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00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:39,440
October 1941. The Germans reach
 Rzhev, 130 miles from Moscow.

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00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:41,960
The battles fought here are some
 of the bloodiest of the war.

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00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:43,400
They come to be known
 as "The Rzhev Meat-Grinder".

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00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:47,560
Originally produced
 for Russian television in 2011,

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00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:49,920
this is the story
 of Russia s Great Patriotic War

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00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:51,960
and the Red Army s long road
 from defeat to victory.

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00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:01,160
The Red Army was pulling back
 across the Volga.

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00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:06,800
Suddenly, enormous explosions
 ripped through the city behind
 them.

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00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:20,320
The ammunition and fuel dumps
 in Rzhev were being blown up

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00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:22,720
to prevent them falling into
 the enemy s hands.

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00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:26,080
Everywhere there was confusion.

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00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:29,800
The roads were crowded
 with retreating soldiers.

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00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:33,000
No one knew where it would end.

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00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:36,600
It seemed the whole
 front was collapsing.

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00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:47,640
It was October 1941. The Germans
 had launched Operation Typhoon

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00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:50,440
the Battle for Moscow.

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00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:01,720
The German army was in Rzhev
 just hours behind the Soviets.

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00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:06,760
An investigation into the
 conduct of Soviet commanders at
 Rzhev

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00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:10,080
cleared them of wrongdoing.

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00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:11,720
There had been no way to get
 the ammunition out.

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00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:17,760
The Luftwaffe had already
 destroyed all transport
 connections to the city.

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00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:25,480
The Red Army ammunition
 dumps were at Rzhev

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00:02:25,480 --> 00:02:27,080
because the city lay at the
 heart of the rail network.

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00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:36,440
Both sides depended on
 ammunition, food and fuel by the
 trainload.

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00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:40,160
It made Rzhev a valuable prize.

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00:02:52,640 --> 00:02:57,000
Red Army units retreating from
 Rzhev were reorganised into the
 Kalinin Front.

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00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:02,320
Their new commander was Colonel
General Ivan Stepanovich Konev.

28
00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:06,760
Konev was the son of
 Russian peasants,

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00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:09,720
and became a conscript
 of the Tsarist army in 1916.

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00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:16,280
By 1941, he d risen to senior
 command and been put in charge
 of a Front

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00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:19,720
the Soviet equivalent
 of an army group.

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00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,600
However his forces became
 encircled in the opening phase
 of Operation Typhoon.

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00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:30,440
Konev s conduct was investigated
 by the State Defense Committee,

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00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:32,240
led by Molotov and Voroshilov.

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00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:38,440
Konev s predecessor,
 General Pavlov,

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00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:40,480
had been shot following
 a similar investigation.

37
00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:44,360
But Konev was saved
 by Zhukov s intervention.

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00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:54,400
Zhukov knew any general could
 have a bad day. And shooting
 competent officers,

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00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:57,680
with the enemy at the gates of
 the capital, was
 counter-productive.

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00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:06,400
That winter, outside Moscow, the
 Red Army launched a massive
 counterattack.

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00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:11,680
The German 9th Army was forced
 to retreat from Kalinin back to
 Rzhev.

42
00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:18,520
Hitler s response was to sack
 Army Group Centre s commander,
 Fedor Von Bock.

43
00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:24,200
He was given just a few hours to
 brief his successor, Field
 Marshal von Kluge.

44
00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:31,520
Von Bock painted
 a bleak picture.

45
00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:34,560
He warned von Kluge that he
 believed the enemy was preparing
 a powerful strike

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00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:38,320
against both flanks
 of Army Group Centre.

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00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:47,760
Gunther Von Kluge had been
 promoted Field Marshal the
 previous year,

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00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:52,320
following his success
 in the Battle of France.

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00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:54,760
He came from a Prussian family
 with a long tradition of
 military service.

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00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,520
In 1944 he would take his own
life following the failure of
 the army plot

51
00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:01,880
to assassinate Hitler.

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00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:07,560
Von Bock s warning
 proved accurate.

53
00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:17,640
As Zhukov attacked from the
 east, Konev s 39th Army

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00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:20,920
broke through
 the German lines west of Rzhev,

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00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:23,320
threatening Army Group
 Centre s supply lines.

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00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:29,880
The Soviet 29th Army followed
 through the breach, threatening
 Rzhev itself.

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00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:36,560
The Germans clung on
 desperately. Heinrich Haape,

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00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:40,080
a medic in the German 6th
 Infantry Division, described the
 chaos:

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00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:46,400
We got reinforcements from
construction companies and rear
 area units.

