Yes reddog2k, that's exactly the same guy.

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

I've only read his book "Life In The Soviet Army" which gives people a broad view of how the Soviet Military operates. I found the book to be very informative especially his belief that the USSR would use nuclear weapons first.

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"Family, friends, religion. These are the demons you must slay if you are to become successfull in bussiness. When opportunity knocks, you don't want to be sitting in some phoney-baloney church... or a SINAGOGUE!" - Montgomery Burns

Actually this forum lacks of a big "SUVOROV"-discussion, which is a rather mandatory part of every WW II forum.

The closes tthing I found here is:

http://www.ww2forums.com/cgi-bin/ubb...=000126#000009

Unfortunately I don't have enough time right now to copy all the stuff I posted years ago when this Suvorov-thing was hot

Cheers,

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"Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!"
(President Merkin Muffley in "Dr. Strangelove")

Well, I would say first, that the majority of Soviet tanks (and for that matter the majority of any of their equipment) was obsolete when the Germans invaded. Instead, it was largely a combination or inept use and extremely poor maintenance and logistics that led to massive waste and enormous casualities.
I also found the rather fanciful German art at the top of this thread amusing. Few German soldiers in the opening stages of Barbarossa saw the Luftwaffe at all and those who did only at a distance as they flew to targets somewhere up ahead of the advance. Direct ground support, outside Richtohfen's VIII fliegerKorps was virtually non-existant. And, even that unit was more bound up in operational and "strategic" attacks than supporting ground forces.

I would think that Herbert Goldhamer's The Soviet Soldier was a better source on the subject of life in the Soviet Army.

Oh. My. God.

You are right of course. I don't see how any forum can lay claim to being World War II related without such a discussion. We must immediately start such a discussion before anyone notices and goes telling the rest of the internet! I can hear the lynch-mobs converging on us already...

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

Well,I read a lot of critical materials about Suvorov-Rezun's books,but ALL were written to refute some FACTS,but not the whole book,yes,he exagerate a bunch of things,but the main Idea of "Icebraker" stayed untouchable.Or perhaps I searched inattentivly

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Kto k nam s mechom pridet, ot mecha i pogibnet!

First, the Soviet tanks in 1941 WERE obsolete as well as most of the Red Air Force planes. There's no doubt of it. T-70s and T-35 and even the BT series were no match not only for the German tanks, but even more for the German crews and tactics. When the T-34 came out, it automatically made all the German 'modern' tanks obsolete as well.

And well, this is the first time I listen to anyone saying that Georgi K. Zhúkov was not a genious and that he actually saved USSR's ass. That's very interesting... and not believeable.

And no one can prove that Stalin wanted to attack the Germany. Marshals Timoschenko and Zhúkov suggested that a pre-emptive attack on Germany should take place in 1942 or 1943 but Stalin never gave signs of agreeing. We can only suposse.

Excuse me, but those fortifications made since 1703 were not going to work. The defences Leningrad needed were organised and made by Zhúkov in September-October 1941. The transfer of a Panzer group has nothing to do with it.

Why were the Germans stopped? Mostly because its units by the time of Moscow had 50% of its size. Why? Because of the big annihilation battles of the summer. If the Russians wouldn't have held for so much inside the pockets, these casualties wouldn't have taken place and they would have given time and resources to the Germans for an advance on Moscow.

To buy time and weaken the German forces. It worked! And as Andy very brightly pointed out, retreating and forming a new defensive line was useless.

These annihilation battles gave the Germans huge tactical victories, but it deprived them of two things they didn't have much and couldn't afford to lose: time and men. However, these battles were needed to destroy the Red Army. ANd it almost worked.

Well, we are having it now, aren't we?

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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

The problem is, if his facts are misinterpreted(best case), distorted and/or entirely made up (worst case), how can the idea stay untouchable?

Granted, it's an interesting mental exercise in the land of what-if. But not anything more than that.

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

Hello, Kai! I was born in Sokal town, which now is in Ukraine and was in Soviet Union in the time of WW2. I'm very interesting of this photo. Do you have another photos, its possible to buy.

