Battle of Zlatoust

* German attempt to cross the Urals stopped
* Entire German offensive against the Soviet remnants halted
* German 6th Army crushed in Zlatoust
* Over 130,000 Germans killed
* Soviet Army gains momentum to counterattack
* Beginning of the Soviet 1944 Summer Offensive

Combatants| * The Soviet Revolutionary Government
	+ 6th Army
	+ 4th Army (Late Battle)

Commanders| * Georgy Zhukov
* Friedrich Paulus
* Erich Von Manstein
* Gunther Von Kluge

Forces| * 900,000 Soviet Soldiers

Casualties| * 309,000 Soviet Deaths
* 229,564 Germans Captured

**The Battle of Zlatoust** ,otherwise known as **The Defence of Zlatoust** or **The Soviet Miracle**, was one of the final battles fought on the Eastern Front of World War II. It took place in the city of Zlatoust and was the final defence of the Soviet Army. The German Army intended to capture the city and it's vital railway supply hubs in order to supply their attack across the Ural Mountains to fully crush the Soviet Army. A large majority of the Soviet Army still fighting was present at Zlatoust.

The Battle was won decisively by the Soviet Forces who used their terrain advantage and knowledge of the area ,supported by elite mountaineer divisions, to encircle the Germans in Zlatoust and destroy the German 6th Army. The complete annihilation of the Germans at Zlatoust gave the Soviet Army a much needed morale boost and a confidence boost and they began the 1944 Summer Offensive and pushed the Germans back until they were forced to sign a ceasefire after the declaration of war by the Empire of Japan. Many say that had the Japanese not invaded, the Soviet Army would have reached Berlin by Late 1945 due to the sheer will of the Soviet Army.

## History

### Background

With the German declaration of war in May 1941, the Soviets were being consistently pushed back by the overwhelming German Army. Soviet Troops were being encircled in the hundreds of thousands and Soviet deaths ramped up everyday. Despite the best of Soviet Efforts, Finland entered the war in August and linked up with German Troops to surround Leningrad. In the south, Romania entered the war and with German Troops, they began to push toward the Caucuses. The Soviet Union was fighting against a horde of German and Axis Soldiers.

The German Air Force decimated the Soviets and in June 1942, the Germans would reach Stalingrad. as German Troops surrounded the city and over 250,000 Soviet Troops inside it. Leningrad would also fall on the 6th of July after months of heavy fighting. The Battle for Moscow began on the 7th of October. The Soviet Army also began to convene on Moscow which would lead to the fall of Stalingrad in late October as Stalin ordered a full defence of Moscow. However this was too late as by the end of November, German Forces began encircling the City. Zhukov ordered a counter offensive to cut off the German Encirclement in the Spring of 1943.

This counterattack would fail and on the 30th of April 1943, Stalin committed suicide as the German Army began to march into Moscow. Zhukov took all the remaining Soviet Military still able to fight east toward the Ural Mountains and formed the Soviet Revolutionary Government. The Germans followed the retreating Soviets and they picked off them from the air.

In September, the Soviet Soldiers reached Zlatoust , a very important railway hub city which was deemed the Key to the far east by the Soviets as it was a main railway hub crossing over the Ural Mountains. Zhukov ordered that the Last Stand would be made at Zlatoust and they could not afford to lose it. The German Army began crossing into the Urals in order to capture Zlatoust.

### The Battle

On the 6th of November 1943, the first rounds of fighting broke out along the railway tracks on the outskirts as the German Panzers attempted to use the railway lines to move tanks into Zlatoust. A firm Soviet defence held the Germans back and several tanks were destroyed before elite German Infantry entered the fight. On the 9th, German Infantry began to assault the city from the North in order to drive a wedge between the defence.

As more and more German Tanks and Infantry began advancing toward Zlatoust, the Soviet defenders on the outskirts retreated back into Zlatoust to join the defence of the railway station which was the primary defence target. Zhukov deployed Mountaineer Divisions to the North to counter the German attack which was beginning to weaken the Northern defences.

The German 6th Army then began a frontal offensive on the 18th of November. The Soviets braced their defences and eventually held the line. The Soviets repelled the attack on the 26th and then began another attack to push the Germans out of Zlatoust and eventually made it back to their original defences.

Despite these successes, German Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus ordered another offensive on the 1st of December. He used his panzers to attack the North and the South simultaneously. The German 6th Army then reengaged on the 5th. On the same day, the Soviet Troops retreated back to the railway station and formed a rear guard to hold the flanks. As the German tanks ploughed toward the railway station, the main German force hit into the railway station and fierce fighting broke out.

On the 7th, the Soviet rear-guard retreated and formed a separate defence, allowing the railway hub to be encircled and cut off as the Germans concentrated effort on defeating the Soviet defenders so they could desperately get more supplies in to fuel their advance. This was Zhukov's plan. As the Germans were too focused on defeating the railway station, they had left their flanks unguarded and vulnerable. Zhukov then used his Mountaineers to navigate through the Urals and used infantry to surround Zlatoust, using the terrain as a natural defence and barrier. On the 15th, the Mountaineers had gotten behind the Germans and had encircled over 600,000 Germans in Zlatoust.

He then ordered the Soviet Army in Zlatoust to charge the railway station and ordered the Infantry to re-enter the city. From the 16th to the 27th, Zlatoust was a slaughter. Over 380,000 Germans would be killed and nearly 200,000 captured in the slaughter alone. The Soviet Army was relentless and as the German Tanks attempted to break through on the 26th and 27th, most of the German 6th Army was lost. The 4th Army was deployed as well to assist the evacuation. Of the 600,000 trapped in Zlatoust, only 20,000 would walk out of Zlatoust. Most were unable to fight and the remaining 400,000 Germans of the 6th Army and reinforcing 4th Army withdrew from Zlatoust and were followed by a bloodthirsty Soviet charge.

### Aftermath

The most notable aftermath of the Battle is the sheer amount of German Casualties. The 6th Army was destroyed and over half of the Germans present at the battle would be killed or captured. The Soviets lost a third of their numbers which was a cost deemed sufficient as a majority of these losses were sustained at the railway station. Zlatoust was ruined by the fighting. The streets were littered with the dead and the civilian population took a large hit due to the intense fighting and bombing from both sides.

With the catastrophic German defeat, the Soviet Army found a new sense of determination and confidence and especially those who fought in the railway station had saw what it's like to properly fight and gained much needed experience. It also created a lot of momentum within the Soviet Army who began a counterattack which pushed the German Army away from the Urals , across Arkhangelsk–Astrakhan (A-A) line in the centre and toward Gorky in the Summer 1944 Offensive. The Soviets would then capture Gorky and be forced to sign a ceasefire with the Germans after the declaration of war by the Japanese.

Adolf Hitler was furious with the defeat and ordered the German Army to continue to fight and hold their ground despite the overwhelming Soviet Forces approaching. Georgy Zhukov was portrayed as a hero of the Soviet Union and a true leader of the USSR. Despite his successes in the West against Germany, the war in the East was failing miserably against Japan. Lavrentiy Beria then launched a coup using NKDV Forces against Zhukov in 1944 and executed Zhukov for High Treason along with several high ranking Soviet officials , mostly Red Army Generals. Beria then made peace with Japan in order to keep what's left of the Soviet Union intact. During Beria's Coup, several countries seceded from the Union and formed their own states.