of Moscow. When the Soviet counter offensive drove them back, Rzhev became a cornerstone of the Germans defense. By the summer of 1942 the city stood at the apergee of a salient that protruded from the front lines pointing in the general direction of Moscow. In July and August 1942 Stalin tasked two of his front commanders, General Zukov commanding Western Front and General Konev commanding Kalinin Front to conduct an offensive to re-capture Rezhev and strike a blow again the German Army Group Center forces that would push them away from Moscow. The attack would fall upon one of their main opponents of the winter battles, General Models 9th Army which occupied the majority of the Rzhev salient.

The two months struggle left a lasting impression on the Soviet soldiers who fought there, where they suffered massive casualties for little gain, earning the title Rzhev meat grinder. By October the strategic balance in the center of the eastern front remained essentially unchanged, the German army had also suffered grievous loses, and whilst tactically successful had also achieved little more than maintaining the status quo. Although the offensive had failed, Zhukov was given another chance to crush the Rzhev salient soon afterwards.

Background
The closing stages of the battle of Moscow saw the formation of the Rzhev salient. The Soviet counteroffensive had driven the Wehrmacht from the outskirts of Moscow back more than 100 miles and had penetrated the front of Army Group Center in numerous places. Rzhev, straddling the Volga, a strategic crossroads and vital rail junction,  became the northern corner post of Army Group Centre's left wing. It was the only town of note for many miles and gave the 9th Army something to hang on to in what was otherwise seemed to be a wilderness of forest and swamp in all directions. The salients existence was threatened at the very moment of its creation, when the Karalin Fronts 39th and 29th opened a gap just west of Rzhev and thrust southwards into the German rear. Just managing to keep the encroaching Soviet armies away from the vital rail link into Rzhev, the 9th Army, now commanded by General Model managed to close the Rzhev gap, thereby cutting the Soviet supply lines to the two Armies and reducing their ability to deal a crippling blow to the whole Army group. The Soviet counter blow had run out of steam and the Germans recovered enough to mount several operations to clear up their rear area. In July 1942, operation Seydlitz was mounted to trap and destroy the two Soviet armies and succeeded in little over a week in doing so, making the Army Group once more an almost credible threat to Moscow.

The commanders

 * General of Panzer troops Heinrich von Vietinghoff was senior corps commander in the 9th Army in June 1942, and temporarily led the Army at the start of the summer battle, whilst Model was on convalescent leave. He later commanded 10th Army and Army Group C in Italy.
 * General of Panzer troops Walter Model had commanded 3rd Panzer division at the start of Operation Barbarossa, and had become commander of XXXXI Motorised Corps in October 1941. He had shown great resolve in the defensive winter battles, and was promoted to 9th Army commander on 12 January 1942. He proved to be a tough soldier and a defensive specialist. Respected by Hitler his star continued to rise, becoming a Field Marshal in March 1944.
 * Georgy Zhukov was General Chief of Army Staff when the German Invaded the Soviet Union but following a disagreement with Stalin concerning the defense of Kiev, was sent to take over a front command. He then became a trouble shooter, commanding the Leningrad Front in the autumn, and back to Moscow to conduct its defense and counter offensive. Zhukov remained in the central sector, and he argued in the spring of 1942 that the Moscow axis was the most critical and that Army Group Center posed the greatest treat to the soviet union, that the German forces at Rzhev 'represented a dagger pointed at Moscow' Zhukov convinced Stalin to give him the extra forces he needed, and he commanded Western Fronts attacks until in the latter part of August Zhukov became deputy supreme commander, and was transferred to Stalingrad. Latterly he continued to hold the highest commands in the Soviet Army and became Marshal of the Soviet Union in January 1943. Zhukov remained always in the thick of the fighting until the very end of the war, commanding the 1st Belorussian Front  in the assault on Berlin, still in rivalry with Konev who commanded the 1st Ukrainian Front in the final battle.
 * Colonel-General Ivan Konev began the war against Germany commanding the 19th Army, which become encircled around Vitebsk in the first weeks of the conflict. Stalin blamed Konev for the disaster but Zhukov intervened and ensured his survival and promotion to Front commander. He went on to command Kalinin Front in the winter battles around Moscow with distinction, and still commanded Kalinin Front at the start of the Rzhev Operation. When Zhukov was promoted to deputy supreme commander Konev was given the overall responsibility of the continuing offensive.

