Toropets-Kholm Offensive

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Toropets-Kholm Offensive was a military operation conducted south of Lake Ilmen by the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War, from 9 January to 6 February 1942. The operation contributed to the formation of the Kholm Pocket, the encirclement of the Wehrmacht's II. Army Corps in the Demyansk Pocket, and the destruction of the German Wehrmacht's 189th Infantry Regiment near Andreapol.Following the successful Moscow counter-offensive of December 1941, the STAVKA of the Red Army decided to conduct a broad-front offensive with the aim of destroying the invading Wehrmacht forces in the Soviet Union. The Wehrmacht did not expect the Red Army to be capable of such a wide-ranging offensive, and therefore was caught off guard by attacks in areas that it supposed to be quiet, such as the region south of Lake Ilmen.