The liberation of Europe from fascism. Operations for the liberation of Europe

Adolf Hitler, who came to power in Germany with his party in Germany in 1933, rejected the limitations of the Treaty of Versailles, restored the call to the army, quickly launched mass production of weapons and the deployment of armed forces. At the same time, a powerful repressive system for suppressing the protest of dissatisfied people was created in the country, and propaganda was spread about the exclusivity of the German nation, its belonging to the highest Aryan race and the need to subordinate other peoples and races to the will of the descendants of Siegfried. The German population was inspired with the idea that the seizure and economic development of foreign territories would provide the necessary living space and resources for the development of Germany and the rapid improvement of the life of every German.

Having created a material and ideological basis for aggression, Hitler unleashed a new world war, capturing almost the whole of Europe, except for his satellite countries, allies and neutral states (Sweden, Switzerland, sympathizing with the Nazis of Portugal, the Vatican). Half of the European territory of the USSR was also occupied. The Germans were torn to the Caucasus, the Middle East and further, to India.

Still, the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, with the decisive contribution of the Soviet Union, suffered the greatest losses of the USSR, managed to turn the course of the war and win a great victory, the 70th anniversary of which was recently celebrated all over the world. The liberation of the countries of Europe occurred through the Allied offensive both from the east and from the west with the support of the population, sometimes in these countries the anti-fascist forces or the ruling tops that reconsidered their position achieved liberation on their own. However, the latter became possible under the influence of a successful offensive by the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition. A review of the events that accompanied the liberation of Europe is summarized below.

War in the West before the opening of the Second Front

In the October days of 1942, the British troops of Marshal Montgomery in the Battle of El Alamein defeated the Italo-German grouping advancing on Cairo and the Suez Canal. On the other side of North Africa (Algeria and Morocco), the troops of the American General Eisenhower, the future US president, landed. Pressing from two sides on the Italian and German units, the Allies drove them to Tunisia, where the Axis forces pressed to the sea were forced to capitulate. This event took place in 1943, on May 13.

This victory enabled the Anglo-American armed forces to land in Sicily in July 1943. In turn, Sicily was not limited to the matter, and the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition continued their invasion of Italy, crossing the Messinsky Gulf and landing directly on the Apennine peninsula. This triggered a crisis of Italian fascism, the removal and removal of the leader of the blackshirts Duce Mussolini from all posts with subsequent arrest. The new Italian government declared war on Germany, but the northern and central parts of the country were under German occupation.

Preparations for the opening of a new front in the struggle against Germany, material support for Great Britain and the USSR depended to a large extent on the situation in the Atlantic. German "wolf packs" of submarines, torpedo planes and surface ships-raiders with the support of large ships fought a brutal war to break the Atlantic convoys of the Allies, solving the problem of the German seablock in passing. But the powerful efforts of the aviation and navy of the United States and Great Britain by 1943 made it possible to talk about the coming fracture. So, in 1942 the forces of the Allied fleet and their aircraft destroyed two hundred submarines of Admiral Doenitz. The Germans practically ceased their attacks on convoys and hunted for individual ships that had lagged behind or fought off from the rest.

The beginning of the liberation of Europe by the troops of the USSR and its allies on the Eastern Front

By 1944, decisive battles were left behind, which were turning points in the way of our people and the whole world to the great Victory. In the January days of the penultimate year of the war, a series of strategic offensive operations began, leading to the complete liberation of the USSR-occupied lands of the USSR with access to the state border. Initially conducted in the framework of military logic, some operations on a front-line scale were later, logically, combined into a general campaign of 1944. Actually, in 1944 the Great Patriotic War, the liberation of Europe by Soviet troops merged into a single process. For giving the harmony and completeness of coverage to the picture of the events of that year on the Eastern Front, it is advisable to present all the data in the form of a table:

