I don’t know if Russia has ever
lost a War, certainly not World War I, II, and the war against Napoleon.
World War II
In World War II the Russian men and women
were first-rate fighters from the start, but not well
trained. They became first-rate soldiers with experience.
They fought tough, had amazing endurance,
and could carry on without most of the things other armies
regarded as necessities, The Russian Staff
were quick to learn from their early defeats, and soon
became highly efficient. The tank forces were
formidable. The Russian guerrillas were active behind the
German front continually and by 1944 had forced the Germans too often abandon the use of all but a
few truck roads as supply routes and German troops were cut off captured In World War II or killed. the
best Russian Victory was the offensive from the Vistula in January, 1945.
The German policy of clinging on at all
cost in particular palaces repeatedly changed their
campaign for the worse. The attempt to cement one threatened
breach in the front line repeatedly
caused fresh breaches somewhere else, in the end that proved
fatal. The Russian heavy tanks were a
surprise in quality and reliability from the outset, but the
Russians proved to have less artillery than had been expected, and their air force did not offer serious opposition
at first.
General
Kleist said:
“The Russian equipment was very good even
in 1941, especially the tanks. The artillery was
excellent. Most of
the infantry weapons---their rifles were more modern than ours, and had a
more rapid rate of fire. Their T.34 tank was the finest in
the world. The Russians maintained
their advantage in tank design and that in the “Stalin”
tank, which appeared in 1944 the best, tank that
was seen in battle, anywhere, up to the end of the war.
British experts have criticize the Russian tanks
for lacking the refinements, and gadgets, desirable in various operations respects especially for wireless control. But the German tank experts concede that the British
and Americans tended to sacrifice too much in the way of power and performance for these
refinements. On the equipment side the Russians’ weakest period had been in 1942. They had not been
able to make up for their 1941 losses and throughout the year were very short of artillery in
particular. They had to use mortars brought up on lorries to compensate their lack of artillery.”
To be continued…
DR. KARL WALLACE D.D.S.
To red more go to: karlwallaceblog.blogspot.com
