This article is about the Soviet offensive operation in the Second World War. For the German offensive in the First World War, see German spring offensive. For the Portuguese military offensive, see Operation Mars (Portugal).
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Operation Mars
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Date
25 November – 20 December 1942
Location
Rzhev and Velikie Luki salients, Russian SFSR
Result
German victory
Soviet operational failure
Belligerents
Soviet Union
Germany
Commanders and leaders
Georgy Zhukov Ivan Konev Maksim Purkayev
Walter Model Günther von Kluge
Strength
702,923 personnel, 1,718 tanks[1]
3 combined corps (with 13 infantry divisions and 2 paratrooper divisions) 2 panzer corps (5 panzer divisions, 3 motorized divisions) 1,615 tanks[clarification needed][1] Total forces: ~350,000 troops
Grossmann: 40,000 combat casualties[4] Buttar:[5] 40,000-45,000 in total
v
t
e
Rzhev campaign
1942
1st Rzhev–Vyazma
Sychyovsky
Mozhaysk (Jupiter)
Vyazma Airborne
Hannover
Seydlitz
1st Rzhev–Sychyovka
Kozelsk
Velikiye Luki
2nd Rzhev–Sychyovka (Mars)
1943
2nd Rzhev–Vyazma (Büffel)
v
t
e
Eastern Front
Naval warfare
Baltic Sea
Black Sea
Arctic Ocean
1941
Barbarossa
Brest
Białystok–Minsk
1st Baltic
Brody
Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
1st Smolensk
Uman
Odessa
1st Kiev
Tallinn
Leningrad
Sea of Azov
1st Kharkov
1st Crimea
Sevastopol
Rostov
Gorky
Moscow
Finland
Kerch
Chechnya
Air war 1941
1942
Lyuban
Barvenkovo–Lozovaya
Rzhev
Toropets–Kholm
Demyansk
Kholm
2nd Kharkov
Case Blue
Caucasus
Rzhev–Sychyovka
Sinyavino
Stalingrad
Velikiye Luki
Mars
Little Saturn
1943
Iskra
Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh
Voronezh–Kharkov
Polar Star
3rd Kharkov
Gorky Blitz
Kursk
1st Donbas
Belgorod-Kharkov
2nd Donbas
2nd Smolensk
Lenino
Dnieper
Nevel
2nd Kiev
1944
Dnieper–Carpathian
Leningrad–Novgorod
Narva
2nd Crimea
1st Jassy–Kishinev
Karelia
Bagration
Lvov–Sandomierz
Doppelkopf
2nd Jassy–Kishinev
Dukla Pass
2nd Baltic
Belgrade
Debrecen
Petsamo–Kirkenes
Courland
Gumbinnen
Budapest
1945
Vistula–Oder
Western Carpathian
East Prussia
Silesia
Breslau
Solstice
East Pomerania
Lake Balaton
Moravia–Ostrava
Vienna
Bratislava–Brno
Berlin
Prague
Prague uprising
Operation Mars (Russian: Операция «Марс»), also known as the Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive Operation (Russian: Вторая Ржевско-Сычёвская наступательная операция), was the codename for an offensive launched by Soviet forces against German forces during World War II. It took place between 25 November and 20 December 1942 around the Rzhev salient in the vicinity of Moscow.
The offensive was a joint operation of the Soviet Western Front and Kalinin Front co-ordinated by Georgy Zhukov. The offensive was one in a series of particularly-bloody engagements that are collectively known in Soviet and Russian histories as the Battles of Rzhev, which occurred near Rzhev, Sychevka and Vyazma between January 1942 and March 1943. The battles became known as the "Rzhev meat grinder" ("Ржевская мясорубка") for their huge losses, particularly on the Soviet side. For many years, they were relegated to a footnote in Soviet military history.
^ ab"Исаев, Алексей Валерьевич. Когда внезапности уже не было. История ВОВ, которую мы не знали. — М.: Яуза, Эксмо, 2006. (Alexey Valeryevich Isayev. When the sudden element was lost – History of World War II, the facts that we do not know. Yauza & Penguin Books. Moskva. 2006. Part II: 1942 Autumn-Winter Offensive. Sector 2: Operation Mars)". Archived from the original on 8 August 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
^Гриф секретности снят: Потери Вооруженных Сил СССР в войнах, боевых действиях и военных конфликтах: Стат. исслед./ Г. Ф. Кривошеев, В. М. Андроников, П. Д. Буриков. — М.: Воениздат, 1993.
^Glantz 1999, p. 308.
^Гроссманн Хорст. Ржев — краеугольный камень Восточного фронта. — Ржев: «Ржевская правда», 1996. German name: Grossmann H. Rzhew: Eckpfeiler der Ostfront. — Friedberg : Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, 1980.
^Buttar, Prit. Meat Grinder: The Battles for the Rzhev Salient, 1942–43. Osprey Publishing, 2022, p. 369.
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