The Ten Strikes of 1944

№№ Pp	Operations	Time spending	Associations involved	The achieved result
1st	Leningrad-Novgorod	14.01 - 1.03	Fronts: Leningrad, Volkhovsky, Baltic, Fleet: Baltic	The defeat of the army group "North", the complete deblokada of Leningrad, the liberation of the Leningrad region
2nd	The Dnieper-Carpathian	24.12.1943 - 04/17/1944	Fronts: 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd and 4th Ukrainian	Liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine
3rd	Odessa ------------------ Crimean	1944	3rd Ukrainian Front ------------------ 4th Ukrainian Front Black Sea Fleet	Liberation of Odessa and the Crimea, the fascist troops dropped into the sea
4th	Vyborg-Petrozavodsk	1944 (summer)	Fronts: Leningrad, Karelian	Liberation of Karelia
5th	Operation Bagration (Belorussian)	23.06 - 28.07	Fronts: 1 st, 2 nd and 3rd Belarusian, The First Baltic	The liberation of Byelorussia, most of Poland with access to the Vistula and much of Lithuania, the access to the borders of Germany
6th	Lviv-Sandomierz	13.07 - 2.08	Fronts: 1st and 4th Ukrainian	The liberation of Western Ukraine, the crossing of the Vistula, the formation of the Sandomir bridgehead
7th	Iasi-Chisinau ------------------ Romanian	August ------------ 30.08 - 3.10	Fronts: 2 nd and 3 rd Ukrainian ----------------- The 2nd Ukrainian	Liberation of Moldova, The withdrawal from the war of Romania, the declaration by Romania of the war of Germany and Hungary, the opening of the road to Hungary, the withdrawal from the war of Bulgaria, which declared war on Germany, the improvement of the conditions for assistance to the Yugoslav guerrillas
8th	The Baltic	14.09 - 24.11	Fronts: 1 st, 2 nd and 3rd Baltic Fleet: Baltic	Liberation of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia The withdrawal from the war of Finland and the declaration of war by Germany
9th	East Carpathian ------------------ Belgrade	8.09 - 28.10 ---------------- 28.09 - 20.10	Fronts: 1st and 4th Ukrainian ---------------- Soviet, Yugoslav, Slovak parts and compounds	Liberation of Yugoslavia and assistance to the Slovak uprising against parts of the Wehrmacht
10th	Petsamo-Kirkenes	7.10 - 29.10 October	Fronts: Karelian	Released from the German wax north of Finland and Norway

Military operations in Europe (Center and South-East)

Exit to the borders of the USSR and the further offensive of troops on the territory of other countries served as an occasion for the statement of the Soviet government. This document noted the need for the final defeat of the German fascist armed forces and assurance that the USSR does not intend to change the political structure of these states and violate their territorial integrity.

Nevertheless, the Soviet Union openly supported its loyal forces, especially the Communists and their closest allies. In the political arena, the leadership of the USSR sought from the governments of Great Britain and the United States to recognize their interests in the vast regions of Europe. The growing prestige of the Soviet Union and Stalin, the presence of the Red Army in the respective territories, forced Churchill and Roosevelt to recognize the Balkans (without Greece) as a Soviet sphere of influence. In Poland, the USSR achieved the creation of a government loyal to Moscow as opposed to the emigrant Polish government in London.

The liberation of Europe by the Soviet troops took place in close cooperation with the partisan movements and the armed forces of other countries. The Polish army, the Yugoslav army under the leadership of Joseph Broz Tito, the Czechoslovak corps of Ludwig Svoboda, the Slovak rebels took an active part in the struggle for the liberation of Eastern Europe.

In 1944, August 23, in royal Romania there was a palace coup against the backdrop of an established anti-fascist conspiracy with a broad political base - from communists to monarchists. As a result of this event, Romania also became anti-fascist, declaring war on Germany and Hungary.

On August 31 the troops of the Red Army entered Bucharest, and Romanian units joined it. This was the reason for awarding the Romanian King Mihai with the Soviet Order of Victory, although Romania participated in the fascist aggression against the USSR. In particular, the Romanian troops occupied Odessa and ingloriously fought at Stalingrad.

Bulgaria, being an ally of the Reich, refused to send troops to the eastern front, Tsar Boris (a German by nationality) replied to Hitler that the Bulgarians would not fight against the Russians who liberated them from the Ottoman yoke. Bulgaria did not even declare war on the USSR, met parts of the troops of the advancing Red Army with enlarged banners and solemn music entering its territory. After the September 9 coup, the communist government came to power in the country, declaring war on Germany.

As already mentioned, Finland also withdrew from the war. On the day of September 19, 1944, her government signed a truce with the USSR on quite honorable terms.

