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Old May 9th, 2008, 04:19 PM
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Default Re: A nice little Zhukov site.

Yes it is good, but fails to show the number of soviets whom were fed to the meat grinder to achieve these victories, as well as never mentions which army had led during a full brunt attack, but as he was sent once the fighting became static, and won through numerically huge advantages in armour and men...

Had Stalin taken Zhukov's original plan intended at Stalingrad that another full army, 3 armoured brigades, 400 howitzers all backed by an aviation army had been granted, this might have switched the outcome of Stalingrad, as the success or reclaiming the city in a battle head on would have petered out, and ended his carreer. Stalin disapproved and demanded another solution, for he was ill wanting to loose his precious Stavka reserves and commit them. The second solution by Vasilevsky and Zhukov to Stalin led to the attack on the Northern flank.
Paulus has often been blamed for not disobeying Hitler later, once the scale of the disaster was clear, but his real failure as a commander was his failure to prepare to face the threat. It was his own army which was threatened. All he needed to do was to withdraw most of his tanks from the wasteful battle in the city to prepare a strong mechanized force ready to react rapidly. Supply and Ammunition dumps should have been reorganized to ensure their vehicles were kept ready to move at short notice. This comparatively small degree of preparation-and disobedience to the fuehers headquarters-would have left the sixth army in a position to defend itself effectively at the crucial moment.
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