Russian WW2 interesting stats and facts

Indeed, Don't know where that type came from ...Thanks. It didn't look right at the time but the word wasn't misspelled. Time for a nap ....

 

I just catch things like that now since I live in the PNW.

 

If you get a chance the Crest Trail is beautiful to hike. Snow melt time can see some pretty extreme mosquito swarms though, that more than the heat was what had us swimming in ice water.

 

No groaning please but I found a webpage on Facebook named "World War 2 Eastern Front" https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=world war 2 eastern front that has about 16,000 members. It was open so I joined. Many great photographs I had never seen. Many gruesome ones, many from combat, showing weapons, conditions, atrocities and an extreme range of verbal contributions. Some are insightful, poignant, new to me and many are ridiculous, dumb. biased... make up look like military historians, apologies to Rich, at times but then there is much to see. Lots of Russians and Germans on it. I think it at least worth a look for the photographs.

But, just the other day they announced it was going to be a closed forum for new members. it may be read-only but I do not know.

Gaines

 

In Finland many people started the day with swimming..... and yes, that is ice.





And then back to the usual thread business...

 

From Glantz " Zhukov´s greatest defeat"

On the Rzhev area operation late 1942 ( Not Stalingrad but in front of Moscow ). Zhukov´s obsession.



In the Center, the combined strength of the Kalinin and Western fronts, backed up by Moscow defence zone, numbered almost 1,9 million men, with 24,000 guns and mortars, 3,300 tanks and 1,100 aircraft. This represented 31% of the manpower, 32% of artillery, almost 50% of armor, and over 35% of the total Soviet strength, and their massive strength was concentrated on only 17% of the overal.

Yet Model managed to hold onto the Rzhev salient until late spring 1943 when the front line was straightened in order to get enough soldiers and reserves to operation Zitadelle. So all for nothing,really.

 

" The original Soviet plan for operation Bagration had called for it to start on 19 June 1944. However, by mid-June the congestion on the railways leading into the Byelorussian staging areas west of Smolensk was causing serious delays in deploying key units. Stalin threatened the leaders of the railway system, but the main attack had to be postponed four days, until 2 June 1944.

Operation Bagration by Steven J Zaloga

 

Viktor Leonov - Wikipedia

Viktor Nikolayevich Leonov (Russian: Виктор Николаевич Леонов; 21 November [O.S. 8 November] 1916, in Zaraysk – 7 October 2003, in Moscow) was a Soviet Navy officer and twice Hero of the Soviet Union.

In October 1944, during the Petsamo-Kirkenes Offensive, the naval scouts under the command of Leonov landed on the shore occupied by the Wehrmacht, and for two days made their way to the designated point in the harsh off-road conditions, unable to make fire in order to warm up and prepare food. On the morning of October 12, they suddenly attacked the 88-mm battery at Cape Krestovoy. They managed to capture it and also capture a large number of Nazi soldiers. When a boat with a Nazi soldiers attempted to make landing towards their position, Leonov along with a detachment of Ivan Barchenko-Yemelyanov repulsed the attacks, and captured about 60 enemy soldiers. This battle ensured the success of the Soviet landing in Liinakhamari, which led to capture of the port and city by Soviet forces. Thus, Leonov's detachment, by its actions, created favorable conditions for the landing of Soviet troops in the ice-free port of Liinakhamari and the subsequent liberation of Petsamo and Kirkenes. For doing so he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for the first time on 5 November 1944

 

On 1 June 1942 , four weeks before the summer campaign began,Hitler told the senior officers of AGS "If I do not get the oil of Maikop and Grozny then I must end this war." From "Stopped at Stalingrad" By Joel Hayward

 

After reverses during the winter of 1941-42, the Wehrmacht no longer had the means to undertake wide-ranging offensives along the entire front, by then over 2,500 kilometers long. The summer campaign of 1942, although still immense, was necessarily less ambitious. It opened along along a front of 725 kilometers and involved 68 German and 25 Allied divisions.

Stopped at Stalingrad by Hayward

 

Notice the Rzhev salient in the middle which is why Stalin believed Hitler´s aim was Moscow summer 1942. Hitler held onto the salient until 1943 when he straightened the lines to get more men for operation Zitadelle.