Slovak National Armed Uprising

This most heroic page of the struggle of the Slovak people occupies a special place in the history of the liberation of Europe.

Slovakia before the war and long after the war was part of Czechoslovakia. Hitler, having occupied the Czech Republic, formally granted Slovakia independence, in fact, turning it into his satellite. The Slovak units were sent to the eastern front, but in view of their unreliability (Slavic community with Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians caused the Slovaks a feeling of sympathy for all Soviet people), more often Germans used them in the rear to guard communications and fight partisans. But this led to numerous transitions of Slovaks into the ranks of Soviet partisans. The territory of Slovakia also developed and spread the guerrilla movement.

At the end of the hot in the literal and figurative senses of the summer of 1944, the famous Augustovian anti-fascist insurrection broke out. To help the insurgent people, troops that were part of the First Ukrainian Front advanced. Among them was the 1st Army Czechoslovak Corps. This connection was commanded by General Ludwig Svoboda, who in 1968 became President of Czechoslovakia. October 6, as a result of persistent fighting in the Carpathian Mountains (Dukla Pass), liberators entered the fighting territory of Slovakia. However, bloody and stubborn battles that lasted until the very end of October did not immediately lead to the goal - the Soviet troops did not manage to overcome the Carpathians and connect with the rebels. A large part of the civilian population and partisans went to the mountains, continuing the struggle and participating in the gradual liberation of their country by parts of the advancing Red Army. From the side of the Soviet Union, they were provided with assistance, both by people, and by weapons and ammunition. The transfers were carried out by airplanes.

Fights in Hungary, Austria and the first stage of the battle for East Prussia

The logic and sequence of the battles led to the fact that Hungary's only serious ally in the region was Hungary by October 1944, although it unsuccessfully tried to get out of the war. Ruler Horthy was arrested by the Germans, and the Hungarians had to fight to the end. The fierce fighting for Budapest did not allow the Soviet troops to take it from the first attempt. Only on the third time success was achieved, and on February 13, 1945 the Hungarian capital fell. During the same February, the defeat of the Budapest grouping of the German troops ended.

In April, the Balaton battle took place, when the fascist troops launched a fierce counterattack against the Red Army, but the Soviet formations and units managed to stop and defeat the enemy. Then, in April, the troops of the USSR liberated Vienna, the capital of Austria, and seized Koenigsberg in East Prussia.

East Prussia itself was a continuous deep echeloned defensive zone with strong defensive structures of reinforced concrete structures. The advance organization of defensive schemes for each city provided for the presence of sheltered approaches to the populated area. Protection from the advancing troops were numerous forts, trenches, pillboxes, bunkers, mine-wire fences. Buildings inside cities also turned into knots of defense with a multi-layered fire system.

Nevertheless, the offensive of the armies that make up the two Belorussian fronts (2nd and 3rd) unfolded in mid-January of the new 1945. Within three months, Soviet troops milled this grouping of the Wehrmacht and the SS units. At the same time, Red Army soldiers, from the rank and file to the general, suffered heavy losses. One of them on April 18 was the death from a fragment of an enemy shell of Army General ID Chernyakhovsky, commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front.

But, whatever it was, the will, courage and heroism, backed up by competent massive artillery fire (in the battles for East Prussia, 5,000 artillery pieces, including howitzers of caliber of 203 mm and 305 mm from RGC parts) were used and Support for aviation, led to the capitulation of the capital of this region of Germany, the fortified city of Koenigsberg. The assault of this most important strategic hub of defense of Hitler's Germany was held from April 7 to 9, 1945. Tens of thousands of German soldiers were killed, about 100 thousand were taken prisoner.

The Warsaw Uprising

Let us turn to the exciting and tragic pages in the epic of the liberation of Europe, which still causes controversy among various political and public figures, scholars and historians and propagandists of different stripes and calibers. So, we will speak about the armed uprising of 1944 in the Polish capital under the leadership of the London emigre government.

