A nice little Zhukov site.

LOL Za. Some people have to believe in something .

 

If you were not so eager you would have read what I wrote. One off reports do not constitute tactics, one can't generalize from one offs. Same as the much vaunted Panzerjäger Elefant was not built into more than 90 vehicles only, and see what a hullabaloo was made of a numerically insignificant weapon.

That's what propaganda is for: building perceptions.

That dog trick was a failure because the Russhki-Popoffs found the dogs were running into their own tanks, that was the noise they were used to, so they found it was a bad idea and just dropped it.

 

Emil,

In Stalingrad the blocking detachments and the NKVD units came under direct control of Chuikov, this was done for several reasons. Stalingrad defenders were desperately short of men as the Germans had constant numerical advantage in men, guns, armor and virtually complete air-superiority. In the worst of fighting these blocking detachements would serve as reinforcements along with NKVD units. These units were also a morale booster as instead of shooting at their own men they would be fighting right along side them and many Stalingrad veterans claimed just that.

As for the "NOT ONE STEP BACK" order many Red Army veterans actually applaud this. They claim that finally a line had been drawn and no more retreat will be tolerated as there was simply no more land which could be given up. It was the order 227 which played a significant role in saving the Red Army and giving birth to heroism such as that which was performed by Mikhail Panikakha, which we now here about. Let us also not forget that the Germans too issued such orders later on in the war especially in Berlin.

 

John Keegan points this out as to a vast reason for the numbers of soviet troops captured early in the conflict...as many generals/officers feared Stalin..and for fear of the retaliation for retreating, they allowed themselves (allowed a poor word,,but never took steps to try and retreat to avoid being encircled) so vast numbers of Russian troops simply fought until the ammunition was expended and surrendered..rather then to try and act on their own accord and withdraw before the swift panzers did indeed circle them

 

Not so sure that that was the case most of the time as the majority of Soviet Armies were were simply surrounded, destroyed or forced to surrender as was the case in Kiev. The Red Army soldiers afterall were human and as any military unit which is surrounded, can only continue to fight as long as it has the proper supplies, leadership and motivation. In the case of the Red Army at the outbreak of war, all of these were non existent. One has to take into consideration that the Red Army soldiers surrendered thinking that they would be treated as regular human beings and not systemstically starved as they were in reality. As soon as the Red Army soldiers found out about the German hospitality, fighting became much more fierce which even gained the German's respect and with much fewer prisoners taken.

We must also not forget that many Red Army Units did in fact retreat to fight another day, Morozov's 11th and Major General N.E. Berzarin's 27th armies withdrew from the Stalin line and formed a new defense around Novgorod, Staraia Russa and Velikie Luki axes, later the 11th and the 27th armies withdrew again to Staraia Russa and Kholm line after pressure from the 1st Army Corps which captured Shimsk and were then persued by Busch's Sixteenth Army which forced them to retreat again to Lake Il'men after capturing Kholm and Staraia Russa. The infamous order "227" only came to be at Stalingrad, before that order there were no blocking detachments. Unfortuantely it was the units which fell into German hands suffered first from the Germans and later from Stalin.