Operation Mars I

Stavka’s grand strategic design in autumn 1942. The aim was not only substantial encirclements in the Rzhev-Viazma and Stalingrad areas but even more gigantic encirclements of both Army Group Center and Army Group South.

 

Despite its enormous losses, the Soviet air force was quick to hit back. But its bomber forces were disorganised and expended in penny-packet numbers. 29 June 1941 was a day of raids with wave after wave of Soviet bombers thrown against the River Duna bridges in a desperate attempt to stop the tanks of Panzergruppe 4 advancing into Latvia. But the day-long succession of attacks by enemy bombers, rarely in more than squadron strength and each rigidly holding to a predetermined course and nearly all devoid of fighter escort, gave the "Green Hearts" their first major success of the Russian campaign. By the time night fell-and with the vital bridges at Dunaburg still intact- the Gruppe had claimed no fewer than 65 Soviet bombers, including a brace of Ilyushin DB-3s for the Kommodore in one of the mid-afternoon raids,without loss.

JG 54 "Grunherz" by John Weal

 

Rumanian oil fields and refineries had been attacked ( as had key bridges and harbor installations ) as many as ninety-five times since Barbarossa began. by twin-engined bombers of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet´s naval air arm based at Odessa and on the Crimea itself. These air attacks were generally weak and ineffectual, thanks to substantial German air defences around the oil fields and refineries. When Barbarossa commenced, there were no less than twenty-four heavy and numerous light flak batteries around Ploesti alone. The presence and quantity of these forces, which included strong fighter units, reflect Hitler´s deep concern over the safety of his main source of oil.

Stopped at Stalingrad by Hayward

 

Kaleva (airplane) - Wikipedia

Kaleva was a civilian Junkers Ju 52 passenger and transport plane, belonging to the Finnish carrier Aero O/Y. The aircraft was shot down by two Soviet Ilyushin DB-3 bombers during peacetime between the Soviet Union and Finland on 14 June 1940, while en route from Tallinn to Helsinki, killing all nine on board.[1] The flight number for the route was 1631.

The shootdown of Kaleva is a central event in the novel trilogy Litsid (The Whores, 2015-2018) by the Estonian author Mart Sander and in the TV series of the same name (2018).[8] The book follows the theory proposing that Henry Antheil (played in the series by Matt Fien) was tasked with transporting the last remaining gold from the Estonian gold depository (11 bars) to Finland, only days before the Soviet occupation began. There were 227 kilograms of diplomatic luggage on the plane.[9] Another theory suggests that the orders came straight from Stalin, who was convinced that Estonian president Konstantin Päts was trying to flee the country on it.

Terrorism- and War-Related Airplane Crashes Fast Facts - CNN

June 14, 1940 - Soviet bombers shoot down the Kaleva, a Finnish commercial plane traveling from Estonia to Finland, killing all nine on board. One passenger was Henry W. Antheil Jr., an American diplomat who was carrying diplomatic pouches from US legations in Estonia and Latvia.

Henry W. Antheil, Jr.’s career in the U.S. Foreign Service was cut short when the Finnish passenger plane Kaleva exploded at 14:05 on Friday, June 14, 1940 about ten minutes after taking off from Tallinn’s Ülemiste Airport. According to an Associated Press wire story that ran the following day, Henry was serving as a diplomatic courier when his plane exploded en route to Helsinki. Henry was carrying several diplomatic pouches from the U.S. legations in Tallinn and Riga on the very day that the Soviet blockade of Estonia went into effect. Soviet troops had already been based in Estonia since October 18, 1939 as a result of the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Some Estonian researchers believe that Henry’s diplomatic pouches included secret information detailing the Soviet Union’s future plans for the Baltic regionthat the Estonian General Staff had turned over to an unidentified U.S. Government official earlier that same day. Back in the United States, the news of the Soviet blockade and the loss of the Kaleva were overshadowed by a much bigger story that broke onthe other side of Europe on June 14: the Nazi occupation of Paris

 

Hitler in his supplement to War Directive No 34, dated 21 August 1941, Hitler stated: " The most important aim to be achieved before the onset of winter is not the capture of Moscow but, rather, the occupation of the Crimea, of the industrial and coal-mining area of the Donets Basin, the cutting of the Russian supply routes from the Caucasus oil fields,and, in the north, the investment of Leningrad and the establishment of contact with the Finns."

