Was Stalin the first to use the "Burn it all down" system in WW2 as the Red Army destroyed/burned everything they could before the Wehrmacht could conquer in 1941? This is often linked to Hitler only so I wondered if Hitler actually learned this from Stalin?

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Apparently, Army Group South issued the following "Top Secret" Memorandum to all combat commanders in Ukraine on December 22, 1941:

"The following concept of the Fuehrer [Hitler] is to be made known ... to all commanders ... "

"Each area that has to be abandoned to the enemy must be made completely unfit for his use. Regardless of its inhabitants every locality must be burned down and destroyed to deprive the enemy of accomodation facilities ... the localities left intact have to be subsequently ruined by the air force."

[ 25. January 2005, 10:55 AM: Message edited by: drache ]

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"I die for my fatherland. I have a clear conscience." - Admiral Wilhelm Canaris

But, then again ...

Stalin appears to have announced the first "scorched earth" policy on the Ostfront in July 1941:

"In case of a forced retreat... all rolling stock must be evacuated, the enemy must not be left a single engine, a single railway car, not a single pound of grain or gallon of fuel. The collective farmers must drive off all their cattle and turn over their grain to the safe keeping of the state authorities for transportation to the rear. All valuable property, including non-ferrous metals, grain and fuel that cannot be withdrawn must be destroyed without fail. In areas occupied by the enemy, guerilla units....must set fire to forests, stores and transports."

Hmmm -

[ 25. January 2005, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: drache ]

__________________
"I die for my fatherland. I have a clear conscience." - Admiral Wilhelm Canaris