60
00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:49,120
Many didn t know anything
 about handling weapons.

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00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:52,240
They were cannon fodder
 thrown into the battle.

62
00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:55,760
While we changed
 positions after firing,

63
00:05:55,760 --> 00:05:57,640
the newcomers always shot
 from the same spot.

64
00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:01,880
One burst from a Russian
 machine gun was all it took.

65
00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:09,160
In 12 hours, from 130 new men,
 just 26 were left.

66
00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:17,400
Konev s counterattack encircled
 the German 23rd Corps near
 Olenino.

67
00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:22,920
But Zhukov s advance became
 bogged down in fighting around
Yukhnov.

68
00:06:24,840 --> 00:06:28,240
Only Belov s Cavalry Corps
 broke through to Vyazma.

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00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:34,920
Because of the almost total
 destruction of Red Army tank
 units

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00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:39,000
in the first weeks of the war,
 by late 1941,

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00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:41,720
the Soviets were forced to look
 elsewhere for fast-moving
 offensive units.

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00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:48,000
They turned to their cavalry.
 The cavalry was used to exploit
 breakthroughs

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00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:50,200
and attack enemy lines
 of communication.

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00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:57,000
Each cavalry corps included one
 tank brigade, anti-tank guns,
 and mortars.

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00:06:59,840 --> 00:07:04,880
The cavalry were in effect
mobile infantry. Horses got them
 there,

76
00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:07,320
but then the men dismounted to
 fight, and the horses were led
 to the rear.

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00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:11,000
Mounted cavalry charges were
 for the newsreels.

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00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:18,440
Later in the war, the Red Army
 created Cavalry-Mechanised
 groups,

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00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:22,800
containing cavalry, tanks,
 self-propelled guns and rocket
 artillery.

80
00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:25,200
These formations were powerful
 and highly mobile.

81
00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:32,600
On 16th January, General
 Strauss asked to be relieved

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00:07:32,600 --> 00:07:36,480
as commander of the German 9th
 Army. His replacement was Walter
Model.

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00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:44,480
Model now turned the
 tables on the Soviets.

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00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:48,280
First he broke through
 to the isolated 23rd Corps.

85
00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:51,920
Then he cut-off the
 Soviet 29th Army.

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00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:01,040
Konev launched ferocious
 counterattacks in a bid to
 rescue his trapped units.

87
00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:05,560
But Model successfully parried
 one blow after another.

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00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:20,480
The Soviets failed
 to break through.

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00:08:22,320 --> 00:08:27,520
Konev ordered the encircled men
 to save themselves. On 17th
 February,

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00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:34,040
a small airborne force was
 parachuted in to guide the
 troops back through the lines.

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00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:44,080
5,200 men of the 29th Army
 made it back... 14,000 did not.

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00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:54,000
The Soviet plan to cut
 the Smolensk-Vyazma highway,

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00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,640
thereby cutting off German Army
 Group Centre, had ended in a
 bloody failure.

94
00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:04,520
The losses were extraordinary,
 but casualty claims remain
 controversial.

95
00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:11,600
The Soviets admitted to a
 staggering 341,000 casualties on
 the Kalinin Front.

96
00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:16,640
The Western Front suffered an
 additional 105,000 casualties,

97
00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:22,960
while German Army Group Centre
 sustained an estimated 150,000
casualties.

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00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:34,240
Summer, 1942. The drone of a
 light aircraft could be heard
 over the forest,

99
00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:38,680
and the occasional crack of a
 rifle. Field Marshal Von Kluge

100
00:09:38,680 --> 00:09:42,600
was indulging in his new hobby
 fox hunting from the air.

101
00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,680
It was a dangerous sport.

102
00:09:48,680 --> 00:09:51,400
Partisans and stranded Red Army
 soldiers hid in the forest.

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00:09:52,680 --> 00:09:55,280
Model had recently been wounded
 by a lucky shot.

104
00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:03,960
After the winter fighting, many
 Soviet units were cut off behind
 the German front line.

105
00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:09,360
The front here had become a
confusing patchwork of pockets
 and salients.

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00:10:16,520 --> 00:10:19,920
The largest salient projected
 into the forests around the town
 of Zhirkovsky.

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00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:25,360
It contained parts of the Soviet
 39th Army and 11th Cavalry
 Corps.

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00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:30,080
They were supplied along a
 narrow corridor through enemy
 lines.

