On Edvard Radzinsky´s book Stalin

"In May Hitler was in the Balkans, and it was getting late for attacking Russia. If Hitler would attack Russia still in 1941 he would have to prepare for winter.Which means he would need millions of fur coats and that would mean that lamb meat price would go down in the markets and as well the lamb skin prices would go up. The Russian security service had not noticed anything like this happen..."

Maybe, maybe not. But Stalin did not know Hitler was sure the war would end long time before winter!

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Berija, Lavrentyij Pavlovics (1899-1953)









Berija and Stalin´s daughter Svetlana 1936

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The "Churchill" Heavy Tank in the USSR

http://www.battlefield.ru/library/lend/churchill.html

The heavy infantry tank Mk.IV "Churchill" is known on a phrase ostensibly told English prime-minister: "this tank carrying my name has more drawbacks than me". Yes, it had obsolete design: to increase room for the tank crew, the designers of the "Vauxhall Motors" corporation have mounted some elements of transmission under the hull so the track was bent around it, as a tanks of the World War One. The tank had a 12-cylinder petrol engine of 350 h.p. that provided it with 27 km/h speed. First models (Churchill I and Churchill II) were armed with 40 mm gun - too weak for a heavy tank. Further tanks were armed with either 76 mm gun or 57 mm gun. The tank had 152 mm frontal armor.

Tank had two major disadvantages: first, the tracks were too vulnerable from shells and shell's fragments because they were too high. And second - the track often jammed the tank's turret. However, 5400 vehicles (all models) have been built and in British Army this tank served to 1952.

Western Allies delivered to the Soviet Union 301 of both Churchill Mk.III and Mk.IV. These two models were very similar and distinguished only a minimal changes- some changes in turret design. Probably, USSR had received some flamethrower Churchills VII (one of those tank showing in Kubinka museum). Interesting fact - during the Kursk battle, the 5th Guard Tank Army had 35 Churchills. They were the only heavy tanks in this army.



Churchills in Russian Use:

Some early Marks of the Churchill were sent to Russia as part of the lend-lease agreement. These were Marks I, II and II models. However the Russians had no use for the 2 and 6 pdr guns, so they tended to replace them with their own superior 76.2mm L30 gun. Some Mark IVs and Crocodiles were also sent, some 35 Churchills being employed by the 5th Guard Tank Army at Kursk

http://staff.bus.bton.ac.uk/fesg/mei...churchill.html



Prokhorovka 1943

[ 20. February 2003, 04:20 PM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

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Bulgaria

Among the Axis countries Bulgaria was the only country that did not declare war on the Soviet Union. The Bulgarians had only declared war on the western allies. In order to persuade them to join the fight against Russia, the Germans supplied them with large amounts of war material, including Arado 96s, Me 109 Es and French Dewoitine 520s. Only after the Ploesti air raids were the Bulgarians supplied with Me 109 Gs, as the Americans had to fly across Bulgaria to get to Romanian oil fields.


The Russo- Bulgarian "war" lasted four days and enabled Russia to treat Bulgaria as a defeated German satellite (!!!)

On September 5 1944 - USSR declares war on Bulgaria
September 8, the Red army invaded the territory of Bulgaria
Bulgaria asking for armistice on 9th
On September 10, the Fatherland front government declared war on Germany and its allies.

In the beginning of September three Bulgarian armies - the First, the Second and the Fourth, in total some 500 000-strong, launched an offensive against Yugoslavia in two lines of advance - Sofia-Nis and Sofia-Skopje. The Supreme command assigned them the strategic task to block the way of the German troops withdrawing from Greece. Within a month the Bulgarian army, at the price of thousands sacrificing their lives, succeeded in liberating Macedonia, southern and eastern Serbia. The German troops which had been cut off in Greece, gave themselves up to the British. First Bulgarian army 130 000-strong, continued on its march to Hungary. There, between 6 and 19 March 1945, it engaged in epic battles; it drove off the Germans attempting to launch a counter-offensive and then, went on the offensive itself By April 1945 First Bulgarian army had entered the territory of Austria. On the day of the capitulation of nazi Germany, it liberated the town of Klagenfurt. There, the soldiers of First Bulgarian Army and the British Eighth Army established contact. The Bulgarian-British encounter at this Austrian 'Elbe' was marked by a friendly football match between the two army teams which drew one all.

http://www.bulgaria.com/history/bulgaria/war2.html

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Luftwaffe and 22nd June 1941:

From Williamson Murray Luftwaffe 1933-1945

Milch recorded in his diary the destruction of 1,800 Soviet aircraft on the first day, followed by 800 on June 23, 557 on the 24th,351 on the 25th, and 300 on the 26th.

