Kai,

Just read the Fin propogana signs posted in Russian, dont know how but I missed them earlier.

Here is the translation " You are unable to fight against such an enemy- the freezing cold. You dont see him but he is all around "

This is the second one with the corpse in the
snow.

The last one says " We give you advice on how to save yourselves " and then you see other corpses.

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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

Hayward " Stopped at Stalingrad"

The Germans:

The army staff worked hard to strengthen the Army Group South´s forces in time for "Blau". 25% of replacements ( I think the author means here of the replacements to the Ostfront ) went to AGS in February 1942, 34% in March, and 39% in April. On 1 May, according to a detailed report prepared by the OKW operations staff, AGS infantry strength still stood at only 50% of its 1941 level ( while the other two army groups stood at a mere 35% ). Although additional replacements arrived in May and June the AGS never reached more than three-quarters of its 1941 level.

OKW also deprived the other two AG`s of most of their motor vehicles to ensure that Bock´s forces regained at least 85% of their former mobility.

Despite having receiced 1,100 000 fresh troops up to 1 may 1941, all the three Army groups were still 625,000 short of establishment.

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From the book on Red Army under Stalin´s questioning during April 1940 on the failures of the Winter War:

General Pjotr Psennikov, 142. division commander:

47% of the Red Army soldiers were not trained or familiar with the weapon they were instructed to use during the fighting. Up to 60% had not shot even once during the last three years.

Of the officers only 17% knew how to use a compass and a map and walk in the given compass direction.

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what did this tanks consist of? I read such destruction but what tanks were the Germans against?

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Time is only enemy you'll never get rid of.

By then the main tanks must have been T-34´s or Klims as all the older versions had been wiped out during the autumn 1941. Of course some light tanks but the T-34 the main tank at that point I presume.

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Hmm, at the time the tank brigades contained 1/3 to 1/2 light tanks, T-60s, T-70s or even remnants from before, T26, BTs, T-38s, etc. so a good deal of these casualties would be these sardine tins. Even in 1943 1/3 of the tank brigade TOE was completely useless T-70s which caused no end of problems.

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Everly Brothers - What I Have To Do Is Dream
"Never wrestle with pigs, you both end up getting dirty and the pig likes it."

" Every general who took part in the Great Civil War ( 1917->) have been capable of renewal except you (Mihail Kovaljov) and Chuikov (!) no matter what. That is my first conclusion."

Stalin during the Winter War report discussions April 1940 Moscow

Also Stalin: " How can it be allowed that in the main papers it is claimed that the winter weather created huge problems for our troops as the fact is, that the biggest victories have been achieved during winter weather in the past, from Alexander Nevsk to Napoleon´s defeat??! When we have such excellent examples how can such rubbbish be printed claiming our troops cannot handle the winter weather?"

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By the start of operation Typhoon, German demand for artillery ammunition was exceeding production by a ratio of more than 11:1. During Typhoon, German industry produced 774,000 rounds of large-calibre artillery ammunition but expended over 5 million rounds.

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The second phase of Typhoon further weakened by the withdrawal of much of Luftlotte 2´s aircraft to other theatres, particularly the Mediterranean. By early November, von Richthofen´s VIII Fliegerkorps was the only major unit left to supprt Typhoon, with fewer than 100 operational fighters and 200 bombers or ground-attack aircraft. The Luftwfafe´s effectiveness was further reduced by poor weather and primitive maintenance facilities at the forward air bases.Thus, AGC could no longer count on much Luftwaffe support during the second phase of Typhoon.

Moscoe 1941 by Robert Forczyk

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The Army Group North was so poorly equipped and strengthened during the war that the German soldiers themselves called the warfare of AGN " Eternal war of the poor man".

Battlefield series " Siege of Leningrad"

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WILHELM KUBE

Kube, Gauleiter of Brandenburg, anti-Semite and deputy in the Prussian State Assembly, was removed from office in 1936 for suggesting that Frau Buch, Martin Borman's mother-in-law, was half Jewish. During the war he became District Commissioner in the Occupied Eastern Territories where, as head of the civil administration in western Belarus, he reported on July 31, 1942, that fifty-five Jews had been executed in his district. A year later, on July 31, 1943, he was murdered by his White Russian housekeeper, Yelena Mazanik, who had placed a bomb under his bed. Mazanik was a member of the Belorussian partisan movement. The reprisals were swift and horrific, whole villages being wiped out and around 1,000 males were rounded up and either shot or hanged.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/1943.html

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cool thats all I needed to know.

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Time is only enemy you'll never get rid of.

From " War in the wild East" by Ben Shepherd

By August 1943, Army Group Center was reporting that only 23% of its area could be considered "pacified". Thirty-one percent was endangered by the partisans; a full 46% was under complete partisan control (!)

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The Partisans were getting better equipped...

" The 45th Security Regiment, one of the 221st subordinate units, described the inevitable results: Many times our railway patrols have come to grips with enemy mine-layers, but on every occasion the bandits have been equipped with machine-pistols and our own troops have not."

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Robert Olejnik

On 22 June 1941, at 0340, Olejnik shot down a Russian I-16 fighter, the first pilot to score a victory over the Eastern front.

http://www.luftwaffe.cz/olejnik.html

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Thank you for mentionning this, I never knew Olejnik was the first pilot to shoot down a Russian aircraft on June 22nd 1941. He was quite an expert.

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General Mud, General Snow and General Distance - the three great Russian Generals that Benito Musslini felt would defeat Hitler after he invaded the USSR in June 1941 ( McCombs et al facts of WW2 )

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I cracked a smile



Anything on the Rocket uses in the Eastern front. We all know the "stalins organs" but anything else?

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Time is only enemy you'll never get rid of.

Petsamo-Kirkenes area operations

http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resour...t/gebhardt.asp

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From Glantz " Zhukov´s greatest defeat"

On the Rzhev area operation late 1942

In the Center, the combined strength of the Kalinin and Western fronts, backed up by Moscow defence zone, numbered almost 1,9 million men, with 24,000 guns and mortars, 3,300 tanks and 1,100 aircraft. This represented 31% of the manpower, 32% of artillery, almost 50% of armor, and over 35% of the total Soviet strength, and their massive strength was concentrated on only 17% of the overall front.

( Wow! Just how did the Germans manage to keep that offensive from breaking through....)

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Zhukov

http://www.belarusguide.com/cities/c...ll_Zhukau.html

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How interested Göring truly was in winning the war in Stalingrad and the success of the airlift...

After Göring visited Hitler at the Berghof on the 22d Nov, he departed for Paris in “Asia,” his luxurious command train. He spent the next four days—when he should have been organizing the airlift—visiting Parisian art dealers and galleries. Von Richthofen was appalled. “I urge Jeschonnek and Zeitzler to report my views to the Führer,” he wrote in his diary on the 25th, “and to harness the Reichsmarschall, but he's in Paris!” Göring arrived back at Hitler's headquarters in Rastenburg on the 27th...( this quoted from about the middle of the page )

http://www.joelhayward.org/stalingradairlift.htm

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