tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21674173631147215942024-03-14T15:24:08.212+08:00Barbarossa to BerlogJune 1941 - the largest invasion ever mounted - Babarossa - and the great conflict that ensued....Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-37961471602362720342016-12-31T16:27:00.000+08:002016-03-14T16:04:56.445+08:00June 1941 - Barbarossa<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdzTNT67P4TKwt9b1ZuCPfGJnF1AGr_vg322VL4F24mF4apYfgWLSkbO5Sr0gxC_VBdpUhJjFLHzyuPPPJP48sgD5Cdu2kAyGLPBzAgZ2nUIy732VtAo_VtdrNzLw2sLEkJlnNdiW_Rmd6/s1600/bsdfgrg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdzTNT67P4TKwt9b1ZuCPfGJnF1AGr_vg322VL4F24mF4apYfgWLSkbO5Sr0gxC_VBdpUhJjFLHzyuPPPJP48sgD5Cdu2kAyGLPBzAgZ2nUIy732VtAo_VtdrNzLw2sLEkJlnNdiW_Rmd6/s1600/bsdfgrg.jpg" width="293" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
German invasion of the Soviet Union that opened World War II
on the Eastern Front, commencing the largest, most bitterly contested, and
bloodiest campaign of the war. Adolf Hitler’s objective for Operation
BARBAROSSA was simple: he sought to crush the Soviet Union in one swift blow.
With the USSR defeated and its vast resources at his disposal, surely Britain
would have to sue for peace. So confident was he of victory that he made no
effort to coordinate the invasion with his Japanese ally. Hitler predicted a
quick victory in a campaign of, at most, three months.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
German success hinged on the speed of advance of 154 German
and satellite divisions deployed in three army groups: Army Group North in East
Prussia, under Field Marshal Wilhelm von Leeb; Army Group Center in northern
Poland, commanded by Field Marshal Fedor von Bock; and Army Group South in southern
Poland and Romania under Field Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt. Army Group
North consisted of 3 panzer, 3 motorized, and 24 infantry divisions supported
by the Luftflotte 1 and joined by Finnish forces. Farther north, German General
Nikolaus von Falkenhorst’s Norway Army would carry out an offensive against
Murmansk in order to sever its supply route to Leningrad. Within Army Group
Center were 9 panzer, 7 motorized, and 34 infantry divisions, with the
Luftflotte 2 in support. Marshal von Rundstedt’s Army Group South consisted of
5 panzer, 3 motorized, and 35 infantry divisions, along with 3 Italian
divisions, 2 Romanian armies, and Hungarian and Slovak units. Luftflotte 4
provided air support.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Meeting this onslaught were 170 Soviet divisions organized
into three “strategic axes” (commanding multiple fronts, the equivalent of army
groups)—Northern, Central, and Southern or Ukrainian—that would come to be
commanded by Marshals Kliment E. Voroshilov, Semen K. Timoshenko, and Semen M.
Budenny, respectively. Voroshilov’s fronts were responsible for the defense of
Leningrad, Karelia, and the recently acquired Baltic states. Timoshenko’s
fronts protected the approaches to Smolensk and Moscow. And those of Budenny
guarded the Ukraine. For the most part, these forces were largely unmechanized
and were arrayed in three linear defensive echelons, the first as far as 30
miles from the border and the last as much as 180 miles back.</div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-57639107118815179232016-10-26T16:13:00.003+08:002016-10-26T16:13:56.698+08:00Baltic and East Prussia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
At the beginning of August, the German counterattack in front of
Warsaw had succeeded finally in halting the momentum of the Soviet
offensive, but not before the enemy had established bridgeheads
across the Vistula and in places reached the East Prussian border.
The bridgeheads over the Vistula south of Warsaw proved of most
immediate concern. The OKH feared that any Soviet breakout could be
exploited in a potentially decisive manner by either a turn north to
encircle Warsaw or a drive straight west in order to seize the vital
economic and industrial resources of Silesia, thus effectively
crippling the German war economy. Already, as we have seen, the
Germans had been forced to send units from the key tank battle at
Warsaw to the south to prevent any Soviet exploitation of the
bridgeheads and stabilize the situation. By mid-August, however, the
Russians shifted the Schwerpunkt of their attacks to the key area
just north of Warsaw where the Vistula, Narew, and Bug Rivers
converged. If they could force their way across these rivers, the
path to Danzig lay open, with the possibility of trapping German
forces in the Baltic and East Prussia. The Soviets opened a new
offensive on 18 August and over the next two months continued a
series of attacks along the Bug and Narew Rivers designed to achieve
a decisive breakthrough. Although the weight of these blows forced
the Germans back, and despite the fact that they managed to create a
few bridgeheads across the Narew, the Soviets proved unable to break
the German defense line. Having achieved rather small tactical gains
at a stiff cost in men and equipment, the Russians finally broke off
attacks at the end of October.<br />
<br />
At the same time as the Soviets began winding down their efforts
near Warsaw, a new crisis erupted to the north in East Prussia.
Although the Red Army had reached the German border at Schirwindt in
mid-August, furious German counterattacks had thrown them back. In
mid-October, however, the Soviets launched a frontal assault on
Fourth Army positions with the intention, after breaking through, of
sending one force streaming toward Königsberg and another to seize
Danzig. If they succeeded, they would not only cut off Army Group
North in the Baltic but also open the way to Germany proper. The
assault began on 16 October with a three- to four-hour artillery and
air bombardment of an intensity not previously experienced on the
eastern front. By the eighteenth, Russian forces had again crossed
the East Prussian border on a broad front and in places were
advancing unhindered far to the west. On the twenty-first, they
seized an intact bridge across the Angerapp at Nemmersdorf and also
threatened to take the key railroad center of Gumbinnen even as
German tanks were being unloaded from freight cars. With the roads
full of refugees fleeing west in panic, concern rose at Führer
Headquarters, less than fifty miles away in Rastenburg and within
easy striking distance of enemy tank columns. Hitler, however,
worried about the impact on the troops if he evacuated, refused to
leave Wolf’s Lair, although some staff and files were sent away.
Once again, the Germans averted disaster through a bold
counterthrust. That same day, German panzer forces battled Soviet
tank units near Gumbinnen, while others assaulted the base of the
enemy breakthrough at Großwaltersdorf, managing the next day to cut
off advance units of the Soviet Second Guards Tank Corps and the
Eleventh Guards Army. Despite their numerical superiority, both
Russian commanders and soldiers seemed stunned by the sudden
turnabout in their situation. Lacking firm leadership, many men
simply threw away their weapons and equipment and fled in panic
eastward.<br />
<br />
This initial foray into East Prussia had been fought with savage
intensity and resulted in unusually heavy losses for an operation
that lasted less than two weeks. German sources claimed to have
destroyed almost one thousand enemy tanks and assault guns, while the
Russians admitted to a casualty total of nearly 80,000 men of the
377,000 involved in the attack. Noteworthy, too, were the horrifying
scenes that greeted German troops as they retook Gumbinnen and
Nemmersdorf. In an explosion of violence, Soviet troops had exacted a
first, bloody revenge on German civilians, with scores of women raped
and murdered, often in the most gruesome fashion, stores plundered,
and houses burned. Having suffered a whole range of German atrocities
for three dreadful years, and having seen firsthand the awesome
destruction of the scorched-earth retreat, Soviet soldiers engaged in
an orgy of revenge that, although perhaps understandable, was,
nonetheless, deplorable. Goebbels, of course, immediately seized on
Nemmersdorf, that “place of horror,” as an example of what all
Germans could expect. In a theme that would continue until the end of
the war, he made clear that Soviet actions left Germans only one
choice—fanatic, suicidal resistance—since they were going to be
the victims of enemy cruelties in any case. Controversy still exists
as to whether Stalin encouraged such action or whether Soviet
commanders simply lost control of their troops, but one thing was
clear: the atrocities at Nemmersdorf generally sent a chill through
the German people and strengthened their will to resist. Although the
SD reported a few examples of Germans drawing comparisons between the
actions of their own government and soldiers against the Jews and
what had now happened on German territory, the overwhelming majority
simply feared that the Russians would do to them what they themselves
had already suffered at German hands.<br />
<br />
At the same time that the reality of war was being brought home to
the German civilian population of East Prussia, an even more costly
military drama was playing out in the Baltic as the Soviets now
targeted Army Group North. Heretofore largely spared the full fury of
the enemy summer offensive, the army group had, nonetheless, seen its
strength dwindle as it had been forced to deliver more and more units
to the defense of other sectors, even as its southern front expanded
because of the disaster befalling Army Group South. By midsummer, it,
too, faced a debilitating enemy superiority of up to eight to one
across the board, yet Hitler forbade any withdrawal to shorter, more
defensible lines. In this case, the Führer’s decision reflected
less his typical hold-fast mentality than the key significance of
certain political, economic, and strategic considerations. Always
sensitive to the vital importance of Finnish nickel and Swedish iron
ore to the German war effort, Hitler was determined to hold the
Baltic as a guarantee of the continued deliveries of these ores. At
the same time, he clung to the hope that new weapons technologies,
both rockets and submarines, could produce a dramatic change in
Germany’s fortunes. In the case of the latter weapon, the German
navy was in the process of developing and testing two markedly
superior types of U-boats that offered a glimmer of hope that the
Battle of the Atlantic could yet be won. To complete sea testing,
however, Hitler believed it was essential to hold on to the eastern
Baltic coast, although his military (and even naval) advisers
regarded this as a luxury Germany could not afford.<br />
<br />
By early July, Army Group North found its position increasingly
jeopardized by the collapse of its neighbor to the south. With Soviet
forces racing west through the “Baltic hole,” a
twenty-five-mile-wide gap between Army Groups North and Center, the
commander of the former army group, General Georg Lindemann, not only
had to defend more front with fewer troops but also faced the
prospect that the advancing enemy might cut off his forces entirely.
Lindemann, of course, reacted to the threat with the rational request
that Hitler allow him to withdraw his forces to safety. Just as
predictably, Hitler not only refused to give up territory but also
ordered Lindemann to launch a counterattack with his nonexistent
reserves. The latter responded by renewing his demand to be allowed
to evacuate his troops in order to escape encirclement as well as
halting the senseless counterattack. These actions left Hitler no
choice, and, on 4 July, he replaced Lindemann with General Johannes
Friessner, who, although initially determined to carry out Hitler’s
orders energetically, soon discovered the correctness of his
predecessor’s prescription. By mid-July, both Friessner and Model
pleaded with Hitler to allow a withdrawal of Army Group North, which,
as the most intact and battleworthy force on the eastern front, could
be used to build the operational reserve so desperately needed to
stabilize the front. These divisions, having been spared the brunt of
battle in 1942 and 1943, had a level of primary group cohesion and
combat effectiveness rare in German units at this point in the war
and, thus, would have been invaluable as a backstop. Their fighting
ability was on ample display in these weeks of summer fighting when,
despite its overwhelming superiority in strength, the Red Army had
been unable to achieve an operational breakthrough, instead being
forced at high cost to push Friessner’s units back. Despite his
dogged defensive success—in one month, his troops, mostly in close
combat with the lethal handheld Panzerfaust, destroyed almost eight
hundred enemy armored vehicles—Friessner met the same fate as
Lindemann. On 23 July, he was relieved of his command, although
formally he exchanged positions with the commander of Army Group
South Ukraine, General Ferdinand Schörner. The latter, although
given unusual command authority by Hitler, had no answer to the
problems of the “poor man’s war” that the Germans were now
fighting, and he too demanded withdrawal to sensible positions, which
the Führer ignored. By the end of the month, the Soviets finally
reached the Baltic coast just west of Riga, effectively trapping Army
Group North. Although a tenuous connection to Army Group Center was
reopened on 20 August, the position of Army Group North remained
highly precarious.<br />
<br />
After a temporary respite in order to prepare its forces, the Red
Army on 14 September resumed its hammer blows against Army Group
North. With any attempt to hold its exposed position untenable,
Hitler finally relented two days later, following an impassioned
appeal by Schörner, and approved the evacuation of Estonia, which
commenced on the eighteenth. Still, he insisted on maintaining a
bridgehead around Riga as well as holding on to Courland. Since
Finland agreed to an armistice and left the war on 19 September,
Hitler’s decision seemed to be based on his desire to continue
testing the new-type U-boats. In any case, the Soviets continued
their pounding attacks along the northern front, their forces
increasingly augmented by units transferred from Finland, and, on 10
October, once again reached the Baltic coast. Although the Red Army
paid a high price, suffering over 280,000 casualties and losing over
five hundred armored vehicles, it had once more trapped Army Group
North, with 250,000 troops and over five hundred armored vehicles,
this time for good. Over the course of the next weeks and months,
neither rational arguments (these tough, battle-hardened units could
better be used as an operational reserve to defend Germany than
sitting in Courland) nor emotional appeals (since most of the troops
were from the eastern provinces, they would fight more fiercely than
a bunch of untrained boys and elderly men in the Volkssturm) altered
Hitler’s determination to hold on to Courland.<br />
<br />
Nor, despite a series of battles until the end of the war that
cost the Red Army a ridiculously high number of casualties, were the
Soviets able to take it.<br />
<br />
Of all Hitler’s controversial decisions in 1944, none has seemed
to demonstrate so well his irrational stand-fast mentality as the
decision voluntarily to entomb German troops and tanks sorely needed
to defend the Reich in a backwater place such as Courland. As an
illustration of his irrationality, however, it might be better to
seek explanations on the strategic rather than the tactical level,
with the key to the Courland puzzle lying in the Ardennes rather than
the Baltic. As is generally known, Hitler hoped with the Ardennes
offensive in December 1944 (originally scheduled for late November)
to achieve a sudden turnaround in the war through an operation
remarkably similar to Sickle Cut of May 1940. In this latest version,
Great Britain was to play the role of France, with the United States,
emulating the English, expected temporarily to withdraw from European
affairs. Having dealt a savage blow to his Western enemies, and at
the same time perhaps finally splitting the unnatural coalition
arrayed against him, Hitler could then mass his remaining forces in
the east to repel the Soviet invaders. In effect, he was clinging to
the strategy outlined in November 1943 for the coming year: seek a
turnaround in the war by striking in the west and holding on in the
east.<br />
<br />
His forces had failed to achieve the desired results in both
areas, but, Hitler believed, one last opportunity beckoned. For this
plan to work, however, Courland had to be held as a springboard for a
new offensive deep into the Soviet rear, while at the same time the
new-model U-boats could be unleashed in the Atlantic. Although this
interpretation is clearly a flight of fantasy, much speaks in support
of it, not least the timing of Hitler’s final decisions to hold
Courland and launch the Ardennes offensive, made within two days of
each other in late October. Just as importantly, such a scheme fit
his all-or-nothing mentality, his conviction, as Speer noted, that
the war could be won only through offensive action. The Führer
yearned to throw off the “eternal defense” into which Germany had
been forced and again seize the initiative, but, when his “Blitzkrieg
without gasoline,” as Karl-Heinz Frieser termed the Ardennes
offensive, failed, he was left with the bankruptcy of his strategy.
Only now, in early 1945, did he permit some units to be evacuated
from Courland and sent back to Germany, although, even here, he could
not quite fully abandon the illusion of a miracle that would again
turn the war in his favor.<br />
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-43281772477438277502016-08-05T15:29:00.001+08:002016-08-05T15:29:42.934+08:00The First Guards Tank Brigade – 1941<blockquote class="embedly-card" data-card-image="http://www.armchairgeneral.com/wordpress/wp-content/features/1stguards/1stguards1.jpg" data-card-key="8ac4b7fee45c4d83a80aed58857fcf40" data-card-type="article-full">
<h4>
<a href="http://www.armchairgeneral.com/the-first-guardstank-brigade-1941.htm">The First Guards Tank Brigade - 1941</a></h4>
Russian tank commanders at the outset of the German invasion of the Soviet Union were at a great disadvantage. While enjoying a huge inventory of armor, their battle doctrines as to its use were so outmoded that they had no chance to exploit the benefits of it.</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="UTF-8" src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js"></script>Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-41141563562975207342016-08-05T15:27:00.000+08:002016-08-05T15:27:08.130+08:00The Guards Return To Fight In Russia – 1941<blockquote class="embedly-card" data-card-image="http://www.armchairgeneral.com/wordpress/wp-content/features/2007/guards/guards3.jpg" data-card-key="8ac4b7fee45c4d83a80aed58857fcf40" data-card-type="article-full">
<h4>
<a href="http://www.armchairgeneral.com/the-guards-return-to-fight-in-russia-1941.htm">The Guards Return To Fight In Russia - 1941</a></h4>
A column of Soviet T-38 Model 1937 amphibious light tanks belonging to the Leningrad Military District. These lightly armed and armored vehicles were obsolete even before the war began and were easily vanquished by their better equipped German opponents Russian tank commanders at the outset of the German invasion of the Soviet Union were at a great disadvantage.</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="UTF-8" src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js"></script>Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-85752238439397957482016-03-14T16:10:00.001+08:002016-03-14T16:10:21.703+08:00Opening Impact of Barbarossa on the Red Army I<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
As the headlong advance of the German Army into the USSR continued,
the Red Army collapsed in chaos all along the front. Its communications
were severed, transport broke down, ammunition and equipment, fuel,
spare parts and much more besides quickly ran out. Unprepared for the
invasion, officers could not even guess where the Germans would strike
next, and there was often no artillery available to blunt the impact of
the incoming German tanks. Many of the Red Army’s own tanks, from the BT
to the T-26 and 28, were obsolescent: more of the total of 23,000 tanks
deployed by the Red Army in 1941 were lost through breakdowns than to
enemy action. Radio communications had not been updated since the
Finnish war and were coded in such a basic manner that it was all too
easy for Germans listening in to decrypt them. Worst of all, perhaps,
medical facilities were wholly inadequate to deal with the vast numbers
of dead and treat the scores of thousands of injured. In the absence of
proper military planning, officers could think of little else to do than
attack the Germans head-on, with predictably disastrous results. An
orderly retreat was made almost impossible by the Germans’ prior
destruction of roads, railways and bridges behind the lines. Desertion
rates rocketed in the Red Army as demoralized soldiers fled in confusion
and despair. In a mere three days in late June 1941, the Soviet secret
police caught nearly 700 deserters fleeing from the battle on the
south-western front. ‘The retreat has caused blind panic,’ as the head
of the Belarus Communist Party wrote to Stalin on 3 September 1941, and
‘the soldiers are tired to death, even sleeping under artillery fire . .
. At the first bombardment, the formations collapse, many just run away
to the woods, the whole area of woodland in the front-line region is
full of refugees like this. Many throw away their weapons and go home.’<br />
<br />
Some idea of the depth of the disaster can be gauged from the diary
of Nikolai Moskvin, a Soviet political commissar, which records a rapid
transition from optimism (‘we’ll win for sure,’ he wrote on 24 June
1941) to despair a few weeks later (‘what am I to say to the boys?’ he
asked himself gloomily on 23 July 1941: ‘We keep retreating’). On 15
July 1941 he had already shot the first deserters from his unit, but
they kept on fleeing, and at the end of the month, after being wounded,
he admitted: ‘I am on the verge of a complete moral collapse.’ His unit
got lost because it did not have any maps, and most of the men were
killed in a German attack while Moskvin, unable to move, was hiding in
the woods with two companions, waiting to be rescued. Some peasants
found him, nursed him back to health, and conscripted him into helping
with the harvest. As he got to know them, he discovered they had no
loyalty to the Stalinist system. Their main purpose was to stay alive.