Stopprd at Stalingrad by Hayward

 

The disorderly invasion of eastern Poland in September 1939 taught the Soviet high command little and a continued demodernization took place into the autumn of 1939 with mechanized corps being completely abolished. Even after Winter War Soviet authorities stubbornly avoided fundamental changes. It was not until the astonishing successes of Germany´s armoured forces in the invasion of France that the Soviet high command was forced to address some of their chronic doctrinal and structural deficiencies. The result was a sweeping round of modernizing reforms that ran against the tide of changes made since 1937. Not only was this bound to result in tremendous chaos and confusion, but the Red Army had been completely purged of those officers, educated under Tukhachevsky, who might have instigated the new modifications. The whole structure of the army had regressed to primitive levels.

The first nine mechanized corps reappeared in the summer of 1940 with another twenty being created in February and March 1941. The expansion was so rapid that neither equipment nor manpower could be provided to meet their requirements before the onset of war.

Kiev 1941 by Stahel

 

Operation Blau and changes to goals:
Starting phase:

The German plan involved a three-staged attack:

• Blau I: Fourth Panzer Army, commanded by Hermann Hoth (transferred from Army Group North) and the Second Army, supported by the Second Hungarian Army, would attack from Kursk to Voronezh and continue the advance, anchoring the northern flank of the offensive towards the Volga.
• Blau II: Sixth Army, commanded by Friedrich Paulus, would attack from Kharkiv and move in parallel with Fourth Panzer Army, to reach the Volga at Stalingrad (whose capture was not deemed necessary).
• Blau III: First Panzer Army would then strike south towards the lower Don River, with Seventeenth Army on the western flank and Fourth Romanian Army on the eastern flank.

The strategic objectives of the operation were the oilfields at Maykop, Grozny and Baku.

-------------------
Later change to directives:
Believing that the main Soviet threat had been eliminated, desperately short of oil and needing to meet all the ambitious objectives of Case Blue, Hitler made a series of changes to the plan in Führer Directive No. 45:

• reorganized Army Group South into two smaller Army Groups, A and B;
• directed Army Group A to advance to the Caucasus and capture the oil fields (Operation Edelweiß);
• directed Army Group B to attack towards the Volga and Stalingrad (Operation Fischreiher)

--------------

The splitting of Army Group South enabled the launching of Operation Edelweiss and Operation Fischreiher, the two main thrusts of the Army Groups. Both groups had to achieve their objectives simultaneously, instead of consecutively.The success of the initial advance was such that Hitler ordered the Fourth Panzer Army south to assist the First Panzer Army to cross the lower Don river. This assistance was not needed and Kleist later complained that Fourth Panzer Army clogged the roads and that if they had carried on toward Stalingrad, they could have taken it in July. When it turned north again two weeks later, the Soviets had gathered enough forces together at Stalingrad to check its advance.
Case Blue - Wikipedia

 

From June to December 1941, the Soviets either already had in service or placed in service, a total of at least 3 017 T-34s out of a manufactured total of 3 111.

The total number of German Pz IIIs, Pz IVs and StuG assault guns committed to the East Front during the entire period under consideration, was 2 686.(4) This figure includes Pz IIIs with only 37mm guns, all the tanks in all the units that arrived as reinforcements, and all replacements up to December 1941.

The T-34 in WWII: the Legend vs. the Performance | Operation Barbarrosa

 

Just how much Zhukov wanted to destroy AGC...

 

Heavy losses during winter left the Wehrmach unable to undertake wideranging offensives along the entire eastern front. By 31 January 1942, the eastern armies had suffered 917,985 casualties, including 28,935 officers, and the eastern Luftwaffe forces had suffered 18,089. Although substantial replacements arrived during the following months, they proved incapable of offsetting losses inflicted during the winter crisis, let alone rebuilding adequate reserves. Loss of material also caused grave concern: 424 tanks were destroyed in the first three weeks of December 1941 alone, a rate of destruction that continued until well into January. On 30 March, the High Command of the Army (OKH) reported that the sixteen panzer divisions deployed in the east had only 140 operational tanks between them-less than the standard complement of a single division.

Stopped at Stalingrad by Hayward