Virtue Magazine

Through 1941, the war had been going well for the Axis. Although the Wehrmacht had been halted at the gates of Moscow, and driven back, they still controlled nearly all of western Europe, and much of the most valuable territory in the Soviet Union, including most of their steel and coal resources. However, Stalin had wisely removed his production factories to the Ural Mountains, out of range of German bombers. There, they churned out tanks, planes, and the weapons of war at a pace far outstripping the Germans. With American aid arriving by tons, in the form of boots, trucks, tanks, mechanical parts, and about every other article of war, the Soviets possessed great strength for the future. In many cases, their weapons were of higher quality than the German, their main superiority being their powerful, mass-produced T-34 tank, which would outclass all German tanks until the advent of the Tiger and the Panther, about a year later. However, the Germans were far better trained, and the Soviets labored under the disadvantage of an inflexible military system that often rewarded independent thinking or action with a trip to Siberia, or a shot in the back of the neck. All in all, the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS was the most flexible, and skilled military on the planet at the time. Their superior training, combined with the amazing tenacity and courage of their soldiers, would make them a force to reckon with, even if outgunned and outmanned by increasingly daunting odds. The most difficult object to overcome, however, would be leadership from the top, where Hitler had assumed complete command of the army. Though he had made a few good decisions in the past which had benefited the nation and the military, after the winter of 1941, his strategic acumen seemed to be limited to the inflexible command, “Hold your ground to the last man.” This severely hampered the Wehrmacht, whose main strength was in its mobility, and counterattacking ability. Disallowed to take advantage of tactically advantageous retreats, their superior skill in mobile warfare was taken away, allowing battle-hardened units to be chewed up in meat grinder defensive battles.

But for the time being, they were still on the offensive. Their major objectives of 1942 were the productive areas of the Don Basin, and the Caucasus, where lay oil fields vital to the Soviet economy. If they could capture the Caucasus, and cut the Volga River, up and down which flowed vitally necessary supplies, Stalin’s government may near the verge of collapse. Destroying the Soviet Union in the summer of 1942 was of vital importance. If the war lasted any longer, American material aid would turn the tide inexorably against Germany.

In the desert also, the Germans, under the intrepid “Desert Fox” Erwin Rommel, had regained the offensive. The British counterattack that had driven them away from Tobruk lost its momentum as their supply lines stretched across the vast, barren Sahara. Reinforced by new tanks from Italy, and his supply lines secured so long as the Luftwaffe continued to bomb Malta, Rommel thrust savagely into the disorganized British Eighth Army, and sent them reeling. Back into Libya the fight went, with Rommel reclaiming much of the ground he had lost from the previous summer. Ultimately, the fight would roll back to Tobruk, with vicious armored fights taking place at tiny desert landmarks such as Sidi Rezegh and Bir Hacheim. Free French forces, including a detachment of Jewish soldiers, defended Bir Hacheim valiantly, but were finally overwhelmed by relentless attacks from the Afrika Korps. Hitler had sent orders that any Jewish troops, along with British commandos, were to be shot on sight, but Rommel, with his typical sense of decency and fair play, refused to pass on the order, and instead destroyed it. The conduct of both sides in the desert war was a shining example of how armies should behave. It was marked by a conspicuous lack of atrocities, a novelty in the Second World War.

On June 21st, Rommel captured the important port city of Tobruk, winning his greatest victory, and earning a promotion to field marshal. “I had rather Hitler sent me another division,” was Rommel’s remark. He was outnumbered, and his panzer forces were dwindling, but the British were reeling, and he optimistically hoped to capture Alexandria and Cairo, cross the Nile, and cut the vital Suez Canal. Field Marshal Albert Kesselring disagreed, arguing that they continue with the original strategy of halting the Afrika Korps, to free up Italian and German forces for an airborne assault on Malta, which had been a thorn in the side of the Italian supply convoys. But Hitler agreed with Rommel that the opportunity to capture the Suez was too much to be passed up, and the Afrika Korps pressed forward. But the British general Claude Auchinleck reorganized his forces, and blunted the offensive at El Alamein. With his supply lines slowly being strangled, and no reinforcements coming, Rommel had to switch over to the defensive. He made one more attack, which was blunted by dense minefields and strong anti-tank batteries. Meanwhile, Churchill replaced Auchinleck with General Bernard Montgomery. While Rommel went back to Germany to recuperate from the wear and tear of campaigning in the brutal desert climate, Montgomery slowly reorganized his forces to launch a smashing offensive. Having finally accumulated an overwhelming superiority in tanks and artillery, Montgomery launched his blow. Two weeks of furious fighting ensued. Rommel’s replacement, General Stumme, was killed the first day of the fight. Rommel rushed back to Africa, though he knew, given the overwhelming British superiority in men and material, there were no more laurels to be won in Africa. He conducted a skilful defense, at one time guiding just twenty panzers to a defensive victory over 500 attacking British tanks. But Hitler took the conduct of the campaign out of his hands with a “hold the last foot of ground” order. Too late did Rommel decide to override the Fuhrer’s orders and retreat. His Germans were fighting hard, but the Italian forces had all but disintegrated. A pell-mell retreat across the desert began, and only the skilful hand of Rommel kept the entire Afrika Korps from falling into Montgomery’s hands.

Meanwhile, American forces, under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower, had arrived in Africa, landing on the western side of the continent, in “Operation Torch.” They brushed aside Free French forces, soon negotiating a ceasefire with Hitler’s reluctant Vichy allies. Writing the French off, Hitler had the Wehrmacht occupy the southern half of France, and immediately began shipping reinforcements and supplies to Africa to oppose the new Anglo-American threat. Rommel was furious, wondering why those troops and supplies had not been sent to him when he’d had opportunity to seize the Suez Canal, and perhaps the entire Middle East, which may perhaps have permitted for the opening of a new front against the Russians in the southern Caucasus. But those were nothing but far-away dreams now. 1943 in Africa would open with Rommel desperately trying to fight off forces closing in on him from two sides.