After battles, they rushed on to the field to loot the corpses. What in
any case would loyalty to Stalin have brought them? In August 1941,
Moskvin encountered some Red Army soldiers who had escaped from a German
prisoner-of-war camp. ‘They say there’s no shelter, no water, that
people are dying from hunger and disease, that many are without proper
clothes or shoes.’ Few, he wrote, had given a thought to what
imprisonment by the Germans would mean. The reality was worse than
anyone could imagine.Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-71558643395039172502016-03-14T16:08:00.000+08:002016-03-14T16:08:18.835+08:00Opening Impact of Barbarossa on the Red Army II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Soviet soldiers and civilians began to listen to Stalin’s new,
patriotic message and fight back. Encouraged by Stalin, more and more
young men took to the woods to form partisan bands, raiding German
installations and intensifying the vicious circle of violence and
repression. By the end of the year, the overwhelming mass of civilians
in the occupied areas had come round to supporting the Soviet regime,
encouraged by Stalin’s emphasis on patriotic defence against a ruthless
foreign invader. Escalating partisan resistance went along with a
dramatic recovery of the fighting effectiveness of the Red Army. The
cumbersome structure of the Red Army was simplified, creating flexible
units that would be able to respond more rapidly to German tactical
advances. Soviet commanders were ordered to concentrate their artillery
in anti-tank defences where it seemed likely the German panzers would
attack. Soviet rethinking continued into 1942 and 1943, but already
before the end of 1941 the groundwork had been laid for a more effective
response to the continuing German invasion. The State Defence Committee
reorganized the mobilization system to make better use of the 14
million reservists created by a universal conscription law in 1938. More
than 5 million reservists were quickly mobilized within a few weeks of
the German invasion, and more followed. So hasty was this mobilization
that most of the new divisions and brigades had nothing more than rifles
to fight with. Part of the reason for this was that war production
facilities were undergoing a relocation of huge proportions, as
factories in the industrial regions of the Ukraine were dismantled and
transported to safety east of the Ural mountains. A special relocation
council was set up on 24 June and the operation was under way by early
July. German reconnaissance aircraft reported what to them were
inexplicable massings of railway wagons in the region – no fewer than
8,000 freight cars were employed on the removal of metallurgical
facilities from one town in the Donbas to the recently created
industrial centre of Magnitogorsk in the Urals, for example. Altogether,
1,360 arms and munitions factories were transferred eastwards between
July and November 1941, using one and a half million railway wagons. The
man in charge of the complex task of removal, Andrej Kosygin, won a
justified reputation as a tirelessly efficient administrator that was to
bring him to high office in the Soviet Union after the war. What could
not be taken, such as coalmines, power stations, railway locomotive
repair shops, and even a hydro-electric dam on the Dnieper river, was
sabotaged or destroyed. This scorched-earth policy deprived the invading
Germans of resources on which they had been counting. But together with
the evacuation, it also meant that the Red Army had to fight the war in
the winter of 1941-2 largely with existing equipment, until the new or
relocated production centres came on stream.<br />
<br />
Stalin also ordered a series of massive ethnic cleansing operations
to remove what he and the Soviet leadership thought of as potential by
subversive elements from the theatre of war. More than 390,000 ethnic
Germans in the Ukraine were forcibly deported eastwards from September
1941. Altogether there were nearly one and a half million ethnic Germans
in the Soviet Union. 15,000 Soviet secret policemen descended upon the
Volga to begin the expulsion of the ethnic Germans living there,
removing 50,000 of them already by the middle of August 1941. Similar
actions took place in the lower Volga, where a large community of German
descent was living. In mid-September 1941, expulsions began from the
major cities. By the end of 1942, more than 1,200,000 ethnic Germans had
been deported to Siberia and other remote areas. Perhaps as many as
175,000 died as a result of police brutality, starvation and disease.
Many of them spoke no German, and were German only by virtue of remote
ancestry. It made no difference. Other ethnic groups were targeted too –
Poles, as we have seen, were deported in large numbers from 1939, and,
later in the war, up to half a million Chechens and other minorities in
the Caucasus were removed for having allegedly collaborated with the
Germans as well. In addition, as the German forces advanced, the Soviet
secret police systematically murdered all the political prisoners in the
jails that stood in their path. One hit squad arrived at a prison at
Luck that had been damaged in a bombing raid, lined up the political
prisoners, and machine-gunned up to 4,000 of them. In the western
Ukraine and western Belarus alone, some 100,000 prisoners were shot,
bayoneted, or killed by hand-grenades being thrown into their cells.<br />
<br />
Whatever their impact on the war effort, such actions stored up a bitter
legacy of hatred which was to lead within a very short time to horrific
acts of revenge.Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-57618529998680458952015-08-13T00:37:00.001+08:002015-08-13T00:37:13.904+08:00Ost 1942 Command Failure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
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At senior command level, trends at OKW and OKH ran counter
to those at STAVKA. Where Stalin began to appreciate the limitations of his
military expertise, Hitler, from an initial position of mere arbiter of
strategy, became increasingly involved in tactical decision-making. From his
order of December 1941 for Army Group Centre to stand fast, and his decision to
dismiss `defeatist' commanders, he concluded that he above all had the wisdom
and the will to force a final victory. From his decision that II Corps should
hold fast at Demyansk, and the subsequent successful defence of the pocket, he
concluded that large formations of encircled German troops could be adequately
supplied by the Luftwaffe while continuing to pose a significant threat to the
enemy rear. After the resignation of Brauchitsch on 19 December 1941 Hitler
assumed the post of Commander in Chief OKH thereby eliminating the army's last
vestige of service independence. Thereafter he began to appoint politically
loyal generals to senior command positions, and increasingly he began to
micromanage combat operations. In doing so he undermined one of the strengths
of the German army, the delegated authority of commanders on the battlefield to
make independent command decisions and their ability to respond flexibly to
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Having anticipated a conflict of around eight weeks
duration, prior to 1942 there had been little planning by the German High
Command for a prolonged conflict. Weapon development projects during 1941 had
been scaled back or cancelled and virtually no preparation had been made for
the possibility of the conflict continuing into the depths of a Russian winter.
Yet having faced a larger, better-equipped and more resilient foe than it had
anticipated, as the winter of 1941 approached OKH found that it was facing an
enemy whose morale was still unbroken, that was, unlike the Ostheer, fully
equipped for winter fighting, and that was adapting its tactics in light of
bitter experience. An example of evolving Soviet tactics was the clash that
took place between Eberbach's 5 Pz Bgd and Katukov's 4 Tank Bgd southwest of
Mtsensk in October 1941. Katukov concentrated his force and used advantages of
surprise, terrain and armament range to good effect. Clashes of this sort
prompted the Wehrmacht to revive pre-war plans for the development of a heavy
tank, and for the development of a new medium tank that could emulate the
combat capability of the T34. Until such new weapons could be both developed
and produced in quantity, the Ostheer would be left to fight using tanks
designed in the 1930s. </div>
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Fortunately for Germany, in the PzKpfw Mk IV it had a
machine that was capable of extensive development in its power train, its
armament and its armour. During its development the Mk IV became the backbone
of the panzer forces, and for a time gave the Ostheer a renewed qualitative
edge. The Mk III was too small and too light for such major upgrading, but
there remained an urgent requirement for thicker armour and an improved gun.
The most immediate improvement to the Mk III and the Mk IV was a doubling of
their armour protection through the fitting of face-hardened spaced plates, and
the acceptance of a consequent reduction in their mobility. The Mk IV was up
gunned through the replacement of its short-barrelled 7.5cm infantry support
weapon with a highly effective 43-calibre variant of the new 7.5cm anti-tank
gun. The Mk III was not capable of taking the 7.5cm anti-tank gun, but its
armament was improved somewhat by the replacement of its 42-calibre 5cm gun
with a variant of the long-barrelled (60-calibre) 5cm Pak 38 (L/60) anti-tank
gun that was being issued to the infantry. The deficiencies of the infantry's
standard 3.7cm anti-tank gun had been recognised since 1940. Though light and
manoeuvrable, it was almost useless in dealing with the T34 and KV1 and was a
factor in the rout of 112 Inf Div by part of 32 Tank Bgd supported by 239 Rifle
Div southeast of Tula in November 1941. In response, the process, begun in
1940, of replacing the infantry's 3.7cm gun with the Pak 38 (L/60) was
accelerated. Also available was a variant of the 7.5cm anti-tank gun developed
for infantry use (the Pak 40). Although the 7.5cm was an effective weapon it
was too heavy to be manoeuvred manually and had to be towed into position by
motorised transport, severely limiting its operational flexibility. The highly
effective 8.8cm dual-purpose anti-aircraft and anti-tank gun was even more
unwieldy, and at 4.4 tonnes was nearly ten times the weight of the early 3.7cm
gun. In 1940 the Wehrmacht had begun the development of the self-propelled gun,
a turretless armoured fighting vehicle based on the chassis of a tank with a
gun fitted to a fixed casement. Such weapons generally had a lower profile than
a tank, were easier and cheaper to manufacture and, depending on their
configuration, could be used as mobile indirect fire artillery, as direct fire
infantry support weapons, or as `tank-killers'. In the direct fire infantry
support assault gun role, Germany developed in 1940 the StuG III based on the
PzKpfw Mk III chassis and armed with the short-barrelled 7.5cm infantry support
gun. In the same year the Panzerjäger I, the first `tank-killer' self-propelled
gun, was developed based on the PzKpfw Mk I tank chassis and armed with a 4.7cm
Pak(t) gun. These weapons were the first of a range of increasingly powerful
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The main weapons of the German artillery arm were developed
in the early 1930s. At regimental level, two infantry support guns predominated
- the short-barrelled 7.5cm leIG18 and the somewhat cumbersome 15cm sIG33. At
divisional level, artillery support was based primarily on the 10.5cm sK18
field gun, the 10.5cm leFH18 howitzer and the 15cm sFH18 heavy howitzer. In the
early period of the war these artillery pieces, used in conjunction with the
German army's efficient and effective fire control system, proved to be
eminently fit for purpose, and they were subject to little further development.
The leFH18 was upgraded in 1941 to achieve a modest increase in range, and to
improve the range of the sFH18, the ammunition for the gun was modified to
provide a rocket propulsion element to the shell's propellant system. The
German army had a range of larger calibre artillery pieces (15cm and above),
and significant use was made of captured guns, but the mainstay of the
artillery arm remained the regimental and divisional artillery weapons with which
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As a means of countering the improved armour protection of
tanks, in conjunction with the introduction of faster and heavier anti-tank
projectiles, considerable development went into the design of the projectiles.
The first improvement from the simple solid shot was the addition of a softer
metallic cap to prevent the break-up of the armour penetrating component on
impact. Further improvements were achieved by the use of tungsten carbide in
the main shot, and the streamlining of the shot to achieve higher muzzle
velocities by the fitting of a ballistic cap to the impact cap. Such
developments were pursued by both sides during the early period of the war and
the result of this work had a considerable impact on force structure and
tactics as the war progressed. </div>
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In the air, both sides strove to improve the performance of
their aircraft, neither side gaining a distinct technological advantage. The
Red Army took some time to recover from the devastating aircraft losses of the
first few days of the war, but in a combat zone as large as the Eastern Front
neither side would ever achieve true air superiority. All that could be
achieved was local and often merely temporary advantage on a particular
strategic axis.</div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-52442596757040572272015-08-13T00:34:00.001+08:002015-08-13T00:34:51.897+08:00Ost 1942 Soviet Recovery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzG5OTMvx-pgyjTrpsLN8C-EKCJ6oRKZO-Ho8KmG4WwZRpgQO32w4f-WTJTuDh55p8Q42QGdVJ3C1nTLynX7dRG_4LO-0uC3ebgYCHhXFXpe9h0IWuMoa3f1hntTV62k6XkZpLopKuSZ8w/s1600/dfrgzdgfrgrdfrgfde_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzG5OTMvx-pgyjTrpsLN8C-EKCJ6oRKZO-Ho8KmG4WwZRpgQO32w4f-WTJTuDh55p8Q42QGdVJ3C1nTLynX7dRG_4LO-0uC3ebgYCHhXFXpe9h0IWuMoa3f1hntTV62k6XkZpLopKuSZ8w/s400/dfrgzdgfrgrdfrgfde_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
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On its own, military manpower could not have saved the
Soviet Union. But by early 1941 the Red Army had at its disposal a raft of new
military equipment with the potential to match anything in the Wehrmacht's
arsenal. The best of the new fighters, the Yak-1, proved capable of taking on
the Me-109s, and the new Il-2 ground attack aircraft was to prove to be
devastatingly effective in the battles ahead. </div>
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<br /></div>
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German troops were to find the
T34 medium tank and the KV1 heavy tank to be perhaps the worst surprises of the
early months of the war. With each passing month the reliability of the T34s
improved and the competence of the Soviet tank commanders in the use of these
battle-winning weapons increased. In the summer of 1941 the Red Army also
acquired a highly effective new anti-tank gun. This was the long-barrelled 57mm
ZiS- 2 that was easily capable of destroying any tank that the Ostheer could
place on the battlefield. Unfortunately for Soviet forces the production costs
of the weapon were high and production was discontinued at the end of November
1941 in the mistaken belief that the standard Soviet 45mm anti-tank gun was
sufficient for current and future purposes. Soviet infantry also possessed some
useful new weaponry. For close quarter and urban fighting the PPSh submachine
gun was introduced in 1940 and, subject to ongoing development, was to remain
in use throughout the war. </div>
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It may have been outclassed by the equivalent German
weapon, the MP40, but unlike the MP40 the PPSh was simple and cheap to
manufacture and was subsequently produced in prodigious numbers. Another highly
successful infantry weapon introduced in 1940 was the 120mm heavy mortar. This
mortar was so effective that the Germans copied it almost exactly. In 1941 two
different types of 14.5mm anti-tank rifle were introduced, the PTRS and the
more common PTRD. These weapons, nearly half a million of which were
manufactured during the war, were reasonably effective against light tanks and
were a threat to the German medium tanks if they could score a hit in the sides
or rear at short range. At the outbreak of the war Soviet artillery was also
being upgraded, with the 76mm F-22 USV divisional gun, the 122mm M-30
divisional howitzer and the 152mm ML-20 corps gun-howitzer already in quantity
production. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The continuing availability of these weapons depended
entirely on the ability of Soviet industry to maintain their production, and
the ruthlessly efficient transfer of military productive capacity from the
vulnerable areas of the Ukraine and western Russia to the safety of the Volga
and beyond, was another key factor in the survival of the Soviet Union. Despite
its vicissitudes, during the second half of 1941 Soviet industry produced 4,177
tanks, a figure that exceeded the 3,796 tanks and self-propelled guns produced
in Germany in the whole of that year. By the end of March 1942 Soviet tank
production had been increased to nearly 2,000 machines per month, a rate of
production that Germany would never match. </div>
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Another key factor in the survival of the Soviet Union in
1941 was the speed with which the Red Army adapted its structure in response to
the realities of the conflict with the Wehrmacht. As early as 15 July, with the
war just twenty-three days old, Zhukov issued the first of what would be a
series of directives on the revised structure of Soviet units. Mechanised corps
were disbanded, and motorised rifle divisions were converted to conventional
rifle divisions. Tank divisions and subsequently the rifle divisions were
reduced in size to around 10,000 personnel, though in the battle for Moscow a
rifle division was typically half that size. Only a few of the new tank
divisions were actually formed, new tank formations being based on the smaller
tank brigade of nine tank companies, six of them composed of light tanks, and
the size of a tank company, particularly the medium tank company, was
standardised at ten tanks. This process was formalised in an order of 23 August
1941. Also, at the insistence of Voronov, the artillery support to rifle
divisions was reduced to one artillery regiment, the other being withdrawn for
use in `strategic artillery' formations. Most of the higher level
organisational changes in the Red Army were driven by the chronic shortage of
experienced or qualified senior commanders. The shortage was due in part to
Stalin's purges, but losses at the front and the rapid expansion of the Red Army
as the hundreds of new divisions and brigades were created were major
contributory factors. As a result, the Fronts needed to create formations more
easily handled by inexperienced middle-rank commanders. This was achieved by
steadily disbanding the rifle corps so that by the end of 1941only six of the
original sixty-two remained and the armies, designated `Rifle Armies', were
reduced in size to five or six rifle divisions with appropriate tank brigade
and strategic reserve artillery reinforcement as was required for a particular
task. Below army level the lack of experienced or qualified commanders and the
long lead times needed to create new rifle divisions led to the need to create
smaller autonomous combat units. The solution, one that persisted through to
1943, was the rifle brigade. Initially a somewhat ad-hoc formation based on a
rifle regiment with assigned artillery support, some 250 rifle brigades were
raised in the first year of the war and by the summer of 1942 their structure
had been formalised to four rifle battalions, an artillery battalion of twelve
76mm regimental guns, an antitank battalion of twelve 45mm anti-tank guns, a
heavy mortar battalion of eight 120mm mortars, and a separate submachine gun
company. With a little over 5,000 personnel, these brigades had become well
balance `half-divisions' having a substantial headquarters staff with signals,
reconnaissance, engineering and transport companies. </div>
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<br /></div>
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In an effort to compensate for the almost total destruction
of the Soviet tank park in the early months of the war, the Red Army saw a
dramatic expansion of cavalry forces during this period. Based on a pared-down
cavalry division structure of just 2,600 men these forces, used in combat as
mobile light infantry, offered Soviet commanders a degree of operational
mobility that was simply unavailable to them in the form of mechanised
formations. The result of the suite of structural changes during the second
half of 1941 was a Red Army in which the army and subordinate units could be
more efficiently commanded by a smaller number of commanders obliged to work
with inexperience headquarters staff.</div>
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During the first period of the war, the Red Army was on a
steep learning curve and the lessons were bought at high cost. Yet steadily
through experience, by adopting and adapting the things that worked and
discarding, irrespective of conventional wisdom, those that didn't, the
effectiveness of Soviet combat units began to rise. To his credit, Stalin was
prepared to learn from his own mistakes. After the appointment of a raft of
politically loyal NKVD officers to senior combat command positions had proved
to be generally disastrous, there evolved a more meritocratic system of
promotion that rewarded the strategically perceptive and tactically effective,
as a result of which the frequency of change at senior command level began to
decline. The command abilities of Zhukov, Vatutin, Voronov and Vasilevsky, had
been recognised from the start. Others such as Rokossovsky, Konev, Tolbukhin
and Malinovsky, deemed competent for moderately senior command prior to the
outbreak of hostilities, were to demonstrate an outstanding ability for command
at the highest level. Others, Cherniakhovsky, Katukov, Grechko and Pliev among
them, through their demonstrable ability on the battlefield, rose from relative
pre-war obscurity to become outstanding senior commanders. There were many
others, such as Major-Gen M T Romanov whose 172 Rifle Div conducted a skilful
and determined defence of Mogilev in July 1941, whose potential could only be
glimpsed before they were killed or taken prisoner in the early months of the
war. Stalin himself gradually came to recognise that his senior generals often
knew better than he what was required to win a campaign, and he increasingly
came to trust their judgement over his own.</div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-80714045488624910932015-07-27T20:09:00.002+08:002015-07-27T20:09:32.958+08:00Barbarossa – Soviet Air Force<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBgjbnfIJ7wY3CeEuq6UinLs5npg6gdcSHajRC37NTZpowBm5zLmWUO7z8IW-TdrH2OAkh3HIJddDftvNj7TMQp2kGnGPAZTNtAwTUcd89qs9IVWw9APbqiwNGd5bvfu1NIGcEg1BhKZrR/s1600/Alksnis_Yakov.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBgjbnfIJ7wY3CeEuq6UinLs5npg6gdcSHajRC37NTZpowBm5zLmWUO7z8IW-TdrH2OAkh3HIJddDftvNj7TMQp2kGnGPAZTNtAwTUcd89qs9IVWw9APbqiwNGd5bvfu1NIGcEg1BhKZrR/s400/Alksnis_Yakov.jpg" width="302" /></a></div>
<br />
After graduation from the Red Army Military Academy (1921–1924) Alksnis was appointed the head of logistics service of Red Air Forces; in 1926 deputy commander of Red Air Forces. In 1929 he received wings of a fighter pilot at the Kacha pilot's school in Crimea and was later known to fly nearly every day. Defector Alexander Barmine described Alksnis as "a strict disciplinarian with high standards of efficiency. He would himself personally inspect flying officers... not that he was fussy or took the slightest interest in smartness for its own sake, but, as he explained to me, flying demands constant attention to detail... Headstrong he may have been, but he was a man of method and brought a wholly new spirit into Soviet aviation. It is chiefly owing to him that the Air Force is the powerful weapon it is today." According to Barmine, Alksnis was instrumental in making parachute jumping a sport for the masses. He was influenced by one of his subordinates who has seen parachutists entertaining public in the United States, at the time when Soviet pilots regarded parachutes "almost a clinical instrument".<br />
<br />In the same year he was involved in establishing one of the first sharashkas – an aircraft design bureau staffed by prisoners of Butyrki prison, including Nikolai Polikarpov and Dmitry Grigorovich. In 1930–1931 the sharashka, now based on Khodynka Field, produced the prototype for the successful Polikarpov I-5. In June 1931 Alksnis was promoted to the Commander of Red Air Forces, while Polikarpov and some of his staff were released on amnesty terms. In 1935, Red Air Forces under Alksnis possessed world's largest bomber force; aircraft production reached 8,000 in 1936<br />
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The first Five-Year Plans triggered a massive buildup of
Soviet aviation, including many airplanes of indigenous design. Among them were
maneuverable fighter biplanes, such as the Polikarpov I-15 and I-15 bis; the
first cantilever monoplane with retractable landing gear to enter squadron
service, the Polikarpov I-16; and a variety of bombers, including the Tupolev
TB-7, SB-2/SB-3, and DB-3.Yet the Soviets failed to develop a reliable
long-range bomber force. The established Soviet concept of air warfare
envisioned the use of airpower predominantly in close support missions and
under operational control of the ground forces command. </div>
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The Red Army Air Force under the command of Yakov Alksnis
during 1931–1937 developed into a semi-independent military service with a
combat potential, good training, and a logistics infrastructure spreading from
European Russia into Central Asia and the Far East. Still, the Red Army Air
Force exhibited marked deficiencies in several local conflicts (e.g., against
the Chinese in 1929 and in the Spanish civil war, 1936–1939). In contrast,
during the 1937–1939 air conflicts with Japan (China, Lake Khasan, Khalkin Gol)
the Soviets effectively challenged the Japanese air domination and provided
decisive close air support in the campaigns on Soviet and Mongolian borders.
