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To: katana

According to the book, Stalin spent since August 1939 preparing to attack Germany and had 191 first line divisions in the first echelon positioned on his western frontier on 21 June, 1941. The second attack echelon Armies were on their way to the border when Hitler attacked. They were sitting ducks for the Wehrmacht. The book claims that the Soviets planned to move their top leadership to a giant combat CP they built at Vilnius on 22 June to run their planned attack but Hitlers attack canceled these moves. The Soviet plan was to attack with the largest army ever assembled on 6 July and they planned to go all the way to the Atlantic. The book says the Soviets were massed and ready for a massive strike but were situated horribly for defense. That explains to me how the Germans were able to take millions of prisoners at the very beginning of the war. Stalin and the rest of the Soviet leaders were firmly convinced that Hitler would not start a suicidal second front and discounted any evidence to the contrary. The book talks about Hitlers lack of preparations for winter fighting being a factor that reinforced Stalin’s beliefs. I think that is why it took them a while to recover from the shock. The book raises some interesting questions.


21 posted on 08/20/2017 7:22:18 AM PDT by jospehm20
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To: jospehm20
Thanks, I'll have to look that up. I don't recall any mention of Russian attack plans or preparations in 1941 in what is the best biography of Stalin I've read, Stalin: The Court of the Red Czar by Montefiore. But I read it years ago and may simply have forgotten.
22 posted on 08/20/2017 9:42:21 AM PDT by katana
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To: jospehm20

Russian industry was incapable of supplying a modern army well enough to invade Europe. The virtual impossibility of establishing and maintaining a Supply Chain shows this to be highly doubtful.

It was only America which provided the supplies to Stalin to defeat Hitler not Soviet industry.


31 posted on 08/22/2017 2:23:21 PM PDT by arrogantsob (Check out "CHAOS AND MAYHEM" at Amazon.com)
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