During the years of the fascist occupation, Poland lost 6 million of its citizens from the general population of 35 million people. The occupation regime was severe, this led to the emergence and activation of the Polish Resistance forces. But they were heterogeneous. Thus, the massive Craiova Army operating in the country was subordinate to the London Polish government in exile. After the entry of Soviet troops into Poland, a pro-communist government was created - the National Liberation Committee. Under his leadership, the armed formations of the Ludovoi Army fought. The approach to Warsaw of the Red Army with units of the Ludovoi Army would inevitably lead this committee to power throughout Poland. To prevent this, the emigre government in London and the units of the Craiova Army decided to liberate Warsaw on their own and raised an armed uprising without careful and lengthy preparations. It happened on the 1st of August. Many residents of the capital of Poland took part in it. But the Soviet leadership extremely negatively condemned this action, calling it an adventure. According to some analysts, the Soviet Union refused to support the rebels with weapons and ammunition, according to others, the Red Army was not able to provide the required support. However, there are two facts: on September 13, the Soviet units reached the Vistula bank near Warsaw, and the death of the insurgents in the last phase of the uprising occurred practically in their presence. Another fact is that in the last days of the uprising, the help of the Warsaw troops from the side of the Soviet troops, on Stalin's personal order, was nevertheless rendered, although at that moment it did not solve anything.

Having lost 18 thousand soldiers and 200,000 peaceful citizens of Warsaw killed, the leaders of the insurrection capitulated on October 2, 1944. German troops began to destroy the city as a punishment, many of its inhabitants were forced to flee.

Complete liberation of Poland

By the beginning of 1945, the USSR had an overwhelming strategic superiority over the enemy, surpassing it by twice the number of soldiers, three times the number of tanks and self-propelled guns, four times the number of artillery barrels (guns and mortars), eight times the number of airplanes. Separately it is worth noting that on the Eastern Front there were armies, units and allies with a total number of half a million people. With absolute supremacy in the air, Soviet troops had the opportunity to choose the direction and time of their main attacks, deploying simultaneous offensive operations on various fronts and their sectors. It could be allowed to fight, striking at the enemy there and then, where it was convenient and profitable.

The general offensive was scheduled for January 20. The whole active army and two fleets were involved in the fighting.

But, as already mentioned in this article, on the Western Front, in December 1944, Hitler's troops in the Ardennes suddenly attacked the Anglo-American units and threw them 100 kilometers back. Americans lost about 40 thousand people. Churchill personally appealed to Stalin for help, this request received a positive response. The offensive of the Soviet fronts, despite incomplete preparations, began on 12 January 1945 and was the most powerful and large-scale in the entire war. It lasted 23 days. By February 3, parts of the advancing Red Army had come to the shore of the Oder - behind it lay the German land, from which the World War II fell upon the world. On January 17, the Soviet units entered Warsaw.

The Vistula-Oder operation carried out by the Soviet command completed the process of liberating Poland and saved the troops of the Western allies from the defeat in the Ardennes, created conditions for the storming of Berlin and the end of the war in Europe.

Liberation of Czechoslovakia

The decisive battles for this country, occupying key positions in Europe, unfolded since mid-April 1945. Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, was released earlier, on April 4. And the 30th Soviet troops took a large industrial center of Moravsk Ostrava.

On May 5, the inhabitants of Prague rose to an armed uprising against the occupiers. The Hitlerites tried to drown this insurrection in the blood, they were not stopped even by the act of surrender signed by the German command of 8.05.1945.

The insurgent Prajans addressed the Allies on the radio with a request for help. The Soviet command responded to this call, leaving two armored armies of the 3rd Ukrainian Front on the march to Prague. After a three-hundred-kilometer march, these armies entered Prague three days later, on May 9th. Other troops of the 1st, 2nd and 4th Ukrainian fronts joined in this offensive, as a result of which Czechoslovakia was completely liberated from the fascist occupation. The liberation of the peoples of Europe from fascism was completed.

Second front

July 6, after the colossal preparations in the West, the Allied expeditionary forces began invading - the grandiose landing operation Overlord. Anglo-American troops with parts of Free France, Polish, Czechoslovak units totaling 2 million 876 thousand people, with the massive support of fleets and aviation landed in the North of France, in Normandy. Thus, at last, the long-awaited Second Front was opened. In the rear of the Germans, partisan detachments and the underground forces of the Resistance of the occupied European countries operated. A shot was planned to the very heart of Germany. Roosevelt believed that Berlin should be taken by Americans.