During the Winter War with Finland (1939–1940), however, the Red Air Force
suffered heavy losses due to inflexibility of organization, its command-
and-control structure, poor training of personnel, and deficiency of equipment.
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The failures in Soviet airpower were reinforced by the
terror of Stalinist purges. About 75 percent of the senior officers were
imprisoned or executed, and some 40 percent of the officer corps was purged.
The result was the critical decline of experience, initiative, and
responsibility within the command of the air force and its combat personnel.</div>
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The main reason for the large aircraft losses in the initial
period of war with Germany was not the lack of modern tactics, but the lack of
experienced pilots and ground support crews, the destruction of many aircraft
on the runways due to command failure to disperse them, and the rapid advance
of the Wehrmacht ground troops, forcing the Soviet pilots on the defensive
during Operation Barbarossa, while being confronted with more modern German
aircraft. In the first few days of Operation Barbarossa the Luftwaffe destroyed
some 2000 Soviet aircraft, most of them on the ground, at a loss of only 35
aircraft (of which 15 were non-combat-related). Many of these were obsolete
types, such as the Polikarpov I-16, and they would be replaced by much more
advanced aircraft as a result of both Lend-Lease and the miraculous transfer of
the Soviet aviation industry eastward from European Russia to the Ural
Mountains. The sporadic Soviet retaliatory strikes were poorly coordinated and
led to devastating losses in aircraft and combat personnel.</div>
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World War II caught Soviet aviation unawares—more than 1,200
aircraft were lost on the first day of the Nazis’ June 1941 invasion. For the
next 6–8 months, aircraft and other factories were shifted eastward to the
Urals and Siberia, a huge undertaking largely completed by early 1942.
Relocation made transport of finished aircraft to the fronts more difficult,
but by late 1942 and in 1943 Soviet aircraft began to appear in huge numbers. Germany’s
output was exceeded in 1943. Fighters such as the Yak-3 and Yak-9 (more than
16,000 of the latter), Lavochkin La-5 (10,000), and La-7 (nearly 6,000) began
to take a toll on German air strength. The Ilyushin Il-2 attack plane was the
most-produced plane in the war (1,000 made every month after 1942 for total of
over 36,000), and the later Il-10 reached production numbers of 5,000.</div>
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Luftwaffe reconnaissance units worked frantically to plot
troop concentration, supply dumps, and airfields, and mark them for destruction.
The Luftwaffe's task was to neutralize the Soviet Air Force. This was not
achieved in the first days of operations, despite the Soviets having
concentrated aircraft in huge groups on the permanent airfields rather than
dispersing them on field landing strips, making them ideal targets. The
Luftwaffe claimed to have destroyed 1,489 aircraft on the first day of
operations. Hermann Göring — Chief of the Luftwaffe — distrusted the reports
and ordered the figure checked. Picking through the wreckages of Soviet
airfields, the Luftwaffe's figures proved conservative, as over 2,000 destroyed
Soviet aircraft were found. The Luftwaffe lost 35 aircraft on the first day of
combat. The Germans claimed to have destroyed only 3,100 Soviet aircraft in the
first three days. In fact Soviet losses were far higher: some 3,922 Soviet
machines had been lost (according to Russian Historian Viktor Kulikov).The
Luftwaffe had achieved air superiority over all three sectors of the front, and
would maintain it until the close of the year. The Luftwaffe could now devote
large numbers of its Geschwader to support the ground forces.</div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-23421980966725124382015-07-27T20:04:00.002+08:002015-07-27T20:04:26.690+08:00KIEV: THE SECOND WORLD WAR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Soviet Liberation of Kiev
November 1943</i></b></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ULULYTspQso6Lswf0pXr_rnQ0AEgW4BbD7p2q_vI_shFnk_EIzhGEr-uw5Dx8ufRQWNrlgEAHsPVn8YOUs3BDXW7xCPBWhabtm2dGSVb_Hh_R6YRlBe-SMglqbxJPimvr-4aH0ZBFjcX/s1600/air_phot_sept_1943.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ULULYTspQso6Lswf0pXr_rnQ0AEgW4BbD7p2q_vI_shFnk_EIzhGEr-uw5Dx8ufRQWNrlgEAHsPVn8YOUs3BDXW7xCPBWhabtm2dGSVb_Hh_R6YRlBe-SMglqbxJPimvr-4aH0ZBFjcX/s400/air_phot_sept_1943.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></b></div>
<br />
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Aerial bombardment of Kiev began on 22 June 1941, the very
first day of Adolf Hitler’s monumental assault on the Soviet Union code-named
Operation Barbarossa. The Nazi armies advanced quickly. In the first three weeks
of fighting alone, the Soviet Army lost two million men, 3,500 tanks, and 6,000
aircraft. On June 27 machinery and inventories began to be evacuated from
Kiev’s arsenal, which required 1,100 railway cars. Over the next two months,
197 enterprises were dismantled and sent eastward. Kiev’s ‘‘Bolshevik’’ plant,
for example, was reassembled near Sverdlovsk, in the Urals. In early July, some
two hundred thousand Kievans began to construct antitank and anti-infantry
fortifications around the city. </div>
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Stalin had initially refused Ukrainian Communist Party boss
Nikita Khrushchev’s recommendation to abandon Kiev, but given the hopelessness
of the military situation, relented on 17 September. On 21 September, the
battle for Kiev ended. The Germans captured some 665,000 Soviet troops in the
encirclement of Kiev, which Hitler called ‘‘the greatest battle in world
history,’’ but in reality the victory gave the Germans no strategic advantage.
By October, half of Kiev’s 850,000 residents had been evacuated, mobilized into
the Red Army, or killed. </div>
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The German occupation of Kiev lasted for two years. Policies
designed to starve the remaining population were put into place; already in
November 1941 one onlooker described Kiev ‘‘as a city of beggars.’’ Epidemics
swept the city; murder for bread became an everyday occurrence. Kievans were
not allowed to enter many shops, trams, and theaters, and curfew was set at
6:00 P.M. Streets and buildings were given German names, and at least
twenty-three German industrial enterprises were established in the city. By
mid- 1943, however, about eighty partisan and sabotage units were operating in
or near the city. Perhaps twenty thousand people were involved in the Resistance,
which carried out some nine hundred operations, mostly against railway lines
and roadways, supply depots, and police facilities. </div>
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Although Hitler’s goal of reducing Kiev to rubble was
averted because of a shortage of bombs, by the time the Nazi occupation was
broken, on 6 November 1943, eight hundred industrial enterprises and six
thousand buildings (about one-sixth of the total number of structures in Kiev)
had been destroyed. Soviet sources estimate that two hundred thousand Kievans
were killed during the war and another hundred thousand were sent into Germany
as conscript laborers. Valuable books, archives, and records had been looted
from libraries, museums, and various institutes. The Khreshchatyk and the
central district lay in ruins, and an estimated two hundred thousand Kievans
were left without housing. Rationing of basic goods continued until December
1947. Kiev was declared a ‘‘Hero City’’ by the Soviet government, but the human
tragedy of the battle for Kiev was not discussed openly until the Soviet
political climate thawed briefly under Khrushchev (now Soviet premier) in
1962–1963. In January 1963, Leonid Volynsky published a short story in the
journal Novy Mir (New World) about the battle, calling it ‘‘a vast and
inexplicable tragedy.’’</div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-2404711280214093412015-07-15T15:28:00.000+08:002015-07-15T15:28:02.118+08:00Book - Kursk: The Greatest Battle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVepbvzZn7su7tt1i0dY1hLEJfrYVP2Er6P4dPhmtc_OfkUy5vZmUJeZlysZiySz1551_0yiG-Vxcq1ppK5rpvJ3Z8kBEa3rwfku-DDx0QnDzJHpXWstX6Z9fQXX7D78Ku2KJLFg94T17/s1600/51bGsEMsRhL._SY344_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVepbvzZn7su7tt1i0dY1hLEJfrYVP2Er6P4dPhmtc_OfkUy5vZmUJeZlysZiySz1551_0yiG-Vxcq1ppK5rpvJ3Z8kBEa3rwfku-DDx0QnDzJHpXWstX6Z9fQXX7D78Ku2KJLFg94T17/s320/51bGsEMsRhL._SY344_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
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<br />
<h2>
<span lang="EN-GB">Lloyd Clark</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Product Description</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">A monumental, enthralling work charting the greatest
land battle of all time which changed the course of World War Two, by a highly
regarded military expert<br />
<br />
5th July 1943: the greatest land battle of all time began around the town of
Kursk in Russia. This epic confrontation between German and Soviet forces was
one of the most important military engagements in history and epitomised 'total
war'. It was also one of the most bloody, characterised by hideous excess and
outrageous atrocities. It was a monumental and decisive encounter of
breath-taking intensity which became a turning point, not only on the Eastern
Front, but in the Second World War as a whole. As Churchill noted, for Russia,
'Stalingrad was the end of the beginning, but the Battle of Kursk was the
beginning of the end'. Using the very latest available archival material
including the testimonies of veterans and providing strategic perspective
alongside personal stories of front line fighting, Lloyd Clark has written a
lucid, enthralling and heart-stopping account of this incredible battle. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">About the Author</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Lloyd Clark is a senior academic in the Department
of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Professorial
Research Fellow in War Studies, Humanities Research Institute, University of
Buckingham. He is the author of several books, including Anzio: The Friction of
War and Arnhem: The Greatest Airborne Battle in History, has contributed to
numerous others and lectures on military history all over the world. He is a
frequent guide to battlefields on four continents and often works on radio and
television as both historical adviser and interviewee. He lives in rural
Hertfordshire with his wife and three children. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB">A Very Good Narrative <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0755336380/ref=nosim?tag=armrumser-21" target="_blank">Account of Kursk</a></span></i></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">In his book; "The Battle of the
Tanks", the author, Lloyd Clark, has provided the reader with an admirably
told and well-presented account of the climactic battle of WW2; Kursk, that
occurred on the Russian steppe in July 1943. <br />
<br />
The author has produced a well-researched, easy to read and easy to follow
account of the massive clash between German and Russian forces at Kursk during
Operation Zitadelle. <br />
<br />
With the use of numerous first-hand accounts, diaries, letters and after-action
reports the author's style of writing easily puts the reader in the heart of
the action, this is from the first page: <br />
<br />
" ..... The Tigers advanced, their engines whining as they climbed a low
rise before juddering to a halt. The 100 tank Soviet wave sped towards them in
an attempt to get close enough for their guns to penetrate the panzer's armour
before the powerful German 88mm guns had an opportunity to pick them off. The
Tiger gunners peered down their optical sights at the olive-green armour a mile
away, but even as their cross hairs settled on a target, the T-34s dipped into
a gentle fold in the ground like an armada sailing on a rolling sea. A tense
minute passed before the enemy rose again and now they were just half a mile
away. Anticipating the breaking wave, the Tiger commanders gave the order to
fire. The 63 ton beasts jerked as their high-velocity guns blasted off their
armour-piercing rounds. <br />
<br />
The T-34s were devastated. An intense white explosion stopped one dead, another
slew to the right before coming to a blazing stop while a third was ripped
apart and disembowelled with appalling ease. The German intercoms were alive
with impassioned voices as commanders sought to break up the enemy formation
and the five-man crews fought for their lives. The T-34s plunged on as the
Tigers found new fire positions and unleashed more destruction. Wittmann's
skilful gunner, Helmut Graser, took rapid aim and loosed off. The round buried
itself into a victim and dislodged the turret. The Tiger was re-positioned, the
gun erupted, another hit. <br />
<br />
The Soviets closed within a couple of hundred feet and returned fire on the
move. Wittmann's Tiger was hit twice - the tank, ringing like a bell, was saved
by two inches of steel - and four from his company were disabled. The field was
littered with burning wrecks sending plumes of black smoke into the steel grey
sky. The officer of one T-34 lay dead, slumped across his hatch as flames
licked around the turret and his crew screamed from within. The acid air hung
heavy over the charred corpses and the broken bodies of the wounded."<br />
<br />
Nor does the author forget the human aspect of this gigantic struggle, this
account is from a Russian soldier moving to take up a new defensive position
against the advancing Germans: <br />
<br />
"We were marching towards a river where we were to take up a defensive
position in June 1942. We passed through a small non-descript place and it
seems as if the entire population had crowded onto the road to stare at us.
There was no cheering although one or two shouted encouragement for they knew
that we were doomed. They also knew that if we were taking up positions close
to their village, that they were doomed as well .... As we were leaving the
village a middle-aged woman ran up to me and handed me a loaf of bread and
kissed me on the cheek. She had a tear in her eye and sobbed, `For my son - my
lovely boy'. I never saw her again but in that moment realized what terrible
pain the nation was suffering as families were being torn apart. It reminded me
of my family so far away. I tucked the bread into my jacket and began crying
myself. I did not realize the stress that was building up in me. It was a
release."<br />
<br />
The book is full of these personal accounts and at no stage does the narrative
bog down in too much detail but just drags the reader along to the next clash
of arms. This following account is one of the better descriptive accounts I
have read for some time about what happens when a tank is hit: <br />
<br />
"After an hour of fighting, the fields was covered in blazing hulks, Any
survivors of the initial calamitous shell strike had just seconds to evacuate
the tank before it was engulfed in flame, which threatened to ignite the fuel
and ammunition. Nikolai Zheleznov was knocked to the turret floor when his T-34
was hit. The white-hot explosion had shattered his driver's head, torn the
loader's arm from his body and sent scores of large metal shards into the
gunner's unprotected body. A fire sucked the oxygen out of the compartment and
set light to Zheleznov's uniform as he struggled to open the commander's hatch.
Eventually pushing it free as the flames leapt up around him, he fought to pull
himself out of the void but his leg had been broken at the knee. Passing
comrades pulled him clear of the tank just before it exploded but he sustained
horrendous burns."<br />
<br />
Here are two accounts from the fighting that occurred during the first few days
of Kursk as the German formations fought their way through the Russian
defensive positions: <br />
<br />
"At the tip of the Das Reich, for example, acting Panzer Grenadier company
commander SS-Untersturmfuhrer Kruger spent six hours leading his unit in
hand-to-hand fighting during which he was twice wounded. Remaining with the
company, he continued to lead his men as they wrestled with several T-34s.
Darting forward with a magnetic mine grasped tightly between muddy hands,
Kruger was grazed by a round, which ignited a smoke grenade in his pocket and
set his trousers on fire. Ripping the flaming cloth from his legs, he continued
his attack on the T-34 in his underwear and succeeded in knocking out the
tank." <br />
<br />
And the German Tiger tank again: <br />
<br />
" .... The Tigers, despite their lack of mobility, proved difficult for
the Red Army to stop. Once again, well-aimed rounds achieved little more than
shaking the tanks' occupants, although when Obersturmfuhrer Schutzs' Tiger took
a direct hit and the driver's glass vision block struck him in the stomach, he
needed more than a couple of minutes to compose himself."<br />
<br />
Overall this is an excellent story, not as detailed as David Glantz's account
but still a worthy effort and should be in the library of anyone who has an
interest or passion for books covering the war on the Eastern Front.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nngsCQnAA5w" width="560"></iframe>Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-70538497484574301372015-07-15T15:10:00.003+08:002015-07-15T15:10:39.774+08:00Panthers at Kursk<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-GB">The Frontline Illustration book called:
‘Panthers at Kursk’ (roughly translated) - the following is new according to
the book:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">a. The 52nd Abt. used different company
colours for its snarling panther head logos. 5th Company had white head with
black details, 6th blue head with white details, 7th black head with white
details and the 8th a brown head with black and white details, as well as a red
tongue. The head of the 8th company also differs in details. The photos
included are clear enough to support the theory of different colours, but the
blue one is difficult to proof. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">b. The book is suggesting the following
numbering system: R01-R08, I01-I08, II01-II08 and then x01-x02, x11-x15,
x21-x25, x31-x35 and x41-x45 for the eight tank companies. This is supported
with photos of R04, 101, 121, 142, 144, 214, 231, 312, 432, 434, 445, 502, 521,
535, 613, 632, 633, 634, 732, 735, 745 and 824.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">c. There are a number of clear shots
showing R04, and it has no logo.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">d. The prowling panther in black outline is
said to have been used by the 51st Abt. when it was serving with
Grossdeutschland after Kursk. There are shots of Panthers 102, 124, 211, 301,
322 and 445, all showing this logo. The one numbered “4” in the earlier thread
is probably the one said to be 124 here. The shot shows “24” with the one being
added in the caption. Of further interest is that at least 102 and 445 has the
first style turret with the “Klappe” on the LHS of the turret.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">e. The table with cause-of-demise for
Panthers is also given here. It is for tanks KO between the 20th and 28th of
June 1943. The interesting thing is that the following turret numbers are given
in this: 95, 170, 281, 381, 440, 551. They do not fit into the suggested
numbering system proposed in this book, and it is also clearly stated. None of
these "odd ones" appears in the photos, only tanks that fit in. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">As to the odd turret numbers listed, it may
well be that they were guessed from remains of burnt-out Panthers. Perhaps a
bit shaky explanation, but at least a possible one.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The panther head logo of the 8th company
actually appears to be in the some brown shade as the normal camo brown. It may
be that it is a transparent logo, which would also explain the additional
details.</span></div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-57142226480807330092015-07-15T14:42:00.001+08:002015-07-15T14:42:11.660+08:00Panther Brigade 10 at Kursk - Redux<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcD6lHTBL1yioYRxQmiCelecHyoNWoM-yJekyPvqr_vWjSMqy6ZTFJ7X4nRbPhgiDe2yPYkuHMizf3VSBAx987iKSVlr8iQgqPadpO202TKpbnDIEAGZinPYiC4tu9-JE-p9m6r-seHcEG/s1600/kursk_52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcD6lHTBL1yioYRxQmiCelecHyoNWoM-yJekyPvqr_vWjSMqy6ZTFJ7X4nRbPhgiDe2yPYkuHMizf3VSBAx987iKSVlr8iQgqPadpO202TKpbnDIEAGZinPYiC4tu9-JE-p9m6r-seHcEG/s400/kursk_52.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">There was a huge catfight after Kursk as to
Pz Brig 10's notable lack of success. Everyone was screaming about how the
Panthers hadn't worked. Decker[1] blamed Strachwitz's tactics, because his own
rear end was very much on the line. Decker was not with his unit from 7-11
July, being called to account to Knobelsdorff (XXXXVII Pzkps) for the brigade
staff's lack of effectiveness, and thus had a fine opportunity to blame
Strachwitz and Hoernlein for all the problems. His letter drips
self-justification, conveniently ignoring a few facts, such as the loss of
about 150 of the 200 Panthers in the attacks on 5-6 July, when Decker was in
command. Most of the confusion regarding terrain, Pakfronts and minefields
resulted from the Panther units having arrived at the last minute and conducted
no reconnaissance, many of their officers' inexperience, and radio equipment
deficiencies. The "idiocy" of Strachwitz's tactics also may be judged
by the fact that at the end of 6 July, Pz Rgt GD, which had been out front both
days, had suffered far fewer losses than had Pz Brig 10. The reality was that
GD with Pz Brig 10 attached undertook its mission exactly in accordance with
its orders and current Panzer doctrine. The sad fact was that the panzerwaffe
had never encountered a defense in depth of the sort found in the Korps AO.
