Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front[k] was a theatre of World War II fought between the European Axis powers and Allies, including the Soviet Union (USSR) and Poland. It encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans), and lasted from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. Of the estimated 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II, around 30 million occurred on the Eastern Front, including 9 million children.[3][4] The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theatre of operations in World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis nations.[5] It is noted by historian Geoffrey Roberts that "More than 80 per cent of all combat during the Second World War took place on the Eastern Front".[6]
"Great Patriotic War" redirects here. For a discussion of the term itself, see Great Patriotic War (term).
The Axis forces, led by Nazi Germany, began their advance into the Soviet Union under the codename Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, the opening date of the Eastern Front. Initially, Soviet forces were unable to halt the Axis forces, which came close to Moscow. Despite their many attempts, the Axis failed to capture Moscow and soon focused on the oil fields in the Caucasus. German forces invaded the Caucasus under the Fall Blau ("Case Blue") plan on 28 June 1942. The Soviets successfully halted further Axis advance at Stalingrad — the bloodiest battle in the war — costing the Axis powers their morale and becoming the turning point of the front.
Seeing the Axis setback from Stalingrad, the Soviet Union routed its forces and regained territories at its expense. The Axis defeat at Kursk terminated the German offensive strength and cleared the way for Soviet offensives. Its setbacks caused many countries friendly with Germany to defect and join the Allies, such as Romania and Bulgaria. The Eastern Front concluded with the capture of Berlin, followed by the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender on 8 May, a day that marked the end of the Eastern Front and the War in Europe.
The battles on the Eastern Front of World War II constituted the largest military confrontation in history.[7] In pursuit of its "Lebensraum" settler-colonial agenda, Nazi Germany waged a war of annihilation (Vernichtungskrieg) throughout Eastern Europe. Nazi military operations were characterised by vicious brutality, scorched-earth tactics, wanton destruction, mass deportations, forced starvations, wholesale terrorism, and massacres. These also included the genocidal campaigns of Generalplan Ost and Hunger Plan, which aimed at the extermination and ethnic cleansing of more than a hundred million Eastern European natives. German historian Ernst Nolte called the Eastern Front "the most atrocious war of conquest, enslavement, and annihilation known to modern history",[8] while British historian Robin Cross expressed that "In the Second World War no theatre was more gruelling and destructive than the Eastern Front, and nowhere was the fighting more bitter".[9]
The two principal belligerent powers in the Eastern Front were Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though they never sent in ground troops to the Eastern Front, the United States and the United Kingdom both provided substantial material aid to the Soviet Union in the form of the Lend-Lease program, along with naval and air support. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front. In addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War is generally also considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front.
Disappearance of Ondrej Sobola
Ondrej Sobola (7 August 1880 – officially 31 December 1918) was an Austro-Hungarian Army soldier. His death, in an unknown place during the First World War, inspired the Tree of Peace project.[181]
Biography
Sobola was born on 7 August 1880 in Lalinok into a farmer family. His family had lived in the area since 1512.[182] 1: 9. He was conscripted into the army in 1901.[183] Sobola and his older brother Å tefan travelled to the United States around 1906, residing in Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania.[184] Sobola returned to Lalinok in 1907, living there for three years, and again traveled to the United States on 30 November 1910.[185]
Sobola had returned to Lalinok by 1914. After the outbreak of the First World War, he enlisted in the 15th Military Infantry Regiment.[186] He was listed as missing in action on the Eastern Front in 1915. Sobola was one of those commemorated by his home village in a memorial to First World War dead on 11 November 2018.[187] His portrait made by sculptor Michal Janiga is also incorporated on a Memorial. His name is on a Memorial pillar in the Emperor's park of Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl.[188]
Tree of Peace
The Tree of Peace is an international project that originated in Slovakia. The project, created in 2018 on the centenary of the end of World War I, was initiated by landscape architect Marek Sobola, Ondrej's great-grandson.[189] The grave of Sobola has not been found after many years of historical searching in Military archives across Europe. His great-grandfather's death inspired Sobola to memorialize the soldiers who died in the First World War in unknown places without their names or identities. The main goal of the project was to promote a message of peace by planting "Trees of Peace" on every continent.[190]