Were there any potential areas around Smolensk that Army Group Center might have found as defensible as the Rzhev line?
score:2
Smolensk was the first place where soviets tried to put a defensive line because that region is the only place where no important rivers serve as natural barriers in the east-west direction.
Daugava (western Dvina) and Dnieper rivers turn east in that zone. Russia needs to defend that place in order to prevent direct advance to Moscow. So, you're right, Smolensk is quite important. The next defensive line is in the west, Berezina river (ask Napoleon about that river). Smolensk also has another importance, there it is the best highway in Russia, the one that goes from Brest to Moscow.
Since west Russia is a flat country, only rivers are your major defensive lines. A brilliant example about the use of rivers as defensive positions is the Third battle of Kharkow, where von Manstein used Donets river to cover his right flank while advancing to the north.
Besides Pripyat Marshes, the other defensive positions in Russia are woods and lakes. Both are more concentrated in the north, but since your question is regarding Rzhev and Smolensk, there is no big difference in latitude that affects the amount of woods and lakes. Same weather, same geography, only rivers matter in the comparison.
So, if you are a commander of an army in Russia, defend the line of Daugava and Dnieper rivers, in Vytebsk, not Smolensk.
Now, regarding to your question. Why defend Rzhev instead of Smolensk?
No geographical reason. Pure and simple accident. Let's see what happened.
After battle of Moscow a pocket was created in german lines around Rzhev. Germans decided to stay where they were, no retreat was allowed.
The result of german attempt to keep all territory plus soviet attempts to encircle germans in Rzhev is the map below.
Remember: Hitler did not want to leave any territory, he even sacked von Rundstedt for a retreat he made without his authorization. Few times in the war germans made a retreat while being strong. That's the most important reason for many weird defensive positions germans had during the war, for example Nikopol and Krivoi Rog defense
Rzhev was not purely a defensive position, germans made several attacks from there until march of 1942. Actually, Rzhev was so close to Moscow that soviets had to attack that place and keep strong units around it, to protect Moscow. Since germans knew that, the meat grinder was served, soviet had to attack that specific place and suffer for it.
In fact, at the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad, soviet put a strong defense in Voronezh, because they did not know whether german attack was towards Moscow or Stalingrad. By keeping Rzhev salient, soviets had to defend its north front in Voronezh during the beginning of the battle of Stalingrad.
When germans left the salient? When it was no longer a menace for Moscow. So, when they needed the units in the salient before Kursk battle. they left it.
The salient did its job while it was needed.
More post
- 📝 Why in the 70s and 80s was the United Kingdom called Great Britain in the international naming conventions?
- 📝 Did Richard II of England officially name Roger Mortimer or Edmund Mortimer as his heir?
- 📝 What is the ruined tower in the background of this 1649 drawing of the Igeler Säule by Joan Blaeu?
- 📝 Were Magellan's wife and kids held hostage?
- 📝 Was the IMF complicit in destroying the Romanian economy?
- 📝 Linen doublets around 1380-1410, middle and eastern Europe
- 📝 Who is "Rhadir of Seville"?
- 📝 British way in construction of AFV
- 📝 Were there any long-term political effects on Argentina after Eichmann's kidnapping?
- 📝 Did Hitler spare Dundee from bombing because it "rejected" Churchill as MP?
- 📝 What cars were used with the Crocodile Class Ce 6/8 locomotive during its active years, especially at the beginning?
- 📝 During the Great Depression, roughly what proportion of Americans lived below the World Bank PPP $1.25/day poverty line?
- 📝 Why did not UK assist Greece in 1919 war?
- 📝 Why did Hitler not claim the German-majority areas of Schleswig?
- 📝 Where do all the bullet casings after a war end up?
- 📝 Why did the USA revoke the arms embargo or sanction on Turkey only after 3 years of the invasion of Cyprus?
- 📝 Who was the last Emperor of England?
- 📝 Which period is this game map supposed to represent?
- 📝 What is the contemporary knowledge of the theoretical history?
- 📝 Why did Uesugi Kenshin never marry? Was it common practice for Japanese Buddhists of the time?
- 📝 The beginning of Judaism
- 📝 Middle east and North africa population during the high middle ages
- 📝 When did western medical certification start?
- 📝 Earliest use of Renaissance Era innovations in Islamic countries & culture?
- 📝 How do I find the sources which determined the year of the fall of Babylon?
- 📝 Why was the Soviet Marine Infantry disbanded in 1947?
- 📝 How did Nazi Germany finance itself during WW2?
- 📝 What did participants experience in the Nazi one month training course for teachers?
- 📝 Which one is ancient Hinduisam or Dravidiasm
- 📝 How did Gothic differ from Baroque architecture?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Were there any potential areas around Smolensk that Army Group Center might have found as defensible as the Rzhev line?
- 📝 Did Army Group Center have easier going up to Smolensk than between Smolensk and Moscow?
- 📝 Have there been any other US presidents besides JFK that were groomed from birth to be president?
- 📝 Have there been any countries that voted themselves out of existence?
- 📝 Were there any conquests that Ancient Rome undertook explicitly to gain control of a natural resource?
- 📝 Is there any documentation that indicates the Aztecs were as violent as they are made out?
- 📝 Were there any well known royal dynasties that did not in some way cite religious mandate for their rule?
- 📝 Were there any war movies made during WW2 that were well regarded by front-line American soldiers?
- 📝 Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were not motivated as a distraction from internal conflicts?
- 📝 Were there any pilots that declined to carry out the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 Were there any battles in Continental Europe that were decided by "peasants with pitchforks?"
- 📝 Have there been any nuclear accidents in the US at nuclear facilities which were not "commercial"?
- 📝 Were there any well-established land trade routes in the US colonies around 1700? What did they look like?
- 📝 Are there any battles that have been extensively studied across the world?
- 📝 Were there any assassinations of high-profile Austrian officials before that of the Archduke Ferdinand?
- 📝 Were there any developed countries that became "undeveloped" for reasons other than war?
- 📝 During World War II, were there any parts of the Japanese overseas empire that was capable of local re-supply?
- 📝 Were there any ancient cultures that accepted h*m*sexuality?
- 📝 Are there any misunderstandings in history that were resolved in the 20th century?
- 📝 Have there been government conspiracies that were successful for over 25 years?
- 📝 Were there any Native American tribes that had more than a strategic alliance with the Confederates?
- 📝 Besides the Hebrews, were there any other ancient cults that used salt in animal sacrifices?
- 📝 Are there any universally accepted or non-Abrahamic based books in history that have mentions of longevity of prophets?
- 📝 Were there any natural disasters that decisively changed the result of a later election by killing the electorate of one side?
- 📝 Have there been any notable people that have claimed that classism and not racism is the current cause of racial inequality?
- 📝 Are there any communist countries that were model high functioning societies?
- 📝 Were there any recorded instances of outlaws (people that were illegal out of their wanted place 100% of the time) in Nazi Germany?
- 📝 Were there any notable historic figures that weren't racist by modern standards?
- 📝 Were there any ancient civilisation that functioned without currency or bartering?
- 📝 Were there any successful revolutions that didn't end in a totalitarian regime?