East Wall (defensive line)

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The German name should not be confused with the Międzyrzecz Fortified Region, which may be also referred to as Ostwall.

The East Wall (German: Ostwall^[1], Russian: Восточный вал, Vostochnyi val) was a German defensive line on the Eastern Front of World War II, built after the battle of Kursk. While it appeared that in ordering the East Wall Adolf Hitler had accepted a general retreat on the Eastern Front as inevitable, subsequent decisions revealed that he actually intended to establish a barrier behind which the armies could not retreat.^[2] Beginning in the south at Melitopol, the wall ran due north to the Dnieper River, following to Kiev and the Desna River to Chernigov, thence taking a line almost due north to the southern tip of Pskov Lake, and, running along the west shores of Peipus Lake, anchored on the Gulf of Finland at Narva. The East Wall was broken by Soviet troops after the battle of the Dnieper.

[edit] References

1. ^ Большой Энциклопедический Словарь
2. ^ German Invasion of the U.S.S.R.