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00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:36,320
Artillery officer Mikhail
 Lukinov described conditions:

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00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:43,600
We were few and no one was in
 good shape. All the horses had
 died.

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00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:50,240
The sick and wounded were
 evacuated on foot. And we envied
 them .

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00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:56,720
The Stavka was not willing to
 give up any of its hard-won
 ground,

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00:10:56,720 --> 00:11:01,720
no matter how exposed it left
 the troops. And now disaster
 loomed.

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00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:08,760
On 2nd July, the Germans
 launched Operation Seydlitz.

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00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:14,320
Within three days, they had
 closed the corridor at the
 village of Pushkari.

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00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:20,040
It meant the encirclement of the
 39th Army, 11th Cavalry Corps,

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00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:24,640
and also parts of the
 41st and 22nd Armies.

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00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:34,600
Attempts to break out lasted
 for several days.

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00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:46,880
Poliakov, a signals officer from
a Guards Rifle Division
 described the atmosphere:

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00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:50,680
At Headquarters there was
 a sense of calm foreboding.

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00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:54,760
You could sense people thinking
 we ve done all we can.

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00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:57,920
Now duty demands we
 go to the very end.

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00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:01,920
But while his troops
 fought bravely on,

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00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:06,760
39th Army Commander General
 Maslennikov was evacuated by
 air.

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00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:13,760
His injured deputy, General Ivan
 Bogdanov, was also flown out,
 but died of his wounds.

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00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:21,760
In all 18,000 soldiers escaped
 the trap. More than 60,000 did
 not.

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00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:30,680
Operation Seydlitz gave the
 Rzhev bulge its definitive
 shape.

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00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:37,320
At its tip the city of Rzhev,
 and the junction of two rail
 arteries:

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00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:40,000
one running east-west
 from Moscow to Velikiye Luki;

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00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:44,760
the other running north-south
 from Torzhok to Vyzama.

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00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:51,040
German control of Rzhev
 prevented the Soviets moving men
 and supplies

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00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:55,400
between the two flanks.
 But if Rzhev fell,

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00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:59,440
the Red Army would be able to
 launch powerful offensives on
 both flanks.

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00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:02,240
They would trap and destroy
German forces in the salient.

135
00:13:04,280 --> 00:13:08,480
What s more, the German lines
 here were only 150 kilometers
 from the Soviet capital.

136
00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:15,360
It was imperative that Soviet
 forces drive the enemy as far
 from Moscow as possible.

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00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:24,840
In July 1942, the Wehrmacht
 launched a new offensive in
 southern Russia

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00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:27,800
to capture the
 Caucasus oil fields.

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00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:30,680
The Red Army retreated towards
 Rostov and Stalingrad.

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00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:38,760
Stalin issued his famous Order
 Number 227 Not a step back!

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00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:49,120
At the Rzhev salient, the
fighting had settled into a
 routine of bombardments

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00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:50,600
and small-scale raids.

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00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:57,360
For the Eastern Front, this was
 what passed for a quiet patch.

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00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:10,320
But it was the calm before the
 storm. The Soviets were
 preparing something big.

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00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:19,480
B-4 guns, dubbed Stalin s
 Sledgehammers , had arrived at
 the front.

146
00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:27,200
The B-4 was a Soviet 203
 millimetre heavy howitzer.

147
00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:33,960
It was a fearsome weapon, used
 for smashing enemy
 fortifications and strongpoints.

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00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:41,840
B-4 batteries were under the
direct command of the Stavka
 strategic reserve.

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00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:47,640
This meant that wherever they
 showed up, something big was
 being planned.

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00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:56,040
The explosion of a 100-kilogram
 B-4 shell would instantly catch
 the Germans attention.

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00:14:57,320 --> 00:14:59,120
So to keep the presence
 of the heavy guns secret,

152
00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,360
gunners carried out their
 ranging fire with light
 howitzers.

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00:15:04,600 --> 00:15:07,400
The results were
 then recalculated for the B-4s.

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00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:13,480
But that wasn t all
 the Soviets were hiding.

155
00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:20,600
The new M-30 rocket launcher was
about to make its operational
 debut.

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00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:30,120
M-30s were similar to the famous
 Katyusha truck-mounted rocket
 launchers.

157
00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:37,480
But this version carried a
 heavier 300 millimetre rocket
 with a bulbous warhead,

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00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:39,760
which meant the launcher had to
 be installed directly into the
 ground.

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00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:44,200
Each M-30 could be loaded with
 four, or later eight rockets.

