Toropets-Kholm Offensive | |||||||
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Part of the Battles of Rzhev | |||||||
World War II Eastern Front during the 1942 Winter Counter-Offensive |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Germany | Soviet Union | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Colonel General Ernst Busch | General Pavel Kurochkin | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | 122,100 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Soviet estimate: 12,000 overall |
10,400 killed or missing 18,810 wounded 29,200 overall |
The Toropets–Kholm Offensive was a military operation conducted south of Lake Ilmen by the Red Army during World War II, from 9 January-6 February 1942. The operation contributed to the formation of the Kholm Pocket, the encirclement of the Wehrmacht's II Army Corps in the Demyansk Pocket, and the destruction of the German Wehrmacht's 189th Infantry Regiment near Andreapol.
Following the successful Moscow counter-offensive of December 1941, the Stavka of the Red Army decided to conduct a broad-front offensive with the aim of destroying the invading German forces in the Soviet Union. The Wehrmacht did not expect the Red Army to be capable of such a wide-ranging offensive, and therefore was caught off guard by attacks in areas that it supposed to be quiet, such as the region south of Lake Ilmen.
The Soviet North-Western Front—under General Pavel Kurochkin—was given two tasks to be executed from its position south of Lake Ilmen. The first was a western thrust through Staraya Russa, to split German 18th Army and 16th Army, and support the effort of Volkhov Front and Leningrad Front in breaking the siege of Leningrad. The second was a south-western thrust toward Vitebsk. This attack was to be conducted by three armies, 33rd, 3rd and 4th Shock, the latter two having just recently been renamed. Its ultimate aim was to become the northern pincer of a deep envelopment of German Army Group Center.