20/2/25
Byelorussia or White Russia a place of lakes and swamps with dense impenetrable forests infested with Soviet partisans. Georgian Prince Pyotr Bagration 1765-1812 was the hero of the Battle of Borodino 1812 Napoleons last offensive.
Hitler dismissed Gereralfieldmarshal Erich von Manstein who had the temerity to point out to Hitler they could not win a straight fight. Gereralfieldmarshal Busch followed Hitler's orders slavishly to the detriment of his command.
This big offensive started about a fortnight after D-day at Normandy, and the 3rd anniversary of the German invasion. Now Russia after bitter experience was matched by a growing technological experience with Germany and had resources that Hitler could not match. In Jan 1944 Russia had secured the Leningrad -Moscow railway. Then the army ejected the German forces in Southern Ukraine. They liberated Crimea from the Black Sea and Sevastopol
Operation Bagration was the 5th offensive aimed at liberating Byelorussia. It annihilated Hitler Army Group Centre and trapped Army Group North , neutralizing almost a million men. 40% of the Red Army was committed to this campaign.
Stalingrad and Kursk paved the way for Soviet Victory Bagnation ensured that Hitler would never regain the initiative.. The laurels of the victory go to Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky.(1896 to 1968) At the end of 1944 the Red Army manpower peaked and showed what the Soviets were capable of. The opening of Bagration ended in the liberation of Minsk.
First Russia introduced ever more powerful armor and revitalized the Red Air Force. The Soviets were made up of vast numbers of ethnic groups such as Armenians, Byelorussians, Georgians, Tajiks, Ukrainians and Uzbeks.
Stalin said that the Western allies are afraid the Soviets will rout the Germans before them.
Zhukov pointed out that once the Central German Enemy in Byelorussia their entire strategic defenses will collapse. and the enemy must be pursued and destroyed. Stalin wanted one major thrust and Rokossovsky said they have to have 2 to divide the Germans. Rokossovsky had suffered such tortures 3 years in the Gulag that he was not afraid to tell Stalin his views.
Byelorussia at the start of the war their had been 9.2 million people a 3rd of them were gone by the end. Jews and people taken as slave labour mostly didn't return. To confuse the enemy a dummy armor corps was set up in Ukraine and the Germans were led to believe that the first blow of the summer campaign would be in the Ukraine and not Byelorussia. After Kursk this was the most thoroughly prepared Russian operation. 5000 trains each with about 50 freight cars making 90 trips a day to the front.12000 trucks at the railheads. There were 294 hospital beds ready for casualties. The Red Airforce had 5,327 combat aircraft and 1007 bombers ready.
There was a brutal guerilla war with Hitler's armies with partisans attacking the long German lines of communications and railway lines on a regular basis. In one night in June 21st they cut off all railway track communication as well as bridges and blew up trains, water pumping stations and attacked garrisons. There were many Soviet officers and men left behind when the Red Army fled as well as Komsomol members. These drew soldiers from the front to the rear. But in some places it was almost civil war as many official and police were German collaborators. Most railway workers were still Russians.
From Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, Hitler's allies attacked into Ukraine. In March1944 Admiral Miklos Horthy had lost his stomach to fight and Hitler occupied his ally. Hitler's decision to hold Crimea from 1941 was insane. Despite the Germans' and Romanians having overwhelming superiority in tanks and aircraft. In 1944 the Soviets captured Byelorussia in 4 days, possibly the German troops lacked morale.
Bulgaria refrained from joining the crusade against communism. By Jan 44 the Wehrmacht was in tatters after the they had been expelled from Leningrad after besieging it for 900 days. The Finns at this stage were trying to resume their armistice talks with Russia while Germanies other allies saw they would be on the wrong side.
Stalin was now placing more reliance on the advice of the Stavka in 1944. Stalin was winning the war but he would have to insure his position in the aftermath.
1939 Japanese troops had made a surprise attack and crossed into friendly Mongolia which the Soviets had a treaty to protect. Zhukov at Khalking Gol severely mauled killing 45,000 Japanese to 17,000 Soviet soldiers. After that Japan in 1940 signed a border treaty saving Stalin from a 2 front fight.
