On Stalin and beginning of Barbarossa. Perhaps Stalin feared his generals were pushing him to war with Germany...

" Judging by Stalin´s schedule, the vozhd was nearly in hiding. In the first half of June, he spent eight days away from his office, and between June 11 and 18 he didn´t grant Timoshenko and Zhukov a single audience. This outraged the generals.Whether they were right or wrong in sounding the alarm, they still needed daily contact."

From " Stalin´s folly"..

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As a separate entity I found this very interesting:

Luftwaffe radar stations

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Kai...I love this thread, but why are there so many red "x" on the pictures you posted previously?

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It is sometimes harder to fight my superiors than the French.
-Heinz Guderian

The e-mail address of the pic no longer exists. That´s why the "x". I guess most of them are from a local net auction and boy those pics can cost a lot but still we had a moment to see them.

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Moscow 1941 by Robert Forczyk

The Wehrmacht was running dangerously low on fuel and ammunition after three months of sustained combat in the USSR. About 40 per cent of Germany´s fuel stocks were consumed during operation Barbarossa. Ammunition was also in short supply, by the start of Typhoon, 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-caliber artillery ammunition but the artillery expended over 5 million rounds.By the end of 1941, Germany´s stock of artillery ammunition had fallen to its lowest point of the war.

When Germany needed every soldier for the decisive moment in Russia, some 34 divisions with almost 900,000 troops were left sitting idly in Western Europe guarding against a non-existent British threat. While the Soviet STAVKA was able to direct 62 division equivalents to rebuild the shattered Western Front in October-November 1941 the only new units received by Army Group Center during Typhoon were the Légion des volontaires Francais (LVF) and a few paratroop battalions.

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That winter the tigers performed well at Stalingrad. They simply sat on a defensive line, firing without moving, while the Russian T-34s attacked and were blown to bits in the minefields the Germans had laid 30 meters in front of their positions. It has been said this tactic adopted more by accident than design. The German tanks would not start when the temperature dropped to -45f. But the Tigers stood like fortresses, seemingly impervious to anything that was thrown against them.

In the final days of the battle of Stalingrad, one tiger became a kind of metal pillbox. It had been used by one of the regimental commanders of the 24th Panzer Division and was connected to divisional headquarters by field telephone. Five Panzergrenadiers took refuge in it during a Russian advance. They slammed the turret shut as the Russians sped by and soon found themselves completely cut off 2 kilometers behind the front line. There was food inside the tank. Both its main gun and machine guns worked and there was plenty of ammunition for both. One of the Panzergrenadiers turned the handle of the field telephone and asked divisional HQ what they should do.
"Stay where you are," they were told.

They stayed there for a week until a Russian patrol stumbled upon them. A Russian infantry company was sent, but when they got within 50 meters of them, they opened fire and drove them off. 24 hours later the Russians resumed the assault , with tanks. Agian they were repelled and the Panzergrenadiers were able to report to HQ that they had knocked out three T-34s. More T-34s, mortars and artillery were brought up to take out what the Russians were calling "Command Post 506"
The Panzergrenadiers phoned up again and asked what they do now. They were told to "remember what the Russians did when they were pinned down in the silo."

This was cold comfort. The Russians caught in one of Stalingrad's grain silos, they knew had fought on until they had run out of ammunition. When they called their commander and complained of lack of food, they were told that they would not feel hunger if they fought harder. Shortly before they were annihilated, their commander told them, "The Soviet Union thanks you: your sacrifice has not been in vain."

Germany did not thank the five Panzergrenadiers in Command post 506. The metal pillbox was attacked with flame throwers and they were never heard of again.
From Panzer! Tank Warfare 1939-45, Nigel Cawthorne

Little fun book, found it in chapters in the cheap cheapies cheapers bin Lots of good stories.. and some, what I found rather sadder ones

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

I always thought at least in 1941 Hitler had refused any kind of Russian based organizations in Wehrmacht (??).

Russian Defence Corps

Incorporated into the Wehrmacht, Independent Russian Corps was formed on September 12th, 1941 form Russian Imperial Army veterans. On October 2nd it was renamed Russian Defence Corps (Russisches Schutzkorps) - max strength 3000. From September 15th it come under the command of Lieutenant-General Boris Alexandrovich Shteyfon. It had three regiments and a total strength of 4,000. From November 18th 1941 to November 30th 1942 it was named Russian Defense Group.


Russian Defence Corps

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Tigers in Stalingrad, Hawkerace? I think not.

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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."

appearntly there was a few :|

edit: Maybe, I asked others and they said yes, and then I asked a historian who lives down the street and he says otherwise, agreeing with you Za.

Still a interesting story, wherever it was.

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

Well, it's a known fact that ignorant soldiers called everything on tracks a Tiger...

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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."

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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

Here´s what we discussed earlier about Tigers...

Operation winterstorm and Tiger tank

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Gestapo-NKVD Conferences: Information and Much More from Answers.com

Third Conference

This one is the best known, and took place in Zakopane, starting on February 20, 1940 in the villa “Pan Tadeusz”, located on the road from Zakopane to Białka Tatrzańska.

According to several sources, one of the effects of this conference was the German ''Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion (see: German AB Action operation in Poland) and the Soviet Katyn massacre (a number of historians, including Norman Davies, claim that these two events were carried out cooperatively). Also, both sides agreed in the final protocol that the Polish nation should be completely moved out by the year 1975, either by mass murders or by deportations to remote areas of Siberia (by that year, 95% of the Poles still alive were going to be deported to the shores of the Jana river, located in northern Siberia, about two thousand miles north of Vladivostok).

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Brothers in Arms! If this is backed by Robert Conquest then I'll buy it.

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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."

From Molotov´s speech after Winter War:

The war in Finland took a big toll both on us and the Finns. According to estimates of our General Staff, the number of those fallen and fatally wounded is on our side 48,745, thus somewhat less than 49,000 persons and the number of the wounded is 158,863 persons. On the Finnish side efforts are made to diminish the number of their victims, but their casualties are far bigger than ours. According to the most cautious calculations by our General Staff the number of those fallen is at least 60 thousand, not counting the fatally wounded, and the number of the wounded is at least 250,000. When you start from the fact that the number of the Finnish army has been at least 600 thousand men, you have to draw a conclusion that the Finnish army lost half its ranks as killed or wounded.

Such are the facts.

Molotov's speech after Finnish Winter War@Everything2.com

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Some pics....

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That must have been a misarable ride going down the railroad tracks in the cold ! Thanks for posting them.

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Work Harder ! Millions on welfare are depending on you.

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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."

Talk about a posed photo

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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."

Three Orders of Glory? Wow!


The lady is fingering the Order of the Red banner, and on the right breast are two O. Patriotic War. This guy was lucky to be alive!!