The battle field
In the summer months the climate in the Rzhez area was warm, with long days and a high sun which allowed the area to dry out after the spring thaw Rainfall was typically moderate, but the summer months of 1942 had seen unusually heavy and persistent rainfall.

Generally a flat rolling country, with, in places, thick forests and patches of swamp but also, especially in the neighborhood of Rzhev, open farmed land with a dense network of small village communities, which often took the form of a ribbon of houses along the roadside. The roads were mostly mud tracks that became almost impassible in the spring and autumn rains, but normally dried out in summer.

Of the Red Armies Objectives, the city of Rzhev was by far the largest, with over 50 000 inhabitants, Zubtsov had under 5000, Pogoreloye Gorodishche 2,500. Karmanovo, to be the scene of much bitter fighting was in reality simply a large village. The Volga, is the longest river in Europe, and in both the central sector of the Eastern Front at Rzhev and at the southern sector at Stalingrad, German and Soviet armies struggled for mastery of its banks. Both Rzhev and Zubtsov straddled the river, which, at this point near its source was 130 m wide. Of major significance to both attacker and defender were tributaries of theVolga, the Dёrzha, Gzhat, Osuga and Vazuza rivers which ran south to north across the line of the soviet attack. These were normally docile and fordable at this time of year but they had become swollen with the July rains and risen to the depth of over 2 m so that by August they constituted a major impediment to Zukovs Western front attack. His forces would have to cross the Dёrzha on the start line and then a further one or even two flooded rivers to reach their final objectives.

From the German point of view, by far the most important objective was the Viazma-Rzhev rail line, without which they would be unable to supply their forces in Rzhev and to cut it would be to render the defense of the whole salient untenable.

Also important from the soviet perspective was the Zubtov-Shakhovskaya rail line which, as it ran in the direction of their intended advance could be used to ferry forward supplies.

German Order of battle
The strength of 9th Army varied considerably during the summer months, as the Army Group shifted forces between its Armies for use in different operations and defensive commitments. In early July the 9th Army was reinforced so that it could conduct operation Seydlitz reaching a total of 22 divisions including 4 Panzer divisions organised in 5 higher corps headquarters. After the successful conclusion of the operation the Army group shifted many of its offensive capable divisions southward for its next planned attack against the Sukhimchi bulge, leaving the 9th Army at the end of July with 16 infantry divisions, organised in 3 Corps, with 14 divisions in the line, 1 in reserve and another in transit.

Nearly all the divisions of Army Group Center had seen heavy winter fighting which had sapped away their fighting strength According to rehabilitation reports, because of the necessity of holding the line, and the 'unabated intensity of defensive fighting' the divisions of army group center could only be partially restored to strength and would have limited mobility and reduced combat efficiency, with the greatest gap being the shortage of motor vehicles and horses.

Following the collapse of its front east of Rzhev the Army was rapidly reinforced, but the continual strain of persistent Russian attacks led General Model to demand further support and eventually by the end of September the army commanded 25 divisions, half the army group strength, including 20 infantry, 4 Panzer as well as the Grossduetchland division.

Soviet Orderof battle
Stalin and his command group, the Stavka, sought to develop strong concentrations of forces which would attack across narrow sectors with heavy assistance from supporting arms. For example K front was told to 'create a shock group' of no less than 11 rifle divisions and 3 rifle brigades, 8 tank brigades and 10 RGK artillery regiments. To achieve these high force concentrations the Stavka handed over from its reserve to K front, 5 riffle divisions, 6 tank brigades 2 RGK artillery regiments of 152mm guns, 4 antitank artillery regiments, and 10 M-30 battalions.

Support for the operation was to be on a huge scale, to attempt wrest air superiority from the Germans, Comrade Novikov, commander of the red air force was told to concentrate 1100 aircraft in the attack sectors including 600 fighters. They sought to smash through the German front by implementing the idea of 'artillery attack' to maximize firepower using massed collections of guns, mortars and rocket launchers. 30 Army, for example, concentrated 1323 guns and mortars along its 10 km stretch achieving a density of 140 tubes per kilometer. The correlation of infantry in the attack sectors were calculated as between 3-4:1 in the 30th, 31st, and 33rd army sectors and about 7:1 in 20th and 5th army sectors. Artillery advantage was overwhelming with 6-7:1 in all armies except in the 30th where it was calculated at 2;1.

