Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: jb6
I believe that when you suspect a mine field before a major attack the order is, artillery, engineers, infantry. Artilery to supress, engineers to clear, Infanty to win.

Konev, Zukov, and most other Russian just sent the troops ahead reguardless of obsitcals, Stalin wouldn't shoot you for a failed attack provided most of your troops got killed.

Heinricci, for one, recognozed this and pulled his troops back before an attack and was never broken through. The Russians suffered 30 million dead, the Germans 2 Million KIA and 4 million WIA, somrthing wrong with these stats.

23 posted on 10/13/2004 3:13:15 PM PDT by Little Bill (John F'n Kerry is a self promoting scumbag!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies ]


To: Little Bill
Simply not true. I suggest reading some British war histories, they are much less biased and more detailed. Red Storm on the Reich is a good one, Stalingrad by Ballentine Press is another. Hitler's Worst Defeat (Operation Bageration ?sp) or even Enemy at the Gates (the movie was a piece of made up Hollyweird crap).

Soviet Generals wound up in penal battalions for wasting their troops, after 1943. Before 1943 there was desperation and anything went to slow the Germans. After that things changed rapidly. Major training exercise were conducted before all offensives. Before the Vestul Offensive, there was 4 months of training. Once the break through was complete, the Soviet Army covered on average 50-60 km per day to the Oder.

Artillery was a massive portion of the Soviet Army. Concentrated, intensive barrages were used to punch holes through defenses and obstacles directly along the paths of attack, while sheets of moving steel rain came down deep into the enemy rear to muck up any rapid reaction forces or troop/supply concentrations.

The Russians suffered 30 million dead, the Germans 2 Million KIA and 4 million WIA, somrthing wrong with these stats.

First the true stats of 30 million is 22 million civilians and 8 million soldiers. Of those, 1.5 million died in captivity in 1941, 1942. The Germans lost 6 million soldiers on the Western Front. 100,000 were lost in Stalingrad alone and another 250,000 captured, of which all but some 10,000 perished. So in one operation, the Germans lost 350,000 men. Your 2 million killed statistic doesn't stand up. In Konigsburg, the Germans lost 45,000 troops, that's one city at the end of the war. They lost almost a million men in Bagaration where Army Group Center was liquidated, totally. By that time the Russian high command mastered mobile warfare better even then the Germans. Read some detailed books on this operation. They drove whole tank columns down railroad tracks and canal banks to get into the German rear and switched offensive pushes quickly.

Furthermore, the Germans lost some 6 million civilians. But then again, none of the allies were out to exterminate the Germans, unlike what the Germans had planned.

26 posted on 10/13/2004 3:24:11 PM PDT by jb6 (Truth = Christ)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies ]

To: Little Bill
Konev, Zukov, and most other Russian just sent the troops ahead reguardless of obsitcals,

Yeah sure, and the stupid Poles attacked tanks with the cavalry. Do not believe Nazi propaganda.

29 posted on 10/13/2004 3:53:37 PM PDT by A. Pole (MadeleineAlbright:"I fell in love with Americans in uniform.And I continue to have that love affair")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson