Battle of Rzhev, Summer 1942
Army Duration of operation Total losses in the operation
30th Army August-September 1942 99,820
29th Army August-September 1942 16,267
20th Army 4 August-10 September 1942 60,453
31st Army 4 August-15 September 1942 43,321
5th Army 7 August-15 September 1942 28,984
33rd Army 10 August-15 September 1942 42,327
Losses
The rifle divisions of the attacking armies had to receive additional men to continue to attack due to the high attrition rate in men . To maintain the offensive into September , Konev requested 20,000 replacements for just two of the armies involved . [ 69 ] By 10 September the Soviet armies had been decimated : losses had reduced them to half-strength , with 184,265 men and 306 tanks . [ 28 ]
The Battle of Rzhev in the Summer of 1942 was part of a series of battles that lasted 15 months in the center of the Eastern Front. It is known in Soviet history of World War II as the First Rzhev-Sychyovka Offensive Operation, which was defined as spanning from 30 July to 23 August 1942. However, it is widely documented that the fighting continued undiminished into September and did not finally cease until the beginning of October 1942. The Red Army suffered massive casualties for little gain during the fighting, giving the battle a notoriety reflected in its sobriquet: The Rzhev Meat Grinder. Rzhev lies west of Moscow and was captured by the German Wehrmacht in Operation Typhoon in the autumn of 1941, which took them to the gates of Moscow. When the Soviet counteroffensive drove them back, Rzhev became a cornerstone of the Germans' defense. By mid-1942, the city stood at the apogee of a salient that protruded from the front lines, pointing in the general direction of Moscow. In July and August 1942, Stalin tasked two of his front commanders, General Georgy Zhukov (commanding Western Front) and General Ivan Konev (commanding Kalinin Front), to conduct an offensive to recapture Rzhev and strike a blow against Army Group Center that would push them away from Moscow. The attack would fall upon one of their main opponents of the winter battles, General Walter Model's 9th Army, which occupied the majority of the Rzhev salient. The high losses and few gains made during the two-month struggle left a lasting impression on the Soviet soldiers who took part. In October, the strategic balance in the centre of the Eastern Front remained essentially unchanged. However, the German army had also suffered grievous losses, and whilst its defence had been tactically successful, it had achieved little more than maintaining the status quo.