With the German invasion Moscow , Ukraine the Donets basin and Leningrad were the main German goals to gain the materials they needed for the war. Had Germany got full control the oil fields Churchill knew that Germany would have all the materials they need to win the war. Hitler had a policy of rigid resistance instead of strategic falling back by timely withdrawals. Which would have made it far more difficult for the Russians.
The Byelorussia partisans used his girlfriend to assassinate the Governor and the German governor who took over tried to attract support to the population by offering limited autonomy if they helped against the Reds. The partisan war behind the Germans was at its worst when Bagration began.
The British and Americans were operating over Germany between the UK, Italy and the Soviet Union. This was meant to alleviate the pressure over the Normandy landing by drawing the Lufwaffe Eastwards. The Americans wanted 6 bases in Russia but only got 3 Piryatin , Poitava and Mirogorod. The Luftwaffe suddenly got information on this and attacked the 3 airbases destroying 1030 Allied planes. The conclusion was that Stalin wanted the American out of Russia and colluded with the Germans.
They organized Russian tactic was to begin a barrage rolling forward on the Germans and at the same time attack the from behind with both artillery and planes so the could not escape and then encircle them. Busch's lack of flexibility on Hitler's behalf was to waste his limited reserves. Busch was now replaced by Model as German Army commander.
Vassily Grossman The Red Star Correspondent. describes entering Bubruisk a town ablaze and weapons and corpses of Germans and the ruthless revenge of those who hadn't surrendered and tried to break out.
The Germans sent 53 trains to evacuate the wounded and support staff of the defenders of Minsk. The Germans began demolishing the city. The Byelorussian parts and sent a message to bring engineers for demining of Government House in Minsk. Afterwards the Germans said that their defeat in Byelorussian and the rout of the Army Group Centre was the greatest defeat the Germans had a far great catastrophe than Stalingrad. By 1944 August the Germans had lost 1,510,000 troops as well as 1,391,000 missing. This included the losses in France.
Between Normandy and Byelorussia German losses were such that Hitler was scaping the bottom of the barrel. Hitler had lost faith in his generals and Germanys supplies of materials were almost gone. Later on there were very few officers to lead the Hitler Youth and Volkssturm Home Guard
1944 July 7th The Polish Home Army rose up against the Germans in Vilnius, These insurgents found themselves rounded up by the NKVD and invited to join General Berling Soviet backed Polish Army other Polish straggles were rounded in the forests were sent off to the Gulags.
At this stage the German Army Group Centre in a space of 2 weeks had been wiped out. On July 17th 57,000 bedraggled German troops were displayed marching through Moscow with Stalin gloating. Russian youngsters booed and threw things at them but old women were full of commiseration with tears thinking and saying "just like our boys"
1944May the Russians were taken Vilnius , Pinsk, Kovno and Grodno and were 100 miles from the German border. The Jews of Lvov had sufferer both under the Nazis and the Ukrainian nationalists. Under the Soviet Nazi pact Stalin's secret police had massared thousand of prisoners mostly Ukrainian nationalist who felt that the region should by part of Ukraine and not Poland. Ukraine hoped it would gain independence with Nazi help and 180,000 Ukrainian's served in the Wehrmacht.
Zhukov wanted to now start fighting in East Prussia but Stalin felt that Germans will fight to the end on German territory and he wanted to weaken the Germans' by driving them out of Ukraine and eastern Poland.
When Poland had been split with Germany 250,000 polish officers and me were moved into the Soviet Union. Stalin had a score to settle with the Poles as they had defeated the Red Army in 1920 civil war.. The Germans had found 10,000 bodies of Polish officers in the Katyn forest. This undermined further Soviet Polish relations.
Both Bering and Rokossovsky had both been in the Austrian Imperial Army and Polish army.
1944 August Walter Model relinquished his post of Army Group Centre and to France to avert the German defeat in Normandy.
September the Polish Home army were defeated by the Germans after 62 day uprising in Warsaw. Vengeful Himmler expelled the rest of the population and ordered the city flattened.
In capturing a German Tiger tank the Russians discovered that it was of poor quality metal and the welds were weak and even if shells did not get through the plating cracked at the welds.
