A salient west of Moscow
Rzhev lies west of Moscow on the upper Volga. After German occupation in 1941, the railway city became an anchor for Army Group Center’s eastward salient. Soviet forces pushed deeper from the Moscow counteroffensive in early 1942, attempting to encircle the army group. German road and rail supply came under severe threat, but the northern flank near Rzhev stabilized again in February. Spring mud constrained both sides.
Fighting around Rzhev continued through 1942 into 1943 as a series of connected offensives. The city, Sychyovka to the south and routes toward Vyazma formed the contested area. Roads and railways connected German positions within the salient and became targets for Soviet encirclement attempts.
Problems left by the summer offensive
Zhukov’s Western Front and other Soviet forces attacked again in summer 1942. Army Group Center under Kluge held its main positions, with Model’s Ninth Army defending the Rzhev sector. Drawing on German wartime records, Ziemke describes fighting around Rzhev and to its south continuing into early October after summer battles in adjoining sectors had subsided.
German defenses extended through villages, rivers and prepared positions, with retained transport routes allowing reserve movements. Soviet forces needed to turn local breakthroughs into wider gaps, maintain supplies and link attacking wings. These challenges carried into autumn and winter operations.
Operation Mars attacks from both sides
Soviet forces launched Operation Mars on 25 November 1942. Zhukov coordinated Konev’s Western Front and Purkayev’s Kalinin Front. In the east, the Twentieth and Thirty-First Armies and others attacked around the Vazuza and Osuga rivers. Western attacks advanced near Bely and through the Luchesa Valley, seeking to cut connections inside the salient. Taking Rzhev and restoring the Moscow–Velikiye Luki railway were also objectives in the operational orders.
Glantz interprets the offensive as a major operation coordinated with Operation Uranus at Stalingrad. The directives he cites intended Mars to encircle and destroy the Ninth Army and enable further advance toward Vyazma. Soviet formations needed to connect breakthroughs into an encirclement, then bring follow-on forces into the isolated territory.
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Breakthroughs fail to close the ring
Snow and fog reduced artillery observation and air support. Even after crossing eastern rivers, Soviet forces struggled to move follow-on troops and tanks through narrow breaches. Initial western advances likewise failed to produce a timely junction. German armored counterattacks encircled some Soviet troops south of Bely in early December.
A renewed Soviet attack south of Rzhev on 11 December still failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough. By mid-month the main assaults had failed; encircled units attempted to break out and fighting continued in some sectors. Mars did not achieve its encirclement objective. Both sides suffered major losses and needed replacement personnel, tanks and ammunition.
Withdrawal and recovery in March 1943
Holding off the 1942 offensives left Germany with the salient’s strategic burdens. Army Group Center lacked reserves, its flanks deteriorated and the lengthy front consumed manpower. Hitler authorized withdrawal on 6 February 1943. German forces prepared a new line and Operation Büffel, or Buffalo. The Ninth Army began contracting positions north and west of Rzhev on 1 March; the overall withdrawal lasted approximately three weeks.
The Soviet Information Bureau announced on 3 March that Soviet troops had taken Rzhev, describing an assault and sustained fighting for the railway city. Ziemke’s account based on German records dates the wider withdrawal from 1 March. Recovery occurred as German forces progressively relinquished the salient and Soviet troops advanced west.
Occupation and expulsions experienced by residents
Before withdrawing, German troops collected residents able to work and others considered potentially helpful to Soviet forces and drove them west. Ziemke cites German material in which the Fourth Army reported transferring approximately forty-five thousand people from towns and villages across its withdrawal area. They walked west in the bitter late-winter cold; a German commander described the columns’ misery.
A local Rzhev commission’s investigation of 12 March 1943 lists hangings, shootings, looting and forced dispersal, stating that only about two hundred people remained in the city on the day of recovery. A further investigation on 20 October recorded widespread housing destruction and experiences of expulsion, detention and killing. Survivors and displaced families faced damaged homes, food shortages and the disruption of the city’s former life.
Rebuilding a city after the front moves
Eliminating the salient reduced immediate military pressure west of Moscow while allowing Army Group Center to trade territory for a shorter front. For Rzhev, the end of occupation began the work of restoring life: resettling survivors, repairing homes and rebuilding municipal order in a ruined city. The outcome encompassed military redeployment and the lasting losses borne by a transport center and its population.