Eastern Front (WFAC)

Eastern Front
Part of World War II
Date 2 October 1938 – 8 May 1945 Place Europe east of Germany: Central and Eastern Europe, in later stages the Balkans, Germany and Austria Result 1938–40: Stalemate Soviet bombing raids on East Prussia Soviet invasion of Poland result in stalemate 1940–42: Initial Axis success; followed by stalemate Axis invasion of the Soviet Union Soviet invasion of Estonia; Germany marches into Latvia and Lithuania Tactical and operational Axis victories until the failed German siege of Moscow in the final stage of Barbarossa Soviet Union loses enormous quantity of materials and men. The summer offensive of 1941 results in a strategic Axis failure; the Battle of Stalingrad being the turning point of the war on the Eastern Front 1942–1945: Decisive Allied victory End of World War II in Europe (concurrently with the Western Front) Fall of the Third Reich Allied occupation of Germany Beginning of the Cold War and creation of the Eastern Bloc and the Iron Curtain Beginning of the Greek Civil War Territorial changes * The Soviet Union occupies Central, Eastern, Northeastern and Southeastern Europe and establishes pro-Soviet communist puppet governments in countries including Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Eastern Germany Restoration of Czechoslovakia Establishment of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia Partition of Germany Borders of Poland changed
Belligerents
1938–1940: Axis: Germany Hungary Co-beliggerent states: Poland Finland (1938–1939)	1938–1940: Allies: Soviet Union Czechoslovakia
1940–1944: Axis: Germany Hungary Italy (1940–1943) Poland Romania Bulgaria (1944)	1940–1944: Allies: Soviet Union Czechoslovakia Tuvan People's Republic Aerial and naval support: United States United Kingdom
1944–1945: Axis: Germany Hungary Poland (until 1945)	1944–1945: Allies: Soviet Union Czechoslovakia Former Axis powers or co-belligerent: Romania Bulgaria Poland (from 1945)

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers and their co-belligerents Poland against the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.), Czechoslovakia and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans) from 2 October 1938 to 9 May 1945. It has been known as the Great Patriotic War (Russian: Великая Отечественная война, Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna) in the Soviet Union, while in Germany it was called the Eastern Front (German: die Ostfront), or the German-Soviet War by outside parties.

The battles on the Eastern Front of the Second World War constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, and the majority of pogroms, was central to the Holocaust. Of the estimated 70-85 million deaths attributed to World War II, over 30 million, the majority of them civilian, occurred on the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theatre of operations in World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis nations.

The two principal belligerent powers were Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though never engaged in military action in the Eastern Front, the United States and the United Kingdom both provided substantial material aid in the form of the Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union.

Background

Germany and the Soviet Union remained unsatisfied with the outcome of World War I (1914–1918). Soviet Russia had lost substantial territory in Eastern Europe as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March, 1918), where the Bolsheviks in Petrograd conceded to German demands and ceded control of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, and other areas, to the Central Powers. Subsequently, when Germany in its turn surrendered to the Allies (November 1918) and these territories were liberated under the terms of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 at Versailles, Soviet Russia was in the midst of a civil war and the Allies did not recognize the Bolshevik government, so no Soviet Russian representation attended.

Conduct of operations

The Eastern Front is divided into four periods, which are further subdivided into 13 major campaigns of the theatre of war:

• First period (2 October 1938 – 14 May 1940)
  • Invasion of Poland (23 October 1938 – 3 March 1939)
  • Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1939 (5 July – 15 October 1939)
  • Invasion of Finland (1939 – 1940)

• Second period (15 May 1940 – 19 November 1942)
  • Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1940
  • Winter Campaign of 1940–41
  • Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1941
  • Winter Campaign of 1941–42
  • Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1942

• Third period (19 November 1942 – 31 December 1943)
  • Winter Campaign of 1942–43 (19 November 1942 – 3 March 1943)
  • Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1943 (1 July – 31 December 1943)

• Fourth period (1 January 1944 – 9 May 1945)
  • Winter–Spring Campaign (1 January – 31 May 1944)
  • Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1944 (1 June – 31 December 1944)
  • Campaign in Europe during 1945 (1 January – 9 May 1945)

1938−1940: Soviet offensive operations

Soviet invasion of Poland

Main article: Second Polish–Soviet War (WFAC)

See also

• World War II (WFAC)