The majority of the soviet tank strength still lay in separate tank brigades, that directly supported the infantry. 30 army started the offensive with 9 tank brigades with 390 tanks, 31st army had 6 tank brigades with 274 thanks, and 20th Army had 5 tank brigades and 255 tanks. Behind these Army level forces were redied newly created Tank corps, the 6th and 8th to the rear of 20th Army and additionally 5th Tank Corps behind 33rd Army.

The tank corps had been created between March and May around a kernal of existing tank brigades and new men from the training establishments. They were supplied with the best tanks available, but lacked artillery and support units and initially even trucks were in short supply. Although formed around a core of veterans from the winter fighting, these units had supported the infantry armies and were not yet used to independent action, and were not fully able to for-fill their exploitation role. Their leaders were experienced commanders many who had reason to be cautious of what German armored units could accomplish from the previous years campaigning and tended to over estimate German strength.

Karalin front attacks
The front line, which had not changed in this sector since January had give ample time for the Soviet intelligence and planners to pin point the German forward defenses and plan their destruction or suppression. The situation behind the front lines was more sketchy to the attackers, and the Germans, on Models orders, had not been idle, and had constructed a secondary line outside of Rzhev and a final belt of defenses on the cities outskirts.

The terrain was in places low and prone to swamp, with the villages constructed on the higher and drier elevations. These were turned by the Wehrmacht into strongholds, and linked by trench lines and defences, as described by Soviet accounts as having solid minefields, networks of bunkers, and barbed wire laid out in dense lines. Additionally the unusually wet summer, and continued downpours of late July and August greatly enhanced the defenses, hindering the deployment of both tanks and artillery for the Russians who proved unable to bring their superiority in these areas fully to bear. The distance to Rzhev was 7.5 miles (12 km) which should be covered by the attacking forces in a rapid advance reaching the city in two days and fully occupying it by the third.

To accomplish this mission, General Major D. D. Lelyschenko, 30th Army commander, had received massive reinforcements, and had 4 Rifled divisions lined up along narrow attack sectors, pointing strait at Rzhev, and a further 2 flanking riffle divisions who would shove the shoulders of the German defense aside. Behind these he had 2 more Rifle divisions ready to reinforce the main attack, and another behind the flank. The 6 Rifle divisions in line would strike at the junction of the German 87th and 256th infantry divisions and pierce the defenses along a 6 mile (10 km) front, each of the main attacking divisions was reinforced by a tank brigade and backed by an impressive array of army and front level artillery and katushka rocket launchers. In all the 30th army deployed 390 tanks for the attack, and 1323 guns and mortars, and 80 rocket launchers

30 July 1942
At 6.30 am on 30 July, in the low light of early morning, the 30th army artillery opened fire in a tumultuous roar, the artillery commander of the Kalinin Front, Colonel-General NM Khlebnikov, recalled: "The power of fire impact was so great that the German artillery after several faltering attempts to answer fire with fire stopped. First two positions of the main strip enemy defenses have been destroyed, troops occupying them - almost completely destroyed."

After an hour and a halfs bombardment, at 8am, the Riffle divisions attacked. In spite of the sudden onset of more heavy rain, and with infantrymen sometimes wading through sodden fields with water up to their knees, the attack quickly acquired momentum.

The 16th guards rifle division in the center overran the forward trenches already in the first hour, and the fortified villages of the second position soon after, and by 1pm its men were deep in German rear and already approaching the village of Polunino, half way to Rzhev. To its right the 379th and the 111th rifle divisions also smashed into and over the German front line, penetrating into the depths, and capturing 4 batteries of 87th Divisional artillery.

The Soviet 30th Army had broken through on a front nine kilometers and a reached a depth of 4 miles (7 km), but already late on the first day its spearheads were brought to a halt by German counterattacks, and ominous signs of the difficulties ahead started to appear from the start. In the breakthrough sectors the supporting tanks were lagging behind, many remained mired in the mud, the riflemen had come up against prepared German lines and apon digging in found their trenches immediately filled with water.