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How did Russians accepted Western-Allied tanks?! That kind of 'helf' was not such... I think they'd loved if they would have been given twenty jeeps instead of a Sherman...

And this was not because the Luftwaffe became more incompetent, but because there were not enough Russian planes to shoot down!

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

I don't know about that, the Russians put the Shermans to very good use and weren't too displeased with it as far as I'm aware.

In fact, the Sherman would seem to work better in the East than in the West, with the larger area of operations allowing more breakthroughs. Like the T-34, the Sherman is more of a classical blitzkrieg tank than the larger and more heavily armoured counterparts at the time. I would even go so far as to say that both the T-34 and Sherman were very good tanks for the war the Soviets were fighting during the latter half of the war. That is, striking where the enemy is not concentrated and advance into the rear.

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"Nervous wait for the whistle to blow
Rush of blood and over we go..."
- Iron Maiden, "Paschendale"

KANEV
September 23rd, 1943


In the aftermath of the failed Kursk offensive in July 1943, German forces throughout Russia were in retreat. The Soviet Army was determined to pursue their enemy with the utmost vigour and thereby prevent the establishment of major fortifications on the Dnepr River.
Both sides reached the river at about the same time. The Soviet 3rd Tank Army forced a bridge-head at Zarubentsy while away to the south, lead elements of the German 8th Armee were crossing the Dnepr at Kanev. The Russians decided to commit their parachute reserve. This was the 1st Airborne Corps(?) of some 10,000 men. The plan was to drop the parachutists on the west bank of the Dnepr to seal off the bulge in the river between Kanev and Khudorov. This would allow the Russians to build up strength on the west bank for a subsequent drive on Kiev, some 100 km further up the river.

The logistics involved in getting the airborne operation underway proved too much for the limited transport capacity of the VVS. 180 transports were required; 6 were available on the 23rd, the day the airlift was supposed to begin. The first parachutists did not drop until the 24th and then only in dribs and drabs. The inexperienced transport pilots dropped their cargoes all over the place and to compound the troubles, several batteries of flak guns from the 24th Panzer Korps had arrived and gone into action along the Kanev-Ulyanik road.
A full-strength panzer division, the 19th, was available to
contest the 40th Army's crossing of the Dnepr at Balyka while some infantry divisions from the 8th Armee, now safely
across the Kanev bridge, went into action in the rugged terrain north of Tschernyski to stall the advance of 3rd Tank Army.
With each passing day, the German build up made the chance of a successful Russian breakout increasingly slim. The Russians persistently tried to force the German position throughout October with no success. Finally, they withdrew, in secret, most of the mobile forces and sent them north where a successful assault broke through the German defences, resulting in the liberation of Kiev on November 7th.
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Map:

http://home.clara.net/percy/maps/kanev.gif

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The parachute landings began at dusk on the 24th September. The Soviet 5th Parachute Brigade jumped literally on top of the 19. Panzer Division as it formed up ready to move to Kanev. The Soviet parachutists and their planes came under heavy fire and those survived the landing were, by and large, killed or captured. Overall the Soviet airborne operation was badly planned and their 7000 paratroops were scattered over a large area. Without heavy weapons or communications large numbers were killed or captured and the rest melted into the woods and swamps where they joined up with partisan units.

http://home.clara.net/percy/siegfriedmenzel.htm

Eventually the Soviets decided to switch their main efforts to the Lyutezh bridgehead north of Kiev, whilst deceiving the Germans into thinking Bukrin was still the main focus of attack. In order to fool the Germans the Soviets continued to apply pressure at Bukrin and this worked superbly. When the Soviet offensive broke out of the bridgehead at Lyutezh on 3rd November 1943 the Germans were taken by surprise.

