As a military center and the "granary" of the Soviet Union, Kiev naturally has a large-scale garrison. Before the battle of Kiev broke out, the elite troops of the southwest army of the Soviet Union 1 10,000 people were equipped with advanced weapons and equipment, and their armor was strong. With such a defense force, no country can capture Kiev in a short time. So Stalin is optimistic about the situation in Kiev. However, with excellent strategic vision, zhukov quickly discovered the hidden danger of Kiev from the recent Minsk campaign.
In the Battle of Minsk, the German 2nd and 3rd armored clusters launched surprise attacks from two directions, forming a pincer attack on Minsk. Subsequently, the 4 th and 9 th armies followed suit and completed the encirclement of the main Soviet forces in Minsk. And zhukov thinks that the German deployment today is very similar to the Battle of Minsk. Although the Soviet army in Kiev is strong, once the German army completes the encirclement and cuts off the supply, the million-strong army will be in chaos without fighting, and the future trouble will be endless. Because of this, zhukov, the chief of general staff of the Soviet Union, suggested Stalin to give up Kiev and make the Soviet main force retreat ahead of schedule.
However, as the birthplace of Russian civilization and the third largest city in the Soviet Union, Kiev has a strong military production capacity. No matter from the political or practical point of view, Kiev has extremely important strategic significance, and it is totally unacceptable for the Soviet leadership to retreat without a fight. Therefore, zhukov also lost the position of Chief of Staff and was demoted to command the reserve army.
194 1 On July 7, 2008, German armored forces began to advance from the east and south of Kiev, but Marshal Butioni, who was in charge of Kiev's defense mission, didn't realize the German strategic intention at all. Therefore, on September 7, 194 1, when von Kleist commanded the German 2nd armored cluster,
/kloc-in September of 0/7, Stalin finally agreed to the withdrawal of Kiev defenders from Kiev after repeated hesitation. However, the commander did not even organize an effective breakthrough for unprepared Soviet soldiers. From 17, according to the plan, the Germans began to concentrate their forces on attacking the Soviet troops in Kiev in an attempt to achieve division and encirclement. On June 5438+08, the Soviet army concentrated its powerful armored forces and cooperated with the infantry to storm the German encirclement. Soviet soldiers even installed bayonets on rifles in advance so that they could continue fighting when the bullets ran out. However, although the fighting was extremely fierce and the Germans suffered huge losses, with the arrival of German reinforcements, the Soviet breakthrough war ended in failure.
/kloc-on the afternoon of 0/8, a Soviet cavalry division and two tank brigades made another breakthrough and launched an impact on the position of the German Second Armored Cluster. This breakthrough once broke through the encirclement of the German army, and some senior officers of the Southwest Army escaped, including Marshal Budiyani, Timoshenko Yuan Shuai and Soviet political commissar Khrushchev.
After the southwest army lost its core leadership, the Soviet high command finally issued an order to abandon Kiev. However, at this time, the Soviet army, which had no hope of breaking through, could only abandon the peripheral fortifications, blow up all the bridges on the Dnieper River, and retreat to the city to look forward to support. On September 20, the defenders trapped in the city launched the final breakthrough attack, but the demoralized Soviet soldiers could not turn the tide. This time, the picture shows that they ended in failure again, which decided the outcome of the Soviet army in Kiev. At the same time, in order not to completely lose the southwest army, Timoshenko actively mobilized several army units nearby, trying to break the German siege. However, these reinforcements were stubbornly resisted by German 17 troops, and they could not even advance half a step in the direction of Kiev.
At this time, the situation in Kiev began to deteriorate. Due to defeat and supply interruption, Soviet ammunition gradually ran out and morale was low. Because there is no fuel, a large number of tanks become scrap iron. Soviet officers used loudspeakers to broadcast Stalin's speech in an attempt to boost morale. Of course, it doesn't matter if Soviet soldiers who are unwilling to surrender camp and launch a sudden attack on the Germans. And more Soviet soldiers stayed where they were, laid down their weapons and prepared to surrender.
1941On September 26th, the German army completely occupied Kiev, and the battle of Kiev ended. Most of the 5th, 2nd1,37th and 26th Army Groups of the Soviet Army, and most of the 40th and 38th Army Groups were annihilated, with nearly 200,000 people killed and 650,000 captured, and only 6.5438+0.5 million people successfully broke through. The southwest army of the Soviet Union almost lost its combat effectiveness, while the German army only paid the price of 6.5438+0.5 million people (casualties). This movement gave the Soviet leadership a great shock. In the case that the number of Soviet troops was dominant and the armored forces did not fall in the wind, the battle became a one-sided massacre due to strategic and tactical mistakes. After the German army invaded Kiev, it began a brutal extermination policy against the Jews in the city. On September 29th and 30th alone, more than 30,000 Jews were killed.
The battle of Kiev is regarded by historical experts as the largest encirclement and suppression in human history. It is also called "one of the biggest failures in World War II" by many Soviet scholars and regarded as the most humiliating battle in the history of the Soviet Red Army. Many senior commanders in the Soviet Union lacked strategic literacy, backward tactical concepts and poor combat literacy of soldiers, which was exposed through this campaign.