Posted on 02/02/2013 7:38:39 PM PST by cunning_fish
VOLGOGRAD, Russia - An aged T-34 tank clattered into the centre of the southern Russian city once known as Stalingrad and soldiers dressed in World War II-era uniforms marched solemnly as Russia marked the 70th anniversary of the end of one of modern warfare's bloodiest battles.
President Vladimir Putin came to the city later Saturday to take part in the commemorations, including a visit to the famous hilltop memorial complex surmounted by a towering 87-meter (280-foot) statue of a sword-wielding woman representing the motherland.
"Stalingrad will forever remain a symbol of unity and invincibility of our people, a symbol of genuine patriotism, a symbol of the greatest victory of the Soviet liberator soldier. And as long as we are devoted to Russia, our language, culture, roots and national memory, Russia will be invincible," Putin said at an evening commemorative concert.
The city 900 kilometres (560 miles) south of Moscow suffered six months of intensive fighting, beginning with massive air strikes, as Nazi forces tried to push deep into the Soviet Union and reach its Caucasus oil fields.
At least 1.2 million people are estimated to have died before the fighting ended on Feb. 2, 1943. The Red Army's defeat of the Nazis after house-to-house battling was a decisive turn in World War II.
One of the houses became a particularly resonant symbol of the battle. The four-story apartment building became known as the Pavlov House after the sergeant whose platoon inflicted heavy damage on Nazi troops and tanks while under heavy attack for two months, even as civilians continued to occupy it.
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
Basically the Russians fought bravely, outnumbered the Germans by quite a bit and had short supply lines. On the German side Hitler prevented his Field Marshall Paulus from maneuvers which could have saved the army and made them just keep on until they just couldn’t go any more.
I remember Churchill saying that Stalin was demanding the British attack somewhere, maybe in the Middle East with 30 divisions. Churchill said they had just scraped together a single division to send to Malta.
He later learned that Stalin had 100 divisions training and equipping East of the Urals. With such a massive army they knew they would win.
I think Hitler was driven by ego in a way. If the Wehrmacht had captured the city that bore the name of his enemy for Hitler it would have been almost like having captured Stalin himself. And it would also have had a tremendously demoralizing effect on the Red Army and the Russian people. Most Americans when they think of World War Two tend to not realize just how pivotal the battle was in the over all strategy of winning the war. The Allies felt that if Hitler had captured Moscow and or Stalingrad they were willing to write the Soviet Union off and sue for peace. Oddly enough today marks 70 years the battle ended.
I think Hitler was driven by ego in a way. If the Wehrmacht had captured the city that bore the name of his enemy for Hitler it would have been almost like having captured Stalin himself. And it would also have had a tremendously demoralizing effect on the Red Army and the Russian people. Most Americans when they think of World War Two tend to not realize just how pivotal the battle was in the over all strategy of winning the war. The Allies felt that if Hitler had captured Moscow and or Stalingrad they were willing to write the Soviet Union off and sue for peace. Oddly enough today marks 70 years the battle ended.
Sorry for the double post.
Hitler was an idiot for not invading the USSR earlier in the year, and for giving Communists the one thing they've never had before or since- the Moral High Ground.
Hitler defenders say that the USSR would've invaded in summer of 1942....you ever see Soviet soldiers perform well outside of the USSR? If the USSR invaded, Hitler's Wehrmacht would've been able to easily defeat them in a defense and counterattack battle.
The only reason the Soviet troops defeated Germany was because they were full of revenge and vodka.
Had the Russkies invaded Germany they’d have thrown the guns away and would have started to make off with everything that wasn’t nailed down.
The Russians had time to prepare very strong defenses. I have read that at places they had 40 miles deep of tank traps, over a million anti-tank mines. Defenses where they knew the Germans would have to be directed through in which they had every spot measured with chains for distance. It was basically a suicide mission.
Of Course I am talking about Kursk now. I think the main thing was the Russians had them outnumbered pretty bad and also had fine tanks. The T-34. Still after all this the Germans came fairly close to winning, One 3 tank group knocked out 78 Russian tanks. Of those 3 Tigers, I think they were hit 151 times
Operation Uranus signaled the end for Paulus’ 6th Armee. Sweeping past the Rumanians and Italians on their flanks, the Soviets surrounded the Germans in their own kessel (kettle) and destroyed notions of Wehrmacht superiority. They were on the defensive on the eastern front after Stalingrad, the epic armored battle at Kursk notwithstanding.
Hitler made a critical mistake after surviving the winter outside Moscow. Split Army Group South to go after both Stalingrad and the oilfields to the south instead of concentrating on the fuel. Also did not help that the Germans were so brutal to the civilian population as they moved east. Germans bit off more than they could chew. Overextended, under supplied, arrogant in their assumptions.
2) After that, German generals knew they couldn't win. Read Guderian's diary. They vastly underestimated the space and distances, and were still a horse-drawn army, with 120,000 horses in Russia. The German generals knew that the Russian manpower reserves were endless.
3) US/Brit bombing absorbed a whopping 30% of ALL military production it was remotely possible at Kursk, had there been no western bombing, that an additional 30% more air, could have won that battle, but long term, there was not enough air to overcome 200 infantry divisions.
In our new "Patriot's History of the Modern World to 1945" Dave Dougherty and I have looked at all the most recent scholarship, some of it pretty revealing.
In the war memorial in Kiev, Ukraine there is a T-34 on display from the "Great Patriotic War". It is the roughest thing you ever saw in terms of finish, but it was a great tank for its day. They rolled out of the factories in Stalingrad without even paint, because the Russians needed everything on the firing line.
Putin is a repulsive Soviet apologist who views the EVIL EMPIRE as patriotic liberators. Putin thinks that his loyal service to Marxism-Leninism and the KGB was patriotic, rather than what it really was, the treasonous betrayal of his fellow Russians. Putin has to whitewash the crimes of the Soviet Union because he is an accomplice to these horrendous crimes and he does not repent for how he helped the KGB oppress his own people, he is proud of betraying the Russian people and destroying their freedom.
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