At this stage the American and British wanted to help in Poland and Stalin wanted attack immediately, but Zhukov and Rokossovsky said the army needs to be rested. Zhukov discovered this meeting was a sham as Bagration in the end got Byelorussian, the Baltic States and domination of Poland.
1944 June the Red Army was on the Vistula, 4 weeks later the capitals of Romania and Bulgaria and 6 weeks after that the Baltic and Yugoslav capitals.
1944 December the Red army peaked reached the end of its supply lines, the Wehrmacht had been broken and the army needed to rest while Hitler threw 2 rejuvenated armies against the Western front. Stalin wanted to make sure the once the Eastern European countries were under him he could keep them under the Soviet sphere.
1944 offensives cost the Soviets 1.4 million soldiers. They had 14,000 tanks in the fields but most lacked radios that greatly hampered communication.
Of 110,000 Jewish draftees or volunteers 48,000 were killed.
At Yalta it was agreed that Soviet citizens serving the Nazis would be returned to Stalin. Rokossovsky was made Polish defense minister after the war. In the Baltic States , Poland, Belarus , Ukraine , Stalin treated the people little better than what the Nazis had.
It took till 1990 for Moscow to admit that it was responsible for the Katlyn massacre. Stalin's catalogue of mismanagement had cost the Soviet people 40 million dead.
Zhukov led an army attack against the Japanese held Manchukuo (Manchuria) and eventually gained north Korea, southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The attack was vast like Bagration with 1.5 million men and 5000 tanks. The fighting lasted a week and the Japanese capitulated. For 40 years after this NATO lived in armed awe of the Soviet Army.
By 1942 there was no shortage of tanks but more broke down than were knocked out. From 1941 Britain and commonwealth supplied 3,300 tanks and 24,000 other vehicles and 2,600 aircraft. America 7000 tanks 436,000 wheeled vehicles and 14,800 aircraft. These came via Marmusk , Alaska and Iran. The American Sherman had padding inside so that you did not bump yourself and its medical kit as well as sulphidin. The tracks were too narrow for the Russian conditions. The Canadian build British Valentine tank was popular. Many lend lease trucks were assembled in Iran and driven northwards. The food sent from America was a luxury like tins of hams.
The RAF had a fighter squadron in Marmansk to protect the artic conveys. This was Stalin's only concession to the allies desire to operate from his territory.
By the Western allies bombing Germany they were able to draw 80% of the Nazi airplanes away from the east from helping the Soviet battles. Most of the German pilots were by this stage young and inexperienced. The Germans needed planes to fly supplies to forward isolated positions.
The Republic of Belarus only came about in 1993.
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Soviet Union in WW2 92 pg Captivating History 2002 22/2/25
Britain and the US together total losses in WW2 was 800,000 while that was the Soviet loss in only the Siege of Stalingrad. The New economic policy NEP caused a split in the Communist Party but that was solved by Lenin's death in 1924.
1929 Stalin had won his war for power over Trotsky and allies.
1934 the purge cemented Stalin's place.
1935 Hitler introduced conscription to enlarge the army to 500,000. Many believed that Germany was a bulwark against the Soviets.
1937 the Great Purge or Great Terror. Bukharin , Kamenev and Zinoviev put on the Show Trials. Tukhachevsky a military man here accused of plotting with a capitalist government to overthrow Stalin and was executed .
Of 80,000 officers 35 ,000 became Stalin's victims. 3 of 5 Marshalls were killed and 75 of 85 corp. commanders were killed, resulting in the Red army being paralyzed both literally and phycological .
Strangely the nation that helped Hitler to hide his efforts. Especially in the area of aircraft and development and pilot training was the Soviet Union. In return for German expertise in training in fine tool making , The Russians opened their secret airbases to the Germans and sold massive amounts of agricultural products to Germany.
By the end of the 1930s the USSR was sufficient in foodstuffs though barely, but life was getting better. The Soviets had build up a large army and the risk of war during the Great Depression and the recovery from WW1 was minimal. When Hitler came to power the Soviets increased spending extraordinary amounts or arms.
