Quote:
Originally Posted by Sloniksp
T.A.
As far as the original thread........ As both me and you can make good points and point out interesting information, they are afterall only our opinions. Since this is a " what if " thread and this has never happend ( thankfully ) we will never know the truth.... So me and you can go back and forth for months, till both of our faces turn blue and still not come to a conclusion.
So what do you say we just put this silly debate behind us eh?  |
Yes, I think that is probably best.
As for Soviet "human wave" attacks this is more myth than truth. Tactically by late 1943 - 44 the Red Army was squad for squad competitive with the Germans. Where they fell down was a combination of lack of NCOs and officers of any sort in smaller units. The typical company had one officer (senior lieutenant or captain) in charge and 4 or 5 junior lieutenants commanding platoons. Many of these guys were the training equivalent of a German unterofficer or junior NCO in Western armies. That is, they had limited tactical training an little or no time on managerial or technical topics. NCOs were generally selected from survivors in the unit with nothing but hands-on training.
Without radios or field telephones, frequently suffering shortages of everything, these units had to fight more as squads than as integrated companies. Is it any wonder they suffered more casualties? The bottom line is that the Soviets by this time (later in the war) were not just stupidly rushing forward in a blind charge. They were trying to do the best they could with the resources they had. That these were often times below what their opponets had only meant that they had to trade casualties for integrated operations but in the end it still produced victory.