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00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:50,120
It was a crude but devastating
 weapon, nicknamed "Pounding
 Ivan" by the troops.

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00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:56,480
Each rocket had a range of 2.8
 kilometres. Later in the war,

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00:15:56,480 --> 00:15:59,160
an M-31 rocket was developed
 with a range of more than 4
 kilometres.

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00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:03,880
It was fired from a car-mounted
 launcher known as Andryusha .

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00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:10,680
The frontline was quiet
 when Leonid Sandalov,

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00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:13,360
Chief of Staff of the 20th Army,
 went to visit:

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00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:18,240
On a clear day, you could see
 German guards changing shifts,

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00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:20,480
smoke drifting from
 their dug-outs,

168
00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:24,920
and soldiers bailing out flooded
 trenches with buckets.

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00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:34,720
In the evenings you could hear
 them playing their harmonicas .

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00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:45,880
These routines were carefully
observed by Red Army staff
 officers,

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00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:47,600
disguised as common soldiers.

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00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:54,560
This sector, near
 the Derzha River,

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00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:57,840
had been chosen by the Stavka
 High Command for an ambitious
 operation.

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00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:12,320
The orders from the Stavka were
 to seize control of the cities
 of Rzhev and Zubtsov,

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00:17:12,320 --> 00:17:16,280
and then advance to fortify the
 lines of the Volga and Vazuza
 rivers.

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00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:22,400
The attack was to be made by two
 armies of the Kalinin Front,

177
00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:27,480
and two armies of the Western
 Front. It would commence on the
28th July 1942.

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00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,000
But the Germans were preparing
 their own offensive.

179
00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:44,920
The Germans planned
 to attack at Sukhinichski,

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00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:46,280
where there was a
 bulge in the front.

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00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:51,600
Operation Whirlwind would be
 the classic German pincer move:

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00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:58,040
two blows from north and south
 to encircle Soviet troops in the
 bulge.

183
00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:03,640
Summer rainstorms turned
 roads into swamps.

184
00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:06,840
The Western Front s attack
 had to be delayed.

185
00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:11,880
But Konev s Kalinin Front went
 ahead without them on 30th July.

186
00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:16,680
Its troops had been given
two days to capture Rzhev.

187
00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:21,800
General Khlebnikov, the Kalinin
 Front s artillery commander,

188
00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:23,280
reported the effect of his guns:

189
00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:29,600
Two of the forward positions of
 the enemy s main defensive line
 were destroyed.

190
00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:32,200
The forces occupying them were
 almost completely wiped out.

191
00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:39,160
But Model used
 the German 6th Infantry Division

192
00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:40,600
to plug any gaps that
 appeared in the line.

193
00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:49,160
Battles raged for days
 over villages and landmarks.

194
00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:56,160
To the north of Rzhev, Polunino
 village and Hill 200 were the
focus of bitter fighting.

195
00:18:59,360 --> 00:19:03,520
A battalion commander from the
 6th Infantry Division tried to
 describe the experience:

196
00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:08,360
Our trenches are under constant
 fire from guns, rockets and
 mortars.

197
00:19:19,120 --> 00:19:20,880
It s hard to imagine
 the sheer number of guns.

198
00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:24,160
The indescribable
 sound of the rockets.

199
00:19:26,120 --> 00:19:29,800
The wounded drag themselves to
 the rear. They say it s all bad
 in the front line.

200
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:48,920
The Russians destroy our guns
 and level our positions .

201
00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:56,600
But still the Soviet infantry
 failed to break through.

202
00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:04,560
Soviet infantry tactics
 weren t helping. In 1942,

203
00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:07,320
Red Army doctrine stated that
 infantry should be drawn up in
 two echelons.

204
00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:12,920
For a division, this meant two
 regiments in the first echelon,
 and one behind.

205
00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:18,400
Their battalions and companies
 were arranged in the same way.

206
00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:21,800
It allowed a division to move
 quickly to exploit a successful
 attack.

207
00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:27,160
It also meant that
 in a rifle division,

208
00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:30,120
only 8 out of 27 companies
 were in the front line.

209
00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:33,480
Attacks were weakened,
and units in the rear

210
00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:38,920
were exposed to shells and bombs
 long before they even engaged
 the enemy.

211
00:20:45,360 --> 00:20:49,920
In the bloody fighting around
 Rzhev, the Red Army would learn
 many painful lessons.

212
00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:04,520
4th August 1942.

213
00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:10,360
The dawn silence was about to be
 broken by a deafening cannonade.

214
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:15,800
Stalin s Sledgehammers
 had joined the battle.

215
00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:25,200
Then the Katyushas joined in.

216
00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:40,760
Five days late, Zhukov s Western
 Front had joined the battle.

217
00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:54,800
As Zhukov s troops advanced,
 they liberated their first
Russian village.

218
00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:58,480
At Pogoreloye Gorodishe,

219
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:01,680
they learned first-hand about
 the brutality of Nazi
 occupation.

220
00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:06,920
Jews had been murdered,
 Russians starved

221
00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:11,280
or transported to the Reich
 as slave labour.

222
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:18,120
From a population of 3,076,
 only 905 remained.

223
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:25,400
In two days of slow
 and costly advances,

224
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,240
the 20th Army reached
 the Vazuza and Gzhat rivers.

225
00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:32,560
Now it had to storm across them,
 take Sitchevka,

226
00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:37,080
and so cut the vital
 Vyzama-Rzhev rail-line.

227
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:44,440
Model hurriedly redeployed the
five divisions, three of them
 armoured,

228
00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:47,920
that had been earmarked
 for Operation Whirlwind.

229
00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:00,120
The attacking Red Army
 units were decimated.

230
00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:09,360
Zhukov was forced
 onto the defensive.

231
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:13,960
He turned his attention to the
 village of Karmanovo on his left
 flank.

232
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:19,240
It was a virtual fortress,
 protected by the Yauza river in
 front,

233
00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:22,760
and impenetrable
 swamps on both flanks.

234
00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:31,760
For the Soviet infantry, it
 meant more costly, frontal
 assaults.

235
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:53,720
On 21st August, the Kalinin
Front finally took Polunino

236
00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:55,840
and advanced to the
 outskirts of Rzhev.

237
00:23:57,200 --> 00:23:59,160
The Western Front managed
 to outflank Karmanovo,

238
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:02,160
and finally took the
 on the 23rd August.

239
00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:11,440
Model demanded that von Kluge
 release three more divisons

240
00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,800
to help shore up Ninth Army s
 position. He got them.

241
00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:21,280
With these reinforcements, and
 his skilful handling of the
 tactical situation,

242
00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:26,200
Model was able to fight the
 Soviet offensive to a
 standstill.

243
00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:34,320
Red Army gains had fallen far
 short of expectations.

244
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:45,800
Stalin now telephoned Zhukov at
 Western Front Headquarters. He
 told him:

245
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,360
You must report to the Stavka
 as soon as possible.

246
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:54,120
Think carefully about who will
 take over from you there .

247
00:24:56,800 --> 00:25:00,280
Stalin was sending Zhukov south,

248
00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:02,080
to oversee a new crisis
 unfolding near the city of
 Stalingrad.

249
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:13,800
Zhukov named Ivan Konev as his
 successor at Western Front
 Headquarters.

250
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:17,160
Konev immediately
 ordered a new strategy.

251
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,680
There would be no more attempts
 to cut the railway at Sitchevka.

252
00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:26,400
Instead Konev would
 concentrate all his resources

253
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:28,680
on driving the Germans
 out of Rzhev.

254
00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:33,880
New attacks were
 launched in late August.

255
00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:45,320
Konev seemed on the
 brink of victory.

256
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:53,080
But once more Model received
 reinforcements in the nick of
 time.

257
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:02,520
They included the elite
 Grossdeutschland motorised
 infantry division.

258
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:07,640
This unit exemplified
 the superior equipment,

259
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:10,200
tactics and training still
 possessed by the German army.

260
00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:16,640
In October, the Soviets were
 forced to abandon their
offensive.

261
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:20,520
The Rzhev sector began
 to quieten down.

262
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:26,800
That summer, Model s Ninth Army
 had lost 60,000 men.

263
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:33,480
Soviet casualties were 314,000
 men more than five times as
 many.

264
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:39,320
Red Army soldiers called it
 "the Rzhev meat-grinder".

265
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:42,480
Alexander Bodnar was
 in the middle of it:

266
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:46,120
We d never attacked in
 the summer before that.

267
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:49,240
And we didn t know how
 to attack the Summer German.

268
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:51,520
I was a kilometer
 behind the front,

269
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:55,240
and suddenly I saw a field
 covered with our dead.

270
00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:00,160
Young boys with guard badges,
 wearing brand new uniforms

271
00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:07,560
The German machine gunner
 was just mowing them down.

