Mapping the Rasputitsa

[AJFFM]

Hello to you all

From what I read the Rasputitsa was not not uniform across the Eastern front. Some areas suffered more than others. My question is did the Soviet state/army map the areas worst affected by the rasputitsa before the war? Did the Germans map the areas of rasputitsa during the war?

lease provide maps if possible.

[AJFFM]

No Response?

[Jeff Leach]

I have never seen any and would be surprised if they existed (from that time period). The 'rasputitsa' was a function of how much water was in the upper layers of the soil. At least in the Ukraine during the summer of 1941, the 'rasputitsa' condition would start after a few hours of heavy rain. If it rained hard for a day or two, the conditions became so bad that movement by wheeled vehicles was impossible. The German had to resort to aerial resupply. If it became sunny conditions usually improved after half a day and it only took a day for things to become dry enough that full mobility was restored. The effects could be local. They were debilitating enough to influence the conduct/course of operations.

What you really want is a soil map of the western Soviet Union. The conditions still exist today, so probably best Place to start is modern day travels logs that might have pointers to material that you are looking for.

[AJFFM]

I know the problem still exist and I think flood plain mapping exists with emergency and environmental services.

My interest in the problem is the encirclement battle of 1st Panzer Army, Hube's Pocket. Here the Rasputitsa saved the German 1st Panzer army from destruction. Similar conditions in the 1st Jassy offensive later that month and in May also broke the Soviet offensive.

It seems that the Soviet Army never considered that Rasputitsa would affect the course of Operations in Western Ukraine although it definitely took it into consideration when it planned Bagration in the dry season instead of earlier which they could have done.

[Jeff Leach]

Interesting is the 'Rasputitsa' conditions saved the Soviets a number of times during the German advance across the Ukraine in 1941. The Germans attempted to encircle part of the Soviet 18th Army west of the Southern Bug River just after the Uman Pocket but a couple Days of bad weather allowed most of the Soviet forces to escape.

The Rasputitsa reduced the mobility of both armies but it seem to be more favorable to the defender than the attack (may be so simple that the attacker needs to cover longer distances).

One thing: the Rasputitsa and flooding are too totally separate things. The Rasputitsa is - how much (too much) water is in the soil and could be very local and can occur after just a few hours of Heavy rain. If the soil doesn't dry out the condition persists.

On the flip side of the coin, when the soil became too dry the German complained about the coking dust Clouds cause by movement instead.

[AJFFM]

As I understand it both Rasputitsa and flooding are a direct result from the same phenomenon, saturation of top soil. The type of soil in question and how close is the stone layers decides whether you will get flowing rivers or pure mud. Russia and North Ukraines Black Earth region were of the type that would produce mud whereas the Sahara and deserts won't (although it did put a brake on the counterattack by the 8th Army after El-Alamein).