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Russian propaganda leaflets...

And other historical stuff:

http://www.museumofworldwarii.com/To...13a_Russia.htm

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Russian propaganda posters

http://www.earthstation1.com/Russian...a_Posters.html

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Heartland:

Certainly the Sherman was not very appreciated by Soviet crews... I think their own T-34 could deal with the German tanks much better than any Western-Allies' tank they sent. What the Russians really appreciated were planes, lorries and jeeps, along with food rations and hand guns, which we know were very good.

Cool posters, Kai! Very impressive!

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Are there any detailed reports on the Russian "internment" of USAAF crews and the copying of the B-29 into the Russian bomber? Why with all the lend-lease equipment supplied to the Reds was the B-29 kept out of the arsenal? Was this their expression of allied gratitude?

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www.eagleforum.org
www.faithfreedom.org
www.celebpolitics.com
www.hallindsey.org

Well, the Sherman was certainly looked down on by the T-34 crews, but I'm not so sure about the people using the Sherman. In the Soviet Union there was a cerain stigma attached to using foreign equipment, and users were expected to not heap praise on it. For example, in "The Spitfire Story" there is an interview with a Guards pilot who states that their old Polikarpov I-16 fighters had many advantages to the Spitfire Vb lend-lease aircraft they later received(!). So there may be a reason for these disparaging comments during the Soviet years.

Going back to the Sherman, there are numerous advantages to it compared to the T-34, which were well received by the crews.

- Softer armour. Non-penetrating hits on the hard but brittle armour of the T-34 tended to spall off and kill/injure crew - not so on the Sherman.
- Shermans were less likely to explode when knocked out, and more refined US explosives less likely to brew up due to fire.
- Longer engine lifetime.
- Better crew compartment and layout.
- Excellent HF and VHF radio sets. HF was used for coms to higher command, while VHF was used for company/battalion.
- Intercom system.

The disadvantages mentioned by Russian sources are ususally the high profile and center of gravity. Armour, speed and armament is generally similar, with the T-34 having better cross-country mobility but the Sherman having an advantage on roads.

It is also worth pointing out that 3 out of 9 Guards Mechanized Corps were equipped with Shermans by the end of the war. These were some high-prestige units, and were given Shermans late in the war. The 3rd Guards was entirely re-equipped with Shermans in June '44, 9th Guards became an all-Sherman unit in December '44, while the 1st Guards handed in their T-34/85s in January '45 for M4A2s.

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"Nervous wait for the whistle to blow
Rush of blood and over we go..."
- Iron Maiden, "Paschendale"

http://www.transneft.ru/About/Histor...LANG=EN&ID=241

After 1941 the oil industry was adapting to the war conditions. The battle front and the home front required fuel, and it was needed to: firstly, give the maximum increase to oil extraction in the traditional oil areas, and secondly, to get the maximum and fastest oil extraction rates in the new oil fields, especially between the Volga and the Ural, but also in the East.

Oil from Sakhalin was delivered to the mainland via water transport and then by trains to refineries. Already at the start of the war it was decided to build Okha - Sofiysk oil pipeline, 325 mm diameter and 368 km long, whereas 9 km had to be laid at the bottom of the Tatar strait. Later on, in 1946, this pipeline extended to Komsomolsk-on-Amur and its total length grew to 655 km. During the oil pipeline construction a technique was used, where pipes, filled with water, were freely submerged from the ice.

The fascist troops advancing in the Caucasian direction caused enormous damage to the Soviet oil industry in the south. In 1942, oil fields in the Krasnodar Territory were entirely put out of production, oil extraction in the Grozny area reduced by half. Those were especially hard times for the Southern oil fields. Having destroyed the main line which connected Baku with the center of the country, the fascists blocked the Volga River and took hold of the Armavir - Trudovaj pipeline. During winter of 1942 - 1943, oil products from the Caucasus were delivered to the central regions of the country by a long route - through Middle Asia and Kazakhstan. The transport could not cope with moving-out oil products. A few million tons of them transported from Baku oil storages were kept in hollow mountains. Later, the stock was used to feed the front and the rear. Astrakhan - Urbakh - Saratov kerosene pipeline and Kizlyar - Astrakhan railroad which were built in 1943 played an important role. The pipeline construction under the order of the State Defense Committee, started in April 1941. The construction was carried out despite constant enemy air raids. To cover the pipe, reinforcement and equipment shortage, it was necessary to dismantle the Baku - Batumi-2 oil pipeline, part of the Grozny - Tuapse oil pipeline, and 60-km transit of Kosh - Armavir. Pipes and equipment were urgently moved to the construction site. Almost all work was done manually, including arc-welding of the pipe joints. The total length of the water passages was 11.2 km. A 655-km kerosene pipeline with eight pumping stations was built within unprecedented short periods: from April to November 1943. Construction of the railroad Kizlyar - Astrakhan and the kerosene pipeline Astrakhan - Urbach - Saratov allowed to carry out at Astrakhan tank farms new transshipping activities using other kinds of transport.

