Battles of Rzhev

Battles of Rzhev
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Date 8 January 1942 – 31 March 1943 (1 year, 2 months, 3 weeks and 2 days) Location Rzhev and Velikie Luki salients, Russian SFSR 56°15′00″N 34°19′00″E / 56.25°N 34.316667°E / 56.25; 34.316667 Result Inconclusive[1] No side achieved their operational objectives. Soviet forces failed to destroy Army Group Center. Territorial changes German forces retreat from the Rzhev salient (Operation Büffel).
Belligerents
Soviet Union	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Stalin Georgy Zhukov Ivan Konev Vasily Sokolovsky Dmitry Lelyushenko	Adolf Hitler Günther von Kluge Ludwig Kübler Walter Model Heinz Guderian
Strength
Total: 3,680,300[Note 1]	Total: 1,659,000 13,000 guns and mortars 1,100 tanks 850 aircraft[2][3]
Casualties and losses
1,160,787–2,300,000 Isayev: 392,554 dead/missing/captured 768,233 wounded and sick[4] Gerasimova: estimated 2,300,000 dead, wounded, missing, captured and sick[5]	668,110 German reports:[Note 2] 162,713 dead 469,747 wounded 35,650 missing
class=notpageimage| Location within modern-day Russia

The Battles of Rzhev (Russian: Ржевская битва, romanized: Rzhevskaya bitva) were a series of Red Army offensives against the Wehrmacht between 8 January 1942 and 31 March 1943, on the Eastern Front of World War II. 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 Soviet Army, the campaign became known by veterans and historians as the "Rzhev Meat Grinder" (Russian: Ржевская мясорубка, romanized: Rzhevskaya myasorubka).

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