Posted on 06/22/2021 10:05:55 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
I was waiting to see of anyone would mention this and as of now no one has.
80 years ago today Germany invaded the Soviet Union in a surprise attack.
It started one of the bloodiest and catastrophic episodes of W.W. II.
The scope, scale, casualties , and atrocities almost dwarf anything that happened anywhere else in the ETO.
Without the sacrifices the Russians made on the Eastern Front the invasion of Europe would not have been successful.
Estimated deaths on the Eastern Front are not totally known but an estimated 20 million died
The scope of death and destruction defies the imagination. The lengths Stalin went to drive his armies is beyond anything I have ever read, his brutality makes Hitler and Mao look almost normal.
I plan to read more of this history so that I can have more of a knowledge of this aspect of W.W. II
All comments welcome, have away.
Watch “Enemy at the Gates”, it is about Vasily Zaitsev, a Soviet sniper in Stalingrad.
> Without the sacrifices the Russians made on the Eastern Front the invasion of Europe would not have been successful. <
Absent the atomic bomb, you are correct about that. Something like 70% of the German army was tied up in the east. Had those forces been in France D-Day probably would have been a bloody failure.
Saw it. then I watched one of the “Stalingrad” flicks. Our involvement in WW2 was childs play compared to what the Russians dealt with. Polocks were the real victims as Stalin and Hitler should have been allowed more to carve each other up.
We should have let the Germans beat Stalin and hang him from a lamp post.
Germany losing to us was inevitable.
L
The greatest Stalingrad film in my opinion is the west German film from the 50s...Stalingrad:Dogs do you want to live forever....its incredible.
I am not sure I agree, but anyone can ‘what if’ history all day long.
The impact of the T-34 was devastating and the Nazis had no real answers for it.
If Moscow would have been the focal point from the beginning it might have turned out differently.
Does Russia need a Strongman? Compared to Iraq Saddam at least had order. Too many cases like that where tribal enemies are always present and a ruthless leaders in order. Stalin was forgiven I do believe. The Japanese were just as bad but they surrendered to a benevolent enemy who wanted protection from the payback-minded Chinese.
The Germans would have had to leave more than half their Army in Russia in order to secure it.
That’s my view, anyway.
L
Hitler’s fatal mistake.
The question is, what would it have taken for Stalin to be overthrown? Some suggest that may very well have been in the works, perhaps with Khrushchev as ring leader.
There is a German Stalingrad movie from 1993, that is good. A Russian Stalingrad movie came out a few years ago. And Thomas Kretschmann (FEIGELEIN!) was in both the German and Russian "Stalingrad" movies.
Yep, in the early days a German General saw the T-34 for the first time and said that if the Russians could mass produce it, Germany would lose the war.
My great grand father was a polish Jew in the Imperial Russian army. The only reason I’m here is he got the heck out of there before 1917.
I’m an American, I was in the Strategic Air Command(SAC).
but I do have a “soft spot for Russian soldiers.
That being said I’d destroy their government in a millisecond.
Russia buried nearly a million men...in Ukraine alone.
Germany, half that.
That’s some large scale, existential war right there.
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