Panzer MK IV MBT
Posted on 06/23/2010 6:11:43 AM PDT by C19fan
Sixty-nine-years ago today, 3.5 million German troops, plus another million from Nazi allies, invaded the USSR. (Geographically, the land now makes up Lithuania, Belarus, eastern Poland, Ukraine, and Moldavia). It was the largest army ever assembled, the most ambitious invasion ever attempted, and it led to the most staggering land battles ever fought—and to casualty rates that can only be rivaled by the mass starvations of the worst twentieth century tyrannies.
That the opposing sides were in fact two of those tyrannies is not incidental. The Nazi’s goals were to kill Jews, enslave Slavs, steal resources (especially food and oil), and provide “living space” for Germans. The Soviet goal was simply to survive. But “survival” entailed, in Stalin’s mind, many measures that an ordinarily ruthless tyrant would have shrunk from, including mass deportations, purges, seemingly random arrests and imprisonments, and special units whose only task was to murder any soldier who retreated. The cruelties inflicted in pursuit of these goals transformed what would have been by any measure a terrible conflict into an apocalypse. Something close to half of all who died in the entire Second World War—upwards of 30 million—perished on the Eastern Front.
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ping
I always liked the idea of fighting the Germans to the last man (er I mean Russian).
The Russkies got hammered early on becuase of Stalin’s purges of the military leadership and his refusal to believe that the Soviet Union was going to be attacked.
I think part of the reason it isn't remembered is that up until this invasion Hitler and Stalin were allies and the progressive left in this country supported Hitler. The progressives don't like to be reminded of this fact.
Panzer MK IV MBT
T-34 Model 1941 MBT
Aberdeen?
Yes, and I think the one in the background is a MK V Panther
And there's the shameful story about how union members sabotaged the armaments they were employed to build because the arms would be used against then Soviet ally Germany.
It's true that Stalin redeployed -- forward deployed -- his troops after his 1939 pact with Hitler brought eastern Poland under Soviet control.
But in 1941 Stalin's forces were even less prepared for an offensive against Hitler than they were to defend their new territories.
One reason (among many) Soviets were unprepared was that Stalin refused to allow them to take any actions which might remotely be seen as "provocative".
The left opposed Hitler right up until the moment Hitler and Stalin signed their pact. Then their masters in Moscow told them to support Hitler and amazingly enough, they did. No thought, just follow orders from Comintern.
We have a winner!
Stalin ordered a forward defense, which was his best choice, considering the sorry state of the Red Army at the time (a 30% operability rate in aircraft, even lower in tanks, etc.). “Deep Battle” tactics are made to take advantage of a defense with little depth.
Yeah, it is.
Knocked-out tank destroyer "Elefant" -official designation: Panzerjäger Tiger (P) "Elefant"- during Operation Zitadelle, July 1943.
The scale of losses on the Eastern Front worried deeply the leaders of Nazi Germany, but there were many men in more humble circumstances who were also deeply concerned at the loss of so many future fathers, future leaders of their country. One of these was a humble padre serving in a German mountain unit who had fought alongside his men throughout the long years of the war. Let his words of worry and concern be the epitaph to this war on the Eastern Front. He wrote these words in the autumn of 1941, shortly after the battle of Uman and only 4 months after the start of the war.
“Today I buried some more of my former parishioners who have died in this frightful land. Three more letters to write to add to the total of those which I have written already in this war. The deleted names of the fallen are now more numerous in my pocket diary than the names of the living. My parish is bleeding to death on the plains of this country. We shall all die out here.”
Ferdinand Porsche’s biggest [in all senses] mistake. Turretless tank [actually an assault gun] with no machine guns to defend the vehicle. Only weapon was the 88.
Contributed greatly to the failure of the northern wing at Kursk. The Russians chewed them up snd spit them out. I think only about 80 were made. What a waste.
The Russians plan was to attack in 1943, after the German and British armies were exhausted in the West.
It’s hard for me to feel much pity for the Russians, after they agreed to carve up Poland with the Nazis, invaded the Baltic countries, and invaded Finland.
Stalin actually expected a repeat of the First World War in which, over several years, the French and Brits would fight Germany to exhaustion, thus making Soviet conquest of Germany a cake-walk.
So Stalin did not expect to ever do any serious fighting against Germany.
Of course no one feels sympathy for Stalin -- at least as murderous as Hitler, but started years earlier.
The Russian people, Ukraines & others under Stalin's boot are a much different story.
Something like 20 million of them died in the war, nearly half of those civilians.
But they kept at least 3/4 of Hitler's troops tied down on the Eastern Front, and killed many times more German soldiers than the US and Brits in the West did.
Without the Russians efforts, many more Americans, Brits and other allies would have died defeating Hitler.
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