Eastern Front

1942: The Red Army’s winter offensive

January – April 1942 · 2 battles

After the victory at Moscow Stalin concluded that the Wehrmacht was close to collapse, and on 5 January 1942 he ordered a general offensive along the whole front, from Leningrad to the Crimea. The Red Army pushed the Germans back from the capital, encircled them at Demyansk and Kholm and threatened Army Group Centre at Rzhev and Vyazma, but it dispersed its forces in too many directions. By spring the offensives had petered out in the thaw, with enormous losses on both sides, and the German front, though badly strained, had survived the winter.