The Soviet pact with Hitler allocated Bessarabia and 2 regions of Romania to Stalin and would not interfere with Stalin's designs on Finland and the Soviets would cease all anti Nazi propaganda. In return for German machinery and Technical knowledge the Soviets would supply massive amounts for grain and natural resources to Germany. Even when the Nazi's attacked in 1941 they saw grain bound for Berlin. both nations got from the pact what they needed in trade
No nation suffered more than Poland in the war 20% of the population or 1 in 5 Poles died. Stalin taking over the Baltics drove much of the population into Hitler's arms.
Japan saw its future in the Asian mainland with wide open spaces and natural resources of iron, nickel ,timber etc. Once Japanese troops provoked an incident in Mongolia. Stalin sent Georgy Zhukov and humiliated the Japanese decisively.
Barbarossa
Mussolini abortive invasion of Greece where a pro Allied coup toppled regent Prince Paul and placed King Peter 2 on the throne, by declaring him of age. Hitler invaded both Yugoslavia and Greece. Yugoslavia drew hundred of thousand of troops from the front. 80% of the trucks used for Barbarossa were French and it took time to bring them from the west. 3 and a half million Nazi troops invaded Russia and this included Finnish, Romanian Hungarian and Italian troops.
After he was back in power from the shock of the invasion he had a few General's shot for defeatism. A large number of men were drafted and between their time of entry till death was only a few days. Some Soviets welcomed the invaders like the Ukrainians' nationalists. In the Soviets women had greater power than before in manufacturing and government. If the Germans had treated and respected the population better they may have won millions of converts against Stalin.
Initially no Soviet General was willing to take the initiative. Zhukov was given a free hand to deal with the Japanese as long as he succeeded this was not the case with the Nazi - Soviet war. New draftees were given a uniform not always boots and told to pick up weapons of the men who had fallen next to them. Most of the forests were bypassed by the Germans to be swept for stragglers later. Hitler believed it was a matter of time before the Soviets collapsed and begged for terms of surrender.
More than 5 million Soviet Soldiers died of starvations, disease in the German concentration camps and those who survived captivity were sent directly to the gulag as traitors for re-education. The Germans invaded faster than imagined and people simply fled in panic before the local Communist party told them to. Where organized evacuation had not occurred the Germans took away factories, food, railroads and other infrastructure. A large number of factories had been left behind. The main weapons factories were moved to the Volga , Urals, Siberia and Kazakhstan. Once America entered the war supplies started coming to Russia from the US. Rusputitsa or "Sea of Mud" bogged the German tanks and horses had to be used slowing down the Germans. When winter arrived there was a nationwide drive in Germany to donate winter clothes for the troops.
The Japanese war plans did not include attacking Russia. The far Eastern troops were well trained and able to return and experienced. Hitler honored the his agreement with Japan and attacked the Americans. on Dec11th 1944.
Leningrad
To Hitter's dismay the Finns refused to continue fighting Leningrad, once they got back the land taken by Stalin and were out. Leningrad had 3 million people. The German bombers had destroyed most of the food warehouses. Soviet officials were reluctant to tell Stalin bad news so the High Command was unaware of the food shortage. It needed 600 ton of food a day. This siege was called the 900 days . Dogs and cats were eaten and sawdust was added to bread, bark was cooked as soup, cannibalisms was reported and marketed as pork pies. When Lake Ladoga froze trucks started being sent in with food and the railroad was build across the ice. Before the war 10% of manufactured goods came from the city.
Stalingrad we see that Russia was getting stronger. Hitler had planned to 1) Seize the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus with other resource rich areas in Southern Ukraine. 2) Cut off those supplies to the Soviets. Stalingrad was a major industrial centre producing 10% of all Soviet heavy machinery and sheet steel products. Taking Stalingrad would cut off supplies moving north on the Volga. The Italian, Romanian and Hungarian armies were poorly equipped and poorly motivated. In Spring of 1942 the Stavka was fooled and believed by deception that the main thrust would be against Moscow. The oil fields that the Germans captured were thornily destroyed by retreating Soviets. The city was bombed but the rubble made natural defenses. By getting close to the Germans the Russians felt the Germans could not bomb them without hitting their own men. This "hugging" sometimes worked.