Particular place in the pipeline transport history belongs to the benzene piping on the bottom of the Ladoga Lake. This pipeline helped the Leningrad citizen to survive through the blockade. The State Defense Committee decided to start the pipeline construction in April 1942. The works were done by the Narkomstroi OSMCh-104 and the Baltic marine force EPRON. Pipes for the pipeline were taken from the stock of Izhora plant. The project was designed under time pressure, and many assemblies and components were built following drafts. The benzene pipeline, 102 mm in diameter and 29 km long, was laid on the lake bottom up to 35 m deep. It was constructed within 43 days - from the 5 May through 16 June 1942. Two pump stations were built on the eastern bank of the lake, while tanks and a loading rack were built on the western bank. The pipeline was annually supplying Leningrad with 400-600 tons of fuel. Overall, 47.4 thousand tons of the fuel was delivered - 32.7 thousand tons in 1942, and 14.7 thousand tons in 1943. The benzene pipeline operated without failures for over twenty months and was disabled after removal of the blockade.

During the war there were successfully used mountable-and-dismountable portable pipelines. They not only supplied the troops with fuel, but also helped to force crossings over water barriers. So, in the spring of 1942, upon the Oka a metal, mountable-and-dismountable, 75-mm pipeline was mounted. It supplied with fuel the troops of the 61st Bryansk Front Army. In a part of the Leningrad front, across the Volkhov River, the similar 75-mm pipeline was laid. In March of 1943, 100-mm pipeline was laid across the Don that was used as a part of the railroad bridge, because the bridge was destroyed. It transported from one bank to the other 700 tons of fuel daily. The 2.72 km long pipeline, laid in the spring of 1944 near the Lots-Kamensky railroad bridge over the Dnepr, was used in the same way. In November 1944, mountable-and-dismountable pipelines were put across the Danube, and in winter 1945 also across the Vistula. The 100-mm and 225 km long mountable-and dismountable pipeline which was laid in January 1945 can be regarded as a trunk pipeline. Its throughput was 40 m3 per hour, and it delivered the fuel from the Ploeshti region, Romania, to the transfer tank farm in Reni, the USSR. The fuel was loaded into tank cars and sent to the front. Special units were maintaining the pipeline. During the war, mountable-and-dismountable pipelines were used for various purposes. They helped to successfully carry out large-scale battle operations. The oil pipeline Zolny - Yablonevy - Syzran also was put into operation during the war.

On the whole, from 1941 to 1945 the USSR built 1,264 km of trunk oil and oil product pipelines. However, it is impossible to figure out the precise length of the trunk pipeline network at that time, because the Baku - Batumi pipeline, for example, was entirely dismantled.

The study of the pipeline transport as of 1917 to 1945 shows that the throughput of specific trunk oil pipelines was not completely used. Of course, some oil pipelines, such as the Caucasian, showed lower performance during the war time (see the table that shows actual figures of oil pipeline utilization, check the site for this). Other pipelines, such as Okha - Sofia, were in the initial operation phase. The older ones were in no better position. For example, from the very beginning of the operation only one third of the capacity of the oil pipeline Guriev - Orsk, built in 1934, was utilized, and by 1945 only 27 % of its throughput was used. This was caused by the slow development of the Emba deposit and a significant delay in developing refinery capacities in Orsk. A good example could be the history of Makhachkala - Grozny oil pipeline. Built in 1936, it was underused since the early operational days - the flow of homogeneous oil was inadequate. During the war its operation was suspended, its returning into production delayed, and by 1945 its usage was only 20 %. At the same time, the railroad line Makhachkala - Grozny was overloaded.