Heartland, the BT tank you mention, is that what the Soviets made of Christie's design that was rejected by the US? It had removable tracks and was capable of high road speeds. Didn't it also have the torsion bar suspension and have good tracked speed in field maneuvers?

Sorry Orest,

those are pics from the net I found. Usually they are not being sold, I´m afraid. Maybe you could try ebay?

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Friedrichs post is too long, so I picked from it some things I want to reply.
T-70 was manufactured first time in Feb. 1942, so it cannot fight in 1941
T-35 was useles in any case, but it was a "parade" stuff, made only in few (by the USSR, of course) numbers.
But T-26, BT series, well, show me, why that ones "were no match". They had nearly the same armour thickness, armanent not only the same, but even slightly better, I dont know, but they does not seem to me to be so inferior.

Excuse me, but every fortification does work, even the simple foxhole. The second sentece does not make sense for me. Do you have some proof of it?
I try to explain my evidence:
When Zhukov arrived to Leningrad (13.9.1941, not 9.9, this Zhukov writes in his memories, like many other fairy-tale stories), the defence was organized quite well. Truth is, there was not many things to defend against. Germans did not want to assault Leningrad, only to surround it and siege. If Zhukov was so strategic genius, he should to see it. Everybody knows it, but Zhukov? He not only did not belive of (true) reports of inteligence, without any reasonable argument on his side, but even he had left to punish some of those "inteligence guys", for "provocations", as he call it. Instead he ordered some realy stoopid orders, like to join with isolated 8th Army in Oranienbaum sector, which brought to Russian no any victory, but only lots of causualties. Instead of to push Germans out of Mga, the crucial rail station for supply of Leningrad he ordered to prepare for German assault. This very assault, which exists only in his head and the Mga station, this is another "heroic" story. Because of Zhukov did not made any serious attempt to secure back this station, about one milion of Leningrad citizens had to starve to dead.
This is only a little story about "the savior" Zhukov. I should write more, but as an English si not my primary language, and I rarely use it except of reading, it is not easy for me to write in English. And I am sorry of any spelling error...

Hello Jean, is it possible we are from the same country? Welcome on board!

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Jean

You spell better than some here whose primary language is English. Welcome and don't let your lack of confidence in English language matters to limit you. If you can't figure out how to say word or phrase in English, say it in French (if that is your tongue) and we'll try to translate it. Much more than a word or two or a phrase, though, we sometimes have trouble getting a good translation.

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Best Regards,
JW

Hallo, everybody,
too bad, i am not French,I am from Czech Republic. I am from city, where the famous Semtex was invented (anybody knows, what is the name of this city, I am curious if someone knows it???).

We'll take Czechs, I don't guess we have anyone presently active from there. It is good to have you.

Pardubice or Semtin....I can google with the best!

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Best Regards,
JW

Oh, maybe as chief of the Red Army General Staff, Zhukov has not enough authority to command. At least he write this in his memories. But he had enough authority to sign "Directive of Peoples' Commissariat of Defence No. 1" (and more and more directives...), where he, in short, forbade to officers to do anything, without special orders.
And in "Directive of Peoples' Commissariat of Defence No. 3" he ordered to attack, not to defend and, if I only consider this two "High command" order, it was devastating enough.
About those tanks, I in generaly agree with you. But when I imagine, that the Russians strike first, there may be a little different situation.
There are German ammo and supply stores under fire and bombardment, as well as airfields. So giant collums of soviet tanks are barely disturbed by a few Stukas, which only managed to start...
I think, in this case the Russian logistic should be slightly better. Its hard a little to refuel or repair, when you are retreating without any connection, you are under fire as well as your stores (little quiz: Who ordered to place so many supplies directly on borders?).

Both is right. Semtin is a little village just on borders of Pardubice. And something better, I work in the Explosia factory, where this plastic stuff was and still is being made and directly in the research institute (which is a part of Explosia), where it was invented.
I should to do an explosive welding, and sometimes industrial explosives but, as you can to see, I had enough time to write some stuff to this (but not only to this, CZ forums are there too) forum.