Doctrine until then had called for slashing tactics, ignoring flanks. The
changes to doctrine reflected lessons learned generally, not any fault in Pz
Rgt GD. Of course, doctrine for offensive operations of the Kursk sort wasn't
used much thereafter. Strachwitz was very much the aristocrat and could be
forbidding to deal with. He also remained adept at aggressive Panzer tactics,
leading to his repeated tasking to pocket-relief missions until the war's end.
Anyone wondering just how widely he was regarded as "idiotic" should
search (in vain) for other criticism of him like Decker's, and consider his and
his critic's respective career paths after Kursk. The confusion that's arisen
over this question is just another example of the deficiencies inherent in
Jentz's approach in Panzertruppen. Apparently uncomfortable with his analytical
abilities, he declines any analysis whatsoever. This would not present so many
problems if he weren't so selective in the primary sources he quotes and
paraphrases, and if his readers generally were a little more
historiographically sophisticated. By the way, I found the Decker letter at p
96 of Panzertruppen 2, and the info on Pz Brig 10's late arrival and the losses
on 5-6 July are at pp 114 et seq of Jung's Pzrgt GD book. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Both abteilungen [battalions] abtn retained
a cadre or kernel of very experienced crews. However, they were filled out with
inexperienced people, many with no panzer experience at all, and were subject
to some personnel "raiding" during their long sojourn in Germany
during the Panther teething period. Officer quality in the two abtn was very
uneven. Because the brigade's Panthers only were shipped at the eleventh hour,
many of the crews had very slim experience with the new vehicle; bear in mind
that a minimal number of Panthers had been issued for training, and they all
experienced very high downtime from teething problems. More important, perhaps,
there had been very little work at zug [platoon] level and none on a larger
scale. Many of the abtn personnel arrived in the kampfraum only a day or so
before the offensive began; the brigade staff showed up even later. Thus there
was very little of the usual foot recon, signals testing, etc. that doctrine
stated should precede a deliberate attack. While a veteran unit might have
improved on the brig's performance in the almost-hasty attack circumstances
faced on 5-7 July, and veteran crews doubtless maneuverered and fought well,
subject to mechanical problems and the unexpected defenses, the brigade as a
whole charitably could be said to have been still shaking down at Kursk. It
would be interesting to know how the brig's performance improved over the
campaign. Presumably experienced crews made fewer disabling errors (a major
reason for engine failure was said to be inexperienced driving, and presumably
green crews made more tactical mistakes and paid for them); I wonder to what
extent veteran crews that lost their rides ranked others out of their panzers.
These two factors likely shrank the brig into a much smaller but more effective
unit. The brigade's problems in training, equipping and transport, and the
resulting difficulties in their first engagements, are recounted in Jentz and
in the Spaeter and Jung GD books ( I recall that Feist and some other secondary
published sources selectively synopsize the information.) Of course, it's
necessary to read with the filters on, as all the first-hand reports were
written to assign or deflect blame for the brigade's problems, but many
assertions appear factual and unequivocal, and rough triangulation towards an
assessment is possible.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">There were a three instances of German
Panzer brigades getting thrashed in Lorraine in the fall of 1944. And the
typical cry of "Jabos" doesn't begin to explain what happened. The
Germans were outmaneuvered and outfought, twice by American troops of Patton's
army; and in the third instance by the French 2nd AD. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">In these three instances the common
denominator was the lack of experience of the Panzer troops. This charge can
even be made against their senior leadership -- for while they were experts in
armored warfare on the eastern front, they were ill-prepared to fight on the
western front of 1944. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Certainly tanks were abandoned by their
crews during these fights and certainly some of these were cases of panic. But,
a small set of instances like these is hardly justification to intimate on a
broad scale that Heer panzer crews were cowardly or untrained. All the actions
in this case prove is that less well trained and experienced troops will generally
not do well against a better trained and experienced enemy. This was proved
again in January 1945, when the shoe was on the other foot, and it was the
green U.S. 12th Armored Division learning harsh lessons in and around
Herrlisheim.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">[1]Lauchert lead the 39th Panzer Regiment
(the Panthers). Decker lead the 10th Panzer Brigade, which was supposed to
consist of the 39th Panzer Regiment and the Gross Deutschland Panzer Regiment.
This arrangement lasted for two days in combat (5th and 6th), before Decker was
relieved and command of these two regiments were placed under command of the GD
Panzer Regiment commander (von Strachwitz). After von Strachwitz was injured on
the 10th, Decker took back over command of the two regiments.</span></div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-30840358488842139922015-07-15T14:38:00.002+08:002015-07-15T14:38:37.536+08:00Battle of Kursk - the Air Battle <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lO3iZiNn_ZGS5gW0uWuol1l3gpkOQmX0B9xIXd79q-jbuFSWWO7i_5sp8fwJA9CzyT2YQ4UggilmZ-TzlhSQHWY1eIx-bUiuFnAI6L8ogMr9bLONDAjl8CMx5LQiKFQpQ8rmXRE4v9Nl/s1600/dhm2668.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lO3iZiNn_ZGS5gW0uWuol1l3gpkOQmX0B9xIXd79q-jbuFSWWO7i_5sp8fwJA9CzyT2YQ4UggilmZ-TzlhSQHWY1eIx-bUiuFnAI6L8ogMr9bLONDAjl8CMx5LQiKFQpQ8rmXRE4v9Nl/s400/dhm2668.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.military-art.com/mall/more.php?ProdID=14189" target="_blank"><b>Battle of Kursk by Nicolas Trudgian. (B)</b></a><br /><br /><i><b>On 5 July, 1943 over 6000 German and Russian tanks clashed near the town of Kursk, just 300 miles south of Moscow. It was the beginning of what became the greatest tank battle in history. In the skies above this conflagration, an air battle of monumental proportions raged, with the German and Russian air forces locked in combat. This was war on a scale hitherto never imagined. A full week later the Battle was still raging, reaching a crescendo on 12 July when Hoths 4th Panzer Army met head-on with Rotmistrovs 5th Guards Tank Army near the village of Prokhorovka. With the Russian T34s electing to fight at close quarters, so desperate was the fighting that opposing tanks resorted to ramming each other. As the battle moved across the landscape all became utter confusion. Playing a major role in the air were the Luftwaffes Ju-87 Stukas, equipped with massive 37mm cannons slung under their wings. Led by Hans-Ulrich Rudel, the legendary Stuka pilot, these formidable tank-busters made a significant contribution to the Battle of Kursk. Nicolas Trudgians painting records the dramatic events at Kursk in a spectacular rendition that captures the very essence of this mighty land and air battle. Dominating the scene are a pair of Ju-87s. Having knocked out two T34s, they weave over the landscape as they try to avoid the attentions of Russian Yak 9s, the gunner of Rudels aircraft - in the foreground - blazing away with his machine gun. A pair of Fw190s have entered the fray, and the air is filled with smoke and cordite. In a typically detailed Nicolas Trudgian landscape, below the aerial contest Russian and Panzer tanks are seen in close combat, desperately maneuvering to gain some advantage. The old farm buildings show the ravages of war; tank tracks crisscross the fields, stretching into the distance where the battle extends to the horizon. A masterpiece in military art.</b></i><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB">Though the Battle of Kursk is rightly considered a
tank engagement, the struggle in the skies was no less important. The Luftwaffe
gave the panzer divisions excellent aerial support, but the Red Air Force was
to prove the eventual master in the air. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The Luftwaffe commitment at the beginning
of Operation Citadel was 1800 aircraft. This figure represented some two-thirds
of the machines deployed on the entire Eastern Front. The bulk of this force
was concentrated to support the southern pincer under VIII Air Corps commanded
by General Otto Dessloch. A squadron commander during World War I, Dessloch had
vast experience, having led various Luftwaffe units prior to the Kursk
operation. Under Dessloch's leadership, VIII Air Corps controlled the flying
units of 4th Air Fleet, 1st Hungarian Air Division and I FlaK (antiaircraft
artillery) Corps, disposing a total of 1100 aircraft. Included amongst these
flying formations were seven units of dive-bombers, the infamous Ju 87D Stuka.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The Stukas were expected to carry out their
classic role, established during four years of war, as flying artillery
plunging out of the skies to bomb and strafe the enemy immediately ahead of the
panzer wedges. The near-vertical dive that preceded bomb release was
accompanied by a howling wail, as the pilot aimed his aircraft at the target, a
wail that froze the blood of the men on the ground, convincing them that they
as individuals had been specially chosen for death.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Operation Citadel was the last time the
Stuka would be employed in this manner, as its performance no longer matched
the demands of the Eastern Front. When their dive-bomber role was rescinded,
all the remaining Stukas were transferred to low-level ground-attack duties,
and it was during the Kursk operation that Stuka "tank busters" were
employed on a wide scale for the first time. A 37mm antitank gun was fitted
under each wing, and this weight of fire in the hands of an expert such as
Flight-Lieutenant Hans-Ulrich Rudel was to wreak havoc in the Soviet tank
fleets. It is claimed that Rudel destroyed 12 tanks on the first day of Citadel
alone. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Another first for the Luftwaffe at Kursk was
the employment of Schlactsgeschwaders (ground-attack wings) utilizing
Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-4s and Henschel Hs 129 B-2/R2s in large numbers. The
Henschel Hs 129 had been designed specifically as a "tank buster". In
its nose were two 7.92mm machine guns and two 20mm cannons, but its real power
was in its main armament, a single 30mm Mark 101 or 103 cannon housed in a
gondola beneath the fuselage. When brought to bear on the thin engine housing
at the real of a tank, unarmoured lorries or the timber-built Soviet bunkers,
this weight of fire was usually fatal. The Fw 190s operated closely with the Hs
129s, dropping SD1 and SD2 fragmentation bombs to disrupt the Soviet infantry
attack lines.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The slow speed of the ground-attack
aircraft such as the Hs 129 and the Stuka necessitated close fighter
cooperation to allow their crews to concentrate on the job in hand, and this
was to be provided by the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5s.
The armament of the Fw 190 — four 20mm cannon in the wings and two 7.92mm
machine guns in the forward fuselage — coupled with a speed of 605km/h
(382mph), made it a fighter to be reckoned with. The weaponry and performance
of the Bf 109 was similar. Heavier bombing operations were to be conducted by
other tried and trusted aircraft, such as the Heinkel He III and the Junkers Ju
88. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The Luftwaffe supported the northern pincer
with Colonel-General Ritter von Greim's 6th Air Fleet, which consisted of the
1st Air Division, the 12th FlaK Division and the 10th FlaK Brigade. The mixed
bag of antitank fighter and bomber aircraft numbered 730. Amongst these were
three Stuka groups. The guns of the FlaK units were highly effective weapons,
particularly the 88mm. However, such was the effectiveness of the 88 against
Soviet tanks that many FlaK batteries were assigned to the Wehrmacht to bolster
the antitank gun formations which had less effective weapons. The consequence
was that the protection available to Axis airfields was severely curtailed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The Luftwaffe that now geared up for
Operation Citadel was not the one that had dominated the Russian skies for
almost two years. Commander of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, had promised that
no bombs would fall on the Reich. By early 1943 the emptiness of his words was
proven daily by the Anglo-American bomber offensive that damaged Germany's
industrial output and chiselled away at the people's morale. To counter this,
Göring had withdrawn many fighter squadrons from the Eastern Front and diverted
aircraft output to the West, with the consequence that the Eastern Front fought
with diminished assets. To further compound this difficult situation, the
Western air war was given priority in the allocation of fuel, so that the fuel
allowance for the Battle of Kursk was 30 percent below its actual requirement. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">However, the experience of the aircrews,
the efficiency of the ground crews and the superiority of the machines were all
factors that the ordinary German soldier took for granted; after all, had not
the Wehrmacht enjoyed almost total air superiority over the Red Air force since
the first hours of Operation Barbarossa? What the Landser in their trenches
were unaware of was that the Red Air Force was now not, as it had been for so
long, mere target practice for the Red Baron's proteges, but a real force to be
reckoned with, and one to be taken very seriously indeed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">#</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">On 5 July the day dawned bright and warm.
On the dusty runways of Belgorod, Kharkov, Poltava and Dnepropetrovsk the Ju 88
and He 111 bombers of VIII Air Corps lined up for take-off as the first waves
of the Citadel air offensive, when the wireless monitoring service reported a
considerable increase in Soviet air traffic, and soon afterwards the
"Freya" radar at Kharkov detected the approach of large air
formations from the east. These formations contained 132 Shturmoviks and 285
fighters of the Second and Seventeenth Air Armies, detailed to destroy the
German bombers on the ground when their fighter escorts were not yet airborne.
But this pre-emptive strike was not to succeed. The Soviet regiments were
intercepted by the Bf 109 Gs of Jagdgeschwader (hunting formations) 3
"Udet" and JG 52 scrambled from Kharkov East and Mikoyanovka, which
claimed 120 air victories in the opening air battle. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">In the northern sector, the Germans
reported that Soviet fighter reaction to 1st Airborne Division operations began
only in the late afternoon, and the Fw 190 fighters of JG 51 and JG 54 had
claimed 115 Soviet aircraft by nightfall. The committal of fighters to the
abortive pre-emptive strike in the early morning left the VVS unable to contest
Luftwaffe air supremacy on the southern flank of the salient, and in the north,
Soviet replies to the Luftwaffe attacks were tardy and ineffectual. The two
fighter corps designated to give frontline cover, Yumashev's VI Fighter Corps
over the Central Front and Klimov's V Fighter Corps over the Voronezh Front,
were unable to cope. Without adequate air cover, the Soviet ground forces lost
confidence and the Wehrmacht began to make headway. Novikov had to give his
attention first to the failings of his fighters and, as a result of his
investigations, Yumashev and Klimov were both replaced, VI Fighter Corps being
taken over by Major-General Yerlykin and V Fighter Corps by Major-General
Galunov. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Nor were the Soviet attacks on German
armour initially successful. Despite new antitank bombs, their RS-82 rockets
and more formidable 37mm cannon, the Il-2 Shturmoviks failed to get through and
stop the panzers rolling forward. Flying in small groups, the Il-2s and Pe-2s
often lacked fighter escort or they were abandoned when the very first sign of
trouble appeared. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">On Khudyakov's orders, the Shturmoviks
began to fly in much larger formations of regimental size to make escort
easier, and to enable the Il-2s to break through and suppress ground fire by
sheer weight of numbers and the persistence of attack. Flying in pelang
formation - staggered line abreast — the Il-2s no longer made hasty passes at
low level under favourable conditions, but carried out calculated dive
approaches from under 1000m (3280ft) at angles of 30-40 degrees, releasing
their bombs and rockets when 200-300m (656-984ft) from their target, and making
repeated passes with cannon and machine guns. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">At the end of the second day, in the north of
the salient, the VVS had overcome its problems and was able to contain the
German fighters, if not the bombers. But from 7 July the Sixteenth Air Army got
into its stride and began to wear down the Luftwaffe. By 8 July Khudyakov was
able to report on the improvement in Shturmovik potency, and the Luftwaffes
power to control air space over the battle areas declined. The Luftwaffe was
running out of replacements to maintain its squadrons at full strength, and the
RAF began to range more freely over the German lines.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Although the Germans could still mount
effective ground-support missions, in specific areas if not along the entire
combat zone, their superiority was being eroded at an alarming rate. By the end
of effective ground-offensive operations in the northern sector, the power of
the Luftwaffe was much reduced. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The picture to the south was much the same.
Soviet weight of numbers and the increasingly efficient use of machines
whittled away at the numerically inferior Germans, and by 11 July the Luftwaffe
was only able to achieve success in narrow areas such as supporting the thrust
of II SS Panzer Corps towards Prokhorovka. As Rotmistrov described the scene
over the battlefield of Prokhorovka from his command post: </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">"At the same time, furious aerial combats
developed over the battlefield. Soviet as well as German airmen tried to help
their ground forces to win the battle. The bombers, ground-support aircraft and
fighters seemed to be permanently suspended in the sky over Prokhorovka. One
aerial combat followed another. Soon the whole sky was shrouded by the thick
smoke of the burning wrecks." </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">If Prokhorovka was, as Konev described it,
"the swansong of the German armour", then Operation Citadel would
mark the coming of age of the Red Air Force. For the first time since the
outbreak of war, the VVS had met the Luftwaffe on almost equal terms, and
although there was a long way to go before they reached the final victory, the
Soviet air fleets had clipped the wings of Hitler's Luftwaffe and had gained
control of their own skies once more.</span></div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-4857558590553116112015-06-16T15:51:00.000+08:002015-06-16T15:51:26.276+08:00Winter 1941-42 Soviet Offensive Part I<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDDnf504ybGRLP7WKCJB1hQUhQsbhzl_iz1zxlvxQRF1l7XFtQjxBcuIdURxRW3KYxEqoUCa7Vs1hUtf3teDM4llLrLUsGZo88g1R2TscL64OliIBMeiuAAjXRWXgAGRrY5i00sfQvcTD/s1600/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101III-Bueschel-044-12A_Russland_SS-M%25C3%25A4nner_gehen_im_Schnee_vor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDDnf504ybGRLP7WKCJB1hQUhQsbhzl_iz1zxlvxQRF1l7XFtQjxBcuIdURxRW3KYxEqoUCa7Vs1hUtf3teDM4llLrLUsGZo88g1R2TscL64OliIBMeiuAAjXRWXgAGRrY5i00sfQvcTD/s400/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101III-Bueschel-044-12A_Russland_SS-M%25C3%25A4nner_gehen_im_Schnee_vor.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<i><b>SS troops patrolling in the snow of the Eastern front during the winter of 1941-42. The disastrous winter of 1941/42 on the Russian Front taught the Germans that they needed to be better prepared for the cold winters of future campaigns. In reality, the Germans were confident that they would win the war against Russia before the winter set in. Although the units of the Waffen-SS suffered tremendous casualties due to the cold weather, they were better prepared than their Army contemporaries. This is because Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler, operating outside the Armed Forces High Command, was able to procure some winter clothing for his troops.</b></i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-GB">Late on the evening of January 5, a sizable
group of generals and high-ranking government officials arrived for the meeting
in Stalin's office at the Kremlin. They immediately noticed a significant
change in the decor, which suggested to them what the dictator had in mind. The
familiar portraits of Marx and Engels had been taken down from their prominent
places, and in their stead were hanging pictures of Suvorov and Kutuzov--Russian
heroes who had fought in wars against the Turks and French. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">First on the program was the Chief of the
General Staff, Marshal Boris M. Shaposhnikov, a capable career officer who in
1918 had joined the "Workers and Peasants Red Army." Shaposhnikov
sketched out an astonishing plan that he had concocted against his better judgment.
Five large- scale offensives would be launched almost simultaneously. They
would relieve Leningrad, which had been blockaded by the Germans since last September;
would in twin attacks shove the Wehrmacht back on both sides of Moscow; would
recapture the rich Donets basin in the Ukraine; and would drive the Germans out
of the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea. These blows, supposedly, would put
the Germans to flight out of the Soviet Union. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">When Shaposhnikov had finished his
presentation, Stalin spoke to dispel any doubts about what his own position
was. "The Germans are in disarray as a result of their defeat at
Moscow," he stated. "They are poorly fitted out for the winter. This
is a most favorable time for the transition to a general offensive."
Stalin then called on General Zhukov to express his opinion. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Zhukov, who always had strong opinions,
said he was in favor of continuing his attacks on the Moscow front if
sufficient troops and tanks could be supplied, but he pronounced the other
operations much too ambitious for the men and materiel on hand. "Without
powerful artillery support," he asserted, "they will be ground down
and suffer heavy-not to say unjustifiable-losses." </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">General Zhukov's position was backed by
Nikolai A. Voznesensky, the outspoken Chairman of the State Planning Commission
and the chief mobilizer of Soviet war production, which was just now beginning
to turn out tanks and planes in significant numbers. Voznesensky declared that
there would not be enough materiel to supply all of the operations that had
been proposed. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Stalin shrugged off the objections and said
impatiently, "We must grind the Germans down with all possible speed, so
that they cannot attack in the spring." This explanation was heartily
endorsed by Georgy M. Malenkov, a top political commissar, and NKVD chief
Lavrenty P. Beria, whose secret-police force was virtually an independent state
with- in the Soviet state. They accused Voznesensky of making mountainous
obstacles out of molehill problems. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Stalin asked for any further comments. There
were none. "So," he said, "this, it seems, ends the discussion."