272
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:13,920
We were still learning how to
 fight from the Germans, right up
 until Stalingrad.

273
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:27,880
But after Stalingrad, we had
 nothing to learn. We knew
 everything .

274
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:36,720
The Russian poet, Alexander
 Trifonovich Tvardovski, gave a
 voice to the dead.

275
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:43,040
I was killed near Rzhev.
 In a nameless bog,

276
00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:44,880
In fifth company,
 On the Left flank,

277
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:47,040
In a cruel air raid.

278
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:51,400
I did not hear the explosions
And did not see the flash.

279
00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:56,480
Down to an abyss from a cliff
 No start, no end.

280
00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:00,520
And in this whole world
 Til the end of its days,

281
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:05,160
Neither patches nor badges
 From my tunic you ll find .

282
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:50,360
November 1942. At a Red Army
 Air Force base near Moscow,

283
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:54,640
aircrew rushed to inspect
 a brand new arrival.

284
00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:02,360
This sleek new twin-engined
 bomber was the Tupolev TU-2.

285
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:08,600
The TU-2 was a high-speed bomber
 with a crew of four.

286
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:14,600
It was armed with two 20
 millimetre cannon, three
 defensive machineguns,

287
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:16,520
and could carry more
 than 3 tons of bombs.

288
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,440
The designer Andrei
 Nikolayevich Tupolev

289
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,160
worked for the Aviation Design
 Bureau known as OKB-29.

290
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:31,240
They were based at 24
 Radio Street, Moscow,

291
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:36,720
where they were closely
 supervised by the NKVD secret
 police.

292
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,440
Most Soviet wartime designers
 and engineers worked under
 similar supervision

293
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:43,720
by the authorities some whilst
 under actual arrest.

294
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:50,880
The Germans still held Rzhev
 and the crucial rail hub.

295
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,760
It made it difficult to resupply
the Kalinin Front for a fresh
 assault.

296
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:59,320
So the Stavka allocated it more
 transport aircraft, to get
 supplies in by air.

297
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:06,840
It was all part of the build up
 to a new offensive, codenamed
 Operation Mars.

298
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,920
In November 1942,
 the Red Army planned

299
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:17,640
to encircle German forces at
 Stalingrad in Operation Uranus.

300
00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:23,320
Mars would be a simultaneous
 hammer blow at Rzhev,

301
00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:26,120
that would prevent the Wehrmacht
 sending reinforcements south.

302
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:35,880
Zhukov, who had been in the
 south acting as the Stavka s
representative

303
00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:40,000
on the Stalingrad Front, would
 return north to command
 Operation Mars personally.

304
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:45,560
The offensive would be carried
 out by Konev s Western Front,

305
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,440
and the Kalinin Front, now
 commanded by General Maksim
 Purkayev.

306
00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:51,000
Zhukov would oversee them both.

307
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:58,640
The Red Army would attack with
 660,000 men and 2,000 tanks.

308
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:02,880
It was clear that Zhukov hoped
 for a significant breakthrough.

309
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:11,280
On the first day of the
 Operation, a harsh wind blew
 from the Southwest,

310
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:16,080
bringing heavy grey clouds.
 Wet snow fell from the sky.

311
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:19,160
Visibility was down
 to twenty yards.

312
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:24,680
Zhukov and Konev had placed
 great emphasis on close air
 support.

313
00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:27,560
But nothing could fly
 in this weather.

314
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:31,000
There was no question
 of postponing the attack.

315
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:51,120
On the west side of
 the Rzhev salient,

316
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,640
one Soviet mechanised corps
 broke through the positions of a
 Luftwaffe Field Division,

317
00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:00,160
while Katukov s 3rd Mechanised
 Corps advanced along the Luchesy
 Valley.

318
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:05,000
Model and von Kluge committed
 all their forces to the battle.

319
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:11,680
Supreme High Command reserves
 were now on route to Army Group
 Centre from Smolensk.

320
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:17,520
From the east of the salient,

321
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:20,600
Soviet tanks and cavalry briefly
 cut the railway line to Rzhev.

322
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:25,760
But with the help of an armoured
 train, the Germans threw them
 back.

323
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:34,640
The Red Army sent wave
 after wave into the attack.

324
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:37,440
But the German defences
 were well-organised

325
00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:44,560
and held by well-armed,
 experienced troops. Soviet
losses were enormous.

326
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:50,240
But the German High Command
 foresaw disaster.

327
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:57,680
If defences around Beliy
 crumbled, the whole salient
 could be cut off and destroyed.