1) at this stage the German soldiers were tired , sick and malnourished2) the Nazis kept pouring reinforcements into the city but neglecting their flanks3) Axis troops to the north and south of the city were Hungarians, Italians and Romanians much weaker than the Germans. A million men in total had already been killed or died of frostbite and starvation. The Soviets at night moved troops from the front to the north of the city and trapped the Germans stopped rescue attempts many miles short of the German lines. Paulus was named Field Marshall in the hope that no German Field Marshall had surrendered.
Kursk
Soviets had become better in surmising what the German intentions were and were helped by Allies code breaking who were able to inform Stalin about many German plans and partisan forces had grown to million. The Soviets began an artillery barrage just before the Germans were about to begin theirs. Kursk was commanded by Zhukov. The Germans could not replace their losses. At the same time word came that the American had invaded Sicily.
By the time Bagration was over no German troops were left in the Soviet Union.
Poles who fled to the USSR were treated with suspicion but as the war turned against Stalin they were drafted into Polish units of the Red Army and many volunteered. At the Vistula Stalin ordered troops to stop many were exhausted at this stage. The US and Britain pleaded with Stalin to allow them to help the Poles but he refused. The Soviet watched as the Nazis destroyed the 1944 Polish uprising and flattened 90% of the building in the Polish capital.
At Yalta Churchill and Roosevelt realized that nothing was going to remove Stalin from Poland.
Berlin
90% of German casualties took place against the Red Army and over 20% had died from the German invasion.
Berlin was razed to the ground already by US and British bombs. The SS inside Berlin now began a terror campaign against anyone believed to have shirked duty or deserters and hanged untold numbers on trees or light posts. The Volkssturm and Hitler Youth were effectively armed with Panzerfaust and destroyed many Russian tanks but had no high ranking officers to lead and did much harm before they were wiped out.
Eastern Europe was firmly under Stalin's control and his pledge to free election never happened. The USSR was set back for years, the prewar population never recovered till the late 1950s
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Georgy Zhukov by Charles Rivers 10/3/25
The life and Legacy of the Soviet Unions greatest General 2024 40pg.
Zhukov joined the Communist party after the October Revolution
1921 Got medals for subduing the Tambov Revolution.
1920's.he attended courses at German military schools.
1923, he was appointed commander of the 39th Cavalry Regiment
1929 the Fruze Military Academy.
1930 became a divisional commander
1933, Zhukov was appointed commander of the 4th Cavalry Division they were fighting the Japanese in Manchuria while the Great Purge was on in Russia.
1938-39 Soviet Japanese border clash. The Japanese 6th Army was surrounded.
1940, Zhukov became an army general, making him one of the eight high-ranking Red Army officers.
February 1941, Zhukov was appointed as chief of the Red Army's General Staff.
1945 accepted the German Instrument of surrender
1953 Supported Khrushchev
1955 Defense Minister
1957 Lost favour till he died in 1974
Born 62 miles (100 km) east of Moscow. Only 3 years of formal education.
the Russian language, German language, science, geography, and mathematics.[6] In addition, he enrolled in a night school, where he completed courses. Stalin envied Zhukov and fear him as well. He mentioned that the Chezk and Polish governments had declined Russian help. Staff officers had developed plans in the case of German invasion. Moscow was the great Russian , road , rail hub, it also had an industrial area. Thus had Moscow been occupied the northern and southern Red Army units would have been cut off. Moscow would have been ideal winter headquarter for the Germans and the Soviet State might collapse as a result. Operation Barbarossa was meant to start mid May but was delayed by a wet spring.
Stalin kept destroying his own intelligence, suspecting treachery. numerous intelligence agents were recalled from Europe and accused of being traitors, causing a collapse of soviet spy rings when in most cases the information being sent was true. In Japan Richard Sorge sent a warning on Barbarossa and predicted the date of the start of the war on June15. German reconnaissance planes violated the border and Stalin ordered that they be escorted to the border and not to shoot them down, don't trigger a German attack.
The Luftwaffe devastated the Soviet air force in this region wiping out 15,000 of whom 1,200 were on the ground.
The Russian high command of Lithuania was abandoned.
German Group Centre advanced on Moscow . Group South on Kiev and Crimea. The Russian KV-1 and T-34 impressed the Germans but what hindered the Soviet was lack of good communication.