Generalleutnant Danhauser, commanding the German 256 Infantry division, committed his pioneer and reconnaissance battalion in a counterattack from Polunino and committed his last reserve, the divisions field replacement battalion to try and fill his open flank. Of his original front line, anchored by Strong-point Emma near the old 256-87 division boundary, nearly all was still in German hands in spite of severe pressure from the Soviets flanking attack. the 9th Army had reluctantly handed over the 54th motorcycle battalion, 14th Motorized divisions only reserve, to fill the hole in the 256th divisions left flank.



31 July – 6 August 1942
The next morning the Soviet attackers expected to be able to resume the advance, but had difficulties co ordinating their various arms, numerous tank breakdowns reduced the numbers of supporting armour to a handfull which left them vuneranle to German panzerjager defenses and without the massed breakthrough artillery support, the German defensive positions remained intact. The Germans had managed to plug the gaps with divisional reserves and were now fighting touch and go battles, hanging on until further help could arrive. This was on its way so that by evening battalions from 6th Infantry divisions 18th and 58th Infantry regiments began arriving in the vital central sector around Polunino and a small elevation west of the village, hill 200. For the Soviets, the day failed to deliver anything except heavy loses, 16 Guards Riffle division begin a series of attacks on the village of Polunino, which it continued all day, and suffered over a 1000 casualties. As its divisional journal laconically stated, 'the attack was not successful'. The frontal attacks of the 31 July set the pattern for the days to come, Soviet commanders did not have the latitude or sometimes the imagination to develop flexible tactics and often rigidly executed orders from above, even if it meant attacking head on, across the same ground for days or even weeks at a time.

By 3 August the Germans were already counting the soviet losses and wondering how much longer the Soviet formations could keep going. They estimated correctly that many Riffle divisions had suffered thousands of casualties, but also noted signs of new men arriving to fill some of the depleted ranks. Three days later a frustrated Stavka issued a pronouncement, demanding 30th Army provide solutions to a variety of perceived problems, including week leadership, failure to mass tanks and poor ammunition supply to the artillery. After the success of the first day, seven days of attacks had achieved nothing and the 30th Army called a halt in order to regroup and reorganize.

10–30 August 1942
On August the 10 the Russians attacked the 256 flank with renewed ferocity. 220 Rifle Division, which had been battering away at the suborn defense of the 256th Infantry Division since 30 July and had lost 877 dead and 3083 wounded in the first four days, on the 12 August finally it captured the key village of Belkovo. Its divisional commander, Colonel Stanislav Poplavsky saw that ' the fields were full with the bodies of the dead.' The day before Gilyarovich had received a call from the Front commander, Konev, who had suggested the supporting tank brigade be pulled out to lead the next infantry attack. But his attached amour, as in so many other sectors had become mired in the mud and only four tanks could be extracted.

But in other sectors new rifle formations had been brought up, Strong point Emma, the vital cornerstone of the defense that had held out for two weeks fell and the tanks from the soviet 255 Tank brigade were roaming unhindered in its rear. Some German defenders noted that the soviet tankers were employing new tactics 'staying out of the reach of our anti-tank guns, they systematically shoting up every position, which had a demoralizing effect on the infantry, causing tank-panic.'

The continued Russian tank attacks were in dander of swamping the defense, but Soviet infantry tactics remained crude with dense masses of men rushing forward, shouting 'Hurrah'. Replacements were often thrown directly into battle directly from the trains with out orientation or any time to get to know their officers or their outfit. Model, just returning from convalescent leave saw that the German defense had bent but not completely broken. He issued 'not a step back' orders and funneled in all available reserves including scratch battle groups thrown together on the spur of the moment taken from troops returning on leave trains. At the same time he demanded additional reinforcements from higher commands.

Red army losses were catastrophic, but the German defenders were also under severe strain. The constant attacks exhausted the troops, break-ins had to be constantly driven back by local counterattacks. Infantry Regiment 481 was now reduced to 120 fighting troops, mostly attached to battle group Mummert, which was composed of units thrown together from 4 different divisions. The pazer jager (antitank) battalions were the key to the defense against tanks, but the guns could not be everywhere and it was common for the infantry to have to deal with tanks overrunning their trenches themselves, using grenade bundles or mines, attacks which required great individual daring.

