Grigory Stelmakh

Grigory Stelmakh (1900, Mykolaiv, Ukraine-December 31, 1942, Kalach-na-Donu, Russia), Soviet military commander. Stelmakh fought only a year and half during the World War II but he was one of World War II important generals because his prominent role in the defeat of German blitzkrieg (Operation Barbarossa) and in the crucial Soviet victory in the battle of Stalingrad.

Before World War II

Stelmakh was born into a Jewish family. Like many of his generation he was captivated by the Bolshevik's promise of the better society. In 1919, Stelmakh volunteered to the Red Army. He fought in the Russian Civil War, was admitted to the school for infantry commanders (1921), and stayed in the army. In 1926 he graduated from the elite Frunze Military Academy. His rise was rapid: chief of staff of rifle division (1926-1931), Chief of Staff of the Soviet forces in Far East, known as the Special Red Banner Eastern Army (OKDVA) (1932-1935), commander of the 12th rifle division (1935-1938). During these years a group of outstanding military innovators led by Mikhail Tukhachevsky made the Red Army into the finest fighting force in the world. If the war with Germany had started before 1937, military historians claim, the Red Army would have been more than a match for the German Wehrmacht, but Stalin had destroyed the Red Army in the Great Purge. Like thousands of other officers, Stelmakh was arrested and imprisoned (1938-1940). In 1939, Stalin plunged the Soviet Union into the Winter War with Finland, where the Red Army, devastated by the purges, performed extremely poorly. The looming German threat, combined with the weakness of the Red Army, forced Stalin to exonerate a number of imprisoned officers including Stelmakh, who was released and promoted to Major-General. Due to the Red Army's urgent need to prepare a new generation of senior commanders, Stelmakh, among other skilled Red Army officers, was sent to teach as a senior instructor in the Frunze Military Academy (1940-1941).

Battle of Tikhvin

Historians of World War II believe that return to the service of several senior officers who "miraculously" survived Stalin's purge, was a decisive factor in the Red Army ability to withstood German onslaught of Operation Barbarossa. Stelmakh was one of the few Soviet commanders whose competence enabled them to challenge the German war machine in spite of their troops initial inferiority to Wehrmacht in mastery of the modern war. Steelmakh fought German "blitzkrieg" in the north where German Army Group North under command Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb failed to capture Leningrad.

The turning point in the defeat of German attempt to capture Leningrad was the battle of Tikhvin in October-December 1941. At Tikhvin the Red Army for the first time in World War II inflicted a large scale defeat on the Wehrmacht in the ground warfare. Encouraged by easy victories over the disorganized and poorly led Red Army at beginning of the war, Leeb rushed his armies to Tikhvin, a key city on the road to Leningrad in hope of quick conquest of Leningrad. The victory would allow Germans to shift a balk of the troops from the north to the German Army Group Center for a decisive battle of Moscow. Stelmakh started battle at Tikhvin as the Chief of Staff of the 4th Field Army. The Germans who enjoyed a large superiority over the Soviet side in the share numbers of their panzer troops, succeeded in capturing Tikhvin on November 8, 1941. However the 4th Field Army, by applying active defense and constant counterattacks to bog down Germans, went on the offensive and on December 10, 1941 recaptured Tikhvin. In the midst of the battle Stavka ordered the Commander of the 4th Field Army Kirill Meretskov and Stelmakh to organize a new Volkhov Front. Stelmakh became the Front's Chief of Staff. By December 30, 1941 Meretskov and Stelmakh expelled Leeb's troops back to positions from which they began their Tikhvin offense. According to one of the leading historians of the Eastern Front David Glantz: "the concept of blitzkrieg failed for the first time in the Second World War... anticipating" the Soviet victory at Moscow. The battle at Tikhvin was also significant in its direct assistance to the Red Army in the battle of Moscow. Instead of sending troops from the Army Group North to Moscow, Germans were forced to reinforce their armies in the north with divisions from the Army Group Center as well as with other divisions which Germans initially planned to use at Moscow. David Glantz: "During this most critical period of the war, 32 percent of the Wehrmacht's forces, operating north of the Pripiat Marshes, including almost two full panzer groups, were tied down in combat along or adjacent to" Tikhvin. Wehrmacht lost in the battle 45,000 troops. After Tikhvin, Stelmakh served consequently Chief of Staff of Volkhov Group of Forces and the Leningrad Front.

Battle of Stalingrad

In the fall of 1942, when the Red Army was preparing for counter-offensive in the crucial battle of Stalingrad, Stavka sent some of the best Soviet officers to command upcoming offense. In October 1942 Stelmakh was appointed Chief of Staff of the new Southwestern Front commanded by Nikolai Vatutin Stelmakh was among major planners and commanders of the battle. On November 19, 1942 the Don Front under Konstantin Rokossovsky punched a corridor through the German line and armies of the Southwestern Front passed throughout this corridor to rout German and other Axis forces outside of Stalingrad and together with the Stalingrad Front to snap the pincers behind the huge German army trapped in the Stalingrad packet. After the encirclement, Vatutin and Stelmakh planned a bold Operation Saturn to expand the Soviet offense westward to destroy all German forces east of Rostov-na-Donu even before elimination of the Wehrmacht in the Stalingrad packet. They intended, acting together with Rokossovsky, to trap in another huge packet German armies, retreating from the Caucasus. After the war military analysts asses this plan as realistic and claim that its execution could speed Germany's downfall. Stavka considered Vatutin and Stelmakh proposal too daring and ordered the Southwestern Front to limit the scope of the offense to defeat of the German relief effort, led by Commander of the Army Group Don Field Marshal Erich von Manstein. Stelmakh planned the Operation Little Saturn. While Rodion Malinovsky's Soviet Second Guards Army vanquished major German relief forces, Vatutin and Stelmakh with support of some units from the Voronezh Front surrounded and destroyed the Italian 8th Army reinforced by German and other Axis divisions. The Red Army killed almost 21,000 enemy troops and took more than 64,000 prisoners. The offense, by threatening German Army Group Don with encirclement, hastened Manstein's retreat westward. Together with actions of Malinovsky, Operation Little Saturn delivered a fatal blow to German hopes of escape from Stalingrad. Stelmakh was not destined to see the victory. He was killed on the front line when his troops were capturing the enemy stronghold in Kalach-na-Donu. A month later, on January 31, 1943 Germans capitulated in Stalingrad, making their defeat in the Second World War a foregone conclusion.

References

• I. M. Chistyakov, "Sluzhim otchizne", Moscow, 1985.
• David Glantz, "The Battle for Leningrad", 1941-1944, Lawrence, KS, 2002.
• K. Meretzkov, "Serving the People", Moscow, 1971.
• Mark Shteinberg, "Evrei v voinakh tysiachiletii", Moscow, Jerusalem, 2005.