Posted on 05/05/2010 7:01:27 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Soviet commander admits USSR came close to defeat by Nazis
An interview in which a Soviet commander admitted how close Moscow came to defeat by Germany during the Second World War has been broadcast in Russia for the first time.
Published: 11:58AM BST 05 May 2010
The Soviet Union nearly lost the war in 1941 and suffered from poor planning, according to Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the frank television interview that has been banned since it was recorded in 1966.
Zhukov, the most decorated general in the history of both Russia and the Soviet Union, admitted that Soviet generals were not confident that they could hold the German forces at the Mozhaisk defence line outside Moscow.
"Did the commanders have confidence we would hold that line of defence and be able to halt the enemy? I have to say frankly that we did not have complete certainty.
"It would have been possible to contain the initial units of the opponent but if he quickly sent in his main group, he would have been difficult to stop," he told the interviewer, the Soviet writer Konstantin Simonov.
Zhukov also revealed details of his exchanges with Joseph Stalin, the wartime leader, in the interview broadcast on state-run Channel One.
In giving the reasons for the Soviet victory, Zhukov made no mention of Stalin, who was taken unawares by the Nazi invasion of Russia.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I believe this was already known. Stalin’s purges of the military was what hurt the Soviet Union. Stalin is the one that almost lost the war.
... I see the would-a, could-a, should-a, but didn’t syndrome continues ...
The Russians were lucky to have won the war after Joe Stalin murdered the cream of the crop of the Russian command staff.
The Russians won because of the weather, the Russian people, the T-34 and Zhukov. Stalin was a hindrance if anything.
Without Uncle Sam’s Lend-Lease, they certainly would have lost. The Red Army arrived in Berlin on Dodge trucks.
OSS analysts did credit Stalin with the idea someone came up with of promoting officers based on their win/loss record. If you won a battle you got promoted. if you lost you got dismissed (or whatever it was Stalin wanted to do).
Zhukov himself rose rapidly through the ranks under that policy.
Now, was it really Stalin who came up with the idea, or some party appratchik who didn't look forward to being hanged by the Germans?
The marketplace of war demonstrated the utility of capitalist enterprise Fur Shur.
“The Russians won because of the weather, the Russian people, the T-34 and Zhukov. Stalin was a hindrance if anything.”
Bingo! I congratulate a true student of history.
There fixed it for you ;)
As we (U.S.) hadn’t entered the war by that time, am I right to think Germany focused most if not all of its attention on the Eastern Front?
Don’t forget the arrogance of the German Command.
Big assist by Hitler’s mistakes including his reign of terror in the Ukraine and other occupied terrorities when the Germans were first greeted as liberators by the Ukrainains and his decision to not immediately take Moscow and instead shifted forces south to surround Kiev.
It would be great to hear a translation of the interview.
Amazingly, "total war" concept didn't develop in Germany until Summer of 44, and by then it was way too late.
In Jan 45, the Heer still had 650,000 horses and tack on its TO&E. It was still, mainly a horse-drawn Army in the last months of it's existance, whist the Russians, as you said, motored right into Berlin in Dodge's and Fords, American halftracks, etc.
If Hitler had beaten Stalin then we beat Hitler we would not be havng such a communist problem right here now.
Zhukov, in his memoirs, said the Russians did not like the American lend lease tanks. They did not start in the cold weather.
Hitler's biggest mistake was to 1) attack Russia, 2) Attack Russia later than planned (had to send Armies into the Balkans to save the Italians). 3) Epic Fail on German intel in estimating a: number of Russian divisions, b: technical analysis on "new tanks" to confront with TTPs on how to defeat them (KV1,T34s)
The Russians also won because Hitler was crazy- his master race doctrine and hatred of slavs prevented him from turning the Ukrainians against their hated overlords in Moscow.
The Russians also won because of the Strategic Bombing Campaign- American and British bombers, with little fighter protection, systematically destroyed Germany’s ability to wage war. Germany could neither repair nor replace tanks and planes lost on the eastern front because the factories that produced critical parts like ball bearings had been reduced to rubble. Fuel also became scarce.
The Russians also won because of the Battle of the Atlantic. American and British airmen and seamen kept the critical Murmansk shipping route open, despite German U-boats and bombers based in Norway, which kept the supplies flowing into Russia. Much of the Red Army often survived on Spam, which they called “Roosevelt Sausage”.
Worse than that, they got the name Bolizhi Zoi (sp)....basically, "Tomb for our brothers".
The M3 Lee tanks were a tomb for 7 Russians, with catostrophic fuel and ammo secondarys at the slightest penetration.
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