The gains of the flanking attacks, although meager, did finally open a new opportunity east of Pultuno, which the 2nd Guards Rifle division was able to exploit. Over running a sector which ran across swampy and forested ground, the division in three days fought its way through to the Rzhev airfield on the outskirts of the city. Counterattacks by (129ID) stabilized the front, and Model allowed the 256 and 14 m, whose positions now bulged out into Soviet lines, to pull back across the Volgas western bank. The Soviets now in easy artillery range started to pound the city, which together with airstikes reduced its buildings to smoldering ruins.

Additionally by the end of the month the stuborn German defence of Putino came to an end as they finally withdrew, under heavy pressure, and took up new defenses positions, in already prepared on Rzhevs perimeter.

Western front attacks
The attack by western front, planned for 2 August was delayed by another two days mainly for the additional delays imposed by the abysmal weather. Zhukov planned to penetrate the line at Pogoreloye Gorodishche, and advance towards the Vazuza river, destroying the defending forces of the XXXXVI Panzer Corps, known as the Zubtsov Karmanovo grouping. The front mobile group, 6th and 8th Tanks Corps and the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps would be committed towards Sychevka with the 20th Army while the 31st army co-operated with Karalin front's forces to capture Rzhev.

4 August 1942
In the early morning hours of 4 August 1942 General Zukov unleashed the Western fronts attack against the Rzhev salient. The offensive began with a massive preliminary bombardment. A concentration of artillery and mortars along a narrow front that rained down shells and bombs on the German positions for nearly one and a half hours which was followed by a pause in which soviet aircraft laid smoke along the front line. But the lull was a ruse to lure the German defenders back into their forward trenches to suffer the final creshendo, which was topped off by a volley from Katyusha rocket launchers .

The energy of the firestorm in many places destroyed the German wire entanglements, and bunkers and fixed positions lay smashed. The attack battalions from the Soviet riffle divisions, using rafts, boats and ferries to cross the swollen river Derzha, secured the forward German line with-in an hour and with little loss.



Pogoreloye Gorodishche, a battalion strong hold of the 161st divisions 364th infantry regiment, and one of the Soviets 20th armies main initial objectives was quickly outflanked and then cut off by Soviet infantry. Soon after midday, aided by another sharp artillery strike and supported by tanks, Russian riflemen stormed into the position from three directions and overwhelmed the garrison capturing 87 officers and men and leaving many more dead.

South of Pogoreloye Gorodishche the 331st Riffle division rapidly captured the forward trench line and moved swiftly on to take Gubinka, a village in the secondary line. Until that morning it had been the location of 336 Infantry regiments Headquarters, which was found abandoned and strewn with staff documents and discarded equipment. All along the 161st divisions entire front its soldiers had been attacked in overwhelming force, its defenses had crumbled and given way, and its remaining soldiers were in full retreat. The 20th and 31st Soviet Armies had torn a gaping hole in the German front, and by evening their Riffle divisions and supporting tank Brigades had advanced 5 miles (8 km) into the German lines.

The German command were quick to realize the dangers of the new Soviet offensive, and Hitler immediately released five divisions which had been held in reserve, waiting to for operation Whirlwind, the planned attack on the Suchinici bulge, to start. These included 1st, 2nd and 5th Panzer divisions and 102nd and 78th Infantry Divisions. Von Vietinghoff, acting 9th Army commander had already committed what reserves he had against the Karalin front attack and had virtually nothing on hand to stop the new Soviet advance except Army schools, teenage helpers and a few flak guns which he positioned at strategic points. These were not going to stop Soviet tanks for very long, German defenses were wide open until the arrival of the reinforcement divisions.

5–9 August 1942
On the morning of the 5 August in what Halder termed a 'very wide and deep penetration' the Soviet riffle divisions, at the cutting edge, pushed on into the depth of German positions against negligible opposition, but as the Soviet commands started to commit their armored units forward problems started to emerge.