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<span lang="EN-GB">Discussion? Nothing had been discussed, and
Zhukov said as much to Shaposhnikov as the meeting broke up. Marshal
Shaposhnikov agreed. "It was foolish to argue," he said. "The
Boss had already decided. The directives have gone out to almost all of the
fronts, and they will launch the offensive very soon." </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">"Well then, why did Stalin ask me to
give my opinion?" growled Zhukov. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">"I just don't know, old fellow,"
Shaposhnikov replied with a sigh, "I just don't know." </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">But both men did know: The meeting had been
another of Stalin's charades, designed to key up the generals and remind them
that he called the turns. As for Stalin's plan, no one present that night-not
even Stalin himself-genuinely believed that the tide of battle could be turned
that year, much less in a winter of desperate preemptive attacks . In fact,
these attacks would fall far short of their objectives and make it considerably
easier for the Germans to resume their offensive in the spring. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Yet the tide-turning battle on the Russian
front the battle that Winston Churchill later called "the hinge of
fate" on which World War II swung in the favor of the Allies-would indeed
be fought in 1942, and in a place that on January 5 seemed quite safe from the Germans.
The place was Stalin- grad on the Volga River, a modest industrial city then
300 miles behind the battle front. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">At Stalingrad in August, the Russians and
the Germans would clash in an apocalyptic battle that engaged upward of four
million soldiers. Both sides suffered a total of 1 .5 million casualties,
earning Stalingrad the grisly name of "Verdun on the Volga." And in
the heat of that battle, the Red Army would be forged from scrap iron into
steel.</span></div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-64656464100958148682015-06-16T15:35:00.001+08:002015-06-16T15:35:37.406+08:00Winter 1941-42 Soviet Offensive Part II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-GB">Stalin's offensive was scheduled to begin
on January 10, so his commanders had precious little time for preparation. It
made no real difference. The Red Army was still patently inferior to the
Wehrmacht in almost every category, and since it was fighting on raw courage
and sheer manpower (six million men in spite of all losses), it was as ready
for battle now as it would be in the near future. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">From top to bottom, the Red Army was
disastrously short of able leaders. At the command level, this was in large
part the bitter heritage of the Great Purge of the late 1930s, when Stalin, in
an epic fit of paranoia at the Army's growing power and independence, executed
or imprisoned more than 35,000 career officers of all ranks. Many of the senior
officers who survived had better credentials as Stalin loyalists than as
competent commanders. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Good, bad or indifferent, the officer corps
was decimated during the early German victories, and the survivors were
handicapped even more by the political commissar system, which saddled field
commanders with coequal Communist Party watchdogs who were empowered to veto
their orders even under combat conditions. Many a disobedient or faltering
commander was shot on the spot by his commissar.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The enlisted ranks, too, were a shambles.
The Red Army had suffered crippling early losses among the educated technicians
and self-starting noncoms needed to make a modern army work. The great mass of
men were still only sketchily trained; some could hardly operate their own
personal weapons, which were in short supply as well. Most of the troops were
peasants and workers from remote sections of the immense country. They had a
natural tendency to flock together on the battlefield, which made them splendid
targets. The Soviet soldiers were fond of quoting an old saying: "It is
better to die in company, and Mother Russia has sons enough." When the
Russians fought as individuals they ordinarily fought well, but soldiers they
were not-at least not yet. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">In the beginning, the Red Army's elemental
response to its crushing defeats was to break down into a primitive form of
military organization-the rifle brigade that numbered a few thousand
infantrymen assembled from shattered units and thrown into battle under the
command of recently promoted colonels and majors. Tactically, these scratch
outfits were disastrous. One unit, for example, was not even able to support
its few remaining tanks to exploit a local breakthrough; the soldiers just
stood around watching the action, and when the tanks were knocked out because
of the infantry's failure to silence the Germans' antitank guns, the men simply
wandered off as if in a daze.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The only maneuver at which the riflemen
excelled was the reckless, flat-out charge: In wave upon tragic wave, they ran
straight ahead into German gunfire. The suicidal charge became an officially
accepted tactic; men were spent as freely as ammunition in wearing down the
Germans by massive attrition. A Soviet staff officer put it bluntly: "We
have a superiority in potential manpower. We've got to translate that
superiority into terms of slaughter. And that won't be too difficult. Russians
have a contempt for death. If we can keep them armed, the Germans will leave
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<span lang="EN-GB">In spite of all its deficiencies, the Red
Army did have certain advantages for the winter offensive. As Stalin had
remarked, the Germans were shaken by their failure to capture Moscow, and they
were ill-prepared to face the cruel Russian winter, with its chest-high
snowdrifts and temperatures that plunged as low as -50* F. The invasion had
been cockily planned to end by autumn, and greatcoats and fur-lined boots had
been ordered only for the 60 divisions expected to remain on occupation duty. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The rest of the Wehrmacht suffered horribly
from frostbite, and to combat the cold the soldiers wore layered assortments
of tablecloths, towels and whatever else they could find. They became "Winter
Fritzes"-clown-like figures in the Soviet press. The Red Army forces were
more warmly dressed, and they knew that winter was their ally. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Moreover, the Germans often went hungry;
their supply lines were long, and food shipments had low priority. Even with
meals before them, the numb-fingered soldiers found that eating was painful and
frustrating. A hot meal would freeze before it could be consumed. A German
officer reported that: "One man who was drawing his ration of boiling soup
at a field kitchen could not find his spoon. It took him 30 seconds to find it,
but by then the soup was lukewarm. He began to eat it as quickly as he could, without
losing a moment's time, but already the soup was cold, and soon it would be
solid." </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Unknowingly, the Russians had another
asset: Adolf Hitler. The Führer, cosseted in his Wolf's Lair headquarters in
the Rastenburg forest of East Prussia, meddled in military affairs as
persistently as Stalin did, though heretofore with better effect. Just as
Stalin's command to stand fast had led to the enormous Soviet entrapments at
Kiev and elsewhere, so Hitler in December had ordered most of his armies to
hold at all cost-despite his generals' recommendation of a strategic retreat to
consolidate their lines. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">"The troops must dig their nails into
the ground," Hitler had said. "They must dig in and not yield an inch."
Above all, there was to be absolutely no retreat from Moscow. On this point the
Führer was so rigid and splenetic that when General Heinz Guderian withdrew his
2nd Panzer Group a short distance southwest of Moscow, Hitler sacked his best
panzer commander. Others had followed as the F</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ü</span><span lang="EN-GB">hrer settled his long-standing feud with the arrogant, opinionated
Prussian officer corps. Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, Commander in
Chief of the Army, had resigned in ill health, and Hitler officially took over
the vacated post, which in fact he had held for several months. To his generals
Hitler bragged, "Anyone can do the little job of directing operations in
the War." </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The disposition of German forces on the
Moscow front was fully as important as Hitler believed. Here the Wehrmacht was
in greatest danger. And it was here that Stalin launched his first and
strongest counterattack.</span></div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-3216237707106552892015-06-16T15:32:00.002+08:002015-06-16T15:32:55.638+08:00Winter 1941-42 Soviet Offensive Part III<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3co9UO2_GuLuWnrk0jdYOuRpB-TeBU0X40JBFRYJimD4YBE6JHcFFu8t8wrVwXjFcscjSDuhYk3W-zpoSzO7FazctNHuEkk8-kdE2kf1NK5GX8-kF2Lk8n6Vx0CwjjJDbzT6qsD20pj4I/s1600/Soldiers_on_guard_in_December_1941_to_the_west_of_Moscow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3co9UO2_GuLuWnrk0jdYOuRpB-TeBU0X40JBFRYJimD4YBE6JHcFFu8t8wrVwXjFcscjSDuhYk3W-zpoSzO7FazctNHuEkk8-kdE2kf1NK5GX8-kF2Lk8n6Vx0CwjjJDbzT6qsD20pj4I/s400/Soldiers_on_guard_in_December_1941_to_the_west_of_Moscow.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">The Moscow offensive persevered with the
two-pronged attacks inaugurated by General Zhukov in December. To the north,
two Soviet armies attacked toward Demyansk and three more armies attacked
toward Belev to the south and east. These drives by 76 divisions quickly
produced a large irregular bulge in the German lines and threatened to isolate
the German Ninth Army in the Rzhev area. To the south of Moscow, even larger
Soviet forces struck due west in the general direction of Smolensk, but here
the going was tougher. Surrounded German units expertly formed circular
hedgehog defenses to protect themselves against attack from any direction. They
held their ground and kept busy Soviet units that otherwise could have advanced
farther to the west and south. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Week after week, continuous fighting raged
the length and breadth of the enormous Moscow front. The battles were
particularly fierce in the north around Demyansk, Kholm and Staraya Russa; if
Soviet forces broke through there, they might link up with armies that began
attacking southward from the Leningrad sector on January 13. Red Army units did
penetrate to the center of Staraya Russa, blowing up ammunition dumps and
reducing the ancient trading post to rubble. But the German 2nd Corps, surrounded
in a 20-by-40-mile hedgehog between Demyansk and Kholm, held out through a
two-and-a-half-month siege with the aid of supplies flown in by the Luftwaffe. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Soviet forces, too, were surrounded in
great swirling battles around Vyazma, in the center of the Moscow front between
the two enormous pincers. The Germans cut off General P. A. Belov's cavalry
corps and three divisions of the Thirty-third Army under Lieut. General M. G.
Yefremov. For weeks the Russians hung on and fought back. Belov's horsemen
finally sliced through to Soviet lines, but Yefremov and most of his men were
blocked at every turn. Severely wounded and facing capture, Yefremov shot
himself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Elsewhere, the Soviet attacks fared poorly.
The armies in the Leningrad sector failed to break through to the besieged
city, and one army was surrounded on boggy terrain to the south. Far to the
south of the Moscow front, Soviet forces did manage to drive a salient into the
German lines near Izyum, but they could advance no farther and were left in a
dangerously exposed position. At the extreme southern end of the front, Soviet
forces attempted to relieve German pressure on besieged Sevastopol by making an
amphibious assault on the nearby Kerch Peninsula jutting out into the Black
Sea. The expedition proved to be a costly failure. The Sevastopol garrison
attempted to break out of the encircling German lines, but it too came a
cropper. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Nevertheless, Stalin stopped at nothing to
keep his offensives going. He juggled his commanders and shifted whole armies
about, sometimes for no apparent purpose. On the Moscow front, he deprived
Zhukov of the First Shock Army just when the general needed it most, and only
to place it in reserve. Zhukov objected vigorously, saying that he had
earmarked that army for his attack toward Vyazma . "Don't protest,"
Stalin retorted. "Send it along. You have plenty of troops-just count
them." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">And so it was that, in late February,
Stalin's much-vaunted general offensive ran out of steam and presently ground
to a halt, just as reasonable Soviet officers had said it would on January 5.
The Red Army had won isolated chunks of relatively unimportant terrain and had
been gravely weakened in the process. General Zhukov indulged himself a dry
recapitulation: "Stalin was very attentive to advice but, regrettably,
sometimes took decisions not in accord with the situation." Yet the
winter campaign had not been much of a victory for the Germans either. German
casualties amounted to nearly 200,000 men, and only by dint of skilful and
courageous fighting had Hitler's Wehrmacht been able to hold in roughly the
same position that the generals had hoped to occupy in the strategic withdrawal
forbidden by the F</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ü</span><span lang="EN-GB">hrer.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This fact, of course, escaped Hitler's
notice. He heartily agreed with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who put
out word that "the F</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ü</span><span lang="EN-GB">hrer alone
saved the Eastern Front this winter." Goebbels noted credulously in his
diary, "The F</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ü</span><span lang="EN-GB">hrer described to me
how close we were to a Napoleonic winter. Had he weakened for one moment, the
front would have caved in a catastrophe that would have put the Napoleonic
disaster far into the shade.”</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-27792869877020966032015-06-16T13:04:00.002+08:002015-06-16T13:04:47.023+08:00In 'Stalingrad,' Jochen Hellbeck uses forgotten interviews to take us inside the battle that turned the tide of World War II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRWFyAlkpfsHg56G7GwZKqtoq-eQOAaD5cy6rtg8P9-5zC4SxytX1MRRhQk5P5L0w6U8yCMDF9qaI1ZmaFiCxIPcr1hnHa3reU05RW-eBgMpltXXNhj5iab_zosVIWfUmJYg5LI48SOoc/s1600/stalingradjpg-803cdd3e34ac9e1b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRWFyAlkpfsHg56G7GwZKqtoq-eQOAaD5cy6rtg8P9-5zC4SxytX1MRRhQk5P5L0w6U8yCMDF9qaI1ZmaFiCxIPcr1hnHa3reU05RW-eBgMpltXXNhj5iab_zosVIWfUmJYg5LI48SOoc/s400/stalingradjpg-803cdd3e34ac9e1b.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
<h3>
By Alan Cate </h3>
<strong>Stalingrad</strong><br />
By Jochen Hellbeck<br />
<br />
PublicAffairs, 512 pp., $29.99<br />
<br />
Yorktown and Gettysburg rank highest among American martial epics of
valor and victory. Most Brits would probably choose the World War II
aerial Battle of Britain as their "finest hour." To the French, Verdun –
with its defiant cry, "they shall not pass" – represents a national
Calvary of agony and endurance in World War I.<br />
<br />
For the Russian people, even more deeply engraved on the national
psyche, it's Stalingrad, "the most ferocious and lethal battle in human
history." This titanic five-month encounter, with roughly a million
casualties – dead, wounded, captured or missing – on each side,
culminated in a shattering defeat of the Nazi invaders by the Soviets.<br />
<br />
Military historians universally recognize it as the turning point of
the Second World War, or, as it's known in Russia, the Great Patriotic
War.<br />
<br />
In "Stalingrad: The City That Defeated the Third Reich"
(PublicAffairs, 512 pp., $29.99), Jochen Hellbeck assembles what amounts
to an <em>histoire totale,</em> or all-encompassing chronicle, of this
pivotal contest. The book, previously published to great acclaim in
Germany, centers around a remarkable collection of oral histories
gathered by Soviet researchers during, and in the immediate aftermath
of, the battle in 1942-43.<br />
<br />
This documentary trove languished in the basement of a Moscow archive
until Hellbeck, a German-born historian who teaches at Rutgers
University, came upon it in 2008.<br />
<br />
Comprising 215 eyewitness accounts – thousands of typescript pages –
from participants ranging from generals to privates, as well as
civilians, these interviews paint, writes Hellbeck, a "multifaceted
picture" of incredible bravery and fortitude. Due, however, to their
"candor and complexity," they were censored during the war.<br />
<br />
Afterward, the scholar who compiled them fell into political
disfavor, and his project was buried and forgotten for more than six
decades.<br />
<br />
Hellbeck's signal achievement lies in how he deploys and supplements
his sources. He begins with an overview of the battle, placing it in the
context of both the war and Soviet society. He reminds us that the
U.S.S.R. did more than any country to defeat the Nazis and paid a much
higher price.<br />
<br />
The Red Army inflicted about 75 percent of all the casualties
suffered by the Wehrmacht. Roughly 27 million Soviet citizens died –
around 15 percent of Russia's prewar population. In contrast, American
World War II deaths number just over 400,000.<br />
<br />
This introductory section also describes the origins of the interview
project and its methodology, which Hellbeck hails for its "rigor" and
"scholarly ethos."<br />
<br />
This volume's most creative aspect resides in the "Rashomon"-like
narratives Hellbeck produces by ingeniously weaving together numerous
individual responses, and grouping "them chronologically and by
location," as if in a single conversation.<br />
<br />
Thus we get multiple angles of vision on events such as the capture
of the overall German commander at Stalingrad or a costly, failed
assault on a Nazi-held position. Hellbeck aptly likens the effect to "a
chorus of soldierly and civilian voices."<br />
<br />
The book also contains gripping, stand-alone accounts. Nurse Vera
Gurova was among the nearly 1 million women who served in the Red Army.
She and her sisters elicited this from her commander: "They can't do
what a man can do physically, but they outdo men in terms of courage."<br />
<br />
Sniper Vasily Zaytsev killed 242 Germans and was honored as a Hero of
the Soviet Union. Explaining his remorseless hatred for the enemy, he
commented to his interviewer, "you see girls hanging from the trees.
Does that get to you?"<br />
<br />
Rounding out "Stalingrad" are many photos, transcripts of German
prisoner interrogations, excerpts from the diary of a dead German
soldier and a brief coda that describes the battle's aftermath and the
unhappy fate of the band of researchers who tried to capture the
Stalingrad experience in full.<br />
<br />
Besides illuminating the human side of this colossal battle, Hellbeck
also revises the common Western image of the Red Army as a horde driven
forward "by pistol-waving political officers."<br />
To be sure, savage penalties were meted out to perceived shirkers.
One general casually remarked that he personally "shot the commander and
commissar of one regiment, and a short while later" executed "two
brigade commanders" for their failings.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, Hellbeck's findings compellingly suggest that it wasn't
just, or even mostly, coercion that motivated Soviet troops. Rather, it
was a combination of effective "political conditioning" and genuine
patriotism that inspired them.<br />
<br />
Hellbeck concludes with a visit to the giant memorial in Volgograd,
the name that replaced Stalingrad in 1961 as part of that era's
de-Stalinization. Words penned about the battle and its heroes by the
renowned Soviet novelist Vasily Grossman are engraved on an exterior
wall: "An iron wind struck them in the face, yet they kept moving
forward. . . . Are these mortals?"<br />
<br />
Inscribed inside the monument is this response: "Yes, we were mortal
and few of us survived, but we all discharged our patriotic duty to our
sacred Motherland."Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-9119562972007304512015-06-09T16:15:00.000+08:002015-06-09T16:15:10.367+08:001942 the German armed forces were on the offensive once more<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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To be sure, the German army’s defeat before Moscow meant
that Hitler’s belief in the fragility of the Stalinist regime in the Soviet
Union had been proved decisively wrong. Operation Barbarossa had signally
failed to achieve the aims with which it had set out in the confident days of
June 1941. After stemming the German tide before Moscow, the Red Army had gone
on to the offensive and forced the German army to retreat. As one German
officer wrote to his brother: ‘The Russians are defending themselves with a
courage and tenacity that Dr Goebbels characterizes as “animal”; it costs us
blood, as does every repulse of the attackers. Apparently,’ he went on with a
sarcasm that betrayed the German troops’ growing respect for the Red Army as
well as a widespread contempt for Goebbels among the officer class, ‘true
courage and genuine heroism only begin in Western Europe and in the centre of
this part of the world.’</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The bitter cold of the depths of winter, followed by a
spring thaw that turned the ground to slush, made any fresh campaigning
difficult on any scale until May 1942. At this point, emboldened by the victory
over the Germans before Moscow, Stalin ordered a series of counter-offensives.
His confidence was further strengthened by the fact that the industrial
facilities relocated to the Urals and Transcaucasus had begun producing
significant quantities of military equipment - 4,500 tanks, 3,000 aircraft,
14,000 guns and more than 50,000 mortars by the start of the spring campaign in
May 1942. Over the summer and autumn of 1942, the Red Army command experimented
with a variety of ways of deploying the new tanks in combination with infantry
and artillery, learning from its mistakes each time. But Stalin’s first
counter-attacks proved to be as disastrous as the military engagements of the
previous autumn. Massive assaults on German forces in the Leningrad area failed
to relieve the beleaguered city, attacks on the centre were repulsed in fierce
fighting, and in the south the Germans held fast in the face of repeated Soviet
advances. In the Kharkov area a large-scale Soviet offensive in May 1942 ended
with 100,000 Red Army soldiers killed and twice as many taken prisoner. The
Soviet commanders had seriously underestimated German strength in the area, and
failed to establish air supremacy. Meanwhile, Field Marshal Fedor von Bock,
back from his sick leave on 20 January 1942 as commander of Army Group South,
had decided that attack was the best form of defence, and fought a prolonged
and ultimately successful campaign in the Crimea. But all the time he remained
acutely aware of the thinness of the German lines and the continuing tiredness
of the troops, noting with concern that they were ‘fighting their way forward
with great difficulty and considerable losses’. In a major victory, Bock took
the city of Voronezh. The situation seemed to be improving. ‘I saw there with
my own eyes,’ wrote Hans-Albert Giese, a soldier from rural north Germany, ‘how
our tanks shot the Russian colossi to pieces. The German soldier is just better
in every department. I also think that it’ll be wrapped up here this year.’</div>
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<br /></div>
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But it was not to be. Hitler thought Bock dilatory and
over-cautious in the follow-up to the capture of Voronezh, allowing key Soviet
divisions to escape encirclement and destruction. Bock’s concern was with his
exhausted troops. But Hitler could not accept this. He relieved Bock of his
command with effect from 15 July 1942, replacing him with Colonel-General
Maximilian von Weichs. The embittered Bock spent the rest of the war in
effective retirement, obsessively trying to defend his conduct in the advance
from Voronezh, and hoping against hope for reinstatement. Meanwhile, on 16 July
1942, in order to take personal command of operations, Hitler moved his field
headquarters to a new centre, codenamed ‘Werewolf’, near Vinnitsa, in the
Ukraine. Transported from East Prussia in sixteen planes, Hitler, his
secretaries and his staff spent the next three and a half months in a compound
of damp huts, plagued by daytime heat and biting mosquitoes. Here too were now
located for the time being the operational headquarters of the Supreme Command
of the army and of the armed forces. The main thrust of the German summer
offensive was aimed at securing the Caucasus, with its rich oilfields. Fuel
shortages had played a significant role in the Moscow debacle the previous
winter. With typically dramatic overstatement, Hitler warned that if the
Caucasian oilfields were not conquered in three months, Germany would lose the
war. Having previously divided Army Group South into a northern sector (A) and
a southern sector (B), he now ordered Army Group A to finish off enemy forces
around Rostov-on-Don and then advance through the Caucasus, conquering the
eastern coast of the Black Sea and penetrating to Chechnya and Baku, on the
Caspian, both areas rich in oil. Army Group B was to take the city of
Stalingrad and push on to the Caspian via Astrakhan on the lower Volga. The
splitting of Army Group South and the command to launch both offensives
simultaneously while sending several divisions northwards to help in the attack
on Leningrad reflected Hitler’s continuing underestimation of the Soviet army.
