I think I saw this in the movie “Enemy at the Gates”. The WWII Soviets (correct me if I am wrong) had armed men backing up their “comrades” with orders to shoot anyone running the “wrong” way.
Press ganged they call it
Cannon fodder also ?
Yes, I have read they did; however, the numbers going forward have got to vastly outnumber the ones in the rear who had orders to shoot deserters.
You are correct.
Yes, the Soviets did that. They also didn’t have enough personnel or weapons. Stalin emptied the prisons and conscripted them. They were forced to run, unarmed, into German fire, with Soviet machine guns at their backs, with the idea they would exhaust Germany’s supply of ammo. If they made it far enough, they were told to pick up a weapon of a dead comrade.