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The battles took place in the northeast of Smolensk Oblast and the south of Tver Oblast, in and around the salient surrounding Rzhev. Due to the high losses suffered by the Red Army, the campaign became known by veterans and historians as the "Rzhev Meat Grinder" (Russian: Ржевская мясорубка, romanized: Rzhevskaya myasorubka).
The formation of the Rzhev Salient, January 1942. The closing stages of the Battle of Moscow saw the formation of the Rzhev salient.The Soviet counter-offensive had driven the Wehrmacht from the outskirts of Moscow back more than 100 miles (160 kilometres), and had penetrated Army Group Centre's front in numerous places. [11]
In the planning for Western Front's summer offensive against the eastern face of the Rzhev salient at least one map-solution was prepared in June for a prospective offensive by 49th, 33rd and 5th Armies to seize Vyasma, although this came to nothing.
The 186th, now in Kalinin Front, took part in the winter counteroffensive which drove a huge salient into the German lines around Toropets, and created the Rzhev salient. By February 1942 the offensive had bogged down, and the following months saw attacks and counterattacks on the west side of the salient, during which the division was ...
Battles for Rzhev [ edit ] Beginning on 8 January, 22nd Army had taken part in the Sychevka - Vyasma Offensive Operation, which was planned "to encircle, and then capture or destroy the enemy's entire Mozhaisk - Gzhatsk - Vyasma grouping", that is, what later became known as the Rzhev salient.
The division later participated in the Second Rzhev–Sychevka Offensive Operation in November 1942. 20th Army, now under command of Maj. Gen. N. I. Kiryukhin, was assigned the main task along the east face of the Rzhev salient; it was to drive across the Vazuza and create a breach for its mobile forces to exploit and pinch off the northern ...
It spent much of the next year in the same general area, west of the capital, taking part in the mostly futile battles against the German-held salient at Rzhev during late 1942. Following the evacuation of the salient in March, 1943 the 415th was assigned to the 61st Army, where it remained for most of the rest of the war. It took part in the ...
The 9th Army evacuated the Rzhev Salient in March 1943, as part of a general shortening of the line. Large-scale security sweeps, under the doctrine of Bandenbekämpfung ("bandit fighting"), were carried out in the weeks before the operation, in which an estimated 3,000 Russians were killed, the great majority of whom were unarmed, as shown by the inventory of the seized weapons: 277 rifles ...