Meanwhile, the Americans turned the tide in the Pacific as well. Although the Japanese had received a check during the naval battle of the Coral Sea, they still held the initiative. Admiral Yamamoto decided to seize Midway Island, north of Hawaii, and close enough to the United States coast to raise all kinds of new threats. As a diversion, Japanese forces occupied two of Alaska’s Aleutian islands, but the main strike force headed for Midway. Unfortunately for the Japanese, they were discovered by American pilots, and their task force was ravaged by relentless attacks. Though the Americans lost heavily in planes and pilots, they sank six Japanese carriers, a loss the Japanese could ill afford. Admiral Chester Nimitz’s force lost one carrier, but they had struck a decisive blow, one of the most important of the war. From then on, the initiative in the Pacific was in American hands. Later in the year, they would start the long, grinding road to Japan, by landing a Marine force on Guadalcanal. A long, and bitter campaign would be waged both on land and sea over that steamy jungle island, the Marines fighting off furious Japanese counterattacks at places like Henderson Field and “Bloody Ridge.” In 1943, the Japanese would evacuate Guadalcanal, as the Americans began to attack in two major thrusts back towards the Philippines, and the Japanese home islands.

But it was in Russia that the most important battles of 1942 were being waged. In the south, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, the superior strategist who had designed the smashing victory over France, slugged his way into the Crimean city of Sevastopol. But it was further north where the main fight was taking place. By March, the Russian counter-offensive had petered out, having suffered tremendous casualties, and inflicted serious losses on the German forces, from which, ultimately, they would never recuperate. Although there was a lot more fight left in them, the cream of the German army, several generals would later complain, had been slain in the first eight months of the Russian campaign.

There was still hope of winning the war in the east in 1942, though. Hitler and the high command designed an offensive by Army Group South, which they hoped would cut the vital supplies flowing up the Volga River, and seize the oil fields of the Caucasus. It was an ambitious endeavor, and too much for the limited resources at hand. Hitler was urged to concentrate on only one target, but insisted on taking both Stalingrad and the oil fields, which he believed were absolutely necessary to a continuation of the war effort, despite Germany’s friendly relations with Romania.

The fighting began in May, when the Soviets launched a pre-emptive attack, designed to upset German plans. Instead, they were cut to pieces by vicious German counterattacks, and Stalin suffered terrible casualties, which would influence Soviet strategy over the next several months.

Having crushed the Soviet offensive, the Germans now launched their own, driving across the Dneiper, seizing Kharkov, and in July crossing the Don River. The fighting was horrific, and massive casualties were suffered by both sides, on a scale only comparable to the Western Front in the First World War. On July 17th, Voronezh fell to the Germans, and in August, while Stalin and Churchill were meeting in Moscow, Stalin pleading for the Anglo-Americans to invade northern Europe, Krasnodas and Maikop fell into Hitler’s hands. Now, it seemed, Stalingrad was within their grasp.

The 6th Army of General Friedrich von Paulus went lurching towards Stalingrad, while other German units captured Rostov, and pressed into the Caucasus, towards the oil fields at Baku. On September 1, the Germans entered the outskirts of Stalingrad, and it appeared ripe to fall into their hands. But street fighting was different from fighting on the open steppe, where superior German mobility gave them an insuperable advantage over their adversaries. Hitler’s generals implored him not to press into the heart of the city, where their troops would be at a disadvantage, but Stalingrad had taken on a symbolic significance, because it bore the name of the Soviet dictator. Several major offensives, throughout October, brought nearly the entire city into German hands, but at a tremendous price. And the Soviets, directed by General Chuikov, managed to hold a position on the western bank of the Volga River, where they were resupplied by boats which were constantly under heavy air attack by the Luftwaffe. By November, the 6th Army was bogged down, many of its best units suffered in fighting of unparalleled savagery in the streets of Stalingrad.

Meanwhile, Stalin was planning his master stroke, with the aid of the brilliant General Georgi Zhukov. It was launched on November 19th, as the brutal Russian cold began to torture the troops of both sides once again. Guarding the 6th Army’s flanks were second-rate Italian and Hungarian troops, who disintegrated at the first blows of the Soviet forces. Attacked both north and south of Stalingrad, in a giant pincer movement, the Germans did not have enough dependable reserves to stem the tide, their allies having proved themselves unable to withstand the tough Russian divisions. In less than two weeks, the 6th Army was surrounded in Stalingrad.

With the 6th Army surrounded, and the Romanians and Italians out of the picture, the whole front threatened to unravel. Hitler insisted the 6th Army stay at Stalingrad, and not cut its way out, because they were tying down dozens of enemy divisions that, if released to attack, may shatter the entire front. Field Marshal von Manstein, who Hitler called on to save the situation, would later write that Hitler was probably right in this strategic judgment, but that the army was required to attempt to rescue its beleaguered comrades. Hermann Goering had dishonestly promised Hitler the Luftwaffe could supply the 6th Army indefinitely, but the generals knew he was lying. Manstein sent a panzer group under General Hoth to rescue the 6th Army. They made it within 30 miles of their surrounded friends, but Hitler refused to allow von Paulus permission to attack and cut their way out of the encirclement. The offensive petered out, and the doom of the 6th Army was sealed. As 1942 came to an end, and the Russians pressed towards the Don and Rostov, threatening to cut off all German forces in the Caucasus, the Germans appeared in danger of losing the war then and there. It was up to Field Marshal von Manstein to save the day.