328
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:01,840
The fighting in the Luchesy
 Valley would prove critical.

329
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:06,720
Here the Germans finally managed
 to contain the Soviet advance.

330
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:14,680
Far to the South,
 Field Marshal von Manstein

331
00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:18,640
was preparing an offensive to
 rescue German forces trapped at
 Stalingrad.

332
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:25,560
It was codenamed Operation
 Winter Storm. But there were
 serious concerns

333
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:28,440
that it lacked the strength
 to break through to Stalingrad.

334
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:33,360
When von Manstein asked
 for more divisions,

335
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:39,160
he was told no the strategic
 reserve had already been
 committed at Rzhev.

336
00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:54,200
As Operation Mars continued,

337
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:58,480
German infantry fought a bloody
 struggle in freezing conditions,

338
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:01,120
for a handful of vital highways
 and railway lines.

339
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:06,400
Elite German units who fought
 here would remember these months

340
00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:08,600
as the worst of the entire war.

341
00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:21,400
Katukov s 3rd mechanised corps
was just 2 kilometres short

342
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:27,840
of cutting the highway to Rzhev.
 He was down from 270 tanks to
 just 70.

343
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:37,160
But Operation Mars
 could go no further.

344
00:34:37,160 --> 00:34:40,520
By 20th December, the offensive
 had ground to a halt.

345
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:48,320
The Red Army was still
 outmatched by the Wehrmacht.

346
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:59,320
Although in some arenas, such as
 sniping, the Soviets were highly
 proficient,

347
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:02,480
they still lacked
 crucial capabilities.

348
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:04,680
Many lives were still being
 wasted in repeated,

349
00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:08,880
frontal attacks on
 German strongpoints.

350
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:12,360
Their tanks and infantry still
 hadn t learnt to work together
 effectively.

351
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:20,400
The Red Army often lacked good
 intelligence on enemy forces.

352
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,600
One captured Soviet officer
 told the Germans

353
00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:25,360
he had been shocked
 when their reserves arrived.

354
00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:30,120
A German intelligence report
 picked up this point:

355
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:33,440
The enemy wasn t counting
 on these troops appearing.

356
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:38,440
No German reserve forces are
 marked on any of the Soviet maps
 we ve recovered .

357
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:47,680
Soviet statistics put casualties
for Operation Mars at 216,000.

358
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:54,520
They may have been much higher.
 German 9th Army casualties were
 53,000.

359
00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:02,600
Von Kluge, Commander
 of Army Group Centre,

360
00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:06,360
was awarded the Oak Leaf Cluster
 to his Knight s Cross.

361
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:09,160
But in secret, the Field Marshal
 was already plotting against
 Hitler.

362
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:16,080
In July 1944, von Kluge was in
 France commanding the Western
 Front

363
00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:18,640
when von Stauffenberg
 tried to blow up the Fuehrer

364
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,600
at his headquarters
 in East Prussia.

365
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:24,560
When it became clear the plot
had failed, von Kluge took a
 cyanide pill.

366
00:36:26,240 --> 00:36:28,200
He was succeeded by his former
 subordinate, Walter Model

367
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:33,880
who would also later commit
 suicide to avoid Soviet war
 crimes charges.

368
00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:37,840
There were no medals
 for the Red Army commanders.

369
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:42,480
Konev was relieved of command.
 But he was soon back in favour.

370
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:47,360
He later led the 1st Ukrainian
 Front into Germany and Berlin.

371
00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:56,280
The Commander of the Kalinin
 Front, Maksim Purkayev,

372
00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:59,200
was reassigned to the Far East,
 where he remained for the rest
of the war.

373
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,440
Operation Mars was a bloody
 defeat for the Red Army,

374
00:37:05,240 --> 00:37:10,280
and it was a personal failure
 for Marshal Zhukov. For these
 reasons,

375
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:13,720
the events were largely ignored
 by Soviet historians,

376
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:16,320
and are hardly
 known in the west.

377
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:23,320
But despite the enormous
 casualties, the offensive did
 achieve something.

378
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:27,360
Army Group Center s reserves
 had been pinned down at Rzhev.

379
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:30,000
It meant they had not been
 available to assist von
 Manstein s

380
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:31,880
rescue operation at Stalingrad.

381
00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:39,320
General Model s 9th Army had
 suffered heavy casualties too.

382
00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:45,160
These were experienced officers
 and men that Germany would
 struggle to replace.

