Introduction & Newbie Questions that I don't want to clog the forums with

Hi folks. Just found the forum. I'm 32 years old and far from a historian but am in love with the "greatest generation" and this period in history. I have a few WW2 era rifles in my gun collection and have read many books/biographies (Sniper on the Eastern Front, Blood Red Snow, Black Edelweiss, The Forgotten Soldier, etc)....

Having said all the intros, I have a few questions that I didn't want to start brand new threads in the forums for what would probably get simple, quick replies so I figured I'd post them all here and see what types of responses I get. Thank you!

1. Currently re-reading Blood Red Snow and the author talks frequently about the Russian steppes & rachels. I googled images of a Russian "steppe" and it's easy enough to picture in your head as you're reading.....but I can't seem to visualize what the geographic features of a "rachel" would look like. Are they ravines? small ditches? Some of the books I've read talk about entire companies or even battalions taking refuge in a rachel on the russian steppe. Anyone got any description of one, or better yet a picture?


2. Again, I'm no historian....most of my learnings come from the history channel and biographies. In most documentaries and in several biographies I hear the authors or commentators talk about how the common "jager" held out hope based on rumors of german secret, soon-to-be revealed "super weapons".....what were these weapons that were in development? My understanding was that it was based around rocket science and jet engines as well as the potential of an atomic bomb. Is that correct? Were there any others? Would the StG44 considered to be one of these weapons?

3. Saw this in another thread while browsing the forum. What are these russian troops carrying? http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2LZPKXLrI...AAPw/DQCMhvJ_bcc/s1600/armia-czerwona-110.jpg




Thanks guys, I'm looking forward to participating in the forum!

 

Slipdigit Sheephead - Might those be PTRS-41s, not PTRDs?
PTRS-41 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

to be honest they do look like the ptrs-41s, and the guys in the front ranks look to be carrying ppsh's

 

I'll go with "mixed bag".

 

Welcome, ekim22, and thanks for a clear and sensible introduction !

The Eastern Front is always under discussion here - feel free to trawl through old threads and revive any you wish to.

( I must confess to being stumped over the 'rachel' question : maybe this could help...

Russian World War II Dictionary: A Russian-English glossary of special terms, expressions, and soldiers' slang: Amazon.co.uk: Isaak Kobylyanskiy, Stuart Britton: Books )

 

Welcome aboard!

Heh...don't worry about posting "silly" questions...if you have a legitimate question and can't find another thread using the Search feature, then someone will either answer or direct you to a thread where the topic may have drifted (dunno how topics drift...*looks quite innocent*) and is relevant to your question. Besides...I'd bet that if you asked a question, you'd find at least one other person on any given forum who is interested in learning the answer, too. Its how we learn and share our knowledge! And you might be surprised at some of the conversations that can be sparked off by a seemingly "silly" question.

 

Welcome to the forum, ekim22! We're happy to have you here.

 

Welcome

 

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. I spent hours already just browsing through the topics/forums and I haven't even scratched the surface. This place is awesome

How's this for sheer stupidity....as I was reading through the book (Blood Red Snow) I'm flipping through the 4-5 pages of black & white pics that books tend to put in the middle of the book and right there plain as day is a picture with the sole intent/purpose of defining & illustrating what the "rachel" geographic feature is. I've seen this term used in several books now. It's essentially what I said earlier in the question, just a ditch in the middle of nowhere in the flat steppe's/prairies. The one pictured in the book is big enough to park 6-7 tanks in so I imagine they all got used pretty well as wind/snow blocks in the exposed flats.



Anyone with any input on the "super weapons" question? I'll do some searching around the forum for that one, it should have been discussed at some point.

 

Hello there ekim22 and welcome to the forum! :]

 

Yes, you're right - I just saw it in Koschorrek's book, too. There are also photos in many other books such as Carell's 'Bildband'. A 'rachel' ( pronounced rakh-ul, not 'rachel' as in Friends.... ) is a gully peculiar to the Steppe where the land-level changes and storm-water runs off, eroding the soil. Apparently they are especially common in the area around Stalingrad. The Russian term for the feature is 'balka'.