Chief of the Army General Staff Franz Halder was in despair, his mood not
improved by Hitler’s obvious contempt for the leadership of the German army.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Whatever they thought in private, however, the generals saw
no alternative but to go along with Hitler’s plans. The campaign began with an
assault by Army Group A on the Crimea, in which Field Marshal Erich von
Manstein defeated twenty-one Red Army divisions, killing or capturing 200,000
out of the 300,000 soldiers facing his forces. The Red Army command had
realized too late that the Germans had, temporarily at least, abandoned their
ambition to take Moscow and were concentrating their efforts in the south. The
main Crimean city, Sevastopol, put up stiff resistance but fell after a siege
lasting a month, with 90,000 Red Army troops being taken prisoner. The whole
operation, however, had cost the German army nearly 100,000 casualties, and
when German, Hungarian, Italian and Romanian forces moved southwards they found
the Russians adopting a new tactic. Instead of fighting every inch of the way
until they were surrounded and destroyed, the Russian armies, with Stalin’s
agreement, engaged in a series of tactical retreats that denied the Germans the
vast numbers of prisoners they had hoped for. They took between 100,000 and
200,000 in three large-scale battles, many fewer than before. Undaunted, Army
Group A occupied the oilfields at Maykop, only to find the refineries had been
systematically destroyed by the retreating Russians. To mark the success of
their advance, mountaineering troops from Austria climbed Mount Elbrus, at
5,630 metres (or 19,000 feet) the highest point in the Caucasus, and planted
the German flag on the peak. Hitler was privately enraged, fuming at what he
saw as a diversion from the real objectives of the campaign. ‘I often saw
Hitler furious,’ reported Albert Speer later, ‘but seldom did his anger erupt
from him as it did when this report came in.’ He railed against ‘these crazy
mountain climbers who belong before a court-martial’. They were pursuing their
idiotic hobbies in the midst of a war, he exclaimed indignantly.’ His reaction
suggested a nervousness about the advance that was to turn out to be fully
justified.</div>
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<br /></div>
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In the north, Leningrad (St Petersburg) had been cut off by
German forces since 8 September 1941. With over 3 million people living in the
city and its suburbs, the situation soon became extremely difficult as supplies
dwindled to almost nothing. Soon the city’s inhabitants were starving, eating
cats, dogs, rats and even each other. A narrow and precarious line of
communication was kept open across the ice of Lake Ladoga, but the Russians
were not able to bring in more than a fraction of what was needed to feed the
city and keep its inhabitants warm. In the first winter of the siege, there
were 886 arrests for cannibalism. 440,000 people were evacuated, but, according
to German estimates, a million civilians died during the winter of 1941-2 from
cold and starvation. The city’s situation improved in the course of 1942, with
everyone growing and storing vegetables for the coming winter, half a million
more people being evacuated, and massive quantities of supplies and munitions
being shipped in across Lake Ladoga and stockpiled for when the freeze began. A
new pipeline laid down on the bottom of the lake pumped in oil for heating. 160
combat planes of the German air force were lost in a futile attempt to bomb the
Soviet communication line, while bombing raids on the city itself caused
widespread damage but failed to destroy it or break the morale of the remaining
citizens. Luck also came to the Leningraders’ aid at last: the winter of 1942-3
was far less severe than its calamitous predecessor. The frost came late, in
mid-November. As everything began to freeze once more, the city still stood in
defiance of the German siege.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Further south, a Soviet counter-attack on the town of Rzhev
in August 1942 was threatening serious damage to Army Group Centre. Halder
asked Hitler to allow a retreat to a more easily defensible line. ‘You always
come here with the same proposal, that of withdrawal,’ Hitler shouted at his
Chief of the General Army Staff. Halder lacked the same toughness as the
troops, Hitler told him. Halder lost his temper. He was tough enough, he said.
‘But out there, brave musketeers and lieutenants are falling in thousands and
thousands as a useless sacrifice in a hopeless situation simply because their commanders
are not allowed to make the only reasonable decision and have their hands tied
behind their backs.’ In Rzhev, Hans Meier-Welcker noticed an alarming
improvement in Soviet tactics. They were now beginning to co-ordinate tanks,
infantry and air support in a way they had not succeeded in doing before. The
Red Army troops were far better able than the Germans to cope with extreme
weather conditions, he thought. ‘We are amazed,’ he wrote in April 1942, ‘by
what the Russians are achieving in the mud!’ ‘Our columns of vehicles,’ wrote
one officer, ‘are stuck hopelessly in the morass of unfathomable roads, and
further supplies are already hard to organize.’ In such conditions, German
armour was often useless. By the summer, the troops were having to contend with
temperatures of 40 degrees in the shade and the massive dust-clouds thrown up
by the advancing motorized columns. ‘The roads,’ wrote the same officer to his
brother, ‘are shrouded in a single thick cloud of dust, through which man and
beast make their way: it’s troublesome for the eyes. The dust often swirls up
in thick pillars that then blow along the columns, making it impossible to see
anything for minutes at a time.’</div>
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<br /></div>
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Impatient with, or perhaps unaware of, such practical
problems, Hitler demanded that his generals press on with the advance.
‘Discussions with the Leader today,’ recorded Halder despairingly at the end of
August 1942, ‘were once more characterized by serious accusations levelled
against the military leadership at the top of the army. They are accused of
intellectual arrogance, incorrigibility and an inability to recognize the
essentials.’ On 24 September 1942, finally, Hitler dismissed Halder, telling
him to his face that he had lost his nerve. Halder’s replacement was
Major-General Kurt Zeitzler, previously in charge of coastal defences in the
west. A convinced National Socialist, Zeitzler began his tenure of office by
demanding that all members of the Army General Staff reaffirm their belief in
the Leader, a belief Halder had so self-evidently long since lost. By the end
of 1942, it was reckoned that one and a half million troops of various
nationalities had been killed, wounded, invalided out or taken prisoner on the
Eastern Front, nearly half the original invading force. There were 327,000
German dead. These losses were becoming increasingly hard to replace. The
eastern campaign had stalled. To try to break the impasse, the German army
advanced on Stalingrad, not only a major industrial centre and key distribution
point for supplies to and from the Caucasus, but also a city whose name lent it
a symbolic significance that during the coming months came to acquire an
importance far beyond anything else its situation might warrant.</div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-28144144319992304362015-05-29T14:34:00.000+08:002015-05-29T14:34:32.819+08:00Il-2 combat operations during 1943-1944 <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
In the summer of 1944 the Soviet Command decided to use
clustered projectiles against the enemy armoured vehicles, and the PTAB 2.5-1.5
'cumulative' aircraft bomb, developed under the leadership of I Larionov, was
put into production. The small calibre bombs were loaded directly into the bomb
bay and were dropped on the enemy vehicles from altitudes up to 328ft (100m).
As each Il-2 could carry up to 192 bombs, a 'fire carpet' 229ft (70m) long and
49ft (15m) wide covered the enemy tanks, giving a high probability of
destruction. This was important because the low accuracy of the Il-2's bomb
sight was one of its shortcomings. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pilots of the 291 st ShAP were the first to use the PTAB
2.5-1.5 bombs. In one operation on 5th June 1943 six attack aircraft led by
Lieutenant Colonel AVitrook destroyed 15 enemy tanks in one attack, and during
five days of the enemy advance the 291 st Division pilots destroyed and damaged
422 enemy tanks. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the Battle for Kursk General V Ryazanov became a master
in the use of attack aircraft en masse, developing and improving the tactics of
the Il-2 operation in co-ordination with infantry, artillery and armoured
troops. Ryazanov was later twice made a Hero of the Soviet Union, and the 1st
Attack Aircraft Corps under his command became the first to be awarded a Guard
title. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, the successes of attack aircraft combat operations
were accomplished with great losses. The Luftwaffe Command claimed that the
Russians lost 6,900 Il-2s in 1943 and 7,300 in the following year. Although
these figures exaggerated the losses by a factor of 2 to 2.2, they were
substantial nonetheless. In 1943 one loss corresponded to 26 Il-2 sorties, and
to even fewer in certain operations. Approximately half of those lost were shot
down by enemy fighters, the other half falling to anti-aircraft fire of
ground-based guns. Assessing the main reasons for such great losses, the Air
Force Commander, A Novikov, considered that poor training of the crews and units
was not to blame, but attributed them to flawed tactical procedures in attack
aircraft operation. On almost all fronts the pilots adopted a peculiar scheme
of approaching the target at 3,300 to 4,900ft (1,000 to 1,500m) altitude
without considering its nature, then gliding down and recovering after the
attack with a turn, to port. The enemy therefore knew the .attackers'
manoeuvres beforehand, and prepared all of his anti-aircraft defences, taking
full advantage of relief features, forest, bushes etc, before their appearance
over the battlefield. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The German Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 attacked
successfully when the Il-2 gunners were inattentive and the formations were
broken up. A damaged and lagging Il-2 often became the victim of fighters.
However, attack aircraft pilots could sometimes use skilful defensive tactics,
and gunners mastered aggressive fire techniques. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The Il-2's survivability was appraised in the 1st ShAP, and
Ilyushin's predictions were confirmed. As a rule the lower armour was not pierced,
being hit by low calibre projectiles, and the cockpit also turned out to be
effectively armoured. One pilot managed to land his Il-2 with only half of the
elevator and rudder and with the port tailplane damaged as a result of
anti-aircraft fire, and another landed without any covering on the wing centre
section and with no flaps. The rear fuselage, outer wing panels and oil
radiators suffered most from anti-aircraft fire. Sometimes the rear fuselage
was insufficiently strong, and aircraft with metal outer wing panels appeared
to have better chances of survival. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Much attention was paid to eliminating these shortcomings.
When deliveries of metal to the aircraft factories became regular, they began
to build the aircraft with all-metal wings and to reinforce their rear
fuselages with additional lengths of angle extrusions. These features were
incorporated in Il-2s manufactured in the second half of 1944. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The results were positive. An analysis of attack aircraft
operation in the 3rd Air Army showed that irretrievable losses totalled 2.8 %
of the number of sorties, and damage was sustained on half of the sorties. The
ease with which the Il-2 could be mastered by pilots and technicians promoted
its widespread use on all fronts. Pilot A Yefimov, twice Hero of the Soviet
Union, remembered: 'It was one of the most easily-mastered aircraft. There were
no difficult instrument operations to distract the pilot from aiming at the
target. The aircraft forgave the pilot even for flagrant errors. I do not know
of a single case when an aircraft went out of control or entered a spin because
of a pilot's mistakes'. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Il-2 was widely used by the Soviet Navy's air arm. An
effective method of attack against shipping was to approach at a height of
100ft (30m) at about 250mph (400km/h) and drop the bombs so that they
ricocheted off the water and destroyed the target vessel. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Naval People's Commissar N Kuznetsov considered this method,
named top-machtovoe bombometanie, or mast-top bombing, to be approximately five
times more effective than horizontal bombing. Lieutenant Colonel N Stepanyan
was among the best attack aircraft pilots. On 14th December 1944 Stepanyan led
42 Il-2s of the 47th ShAP in an attack on Libava naval base. Together with Pe-2
bombers, the attack aircraft sank seven freighters and damaged six more.
Thirteen Il2s were shot down, including the one flown by Stepanyan, who was
posthumously proclaimed a Hero of the Soviet Union, his second such award. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During the Second World War, 26 attack aircraft pilots
flying Ilyushins were twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In conclusion, it is worth quoting the assessment of the
Il-2 by the German infantry commander General von Sauken, Commander of the East
Prussia Group in the final stages of the war. He wrote: 'The effectiveness of
Russian aviation activity in the Danzig region was enormous, and petrified the
troops. Neither our air force nor our powerful artillery could oppose this air
power'.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
#</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Summer 1943. The German army prepares to launch its new offensive
for the same ground where it had only months ago suffered its worst defeat of
the war to date: The Southern Front. In the coming days, 6000 tanks, 4000
planes and two million soldiers would collide in what would become one of the
most spectacular and brutal battles in all of World War II - The Battle of
Kursk. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The victories achieved by the Soviet Armed Forces during the
Battle for the Volga and the later counteroffensive during the winter of 1942
had a considerable impact on the situation in the Soviet-German Front. The
German High Command hoped for a decisive victory which would both soften the
political consequences of the defeats suffered during the previous year, as
well as wiping out a large number of Soviet units, weakening the entire Russian
front. Betting heavily on German technological superiority to improve their
odds of a victory, the Germans rushed large numbers of the new heavy Tiger and
Panther tanks, and self-propelled Ferdinand vehicles into the theater. In
addition to huge numbers of armored vehicles, the Germans looked to the use of
combined air and ground power as a force multiplier. From all over Fortress
Europa, the Germans drew the best squadrons available and poured them into the
airfields of Oriol, Belgorod and Jarkov. In all, 17 squadrons, comprised of
more than 1800 planes, were assembled. An additional 200 bombers were stationed
in the rear guard airfields. The total commitment of the Luftwaffe numbered
some 2000 aircraft - about 70 % of its total strength.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The Soviets, aware of the German plans, sought to protect
their ground troops with air cover assembled from units from other fronts, even
from the reserves of the Supreme High Command General Headquarters. The Soviet
Army gathered 3000 aircraft, roughly doubling the enemy in fighter planes. As
the battle raged, wave after wave of Stukas attacked the Soviet armored
vehicles, while the Russian planes did the same to the German Panzers. The
Luftwaffe attacked industrial sites and communication centers, while the Soviet
attacks focused on airfields and ammunition deposits. In a radius of 20 to 60
Kilometers, some 2000 planes engaged in aerial combat involving from 100 to 150
machines at a given time. On July 20th 1943, facing the possibility of
Wehrmacht units being cutoff or trapped, and fearing a repeat of the scenario
that took place at Stalingrad, Hitler called off "Unternehmen
Zitadelle" (Operation Citadel) and the German divisions retreated to a
safer position, but not before German forces had suffered huge losses of
irreplaceable crews and equipment.</div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-55603775454934184502015-05-20T15:56:00.002+08:002015-05-20T15:56:26.742+08:00LILYA LITVYAK I<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjivVQZM_75J9A5pQuYwajGffNuaCdIZnCNKiblD-oiCcYROzC5fOECVqkUAd_czCM6PeShgZ40RG4F29xdpk0LCWNqYoXooiYeQTJjfxjbT8o_Kx33wnXhXGPAqF5-2NU_85SWua5IQPsA/s1600/flat%252C550x550%252C075%252Cf.u1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjivVQZM_75J9A5pQuYwajGffNuaCdIZnCNKiblD-oiCcYROzC5fOECVqkUAd_czCM6PeShgZ40RG4F29xdpk0LCWNqYoXooiYeQTJjfxjbT8o_Kx33wnXhXGPAqF5-2NU_85SWua5IQPsA/s400/flat%252C550x550%252C075%252Cf.u1.jpg" width="271" /></a></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Lilya Litvyak flew her Yak-1 into hell over the Volga on
September 10, 1942. She and eight others were transferred from the PVO to the
437th Fighter Regiment out of Verkhnaia Akhtuba, south of the city. The
reception from their male counterparts wasn’t the best, as the battle hadn’t
become desperate—yet. Mechanics didn’t want to service planes flown by women,
and one male pilot even refused to fly a Yak that had been preflighted by “one
of those girls.” The regiment commander, Maj. M. S. Khostnikov, supposedly
shook his head and said, “We’re waiting for real pilots and they sent us a
bunch of girls.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The attitude is understandable. Stalingrad was slowly being
encircled on the west side of the river, no real help was in sight, and the
odds were terrible. Since the German Sixth Army had arrived on August 23, more
than two hundred VVS aircraft had been lost. Among other foes, the VVS was also
facing the renowned Ace of Spades pilots (Pik As) from JG 53. The wing was part
of the big assault, and Erwin Meier was flying with 2 Staffel when he met Lilya
Litvyak over Stalingrad on September 13.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Veterans from Spain, the Battle for France, and the Battle
of Britain, the Pik As were hardened fighter pilots. During the Battle of
Britain Goering discovered that the wife of the Geschwaderkommodore, Major
Hans-Jürgen von Cramon-Taubadel, had distant Jewish ancestry. Goering made the
entire wing remove their Ace of Spades emblem and replace it with a red band
around the nose of each aircraft. After their commander was removed, the pilots
retaliated by immediately painting over the swastikas on the tails. They were
typically hard-fighting, irreverent, and unafraid of the Nazi hierarchy, or
anything else, for that matter. One month into Barbarossa, the wing had shot
down its one thousandth enemy aircraft.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the Russians were fighting back—hard. As the German 16th
Panzers crunched over the rubble on the outskirts of the city, they ran into
the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment. Though effective against aircraft, the 37 mm
guns had a tough time with the extra armor plates carried on most Panzer IIIIV
tanks. After knocking out all the guns, the Germans were shocked to find they’d
been fighting teenage girls. The twin thrusts were largely successful, and by
mid-November Paulus had advanced to the Volga shore and controlled nine-tenths
of Stalingrad.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was over a year now since Barbarossa had ground to a
halt, and once again winter threatened the Germans. Low clouds, fog, and
killing temperatures made most flying difficult if not impossible. Luftflotte
IV managed about 1,500 daily sorties but had lost at least 40 percent of its
operational aircraft, and the strength of the Sixth Army had fallen by half.
The VVS decided to form the 9th Guards Fighter Regiment, an elite unit composed
solely of veterans and aces. Commanded by Lev Shestakov, the leading Soviet ace
from Spain, the 9th was supposed to do battle with famous German units such as
JG 52 and JG 53.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Apparently Shestakov wanted Lilya Litvyak and Katya Budanova
in his regiment, given their blossoming reputations. “Watch out for the girls,”
he told his male pilots. “And don’t offend them. They fly excellently and they
have already killed some Fritzes.” By this time prewar prejudices had
disappeared and all that mattered was a pilot’s ability to kill the enemy and
not his (or her) comrades. This attitude was shared by most Russians, and in an
eerie parallel to Hitler’s Nazi ranting, the Russians were told, “If you have
not killed at least one German a day you have wasted that day. If you leave a
German alive, the German will hang a Russian and rape a Russian woman. Kill the
German.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By mid-November the snow was falling. The Volga had frozen,
making transport of men and ammunition somewhat easier, and the Soviets did the
unexpected—they counterattacked with Operation Uranus at 7:20 a.m. on November
19, 1942. Spearheaded by the 1st Guards Tank Army, the Soviet Southwest Front
slammed into the Romanian forces on the German left following an eighty-minute
artillery barrage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As their northern flank collapsed, the German 48th Panzer
Corps tried to stem the Russian armored assault, but with less than a hundred
tanks, it just wasn’t possible. The Stalingrad Front launched its southern
attack at 8:00 a.m. the next morning. The Romanian 6th Cavalry Corps crumbled,
and the 29th Panzer Grenadiers counterattacked. But with “allies” being routed
on all sides, the Germans had to fall back to escape annihilation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the end of four days the northern pincer rolled through
90 miles to enter Kalach, due west of the city and behind the German lines. The
southern arm of the trap closed nearby at Sovetskiy. It was November 23, and
300,000 Germans from the Sixth Army and 4th Panzers were cut off inside
Stalingrad.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hitler utterly refused to permit the Sixth Army to break out
to the west. Stalingrad, though an important strategic objective, was a vital
psychological one as well. Not only did it bear his archrival’s name, but it
had also been the launching point of Stalin’s career. No, the Sixth Army would
hold until a relief force could break the cordon around Stalingrad. Until von
Manstein’s Army Group Don arrived, they would be supplied by the Luftwaffe—after
all, Goering promised it could be done. However, this was the same man who had
sworn to conquer the RAF and stated in 1939 that “no enemy bomber can reach the
Ruhr. If one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Goering. You may call me Meyer.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Goering was in Bavaria on November 22 and, after assuring
Hitler that the airlift could be done, left to visit Parisian art galleries.
