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Today’s History Lesson won’t take too long, because it’s late…and I’m tired. Plus some of the background information we covered just last week. The massive German offensive in southern Russia was being prepared when plans for “Fall Blau” (Case Blue) fell into Russian hands. Stalin received the plans and then believed them to be part of an elaborate ruse. And so he ignored them.
And to be honest, it’s not hard to come to his defense just a bit for his decision. When the Russians had been invaded the year before, the strongest actions had been to the north. Disaster had narrowly been averted with the help of an uncharacteristically harsh fall and early winter. Conditions gave the defenders time to prepare an couterattacking army that saved Moscow in the nick of time. Further north, Leningrad was still almost completely surrounded.
So we shouldn’t be so terribly surprised that Stalin, knowing how close the shave had been the previous December, would assume that the German armies would come calling (in bigger and badder numbers) to the same addresses. And the Soviet generals had followed that thinking as well. More than half their total armed forces were deployed in defense of the north.
In the south, where the Germans launched Fall Blau on June 28, 1942, it met with fewer than 10% of Russia’s total military might. The Soviets could do nothing but fall back, and that’s precisely what they did. We’ll probably visit this topic again, but two things should be noted right away.
First, unlike 1941, Soviet retreats were handled very well…”orderly” is a good word. A year before, the Wehrmacht had feasted on the encirclement…surrounding large masses of Soviet soldiers and then reducing the pockets. This year, the Germans would struggle to flank. When they tried to surround, the Soviets just fell back. The Soviets were learning.
Second, in an advance of this nature, Germany’s supply lines would grow incredibly long in a hurry, and keeping troops and trucks and tanks fed would become a huge problem.
But on this day, it was Germany seeing all red and Russia with the blau’s.
Recommended Reading: Absolute War – Soviet Russia in the Second World War