During the offensive of the Allied forces, armed uprisings took place in France, Belgium and Denmark. The French and the Belgians liberated their capitals, with the help of the expeditionary forces of the Allies, achieved the liberation of their countries. The Danes were less fortunate - they did not receive help, and their uprising was suppressed by the invaders.

Political and strategic decisions of the Allies

As a result of irresistible strikes and the impressive scale and depth of the Soviet offensive in 1944 and early 1945, it became evident that the war was over soon and the final defeat of the German army was inevitable. It is time for the Allies to agree on all aspects of the last offensive on Germany and to discuss the problems of the postwar world order. The growing authority of the USSR and the recognition by all its allies of its decisive contribution to the defeat of the aggressor allowed the Soviet Union to accept the proposal of the Conference of the Heads of Governments of the three main countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition in Yalta.

Between February 4 and 11, JV Stalin, FD Roosevelt and W. Churchill met at the Yalta Conference, which became the highest point of cooperation between the powers opposing Hitler. The leaders of the West realized the ability of the USSR alone to complete victorious operations for the liberation of Europe. Perhaps this circumstance allowed reaching agreements on all issues.

In the military plan, the issues of interaction and the boundaries of the zones of occupation were resolved. The central political issue - about the future of Germany - was resolved in the sense that this country will remain indivisible, democratic, demilitarized, incapable of representing in the future a threat to the rest of humanity.

On the Polish question, the powers also reached a consensus. Poland was opened the path of free independent development in historically fair borders.

It was decided to establish the UN in order to achieve mutual understanding, agreement and prevention of aggression between countries in the post-war world.

And, finally, for the speedy end of the war and suppression of the hotbed of military aggression in the Far East, the terms of the USSR's entry into the Allied war against Japan were agreed upon.

The Battle for Berlin and the End of the War

April 16 marked the beginning of the Berlin operation. As a result of two weeks of bloody battles on the outskirts of Berlin (Seelow Heights) and in the city itself, where every street and every capital house turned into a fortress, the Red Army soldiers managed to take the fascist lair - the Reichstag and hoist the red banner above it.

And finally, on the night of May 8-9, in Karlhorst, a suburb of the German capital, all sides signed an act on the unconditional surrender of all German troops.

But on this even the liberation of Europe from fascism has not ended. On May 9, having already taken Berlin, the soldiers from the units of the 1st Ukrainian Front, helping the insurgent Prague, marched forward to the Czechoslovak capital and defeated the fascist group. It is noteworthy that in a fruitless attempt to save his unenviable fate, there were parts of the so-called. The army of the traitor Vlasov, or the ROA, went over to the side of the Prawians.

And one more remark. Unified during the years of common danger, the peoples and states gradually began to move away from each other in the postwar period. Numerous attempts to reconsider the results of the war do not stop until now. Even the Victory Day is celebrated on different days. Most countries consider it a holiday on May 8, and in the USSR, now in Russia, remembering the fierce bloody Prague battles of 1945, mark Victory Day on May 9. Unfortunately, there is a biased approach to sending new generations of history about how the liberation of European countries from fascism was taking place.

Conclusion

The liberation of Europe from fascism was made possible thanks to the heroic overpowers of the Soviet Union and its allies, the struggle of the Resistance forces in the territories occupied by the fascists. The Second World War was not over yet, ahead was Japan's defeat, but the main victory was already won. The most powerful German military machine was broken and defeated.

But the unification of nations in the fight against fascism could not be maintained in the post-war period. As in the future the whole world, Europe was divided into two camps, Western and Eastern, capitalist and socialist. As for a long time Germany itself was divided. A world system of socialism was created, which has now greatly changed, but continues to exist.

The liberation of Europe, the Second World War were very bloody. Human losses in Europe in the last world war are estimated at 40 million people, of which 2 million - citizens of Western Europe and 7 million - citizens of Germany. The remaining 30 million people are the losses of the peoples of Eastern Europe and the USSR.

And yet the main result is the liberation of peoples from fascist shackles. At the present time, humanity faces the urgent task of preventing the revenge of the brown plague and recalling the experience of combining heterogeneous, sometimes antagonistic political and state forces in front of the threat of terrorism and the destruction of culture and civilization. The liberation of Europe, 1945 will be for a long time the objects of scientific, military, political, historical and moral analysis. The relevance of the experience of the experience of the epic in our days is greater than ever!