3 million German troops invaded and even Zhukov failed to anticipate this size force. This was a period of high casualties , chaos and failed counter attacks. Zhukov felt it better withdraw from Kiev but Stalin rejected this.
The Germans had underestimated the Soviet thinking they had 200 divisions when they had 300. Half a million Soviet troops were encircled in Kiev. This however enabled Stalin time to protect Moscow.
Zhukov recaptured Yelnya in Sept forcing the Germans to retreat from Leningrad.
1941 Sept to Jan 1944 under the German siege 750,000 died of starvation 1 out of 4 starved to death. 35X died in Leningrad as died in the London blitz a total of a million died.
In Moscow the civilian were put to work digging tank ditches. November 30th the Germans had got to within 20 miles of Moscow but by then the cold weather was taking its toll. The guns could not be relied on to fire and the tanks would not start. That's when Zhukov attacked them and they fled 90 miles abandoning equipment.
Zhukov was now sent to Stalingrad and got 100,000 new soldiers, by now Russian officers had gained valuable experience. The Russians kept the Germans in the city. Romanian soldiers were guarding the German flank and the German army was surrounded and the luftwaffe could airlift to the troops but these were having difficulty getting past Russian fighters. Only 200 tons got through in a day instead of 500 tons. Zhukov now wanted to wipe out the German 6th army by splitting them and wiping out first the smaller group. Then the Russians captured the Piominik airfield cutting off supplies. In addition to the 6th army the Hungarian , Romanian and Italian armies were destroyed.
When the Russian began retuning they realized that 10,000 Russian villages had been destroyed. As news of the genocide spread it galvanized the Russians. Russian peasant hid in the wood and began guerilla groups that would fight to he death. The thaw brought both armies to a halt.
The Nazi's needed prisoners to man the Nazi factories. Intelligence from the British showed that the Germans would attack at Kursk, which the Soviets committed 10 armies to protect. The Red army offered premiums of between 200 and 1,500 rubles to men who actually knocked out Wehmacht tanks. Red Army leadership had improved in 1942 and 1943.
1943 July 10th British and Americans landed in Sicily and Hitler quickly called off the Kursk attacks and the best German divisions were transferred to the Balkans. Kursk was the last strategic offensive of the Germans. Now the initiative changed to the Soviets.
1944 Jan Siege of Leningrad lifted.
1944 June Hitler sent the best panzer and SS divisions to fight the Normandy hedgerows.
Late in the war 1944 the soviets had to lay Russian gage railways into Europe
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Stalin's General the life of Georgy Zhukov by Geoffrey Roberts. 2012 400pg
Peasant Childhood
Born 1896 in rural Russia to a relatively privileged peasant family in Strelkovka in Kaluga Province. Both his parents were remarried as they had lost their first spouses. His father was a cobbler and mother worked in the fields as a peasant. This was part of the Central Industrial are and many worked in Moscow. He managed to get 3 years of formal education while most peasants only go 2.
In 1900 the population of Russia was 140 million. and was in Moscow apprenticed to a furrier. to his mothers brother. He enrolled at a nights school and studied math's Russian Geography and Science. By 1914 he had completed his apprenticeship and is seen as well dressed. Russian geography ,science and German. 1915 was conscripted into the Tsars army and felt a patriot.
As a good cavalry soldier he was sent on a NCO course. Soon after arriving at the front he captureda German soldier because he could speak German. In Intelligence work and won a medal. In 1917 joined the Red Army and rose threw the ranks. The Communist Party was efficient in emergency situations but rarely had the support of the majority of the population.
1917 After 400 years of the Romanov after a general strike and mutiny in Petrograd. The Provisional Government which was overthrown by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. He had to hide from the Ukrainian nationalists and later arrived in Moscow when the Bolsheviks seized power.
1918 the Brest Litovsk Treaty with Germany withdrawing Russia from the war. He now advance in the Red Army ands saw action in Tsaritsyn .(Stalingrad.) In 1920 he was sent on a Red Commanders course where he also got a Political Education. In the Crimea fought against Baron Wrangel. A White leader who then went into exile.
His Education
The Civil war ended in 1921 and the Red Army was rapidly demobilized from 5 million to half a million. When communist party members were ordered to stay in the army, he and others who stayed wanted to get a military career. He progressed through the ranks and by 1938 was deputy commander of Byelorussian District. In 1939 was posted fighting Japan .