Von Richthofen was astounded. He had less than fifty Ju 52’s on hand—not even a
tenth of those required. An airlift would need to provide a bare minimum of 350
tons of supplies per day for the beleaguered Sixth Army to hold. A single Ju 52
transport was supposed to hold 2 tons of freight, but even that wasn’t quite
correct.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This was based on the “1,000 kg” labels fixed to standard Luftwaffe
containers, which turned out to indicate only the bomb rack used to hold them.
The actual load was about two-thirds of that, or 660 kilograms. So each Junker
could manage about 2,600 pounds instead of the 2 tons used for planning. This
meant that 270 flights delivering 350 tons would have to land each day to keep
the army alive. Also, not every day was a flying day, due to the horrible
winter weather. Generaloberst Kurt Zeitzler, the army chief of staff and an
Eastern Front veteran himself, was aware of this and the flaws in Goering’s
math. A daily delivery of some 500 tons would be needed to take up the slack.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Under forward-area combat conditions, operational readiness
for transports was 30 to 40 percent at best. Several hundred Ju 52’s would be
required to meet the need, but there were just forty-seven on hand. This was
during a time when the German air force was heavily committed in North Africa
and the yearly Ju 52 production was about five hundred aircraft. Even with
available He 111’s and Ju 88’s, it wasn’t enough, and every Luftwaffe officer
from von Richthofen down knew the airlift was hopeless. Even when aircraft
managed to land, sometimes it didn’t help. One day 20 tons of vodka and bales
of summer uniforms were delivered. Another aircraft arrived loaded with pepper
and other spices.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On November 27 an angry Zeitzler had the courage to call
Goering a liar to his face, and in front of Hitler. Yet despite the odds, they
tried and managed about 80 tons per day even with a resurgent VVS prowling the
skies. And the VVS was expanding and strengthening. More than 35,000 sorties
would be flown during the battle for Stalingrad and, according to Soviet
sources, 1,100 German aircraft would be shot down.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Red Air Force had successfully adapted to the situations
they faced, taking from the Luftwaffe some tactics while inventing others
themselves. Three-ship groupings were generally a thing of the past; like the
British before them, the VVS now flew a four-ship zveno flight, which could be
divided into the two-ship para if needed. They also utilized the okhotniki, or
“free hunt,” copied from the German jagd frei, or “roving fighters.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Others were uniquely Russian. The taran, or “ramming
attack,” was performed by VVS pilots on many occasions. The first recorded use
was by a Russian named Nesterov in 1914 over the Ukraine—he didn’t survive, and
neither did his target.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There were different ways to do it. Ideally, you’d get close
enough behind the other fighter to chew up its horizontal tail or rudder with
your prop. If you were lucky, your plane was still flyable and you might make
it back. Clipping the wing with your own was also possible. Some I-16’s were
modified with a beefed-up wing structure to make this more possible. Or, as a
final option, you could simply dive straight into the other plane. The
likelihood of living through that was next to nothing. It’s estimated that more
than five hundred taran attacks were made by the VVS during World War II.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sokoliny udar, the “falcon blow,” looked similar from the victim’s
point of view, but it wasn’t a ram. It was a full-throttle, stick-in-the-lap
move into the vertical. This very suddenly traded airspeed for altitude, and if
the threat was close or didn’t have the airspeed to follow, the idea was to
roll back down and end up behind him as he flashed past.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So at this time, in late 1942 and early 1943, the ground
situation gave the VVS enough of a breather to begin reconstitution. Though
they’d suffered horrible losses, the Red air force didn’t suffer from manpower
potential nor from a crucial shortage of equipment. Logistics was easier in
many respects given the local nature of the defense. Also, the factories that
had moved to the Urals were beginning to produce again, and Lend-Lease
deliveries, which would eventually total some 15,000 aircraft, were arriving in
Russia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So while Goering gathered art on the Seine, the last Axis
soldiers limped over the Don River bridges into Stalingrad and blew up the
bridges behind them. All through December men fought and died. And they
starved. First they ate their transport horses. Then birds, dogs, and rats.
Lastly they ate each other. Soviet units recaptured all the airfields by the
third week in January and the airlift, such as it was, ended.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On February 1, following 199 days of fighting and 2 million
casualties on both sides, Paulus surrendered what remained of the Sixth Army.
Just over 91,000 men and 22 generals were marched off to oblivion; fewer than
6,000 would return home ten years later. Hitler had promoted Paulus to Generalfeldmarschall
on January 30 assuming that he would fight to the death or commit suicide, as
no German officer of that rank had ever capitulated. Paulus chose life and
said, “I have no intention of shooting myself for that Bavarian corporal.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ten days after the Sixth Army surrendered, Lilya was back in
action over the frozen earth west of Stalingrad. As Marshal Zhukov tried to
push the Germans west, Stukas and fighter bombers continuously attacked his
tanks. She shot down a Stuka on February 11, then, later that same day, ran
into the newly fielded Focke-Wulf 190 fighter. February also brought Lilya an
officer’s commission, to mladshii leitenant (junior lieutenant), and a
promotion to flight lead. So Litvyak now had a wingman of her own. With her
recognition and acceptance from the male fighter pilots came a very distinctive
self-confidence. She painted a white flower on the side of her Yak and through
it became known as the “White Rose of Stalingrad.”* By the end of March she’d
added a bomber, another Fw 190, and an Me 109G to her tally. In one nasty fight
on March 22, she was shot up by two Me 109G-6’s from JG 3. These had
1,400-horsepower DB 605 engines, with even-numbered variants (such as the G-6)
unpressurized and upgraded with a new 30 mm cannon. She shot one of them down
and was saved by her wingmen from the other. Badly wounded, Lilya barely landed
but had to be pulled from the cockpit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sent to Moscow to recover, she remained there until May.
Promoted now to senior lieutenant, she returned to the 73rd Guards Fighter
Aviation Regiment in early May. During an escort mission on May 5 she hammered
a Messerschmitt to pieces, and a second one two days later. The time off had
not dulled her reflexes or her marksmanship. Nor had it diminished another
issue she had to deal with. Fighter pilots falling in love with each other had
never been a problem, for obvious reasons, but when one of them happens to be a
beautiful young girl, with long blond hair and gray eyes . . .</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So it was for Alexei Solomatin. He’d flown with Lilya, and
they’d become close, with a bond only combat can give. But he’d also fallen in
love with her, and in all likelihood she felt the same. Yet with so much to
overcome and so much to prove, she never openly allowed her feelings to show.
Perhaps she gave in to the adoring young fighter pilot; perhaps not. She never
revealed it, and Solomatin was killed three weeks after her return. She was
never really the same again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her white-hot rage coincided perfectly with the beginning of
the last great German offensive in Russia—Operation Citadel. Designed to
eliminate the Kursk salient, straighten the German line, and improve the
Wehrmacht’s defensive positions, Citadel had been planned back in April 1943.</div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-50396591580191617442015-05-20T15:52:00.001+08:002015-05-20T15:52:53.230+08:00LILYA LITVYAK II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXGoX8tCi0DSYkBXwQMQZcXgTl9uPE1AlxdmQTGu0zRsVq6s6NROMAIsiTzn6E-gOA5Cw41x2RKXDfduu-hOw5BeziJCmuhtW3Xj2cpM7h7i7ptuzSVy8wwXvMjMZXgAzw2ScEnMYhPcFB/s1600/white-rose-of-stalingrad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXGoX8tCi0DSYkBXwQMQZcXgTl9uPE1AlxdmQTGu0zRsVq6s6NROMAIsiTzn6E-gOA5Cw41x2RKXDfduu-hOw5BeziJCmuhtW3Xj2cpM7h7i7ptuzSVy8wwXvMjMZXgAzw2ScEnMYhPcFB/s400/white-rose-of-stalingrad.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The VVS knew the attack would come on July 5, but not the
precise time or location. So they boldly decided to attack preemptively and
throw the Wehrmacht timeline into confusion. More than three hundred aircraft
took part in the raid, but they were detected 80 miles out by German radar.
Messerschmitts from JG 52 and JG 3 lifted off and hit the Soviets just as they
were making their initial attacks, and more than a hundred VVS aircraft went
down.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Ninth Army began its pincer from Orel, north of the
salient, as the 4th Panzer Army stabbed upward from the Kharkov area. More than
3,000 German tanks, including the new Panthers and Tigers, sliced into the
Russian positions. Hitler had purposely delayed the offensive until his new
tanks were ready, thinking they would be decisive. Unfortunately, the delay
also gave the Soviets time to prepare 3,000 miles of trenches and lay nearly a
half million mines. There were also over a million Russian troops with 3,600
tanks to oppose the Germans. The VVS could muster about 2,500 combat aircraft,
of which half were fighters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For a week both sides slugged it out. The Soviets, and in
particular the VVS, took frightful losses. One estimate puts fighter losses at
over 50 percent and ground attack aircraft down by a third. This again revealed
Russian weaknesses in aircraft and especially in pilots. Numerically the VVS
exceeded the Luftwaffe, by five to one in some cases, but pilot experience
levels were vastly different, and it showed. JG 52 passed the 6,000-kill mark
when Operation Citadel began. Bubi Hartmann, Gerd Barkhorn, and Günther Rall,
the top three aces of all time, were part of this extraordinary fighter wing.
Six of the fifteen top Luftwaffe aces flew with JG 52 and between them
accounted for 1,580 aircraft.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Red Air Force had its ringers as well. Ivan Kozhedub
ended the war as the top Allied ace, with sixty-four confirmed kills. Sasha
Pokryshkin, a Siberian peasant who emerged as the top tactician of the VVS, was
right behind him. Pokryshkin pioneered a layered defense based on aircraft
type. This type of “fighter stack” had been used by the Germans on the Western
Front during the Great War and was adapted by both Mölders and Galland during
the Battle of Britain. Pokryshkin’s talent, other than killing, was defying
conventional VVS and Russian dogma by thinking for himself. Just as the RAF’s
Hugh Dowding could see the value of radar, early warning, and radio-controlled
intercepts, so too could Pokryshkin.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Three times a Hero of the Soviet Union, an honor he shared
with Ivan Kozhedub, Sasha almost certainly had a higher number of actual kills
than Kozhedub. At least a dozen of his earliest weren’t credited to him, and he
often gave his victories away to pilots who had been killed. This passed on the
government-supplied bonus to the dead pilots’ families and gave them some
measure of support. Phenomenal aviator that he was, Sasha Pokryshkin was
forbidden to fly after the summer of 1944 for fear that his death would
devastate Soviet morale. Both Russian aces, like Hartmann, Barkhorn, and Rall,
would survive the war.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On July 12 Operation Citadel came to a head in an immense
tank battle outside Prokhorovka, about 40 miles southeast of Kursk. The II SS
Panzer Corps had been advancing north from the Belgorad area when several
Soviet armies were thrown against them. More than a thousand tanks engaged, and
at the end of the long, bloody day the German thrust had been halted. To be
stopped in this, their last great offensive, meant time was running out for the
Wehrmacht.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was also running out for Lilya Litvyak. On July 16 she
ran up against a fifty-three-victory ace named Hans Grünberg. Pouncing on a
formation of thirty Ju-88s near Luhansk, she’d shot one down when Grunberg
jumped her. He’d already accounted for two Yaks that day and knew exactly who
was flying this particular Russian fighter with the white flower painted on the
side. Big 30 mm shells had ripped into her plane, but Lilya managed to slip and
slide away from a lethal hit. Sometime during the joust the German overshot and
Lilya repositioned, rolling around behind the Messerschmitt. Hosing off bursts
from her own 20 mm cannon, she was able to watch him ditch the fighter.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Three days later she wasn’t so lucky. Her wingman went down
when they were attacked by at least eight 109s. Crashing, gear up, into a
farmer’s field behind enemy lines, Lilya thought her war was over. If she
surrendered, she knew, she could never go home again due to Stalin’s Order 270,
and her family would also be thrown into prison. If she fought back against the
approaching German infantry she would certainly die. But just then a dirty
green Shturmovik dropped out of the sky and bounced in for a landing, and the
pilot threw open the cockpit. Hobbling across the field, clutching her leg,
Lilya made it to the plane. The pilot hauled her inside, goosed the power, and
slammed the canopy shut as they staggered back into the air.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So many close calls normally means your bag of luck is
empty. If possible, pilots go on leave or stay on the ground until the ominous
signs pass. This couldn’t be done when every experienced pilot was needed to
fight the still very formidable Luftwaffe—not that Lilya would’ve done it
anyway.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On August 1, 1943, Lilya Litvyak took off from her airfield
near Krasny Luch in southeastern Ukraine. Her first two sorties involved
escorting Shturmoviks to attack German positions to the west. The third time
up, in late morning, she shot down a 109G and shared a second kill on another.
Around noon, she took off on her fourth mission of the day, to intercept a
large formation of Ju 88s crossing the lines heading east.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Weather had been building from the noonday heat; like a
field of mushrooms, the big, puffy clouds reflected sunlight bounced from the
edges. Yellow beams slanted into countless shifting canyons, as the dark green Russian
fighter sliced down to line up on the bombers. The tired, wounded pilot never
saw two of the escorting Messerschmitts roll inverted and dive at her.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Orange tracers arced across the sky as nearly fifty aircraft
swirled, twisted, and killed each other. Lilya’s wingman, Ivan Borisenko, was
fighting for his own life, but he caught a glimpse of her turning back toward
the Germans. As the three fighters clawed at each other they fell into the
clouds and disappeared. As fast as it had begun it was over, and the survivors
limped home, Borisenko among them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But not Lilya.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hours went by and the ground crews waited. Waited until
night fell and the stars came out. Waited for word from somewhere that she’d
bailed out or landed. But there was nothing. It was her 168th combat mission,
and she never came back.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thirty-six years later, in 1979, villagers near the town of
Dmytrivka discovered the skeleton of a small woman. From the gold fillings in
the teeth, the Soviet government identified the remains as those of Lidiya
Vladirmirovna Litvyak. Eleven years later, during a celebration of the
forty-fifth anniversary of World War II, the last premier of Stalin’s Communist
Russia awarded Lilya a medal—she was at last a Hero of the Soviet Union.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many people, experts and friends alike, don’t believe that
she died that afternoon over the Ukraine. One very plausible theory is that she
collided with, or rammed, one of the attacking Messerschmitts. Luftwaffe
records confirm that Hans-Jorg Merkle, a twenty-nine-victory ace from JG 52,
was credited with a kill against a Yak-1b on August 1, 1943, in the same area
in which Lilya vanished. One of the surviving Germans also stated that Merkle
had been rammed. In any event, he didn’t survive. Whether she rammed the
Messerschmitt or her plane was too badly damaged to make it back, Lilya very
well could’ve survived only to find herself behind the German lines again, and
this time she was captured. Dr. Kazimiera Cottam, an expert on Soviet female
combat veterans, is certain Lilya survived. If she’d been captured, then
knowing what awaited her in Russia after the war may have convinced her that
there was no going back. She would’ve faced a filtration camp, or worse, as
would her family. Maybe, she thought, it was better to have them think she was
dead, her reputation untarnished and her family safe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cottam also wrote that “Russian television featured a
broadcast from Switzerland during which a correspondent introduced a former
Soviet woman World War II pilot, a mother of three children who was twice
wounded during the war and resided abroad since the war.” On a practical note,
the village of Dmytrivka, where her remains were “discovered,” is more than 50
miles northwest of where Lilya’s final dogfight occurred. This was the wrong
direction for a pilot trying to land a damaged plane, and she would have known
that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lilya Litvyak may or may not have died that day in August
1943. Regardless of her end, in the end the White Rose of Stalingrad, and her
legacy as an extraordinary fighter pilot, live on forever.</div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-25332090363119651552015-05-13T17:35:00.000+08:002015-05-13T17:35:09.362+08:00Comrade Zhukov<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KHzIUFOKIVB-WZFemQU-G16Mnv_oMCV-2fY0Cnqv229WeY9byNfn7zNbKt0XfL2ZZU0xSbAAzfZbMwbjGR6QrNEAbmplYYlHlOCodGD05KBdkyRkgE2GXH_g9OaZRsUqvV02jbeRgE5H/s1600/aa94faa490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KHzIUFOKIVB-WZFemQU-G16Mnv_oMCV-2fY0Cnqv229WeY9byNfn7zNbKt0XfL2ZZU0xSbAAzfZbMwbjGR6QrNEAbmplYYlHlOCodGD05KBdkyRkgE2GXH_g9OaZRsUqvV02jbeRgE5H/s400/aa94faa490.jpg" width="307" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
After Leningrad stabilized, Zhukov was sent to the Reserve
Front on 8 October 1941. At that time, the USSR's situation was critical: the
Battle of Moscow was taking place, and nearly the entire Soviet Western Front
was being encircled in what eventually became a huge "cauldron
battle" at in the Rzhev–Vyazma salient, where it was estimated that some
775,000 Soviet personnel were lost. Its commander, S. M. Budyonny, wasn't even
present at headquarters and the officers in the High Command didn't seem to
know what was happening at the front. An enraged Zhukov was thus forced to go
to the front lines himself to grasp the battlefield situation, and then to
search for Budyonny. To unify the operations of the huge numbers of Soviet
forces, he sent a suggestion to Stalin that the Reserve and the Western Fronts
be merged. After that, Zhukov became the de facto leader of the forces
defending the Soviet capital city.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After a brief period, Zhukov established communication links
with the encircled Soviet troops of the Western Front. After analyzing the
situation and pointing out strengths and weaknesses of the German troops
surrounding them, he gave specific instructions to their commanders and
political personnel. Unable to break the Kessel (Ger. "kettle", or
encirclement area), the surrounded Soviet troops did manage to strengthen their
positions under Zhukov's leadership. Their efforts to some extent wore out some
German units and thereby reduced the overall striking power of the offensive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On 15 November, the Germans launched another attack on
Moscow. At Krasnaya Polyana and Kryukovo, northwest of the capital, the Germans
advanced to about 20 km from Moscow. Zhukov recognized an important error in
the German plan—while the German forces seemed to attack aggressively from both
their flanks, those in the center remained relatively inactive. From this
observation, Zhukov made a rather daring decision: he ordered the repositioning
of many of his centrally-located battle forces to reinforce his two flanks.
With this tactical change, the Soviets stopped several German attacks with few
losses among their reserve troops. Later on, these better-rested reserve forces
played an important role in the counteroffensive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Zhukov reasoned that the Germans would realize that this
tactical scheme was problematic and would begin to attack in the now-weakened
center. Zhukov therefore ordered the remaining forces in the center to prepare
for an offensive. Just as he had predicted, the Germans began to attack the
central sector troops. The Soviet preparations, however, managed to stop the
German offensive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After intense fighting, Moscow remained under Soviet
control, while the German forces were exhausted and had lost equipment and
supplies, a critical weakness given the long logistical tail. Although the
Soviet combat forces were in no way superior compared to their German foes,
Zhukov decided to launch his counteroffensive. On 1 December Zhukov was
coordinating the Western, Bryansk, and the Kalinin Fronts preparatory to the
counteroffensive. On 6 December the Soviet forces began a massive assault.
After two months of bloody and brutal fighting, the Soviets pushed their German
foes between 100 and 250 km away from Moscow—in some areas, up to 400 km—and
had taken approximately 582,000 German soldiers out of action. This battle was
the first time up to that point in World War II that the German army had been
defeated in a large-scale battle involving millions of soldiers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ultimately, Operation Barbarossa failed. Perhaps most
importantly, the great Soviet stand, counterattack, and ultimate victory at
Moscow convinced the Allies that they could win. Zhukov received widespread accolades
as the "savior of Moscow". Even Stalin heaped praise on Zhukov:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <i> </i></span><i>The Motherland and
the Party will never forget the action of the Soviet commanders in the Great
Patriotic War. The names of the victorious generals who saved the Motherland
will forever be engraved in the honorary steles placed at the battlefields.