Crossing points along the river Darzha were interdicted by Luftwaffe attacks and complicated by the high water and the strong current. The Tank Corps were taking hours to get across even fractions of their forces. The roads, such as there were, saturated by the incessant rains rapidly deteriorated and were clogged with traffic of all sorts, some of which became hopelessly mired in the mud and could not move. Re-supply carts, artillery, and tanks were stuck in traffic jams and became disorganized and disorientated. 11th Tank Brigade, part of 20th Army mobile group became lost and only turned up days later fighting in the wrong sector. The accompanying motorcyclists, who were attached to the Army mobile group, were unable to move their machines forwards, and had to abandon them, advancing instead as ordinary infantry, trudging slowly forward through the mud.

Nevertheless 20th Army infantry advanced another 18 miles (30 km) and was joined by nightfall by the foremost parts of both 6th and 8th Tank Corps. These forces were approaching the rivers Vazuza and Gzhat, but as light faded on the 5 August they began to make contact with fresh enemy units. These came primarily from 5th Panzer Division, which had been closest to the breakthrough area, and had been rushed to the crucial sector north of Sychevka, where its forwards elements crossed the Vazuza at Chlepen and fanned out, hurriedly occupying defensive positions.

The 36th Motorised divisions stubborn defense had been the only bright spot for 9th Army on the 4 August, but its opponent, the Soviet 8th Guards Rifle Corps quickly infiltrated forces around the divisions northern flank and into its rear.

The following day, the Soviets broke through from the north with tanks and infantry, swept around and over a battery of divisional artillery 105mmm howitzers and reached the tiny community of Dolgie Niwuj, barely a mile and a half from the 36th Motorised divisional headquarters in Voskresenskoye (Woskresenskoje). Generalmajor Gollnick, the divisional commander, watched the houses of Dolgie Niwuj go up in flames and started to reorganize his defenses to cope with what was to be but the first of a series of crises for the division. Soviet Infantry from the 20th Army was pushing past his rear towards Kamanovo, but were thwarted by the arrival of 2nd Panzer division which pushed them back and sent tanks and Panzer grenadiers to the aid of Gollnick.

For the 5th Panzer division, the 6 August proved to be a day of crises. Both of its flanks were 'hanging in the air', and it was assailed along its entire newly acquired front by infantry and tanks some of which broke through to harassed supply units and artillery positions. Panzer Grenidier Regiment 14 had deployed both its battalions in line, only to have them badly mauled. Its II battalion became encircled and had to fight its way out, with a supporting tank company losing 8 tanks fending off attacks by T34s which seemed to come from all sides. The intense fighting cost the 5th Panzer Division 285 casualties on this day alone, but limited further Russian advance to only 2 miles.

Substantial Russian forces were getting forward so that by the 8 August the 20th Soviet army had introduced over 600 tanks into its sector. As additional forces from both sides joined the battle the intensity of the fighting grew but the forward momentum of the attackers first slackened, then stopped. Mounted regiments from 2 Guards Calvary Corps reached the river Gzhat exploiting the gap between the 5th and 2nd Panzer divisions, and were able to ford it carving out a bridgehead on the southern bank. Its advance was checked by the arrival of 1st Panzer division which attacked and drove the line back. Likewise 6th Tank corps reached and crossed the Vazuza along with some rifle forces but once across was met with fierce counterattacks and airstrikes. Although German infantry and armored units were immediately thrown piecemeal into combat upon arrival, by 8 August von Vietinghoff had a firm cordon in place around the western fronts entire penetration.

With breakthrough towards s looking increasingly unlikely in the face of German reinforcements Zhukov ordered the 20th Army to extract 8th Tank corps, re align it to the south, to cooperate with renewed 5th Army attacks.

But Soviet difficulties persisted 20th Army found its communications not up to the task and had to rely sometimes on to co ordinate its many riffle units as well as co operation with the fronts mobile groups. Because of the ongoing logistical problems, resupply was difficult, 8th Tank Corps complained of running low on fuel and ammo which hindered its operations 17th tank brigade found that not enough fuel were getting through to keep all the tanks in action, artillery was being held back in favor of advancing combat units.