383
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:53,200
In January 1943,
 Velikiye Luki was liberated,

384
00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:55,840
a town 250 kilometres
 west of Rzhev.

385
00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:00,960
The loss of this important
 transport hub hampered German
 supply,

386
00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:06,200
and put the Rzhev salient in an
 even more precarious situation.

387
00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:15,880
On 26th January 1943,

388
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:19,280
von Kluge requested permission
 to withdraw from the Rzhev
 salient.

389
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:23,760
Five days later Paulus
surrendered at Stalingrad.

390
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:28,040
Hitler, suddenly anxious
 to avoid another encirclement,

391
00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:31,360
Hitler gave von Kluge
 permission to retreat.

392
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:36,680
Ninth Army would be vulnerable
 as it withdrew from the salient.

393
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:39,320
So its staff had begun
 planning the retreat

394
00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:42,840
even before Hitler s
 authorisation came through.

395
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,000
The result was
 codenamed Buffalo,

396
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:52,760
a massive operation
 to move 365,000 men

397
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:56,120
to new prepared positions
 100 kilometres to the rear.

398
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:04,960
As the Germans
 prepared to withdraw,

399
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,640
they launched a large-scale
 anti-partisan operation.

400
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:13,600
They rounded-up Red Army
 stragglers, and many innocent
 civilians too.

401
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:18,240
All faced swift and
 summary punishment.

402
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:23,160
A corporal from the 4th
 Panzer Division described

403
00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:24,800
how such operations
 were conducted:

404
00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:30,160
Our patrol arrested an old man
 and a 6-year-old boy carrying
 potatoes and salt.

405
00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:33,560
They claimed they
 were going fishing,

406
00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:34,880
but they were obviously
 delivering food to the
 partisans.

407
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:40,640
We didn t detain them for too
long. We sent them on their way
 to Paradise .

408
00:39:49,240 --> 00:39:52,520
In the East, such crimes
 had become commonplace.

409
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:55,760
Now as the Germans retreated,

410
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:59,840
Model gave orders to deport
 all males of working age,

411
00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:05,080
confiscate all food supplies,
 poison wells, and burn villages.

412
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:11,200
For these actions he would be
 declared a war criminal by the
 USSR.

413
00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:18,640
The German retreat began
 on 1st March 1943.

414
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:24,320
Engineers waited to blow the
 Volga bridge after the last unit
 had crossed.

415
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:30,080
Hitler had demanded to hear
the explosion for himself.

416
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:34,320
It was carried by telephone line
 back to Fuehrer Headquarters.

417
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:44,720
Across No Man s Land, a Russian
 medic noticed something was up:

418
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:48,760
A strange silence
 filled the air.

419
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:53,160
Not a sound, neither
 from the German side, nor ours.

420
00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:57,520
Slowly, our men left
 their trenches

421
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:01,080
more and more of those
 daredevils with every minute.

422
00:41:03,720 --> 00:41:07,000
Then I heard a cry:
 "Fritz has run away!

423
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:22,280
The German withdrawal
 was conducted in stages.

424
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:28,400
In their wake they left
 land-mines and booby-traps.

425
00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:38,160
Model s "scorched earth"
 policy spared nothing.

426
00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:47,160
When the Red Army liberated
 Vyazma, they found total
 devastation.

427
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:49,920
Every building had been
 demolished or gutted,

428
00:41:51,720 --> 00:41:55,200
every telegraph pole had been
 cut down, every railway point
 smashed.

429
00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:58,240
Even oil drums
 had been riddled with bullets.

430
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,480
German soldiers spoke of having
 left Rzhev undefeated.

431
00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:11,920
But the reality was that they
 were retreating to avoid a
 second Stalingrad.

432
00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:30,120
The Battles of Rzhev saw
 some of the most ferocious,

433
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:33,560
futile blood-letting
 of the entire war.

434
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:38,480
Red Army casualties
 were estimated at 1.2 million.

435
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:43,600
The only recompense was that the
 Germans too had suffered
 appallingly.

436
00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:51,680
On 3rd April 1943, Model was
 awarded the Swords to his
 Knight s Cross.

437
00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:58,640
He was also told to prepare his
 Ninth Army for a new offensive:
 Operation Citadel.

438
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:08,040
The General had no illusions
 about the prospects for this new
 offensive.

439
00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:11,200
His forces, although
 nominally large,

440
00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:16,200
contained many units worn-down
and exhausted by the long winter
 fighting.

441
00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:22,760
Now they were to be thrown into
 the white heat of the Battle of
 Kursk