Amongst these battlefields, there is one battlefield with exceptional meanings,
and that is the great one at Moscow. And the name of Comrade Zhukov, as a
symbol of victory, will never be apart from this battlefield.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>—I.V. Stalin</div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gldX6Spw5fc" width="480"></iframe>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-72666892496666829502015-05-11T15:59:00.004+08:002015-05-11T15:59:59.171+08:00Second Kharkov<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZBBTaDjDdOwv0TaDOhq3srExys1iKRkZuu4vNe6xBqBNZTQ8TCTCZcMm0qEINbzDNqaNYeYx0aBXkbfoBGNA92peinWlHoByBc7CushS89ezOSdNDePL6v0l2F5d_PL89eLZ6vxsYNMR/s1600/saeergth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZBBTaDjDdOwv0TaDOhq3srExys1iKRkZuu4vNe6xBqBNZTQ8TCTCZcMm0qEINbzDNqaNYeYx0aBXkbfoBGNA92peinWlHoByBc7CushS89ezOSdNDePL6v0l2F5d_PL89eLZ6vxsYNMR/s400/saeergth.jpg" width="352" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Second Kharkov remains one of the most controversial battles
of the war in Soviet and Russian historiography. Blame for another catastrophic
defeat of the Red Army was laid on Joseph Stalin by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956,
after the great dictator’s death. Marshals Boris M. Shaposhnikov and Semyon
Timoshenko and their immediate subordinates have been blamed by others, with
Stalin in a supporting role. The origins of the controversy lie in the fact
that, despite massive losses suffered in 1941 and again over the first four
months of 1942, Stalin and some members of the Stavka insisted on fresh spring
offensives all along the Eastern Front. Among these operations, the most
important turned into the disastrous Second Battle of Kharkov. Timoshenko
pushed especially hard for this fight. General Georgi Zhukov and some other
Stavka members seem to have opposed an unwise dispersal of sparse forces among
too many, and also overly ambitious, operations. A compromise was reached by
limiting the operation in eastern Ukraine to a push to retake Kharkov, which
was held by German 6th Army under General Friedrich Paulus. It was
simultaneously proposed to straighten the line and protect the Barvenkovo
salient southeast of Kharkov. Meanwhile, the Germans were planning their own
Operation FRIDERICUS, a limited offensive intended to trap Soviet forces in the
“Izium pocket,” or “Barvenkovo salient.” Neither side knew the others’ plans.
Soviet military intelligence failed to detect the German offensive intention to
cut off the Barvenkovo salient and additionally fell victim to a German
deception campaign that effectively concealed the Barvenkovo build-up.</div>
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Each side was about equal in numbers of men and guns
involved as the battle was engaged. The Soviets moved first, though not well or
fast. Many of the more than 1,100 Soviet tanks at Kharkov were in newly
organized and still experimental formations. Formed into two armored pincers,
they reached deep into the German defenses. The first pincer was a strong
formation of three armies from Southwestern Front that attacked on either side
of Kharkov on May 12. Soviet 6th Army formed a smaller pincer that struck
farther south, directly out of the Barvenkovo salient. Within five days, Soviet
6th Army ran into the planned FRIDERICUS attack, which was strongly supported
by Panzers and by the Luftwaffe. The Germans achieved complete surprise, as
General Ewald von Kleist sliced into the thinned southern flank and rear of the
still-advancing Soviet 6th Army. The left pincer of the Soviet Kharkov
operation was thus forced to reverse, fighting desperately to return to its
jump-off positions in the Barvenkovo salient in an effort to prevent being
totally cut off. The fighting retreat by Soviet 6th Army was delayed by lack of
timely orders from the Stavka or from Timoshenko. Some 20 divisions and
thousands of guns and tanks were thus encircled by the Germans on May 23, as
Kleist closed the trap around a Soviet force that had advanced directly into
it. Very heavy fighting followed in another great Kessel, which cooked to death
all Soviet 6th Army. Loss of the southern Soviet pincer eviscerated the effect
of any advance farther north, around the city. Worse, vast losses of men and
matériel opened a wide gap in the Soviet line. Through that gap, Paulus and
German 6th Army pushed their advantage later that summer, along what turned out
to be a deadly, one-way road to Stalingrad.</div>
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Much of the controversy about the Soviet failure at Second
Kharkov attends the delay in ordering a pullback by Soviet 6th Army. More
attention might be usefully paid to the lack of Red Army mobility even with a
large tank force at hand, and to the readiness with which large numbers of Red
Army conscripts still surrendered, as they had done during 1941. The Red Army
lost at Kharkov not merely because of intelligence and command failures, but
more fundamentally because it was still bleeding men and machines that operated
with overly blunt tactics, and because it had yet to recover fighting morale:
as many as 214,000 krasnoarmeets gave up the fight at Kharkov. As for the
Wehrmacht, while its military intelligence showed its usual inability to
penetrate Soviet planning, its field commanders again displayed superior
operational command and control and its field units performed with remarkable
mobility and better basic fighting skill than their opponents. That disparity
in battle performance would remain into late 1942, and even to mid-1943.</div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2167417363114721594.post-70855086733152526812015-05-11T15:04:00.001+08:002015-05-11T15:04:03.549+08:00Hitler’s Options 1943<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4J4cbbrD8kQ4pt92NzOKKN7OvpcwyI08b7lUSdlHAGFQoXYbV-7VeP3LjMYvOughHZOhITMYQSa9x94LhZpSRmE_AIDZKaIELhHCiDOf66RPXSHBM680qhFI-WLLYsw4HyZaheSLbJZnP/s1600/3144893335.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4J4cbbrD8kQ4pt92NzOKKN7OvpcwyI08b7lUSdlHAGFQoXYbV-7VeP3LjMYvOughHZOhITMYQSa9x94LhZpSRmE_AIDZKaIELhHCiDOf66RPXSHBM680qhFI-WLLYsw4HyZaheSLbJZnP/s400/3144893335.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of figures"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Back from Stalingrad</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Uranus opened first, under the direction of Colonel General
Aleksandr M. Vasilevsky. On 19 November, the Soviets struck Romanian formations
both north and south of Stalingrad. The front disintegrated, and the Russians
encircled the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad, threatening the entire Axis
front north of the Caucasus.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hitler placed Field Marshal Erich von Manstein in command of
the newly formed Army Group Don. It was Manstein who had devised the German
plan to defeat France in 1940 and who in the summer of 1942 had captured the
Soviet Black Sea fortress of Sevastopol. Manstein’s tasks were two: stabilize
the front in the south and relieve the German Sixth Army, which had been
ordered by Hitler to stand fast in Stalingrad. But throughout November and
December, the Soviets kept feeding fresh reserves into the offensive and
expanding its front, especially to the north. In late December, the Germans
broke off their relief drive toward the Sixth Army and retreated toward the Donets
River in an effort to hold Rostov, which would allow the German armies to
withdraw from the Caucasus.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Farther north, the Soviet attack against Army Group Center,
under Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov, failed. Operation Mars opened on 25 November,
but the planned breakthroughs became break-ins in the face of concerted
counterattacks. The determined Zhukov, who had directed unsuccessful offensives
in the same area in July and August 1942, drove his forces relentlessly until
late December, when Stalin ordered the end to the abortive offensive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stalin shifted the reserves intended to support Mars and
Jupiter in the south to instead reinforce Vasilevsky’s success. The revised
Soviet plan now envisioned the destruction of the entire Axis southern front
east of the Dnepr River by means of vast encirclement operations. In early
February 1943, as the approximately 190,000 men who formed the remnants of the
German Sixth Army surrendered in Stalingrad, the Soviet offensive spread across
the southern front from Voronezh to the Black Sea.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Moscow, success seemed assured. Stalin, at Zhukov’s
prompting, directed the movement of newly available reserves to the center with
the intention of renewing the drive there and collapsing the entire German
front. But this new scheme was as overambitious as it was daring. Along the
central front, the Germans conducted a successful controlled withdrawal to
shorten their lines and gain reserves. In the south, Manstein, reinforced with
several fresh mechanized divisions, conducted a masterful counteroffensive
against the overextended Soviets. The Germans retook Kharkov and regained most
of the Donets line, except for a large salient around Kursk, before the spring
thaw brought operations to a close.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite Manstein’s notable successes in February and March
1943, the second German campaign in Russia had ended in failure. Hitler had
neither knocked the Russians out of the war nor secured the economic objectives
he had set for the campaign. Between March and July 1943, both sides worked
feverishly to prepare for the renewal of operations in the summer, but the
prospects of a decisive Axis campaign in the east in the summer of 1943 were
nil.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the Soviet Union, despite the setbacks west of Moscow
and the failure to gain a complete victory in the south, the campaign of
1942–1943 had been a major strategic success. Tactically, the Soviet army could
not yet manage the Germans on even terms. But the Russians demonstrated marked
improvements in the conduct of their operations, perhaps most apparent in the
failure of the Germans to capture huge hauls of prisoners. At the strategic
level, the analysis and planning evident in the preparation of Mars-Jupiter and
Uranus-Saturn were far superior to German planning for Blau or Barbarossa. The
Soviets did outnumber the Germans—that is, they possessed what they termed a
favorable correlation of forces. But in 1941, numerical superiority had gained
the Russians nothing except the loss of millions of lives. By 1943, the
Russians had learned how to offset the Germans’ tactical advantages not only
through superior numbers, but also through the development and execution of
well-thought-out operational and strategic plans.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In early July 1943, the Germans launched their summer
offensive at Kursk codenamed Zitadelle (“Citadel”). The Soviets repulsed the
attacks against the haunches of the salient and launched a series of
counteroffensives. When Zitadelle failed to produce the expected results,
Hitler broke off the attack on 13 July so that the remaining reserves could be
employed to meet the ever-expanding Soviet counteroffensives. For the first
time since the start of the war in 1939, the Germans were on the defensive in
the summer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Battle of Kursk</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The true turning point of the war in the east was not
Stalingrad, but the epic battle of Kursk—the largest tank engagement of the
Second World War. Axis defeat at Kursk marked the end of Hitler’s dreams of
victory over the Soviet Union.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Manstein’s February-March 1943 counterstroke in the
Ukraine stalled in the spring mud, a large Soviet salient jutted westward into
the Axis front near the city of Kursk. This salient became an obvious target
for a renewed German offensive, and planning began in April for such an
eventuality. The Russians, too, saw the likelihood of such an attack, a surmise
confirmed by intelligence sources. As a result, throughout the spring and into
the early summer, both sides prepared for the third German summer offensive
around Kursk.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Several aspects of German planning attest to the Germans’ declining
fortunes. In 1941, the Germans had struck on 22 June along the entire front
from the Baltic to the Black Sea. In 1942, the Germans struck on 28 June, a
week later, and limited their offensive to the southern sector of the front. In
1943, the Germans did not attack until 5 July and then only along a limited
portion of the front around Kursk.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nor were the Germans of one mind as they planned their
offensive. There was a consensus that Kursk was the best place to strike. To
pinch off the salient would shorten the German line and produce a haul of
prisoners. But there were divisions between those generals who wished to strike
as soon as possible and others, with Hitler’s support, who wished to delay the
offensive until more units could be outfitted with new heavy and medium armored
vehicles, most notably the Panther tanks. As delays mounted, some generals
became more and more pessimistic about the prospects of success. Nevertheless,
recent scholarship in Soviet archives suggests that the debate was moot. The strength
of the Soviet forces in the rear of the exposed salient in May and June 1943
was far greater than the Germans knew.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Axis plan was simple: to strike at the haunches of the
salient from both the north and the south. The Ninth Army would strike from the
north, from its positions south of Orel. Army Group South’s Fourth Panzer Army
would strike from the area near Belgorod along a northern axis. Originally
scheduled for 4 May, the offensive was repeatedly postponed because of rains, a
desire to wait for more tanks, and the need to send reinforcements to Italy
after the Axis collapse in Tunisia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Soviet plans for Kursk were innovative. Even Stalin had
learned the lessons of 1942 and accepted the fact that it was best to allow the
Germans to strike first rather than to preempt them before their forces had
been weakened. In that sense, the buildup around Kursk suited Soviet strategy.
Having resolved to accept a defensive posture, they developed a defense in
depth to meet the German attack and planned an ambitious series of follow-on
offensives meant to crush the German front in the center and the north.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tactically and operationally, the Soviet army of 1943 was
vastly superior to the forces that took the field in 1941 and 1942. Moreover,
the Soviets achieved their successes in 1943 and 1944 when they no longer
possessed the technological superiority they had held in 1941 and 1942, when
their T-34 tank was the best armored fighting vehicle on the eastern front. By
1943, the T-34 was in many ways inferior to the newer German medium tanks—the
up-gunned medium Pz Kw IVs, Panthers, and heavy Tigers—and would remain so for
the rest of the war. But the Soviets had developed superior tactical
proficiency and ability to employ combined-arms tactics on the battlefield.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Soviet preparations to meet the expected German blitzkrieg
were well thought out. The Russians arrayed their defense in layers to a depth
of forty miles. They dug in troops, tanks, guns, and communication lines.
Antitank guns and minefields dominated likely approaches. The Soviet high
command positioned mechanized reserves to respond to crises that might develop
along any axis. Even the Soviet air force prepared to challenge the Germans for
local air superiority from the first day of the operation. Moreover, as the
battle developed, the Soviet plan envisioned the use of reserves offensively to
disrupt the Axis offensive. Gradually, these local counterattacks would expand
until they became a counteroffensive that would wrest the initiative from the
Germans.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In execution, the battle of Kursk followed Russian and not
German expectations. In the north, the German Ninth Army made disappointing
progress, suffered heavy casualties, and within four days had ground to a
virtual halt. Two days later, the Soviets began assaulting the left flank of
the offensive, forcing Army Group Center to shift its reserves and ending all
hopes of a continued drive by the Ninth Army. The Germans made better progress
in the south. Despite hard going, the Germans nearly drove through the defensive
belts. But if Manstein’s troops broke in, they could not break out. In their
weakened state, they had to contend with the fresh Soviet mechanized reserves.
Moreover, as the mobile battle began, Allied troops landed in Sicily. Hitler
now had to contend with a threat to Italy, and the necessary reserves could
only come from the eastern front.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The climatic fighting centered on the town of Prokhorovka.
For several July days, the SS Panzer Corps and the Soviet Fifth Tank Army
traded blows in a bloody battle of attrition. But attrition was Stalin’s game.
On 13 July, Hitler decided to end the offensive and shift troops to Italy.
Manstein wished to keep attacking, not in the expectation of a victory, but as
a means to exhaust Soviet tank reserves. Hitler agreed to allow limited
offensive action for this purpose, but basically Zitadelle had ended, and the
Germans had lost.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For decades after the war, many historians argued that
Hitler lost a great opportunity by prematurely closing down his Kursk
offensive. More recent studies using available Soviet documents suggest that
Hitler was wise to bring the operation to an end. Manstein was not exhausting
Soviet reserves; he was exhausting his own, just as the Soviets hoped that he
would before they unleashed their own offensives. On 17 July, when the Russians
went over to the offensive on Manstein’s right flank, it became apparent that
there was no point in continuing the German effort.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the Germans did make a mistake, it was to attack at all,
or to attack into an area where they knew the Russians had prepared defenses.
But Hitler and his generals shared the same misplaced confidence in the
operational and tactical superiority of their forces. Few Germans seem to have
considered it possible that the Russians could stop a German summer blitzkrieg
dead in its tracks.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The ability of Stalin’s army to do just that was more than a
defeat: it marked the eclipse of a tactical doctrine the Germans had thus far
applied with success. The Russians had not only turned the tide of the war in
the east, but they had also demonstrated that a well-prepared blitzkrieg could
be defeated. As the follow-on Soviet offensives opened, the Soviets also
confirmed that they had developed improved offensive tactics of their own.
Soviet infantry and artillery led the assault, and only then did tank and
mechanized formations exploit the holes. By mid-1943, not only the strategic,
but also the operational and tactical assumptions upon which the Germans had
gone to war in 1939 were no longer viable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Strategic Necessity</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The excuse for Hitler’s cancellation of Zitadelle was the
Anglo-American landing in Sicily. The Allies expected Husky, as the operation
was codenamed, to keep the pressure on the Germans the Mediterranean theater,
to secure maritime transportation routes in the Middle Sea, to strike another
blow against Mussolini’s regime on its home soil, and to secure a base for
further operations against Italy proper.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Husky began on 10 July. The Italian defenders showed little
fight, although the German units near the landing beaches counterattacked,
unsuccessfully. By 17 August, the U.S. Seventh Army, commanded by Patton, and
the Commonwealth Eighth Army, commanded by Montgomery, had cleared the island
of its defenders.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On 3 September, the Italians signed a secret armistice, and
that same day, elements of Montgomery’s army crossed the Strait of Messina and
landed in Italy. Operation Avalanche had begun. Six days later, the Allies’
main force landed at Salerno, south of Naples. The Germans rushed troops to
occupy northern and central Italy, while farther south spirited counterattacks
threatened the Allies’ landing in its initial stage, although the Allies held
on and the Germans retreated. Fortunately for the Axis, the weather and the
rugged Italian terrain negated Allied advantages of mobility and air power. The
Anglo-American offensive ground to a halt along the lines of the Garigliano and
Sangro rivers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Allies continued to slog their way north during the fall
and winter, in fighting that had more in common with the trench warfare of the
Great War than with blitzkrieg. In January, the British and Americans launched
an amphibious assault at Anzio, south of Rome and well behind the German front,
in an effort to break the stalemate. But the Allies failed to exploit their
element of surprise, and the Germans sealed off the beachhead. Farther south,
the Allied offensive stalled along the Volturno River line, the key position of
which was a mountain peak near Cassino that was crowned by a Bendictine
monastery. By March, the British and Americans had given up on their efforts to
break out and began to prepare for new offensives in the spring and summer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Soviet summer offensives likewise ran out of steam when
the autumn rains came to the Ukraine. But the Russians made substantive
progress nonetheless. After the failure of the German offensive at Kursk, the
Soviets expanded their offensive operations along the entire line in the south
and then into the central sector of the eastern front. The largest gains came
in the Ukraine, where the Soviets reached the Dnepr River and seized several
important bridgeheads. While the Soviets failed to destroy the Axis armies east
of the Dnepr, they did trap the German Seventeenth Army in the Crimea.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When winter froze the ground, the Russian advance resumed
along the entire front. In the north, the Soviets relieved Leningrad after an
epic thousand-day siege. Assaults against the German Army Group Center gained
little ground, but in the south, the Russians shattered the German lines,
temporarily encircled an entire panzer army, and drove toward the Carpathians,
threatening to split the Axis front. But Manstein, and the spring thaw,
stabilized the front, though not before the Russians had destroyed the German
Seventeenth Army.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the spring of 1944, the Germans stood on the defensive
everywhere. In Russia, Italy, and Great Britain, Allied forces prepared for
their offensives. Anglo-American strategic air forces assaulted the Reich in a
coordinated, round-the-clock bombing campaign (see “Strategic Bombing”). In the
Atlantic, the U-Waffe (submarine force) no longer posed a threat to the Allied
shipping.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Germans’ options were few. They stood no chance to
regain the initiative in the east. Italian terrain, while conducive to defensive
operations, offered little prospect for an offensive. The Germans had only a
single hope—one chance that might allow them to negotiate something less than
the unconditional surrender the Allies had demanded at the January 1943
Casablanca Conference. Hitler expected the Allies to launch their long-awaited
cross-channel invasion of France in the spring. If the Germans could destroy
the landing, that victory might force the Allies to reconsider their policy, or
at the minimum, delay full-scale ground operations in the west and allow Hitler
to concentrate his forces against the Russians in the east.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4J4cbbrD8kQ4pt92NzOKKN7OvpcwyI08b7lUSdlHAGFQoXYbV-7VeP3LjMYvOughHZOhITMYQSa9x94LhZpSRmE_AIDZKaIELhHCiDOf66RPXSHBM680qhFI-WLLYsw4HyZaheSLbJZnP/s1600/3144893335.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4J4cbbrD8kQ4pt92NzOKKN7OvpcwyI08b7lUSdlHAGFQoXYbV-7VeP3LjMYvOughHZOhITMYQSa9x94LhZpSRmE_AIDZKaIELhHCiDOf66RPXSHBM680qhFI-WLLYsw4HyZaheSLbJZnP/s320/3144893335.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Mitch Williamsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14692138354674511017noreply@blogger.com0