yes there were, also it wouldnt be uncommon for russian soldiers to put their last few words in before their final moment anywhere they could on the battle field. This soldier, the one that i saw was actually killed next to a house in a village his was defending, and with his last few ounces of strength he scrapped this message and didnt even leave his name.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...uration%3Along


intersting vid about ww2

Thanks for the link rifleman, ive seen this already though..... This however is purely U.S. prapoganda, aimed at convincing the U.S. population as to why they should enter the war. Countries in Europe didnt need those videos. In fact they were part of that U.S. film. But its a good clip thanks!

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...uration%3Along

This looks like a really interesting video about ww2 it has less propoganda in it and focuses more on the battles.

Rifleman,

lol, I own this video........but yes this is much better. thanks

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Steven Newton: Hitler´s commander

June 28 1944: Walther Model was appointed commander of Army Group Center ( without relieving him of current position at Army Group North Ukraine ). The leadership of three quarters of ostfront armies had now been concentrated in the hands of Model or his protegé....

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A couple of nice pics from the Finnish side...

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Yeah Kai those are great pics!!!

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

I just Found 2 parts of this interesting documentary about the battle of russia.

http://www.archive.org/details/BattleOfRussiaI


http://www.archive.org/details/BattleOfRussiaII

you may of seen this before but its still worth watching again.

Upon looking at your referrences, ive noticed a couple of points that may draw a debate.

1. When Leningrad was surrounded the only life line that it had was not a "railroad" but a road carved out off ice which was operatonal 24/7. Many people lost their traveling that road because in some cases the ice would break and entire trucks would fall in.

2. The battle of Russia cause a little more the 800,000 German casualties.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Thank you, MGN!

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What the Red Army soldiers talked about:

They talked endlessly. And a favourite subject was each man´s wedding. What interested them, however, was not the wedding night and sex, or even thoughts of love and home, but the scale and contents of the feast that had been set for each successive celebration.

From Ivan´s war by Merridale

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Kai that was probably due to the fact that the Russian soldier was usually starving.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Early in Barbarossa , an Il-2 pilot was awarded the " Hero of the Soviet Union " medal after 10 successful missions, but very few pilots achieved this goal. In the second half of the war, 100 combat missions had to be flown to earn the award.

During the Great Patriotic war seven gunners lost their lives for every pilot killed in action
( for Il-2 ).

From Il-2 in action by H Stapfer
( Squadron/Signals publications )

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Hanko front Finland: Soviet POW´s





The end of a solo attack by a Soviet tank ( 1939-1940 maybe?)....

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The truth on Tigers and Panthers:

"It is suggested to the Red Army to use such German tanks as StuG III and Pz IV due to their relability and availability of spare parts. The new German Panther and Tiger can be used until they broken down without trying to repair them. They have bad engines, transmission and suspension." - Department of Weaponry of the Red Army, late 1944.

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/tiger.htm

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There's some great pictures out there on the internet of Russians operating Panthers, read in a couple of places that they were given as a 'prize' in certain units and often German maintenance crews were kept for them. Nice pic here.
The Russian Battlefield website also has some entertainingly cynical soviet views of German tanks.
Cheers,
Adam.

The first leaflet is in the form of a picture postcard. The Russians printed one million copies of the card 29 August 1941. The card depicts the German leader as an ape behind bars.

His hands and mouth are bloody and he wears a Nazi armband and an iron cross. At his left is a small sign, "Gorilla ADOLF - Caution! Rabid!" Text below the cage says "This is where he belongs - This is where he will go!" Although the card is in black and white, the blood has been painted a bright red. The caricature was drawn by three Russian artists, Michail Kuprijanow, Porfirij Krylow, and Nikolaj Sokolow who published under the name "Kukryniksy."

http://www.psywarrior.com/AxisLeadersMonsters.html

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The most notable Nashorn ace was platoon commander of 1st company of sPzJagAbt 519, Junior Lieutenant Albert Ernst. He later commanded the 1st company of sPzJagAbt 512 (equipped with Jagdtigers). On December 23rd of 1943, he destroyed some 14 Soviet tanks in a single day using only 21 round of ammunition. The engagement took place near Vitebsk and Albert Ernst received a nickname "Tiger of Vitebsk". In December of 1943, Ernst destroyed total of 19 enemy tanks and on January 22nd of 1944, he was awarded the Knight's Cross.

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pz2.htm

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From Merridale Ivan´s war:

More Soviet tanks were lost in 1941 through breakdown than through German fire, and overall the Soviets lost six tanks to every German one.

( no wonder really as most were obsolete by then )

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Obsolete and lacking spare parts. One of the quirks of the Stalinist 5-year plans (Stalinist and others) was that the targets were in terms of absolute production figures of capital items - so many tanks, planes, tractos, trucks, etc. If a plant decided to build up a stock of spare parts, then they would not be producing items for the target figures.

Therefore, a number of tanks etc became immobilised because of even minor breakdowns for which simply there wouldn't be spare parts in stock.

This is one of the beauties of a planned economy, Communist style.

I remember a joke about this, that went something like: "Suppose a Soviet nail factory. If the target were in number of nails they would make only very small nails as you could get the most of these from each ton of iron. If the target were in production weight, they would make only very large nails. If the target was in production value they would make nails in gold".

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Some pics from the Finnish side 1942-1943:

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continue here:







Dead Red Army soldier



Captured Soviet plane

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And a couple more:






Notice a variety of helmets in use

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Those I-16 fighters look to be more dangerous for the pilots than the enemy. Everything on them is too short.

Great pictures though. The poor Russian already had his boots stolen.

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I need a bailout of only $500,000