1942 July. No step back was an order issued by Stalin.. In December the concept of political commissars was abolished. Officers were given gold braid.
1942 Zhukovs name as well as Stalin was appended to many decisions governing the Soviet war effort. Stalin trusted Zhukovs reports and respected his judgements. He approved of Zhukovs plan for Stalingrad
1942 November Operation Torch an Anglo-American invasion of north Africa.
1942 The Soviets mobilized 1,890,000 troops and 3,373 tanks against German Group Centre .
The Germans needed to send 300 tons a day to supply the cut off German troops at Stalingrad but needed planes to support Rommel in Africa. 90,000 German troop were eventually captured in Stalingrad with Paulus one of 24 German generals. With Stalingrad the Germans had 1.5 million casualties. The Red Army sustained 2.5 millions casualties.
Kursk.
Here Zhukov wanted to wear the enemy out by defensive battle and knew that the Germans would use a lot of tanks. They would need a lot of anti tank equipment. By this stage Stalin had a lot of faith in Zhukov's judgement and in Dec. 1942 Zhukov made Time Magazine cover. Calling him Stalin's favorite.
After the Battle of Moscow he became a German assassinations target and travelled under a assumed name.
He helped to frame a strategic concept of the Soviet battle plan, the aim was to absorb the German attack and then launch an all out offensive. Kursk was the centre of an outward bulge of the Soviet line, if the Germans got Kursk they could make their defensive line shorter by 150 miles. They paid a lot of attention to hiding there defensive buildup and redeployed troops at night. Even though the Germans intelligence detected the Soviet preparation they did not grasp the full depth of the build up.
Soviet partisan were a part of this and sabotaged many supply networks. The Soviets had good intelligence including their spy network of Ultra transcripts in Britain. Artillery's attacked the German both in the front and over their heads to the back. Kursk was Hitler's last throw of the dice.
Then the Nazi's took Kharkov. In Oct 1941 there was a population of 700,000. 120 thousand deported to be slave workers , 80 thousand died of hunger and 30 thousand had been shot and many others had fled.
Stalin now wanted a broad front to liberate as much Russian territory as possible. The city of Kiev was liberated in 3 days and the Nazi invaders were cleared.
Stalin pledged to support the allied invasion of France by launching a major offensive on the Soviet German front, by the end of 1943 half of Soviet territory that had been occupied by the Germans was liberated. Germany and its allies still had 5 million troops. Increased supplies from the US , Canada , Britain , Australia and other allies.
Valutin a leading General and close friend of Zhukov was ambushed by Ukrainian nationalists badly wounded and died of his wounds.
1943 July Italy was the first to leave the Axis by deposing Mussolini followed a year later by Bulgaria , Romania and Hungary and Finland.
Once
Operation Bagration
1944 June 22 to August 19th. Zhukov had spent 6 years commanding in Belorussia and knew the area well and went into details in preparing the Operation Bagration and they planned in detail about the coordination of the troops between infantry , tanks armillary and aviation. The logistics necessary to supply food fuel and ammunition and get to know the generals in charge. There was jealousy about Zhukov exalted status and personal relationship to Stalin. 140,000 partisan began attacking the Germans in the rear organized in 200 detachments. Attacking German communications , staff headquarters and airfields. and acting as forward observers of the bombing attacks.
The Red armies attack converged in smashing against the Centre Group headquarter in Minsk. This was portrayed with 57 thousand German prisoners being led by their generals though Moscow. This was followed by the capture of Vilnius. From these few week the German Central Army ceased to exist but it had cost the Russians 750 thousand casualties.
In Warsaw the Polish nationalist tried to liberate the city before and seize control before the Red Army arrived, this was anti communist inspiration. It had not been coordinated with the Red Army. The Germans demolished the whole city and deported the surviving population into concentration camps. The Red Army was exhausted at this stage and needed to recover and get more supplies.
While the Battle of the Bulge was on Churchill asked Stalin to attack to relieve the pressure on the Western Front. The Polish pro Communist army led by Zhukov and Rokosovsky. When they arrived and saw the destruction of Warsaw they were visibly moved and shed tears.
