At the beginning of Enemy at the Gates when the men are taken off the boats and go to collect their guns, is it true that only one man between two would have a rifle. And that when the soldiers retreated from the battle they were shot. I know very little about the Eastern Front and specalise mainly in the Pacific Theatre. Any way, did these events actually happen, the shooting of fleeing men by their own side and 1 in 2 men recieving a rifle.
Any help would be great, thanks.

Jet [img]smile.gif[/img]

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I believe some foot soildiers were issued in pairs to have one rifle and like 10 bullets per 2 men. I think it mattered on the commanding officer wheather retreaters were to be shot.

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There types of things did happen. Enemy at the Gates compresses everything into Vasily Zaitsev's experience, which is not completely accurate.

In some cases, NKVD officers did shoot soldiers for retreating, and many Soviet soldiers knew this, the technique was used as a "motivational" tool. I'm not sure about how often machine guns were set up behind the Russian lines by Russians, but I have heard of this occurring as well. I've also read reports of mine clearing activities where entire platoons of conscripts would link arms arm march across a field! Clearly the Russian fighting man had a difficult time during the Second World War.

As for the rifles, this did happen as well but not because the Russians had any choice. If there had been enough rifles to go around, they would have given one to every man. This is less a statement about Russian cruelty and more a statement about Soviet lack of supplies.

In both cases Zaitsev did not experience these things at Stalingrad, as far as I know he was an accomplished sniper when he arrived.

[ 08. February 2003, 02:56 PM: Message edited by: Otto ]

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Otto do you have any where that I can learn about Zaitsev? I have been trying to learn more about him.

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Brad, this is the internet, there is a ton of information on Zaitsev, the problem is determining the best sources.

A quick warning about this topic first, the encounter between Zaitsev and "Konig" is very likely propaganda, and there are many differing accounts and some say they was no encounter like this in Stalingrad. I don't know who is right, but here are some sources:

http://www.russian-mosin-nagant.com/zaitsev.htm
http://216.198.255.120/russianpart/russnipers.html
http://www.snipersparadise.com/History/vasili.htm

Also, when searching the web keep in mind that there are at least four english spellings of your subjects' first name, and at least two english spellings of your subjects' last name:

Vassili (or Vassily, or Vasili, or Vasily) Zaitsev (or Zaytsev)

[ 08. February 2003, 10:53 PM: Message edited by: Otto ]

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Herr König was supposed to have been a Waffen SS sniper major, but the man never existed. He was also in charge of a W-SS sniper school but there were none in development until two months after Stalingrad. It's all myth.......

E

Russian commanders would use penal battalions to clear mine fields. They would line their men up shoulder to shoulder and march, exploding the mines as they went.

As the movie points out, the russians especially before 43 alot of times had more men than equipment. Manpower wasn't a problem in Russia, so sending an unarmed (or lightly armed) infantry company or even battalion against the Germans, still made the Germans STOP, fight and exhaust ammunition which bought the Red Army time.

Wow. Thancks alot to all you guys, you have been a tremendous help. Thanks once again.

Jet [img]smile.gif[/img]

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Von Root is right. There was an occasion at Viazhma in October-November 1941 where Soviet soldiers attacked unarmed to the Germans because they had just one rifle every five men...

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