This was due to the facts that the overall oil fields development plan was inadequately elaborated, the rate and scale of field development was unfounded, refinery capacity, such as that of Baku - Batumi oil pipeline, was insufficient. In addition, the pipeline capacities were underestimated, especially in the war time. This resulted in slow recovery of destroyed pipelines. Poor technical equipment and unprepared provision for alternate transportation of various oils and oil products via the same pipeline also had negative impact on pipeline usage. Using trains for oil transit was considered the best.

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On 22 June, 1943, the Germans celebrated the second anniversary of their invasion of the Soviet Union. To mark this occasion a military parade was organized in Pskov. To the shock and disbelief of the Russian on-lookers, the German military parade was opened by a company of the First Guard Brigade of ROA. Among the Russian on-lookers present at the parade were also honorary guests like Zhilenkov, Kromiadi, and Boyarski. The Russian traitors were celebrating the invasion and rape of their own country!

http://members.tripod.com/~marcin_w/index-Gil.html

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The Order of Victory




The Order of Victory was established by a Decree of the Presidium of the (Former) USSR Supreme Soviet on November 8, 1943. The Order of Vicory is the highest military order and is one of the rarest Orders in the world today having been awarded only 19 times during WWII and only once since then. The Order of Victory is made of silver (19 grams) and gold (2 grams) on a platinum frame (47 grams) and encrusted with diamonds (16 carats) and rubies (25 carats). This order was given to top-ranking commanders of the Red Army for a successful operation within the framework of one or several fronts resulting in a radical change of the situation in favour of the Soviet Armed Forces. It was also awarded to a select few commanders of the Alied forces.

The order was originally proposed by Colonel N. S. Neyelov, who served in the headquarters of the Rear of the Soviet Army in July 1943. Initially to be called the Order for Faithfulness to the Homeland but in October this was changed to Victory. The badge's principle designer was Kuznetsov and went through 15 drafts until a final design was selected by Stalin on 25 October. The badge is a 72mm five-pointed ruby star on a platinum frame. The star being bordered by 16 carats of diamonds. In the centre is a blue enamel circle with portrayals of the wall of the Kremlin, the Mausoleum of Lenin and the Spasskaya tower. Above this is the inscription "USSR" in white enamel and the word "Victory" below. It is to be worn on the left side of the tunic 12 -14 cm above the belt. In 1945 it had an estimated value of £3,750.

http://www.russian-medals.net/chkord3.htm





The recipiants;


Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov #1, 10 1944


Alexander M. Vasilievsky #2, 10 April 1944


Joseph (Iosif) Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili Stalin #3, 28 July 1944 ( Surprise...?)


Konstantin Konstaninovich Rokossovlky, 19 March 1945


Ivan Stepanovich Konev, 19 March 1945


Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov, 2nd award 30 March 1945


Alexander M. Vasilievsky, 2nd award 19 April 1945


Rodion Yakavlevich Malinovsky, 26 April 1945


Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin, 26 April 1945


Leonid A. Govorov, 31 May1945


Alexei Innokentyevich Antonov, 4 June 1945


Semyon Konstaninovich Timoshenko, 4 June 1945


Joseph (Iosif) Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili Stalin, 2nd award 26 June 1945 ( Heh-heh...)


Kirill Afanasyevich Meretskov, 8 September 1945


Dwight David Eisenhower, 5 June 1945 (General of the Army)


Bernard Law Montgomery, 5 June 1945 (British Field Marshal)


Mikai Michael Hohenzollern, 6 July 1945 (King Michael I of Romania)


Michal Rolja-Zymersky, 9 August 1945 (Marshal of Poland)


Josip Broz Tito, 9 September 1945 (Marshal of Yugoslavia)


Leonid Iilich Brezhnev, 20 February 1978 (Rescinded 21 September 1989 because "it was noncorresponding to the statute of the Order".

http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian...y/Victory.html

[ 23. May 2003, 06:29 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

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*BUMP*

If you didn´t see The Order of Victory check it above...

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