I found this pretty important in what regards last days´ discussions. I´m posting it for everybody´s information and not in order to re ignite any discussion:
From
David Glantz´essay on the
Soviet-German War 1941-1945: Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay
THE PARAMETERS OF THE SOVIET-GERMAN WAR
SCALE:
The scale of combat during the Soviet-German War was unprecedented in modern
warfare both in terms of the width of the operational front and the depth of military
operations (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Scale of Operations*
The Combat Front:
§ Initial Barbarossa Front (total) – 1,720 miles (2,768 kilometers)
§ Initial Barbarossa front (main) – 820 miles (1,320 kilometers)
§ Maximum extent in 1942(total) – 1,900 miles (3,058 kilometers)
§ Maximum extent in 1942 (main) – 1,275 miles (2,052 kilometers)
The Depth of German Advance:
§ Barbarossa objectives (1941) – 1,050 miles (1,690 kilometers)
§ Maximum extent (1941) – 760 miles (1,223 kilometers)
§ Maximum extent (1942) – 1,075 miles (1,730 kilometers)
* These figures indicate length as the “crow flies.” Actual length was about half again as long
Hitler’s Barbarossa objectives were of gigantic proportion. Plan Barbarossa
required Wehrmacht forces advance roughly 1,050 miles (1,690 kilometers) to secure
objectives just short of the Ural Mountains, a depth equivalent in U.S. terms to the
distance from the east coast to Kansas City, Missouri. To do so, in June 1941 the
Wehrmacht deployed its forces for the attack against the Soviet Union along a 1,720-mile
(2,768-kilometer) front extending from the Barents Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the
south. In U.S. terms this was equivalent to the distance along its eastern coast from the
northern border of Maine to the southern tip of Florida. Initially, the Wehrmacht
concentrated its main thrusts in an 820-mile (1,320-kilometer) sector extending from the
Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, which was equivalent to the distance from New York City to
Jacksonville, Florida.
Even though the Wehrmacht’s 1939 and 1940 campaigns in Poland and Western
Europe in no way prepared it to cope with combat in the vast Eastern theater, German
forces still performed prodigious feats during the first two years of the war. During its
initial Barbarossa advance, for example, by early December 1941, Wehrmacht forces had
advanced to the gates of Leningrad, Moscow, and Rostov, a distance of 760 miles (1,223
kilometers), which was equivalent to the distance from New York City to Springfield,
Illinois. During Operation Blau [Blue], Hitler’s offensive in the summer and fall of 1942,
German forces reached the Stalingrad and Caucasus region by October, a total depth of
1,075 miles (1,730 kilometers) into the Soviet Union. This was equivalent to the distance
from the U.S. east coast to Topeka, Kansas. By this time, Germany’s entire eastern front
extended from the Barents Sea to the Caucasus Mountains, a distance of 1,900 miles
(3,058 kilometers), which was equivalent to the distance from the mouth of the St.
Lawrence River to the southern tip of Florida. At this time, the Germans and their Axis
allies occupied contiguous positions along a front extending 1,275 miles (2,052
kilometers) from the Gulf of Finland west of Leningrad to the Caucasus Mountains,
equivalent to the distance from Austin, Texas to the Canadian border.
At its greatest extent, the German advance in the Soviet Union (1,075 miles) was
over 3 times greater than its 1939 advance in Poland (300 miles) and over twice as deep as
its advance in the Low Countries and France during the 1940 campaign (500 miles). At
the same time, the Wehrmacht’s operational front in the East (1,900 miles) was over 6
times as large as its 1939 front in Poland (300 miles) and over 5 times larger than its 1940
front in the West (390 miles).
It follows:
SCOPE:
Throughout the entire period from 22 June 1941 through 6 June 1944, Germany
devoted its greatest strategic attention and the bulk of its military resources to action on
its Eastern Front. During this period, Hitler maintained a force of almost 4 million
German and other Axis troops in the East fighting against a Red Army force that rose in
strength from under 3 million men in June 1941 to over 6 million in the summer of 1944.
While over 80 percent of the Wehrmacht fought in the East during 1941 and 1942, over 60
percent continued to do so in 1943 and 1944 (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Scope of Operations
--------------AXIS FORCES--------------------- RED ARMY FORCES
June 1941: ---------3,767,000------------------------ 2,680,000 (in theater)
------------------------3,117,000 (German)------------ 5,500,000 (overall)
-------------------------900,000 (in the west)
June 1942: ---------3,720,000 ------------------------5,313,000
------------------------2,690,000 (German)
--------------------------80 % in the East
July 1943: ----------3,933,000------------------------ 6,724,000
------------------------3,483,000 (German)
-------------------------63 % in the East
June 1944---------- 3,370,000------------------------ 6,425,000
------------------------2,520,000 (German)
-------------------------62 % in the East
Jan. 1945 -----------2,330,000------------------------ 6,532,000
------------------------2,230,000 (German)
-------------------------60 % in the East
April 1945 ----------1,960,000------------------------- 6,410,000
Total Mobilized --------------------------------------34,476,700
In January 1945 the Axis fielded over 2.3 million men, including 60 percent of the
Wehrmacht’s forces and the forces of virtually all of its remaining allies, against the Red
Army, which had a field-strength of 6.5 million soldiers. In the course of the ensuing
winter campaign, the Wehrmacht suffered 500,000 losses in the East against 325,000 in
the West. By April 1945, 1,960,000 German troops faced the 6.4 million Red Army
troops at the gates of Berlin, in Czechoslovakia, and in numerous isolated pockets to the
east, while 4 million Allied forces in western Germany faced under 1 million Wehrmacht
soldiers. In May 1945 the Soviets accepted the surrender of almost 1.5 million German
soldiers, while almost 1 million more fortunate Germans soldiers surrendered to the
British and Americans, including many who fled west to escape the dreaded Red Army.