Was reading the book by Viktor Suvorov (Pen name for Vladimir B. Rezum, defected GRU officer) on the Red Army. He stated that many of the breakthroughs acheived by the Red Army in such places as Stalingrad, Kursk, and elsewhere were done by penal batallions. These Bns were massed in numbers from 16 to over 30 at the point of the desired breakthrough. The Bns were composed of a guards Co and three penal companies. The guard company's job was to shoot anyone turning back or even not advancing fast enough. They set up heavy MGs behind the penal companies and kept up a fire just behind the advancing prisoners. Just before the penal companies attacked they were armed. Suvorov maintained that had the Germans been more adroit, they would have retreated before the penal bns util the prisoners were out of range of the heavy MGs. They would have then surrendered easily to the German troops. In fact Suvorov said that Hitler's policies of terror was one of Stalin's greatest assets. He asserted than many Soviet soldiers would have gone over to the Germans had they, and the indiginous people behind the German lines, been given any sort of decent treatment. I realize that Suvorov is a somewhat controversial author, but his account of the Soviet penal bns jives with the stories of human wave attacks backed by NKVD people with guns trained on their own men. The difference between the German and Soviet penal bns was that in the German system a prisoner was given a term of sentence and if he survived that, he was considered rehabilitated. In the Soviet system, according to Suvorov, the sentence was virtually a death sentence and if the soldier/prisoner was lucky enough to live throught one attack, he would be sent into another and then another until he was killed.
Be careful when mentioning Suvorov here. There were a lot of Russians who were not willing to die for Stalin. More Russians served\helped the German army, than any other nationality. Many Russian historians conclude that because Penal Groups were in action at the most difficult sections of the front, they contributed the most when these operations where successful. There were many officers and privates that were rehabilitated to their original rank, pay and returned to their units after service in Penal Units in red Army. NKVD Cover Units were used in many instances through out the war to prevent attacks from “running out of steam”. I have read some researchers say there were no Cover Groups after Stalingrad, but have also seen memoirs about Zhukov using NKVD to push soldiers toward Victory in Berlin.
In reading his book, I kinda had the impression that Suvorov at times may have resorted to exaggeration to make his point. However, I'm believing that his claim may have some merit. He also stated that bomber such as in the Il-2, were from an aerial form of the penal batallions. Has anyone heard about this claim?