The improving weather allowed the roads to dry sufficiently to bring up further ammunition, and logistics were further improved by the restoration of the rail line as far as PG, but 8th Tank Corps was tied up with combat against the 1st Panzer division and could only extract 49 of its tanks for the attack. Nevertheless after a brisk artillery preparation 8 Tank Corps struck, advanced 3 miles (5 km) and captured the village of Jelnia The German 2 Panzer division, which noted 'especially heavy attacks' on 11 August just received a delivery of new Pzkw Mark IV tanks which it committed immediately into the fighting.

5th Army whose first attack on 8 August had penetrated the front line, but had been stopped by midday by German reinforcements, now rejoined to add to the pressure on Zorns XXXXVI Panzer Corps. After this 20 Army continued to attack, grinding a mile or two forward every day with bitter fighting for every village. The Germans, it complained, were continually developing their trench systems, which were backed by concealed mortar and anti-tank gun positions, and protected by minefields and booby trapped obstacles.

Finally on 23 August Kamanovo fell, after which 20th Army could get no further against a shortened and strengthened German line and went over to the defensive by 8 September

Konev tries again for Rzhev - September 1942
After its initial breakthrough 31st Army had achieved a steady but unspectacular advance against German infantry, pushing them back step by step, inflicting a steady drain on German resources but suffering greatly itself. On 23 August it captured one of the main objectives of the offensive, but only in part, taking the southern half of Zubtsov, and thereafter its units reached the river Vazuza and carved out a shallow bridgehead on the western bank.

On 26 August Zhukov was appointed xxx, and command of western front was handed to Konev and to keep keep unified command arrangements the 30th and 29th Armies were subordinated to Western Front authority.

Once he had taken over, Konev saw that 'troops were dwindling in number and shells were few' and called for a halt to reorganize, restock ammunition, repair tanks and aircraft.

He decided to launch the 31st and 29th Armies from the south east and 30th again from the north and 'close the encirclement ring around Rzhev' To this end he took 6th Tank out from 20th army and put it back in the line just below Zubtsov. Utilizing 31st Armies bridgehead across the Vazuza the attack was plnned for the 9 September when sufficient ammunition had been brought up. Gettmans 6th Tank Corps assembled in the forests and at dawn of the 9th, after a half hours artillery barrage attacked with 31st Infantry Cut through the a dilapidated battalion from 11 inf reg and advanced some miles seizing 2 villages. Moving on they captured Michejewo threatening a complete breakthrough. After some hesitation and much telephoning Hitler release the GD division for a counterattack.

Loses
The participating Soviet armies suffered 290,000 casualties in the Rzhev fighting, a figure that covers the main army groupings for the period of their offensive commitments, but does not cover the independent corps nor air force loses, over all losses were in excess of 300, 000 Some sources, such as some reports from the participant armies themselves give higher figure for their casualties than those recorded by the Front. The rifle divisions of the attacking armies had to receive additional men to continue to attack due to the high attrition rate in men, to maintain the offensive into September, for example, Konev requested 20,000 replacements for just two of the armies involved. By 10 September the Soviet armies had been decimated, loses had reduced their strength to less than half, with 184.265 men, and 306 tanks

Table of Soviet loses

German losses in the 9th army by 17 August were already 20,000 casualties. On 1 September, von Kluge flew to the Fuehrer Headquarters, to relay what Model had told him the day before, that 9th Army was at the point of collapse. Its casualties were up to 42,000 and rising at a rate close to 2,000 a day. Hitler promised some modest reinforcements, including possibly the Grossduetchland division, "Someone," he stated "must collapse. It will not be us!"

By mid September the German infantry divisions in the thick of the fighting suffered had suffered two, three, even four thousand casualties and in the case of the hard hit 161st infantry division over six thousand. The Panzer divisions all had lost between one thousand five hundred to two thousand casualties and most of the tanks they started the battle with. Over all the 9th army toll lay at above 53,000 including in excess of 1,500 officers Additionally in the 3rd Panzer army sector casualty reports for around the time of the 33rd Soviet Army attack list over ten thousand loses.

External web sites

 * German 10 day casualty reports listed by Army
 * Articles about the Rzhez battles (Russian Text)
 * The battle for hill 200
 * Article On the 70th anniversary of the Pogorelov-Gorodyshchens'ka and Rzhev-Sychevsky operations in 1942. (Russian text)
 * Journal of hostilities - 16th Guards Rifle Division - 07/30/42 to 08/22/42