An American soldier Sergeant Joseph Beyrle was captured by the Germans and escaped across the Russian lines he met up with a Red Army tank crew and persuaded them to let him fight he was an expert in explosive use. He was wounded and landed in hospital and Zhukov happened to visit the hospital and gave him a document to travel to Moscow and then to the States.
Between 1940/45 the RAF had dropped 60,000 tons of bombs on Berlin killing 200 thousand people and destroying 75% of the buildings. Before the war it had a population of 4.5 million now just more than 3 million. The city was bursting with refugees from the east brought as slave laborer's. The local feared more the Russian retaliation than defeat and hoped that by fighting the Americans would arrive. in Berlin first.
Stalin decided that the honor of leading the attack on Berlin would go to Zhukov. Stalin was determined that the Russians would conquer Belin before the allies. The Berlin operation cost the Russians 350 thousand while the Germans lost 1.5 million and another million taken as Soviet prisoners. 4 thousand Germans committed suicide in April 1945 alone.
Zhukov was made commander of the Soviet occupation forces in Germany. Eventually Germany was supposed to be united when it had be properly demilitarized and de-nazified and forced to pay an indemnity to the soviets.
It was Zhukov the led the Victory parade in Moscow on the white horse.
Stalin pledged to fight Japan as soon as the European war ended. Russia had been neutral on the Japanese front. They wanted the return of their bases that they had lost in the 1904/5 Russia Japanese War.
It is known that only 4 women entered his life and he was very devoted to his 4 daughters but his military career and service came first.
1953 Jube26th Zhukov was called to the Kremlin and told that Beria was plotting against the party leadership and must go and arrest him. With a few senior military men he waited till there was a meeting with Beria and marched in to the room at a signal by Malenkov grabbed his arms. He was taken to jail found guilty of terrorism and counter revolutionary activities found guilty and shot. Zhukov considered this the most important thing he had done in his life. The choice of Zhukov to arrest him is significant as they were sure of the support of the armed forces and the population.
Asked about Hitler's mistakes; The German dictator had underestimated the capacity of the Soviet Union. He had underrated the coordination of the branches of the armed forces artillery's as opposed to aircraft which is dependent on the weather.
The end of WW2 the Red army dropped from 11 million to 3 million but with the Cold War increased to 5.4 million.
1965 He wrote his memoirs because there were a lot of myths about the war during the Khrushchev era and published in 1969. He understood from Churchill who claimed that history would show him positively because he will be the one to write it. It suited Brezhnev to rehabilitate him. He however had to accept the officially sanction version, otherwise it would never be printed.
The Marshal of Victory. Shortly before he died in 1974 Zhukov edited the 2nd edition. He added that he had done everything possible with clear consciences to do his duty. He urged the next generation to appreciate the colossal sacrifices of those who fought and to learn the lessons of history of our mistakes and successes. Today the view of Zhukov as a hero persists even though few share his unbreakable commitment to communism.
A third of the Soviet national wealth was lost and tens of thousand of villages towns and cities were lost and it really was a Pyrrhic victory, but the alternative was Nazi enslavement that they saw.
Zhukov won decisive victories, he had flexibility in the face of battle and meticulous planning for every operation. His talent was for deployment not for innovation. Threatening punishment to troops is not the most effective way to elicit best efforts. Rokossovsky managed to use encouragement and coaxing. For those around him he generated a confidence of success. He was never perturbed by the prospect of defeat. In the Stavka he fought hard for the decisions he wanted. He showed will power discipline and decisiveness.
The the wars early years he failed in the necessary adaptability. In summer of 41 he should have abandoned offensive operations and moved to strategic defense to contain the Blitzkrieg. He commanded an army of peasant conscripts of limited education with basic military training. Many of these peasants with their parents and grandparents had experienced the forced collectivization which they had been hostile to. To get them unified into a fighting force perhaps only a regime of discipline and punishment worked. The Soviets executed 158,000 of their own troops or put them in penal battalions where only the lucky 50% survived.
Stalin's management of his general that mattered as much as their individual talent and skills. Eisenhower noted that Zhukov had longer experience as a responsible leader in great battles than any other man at the time. Eisenhower was Zhukov's favorite American General and both men surrounded themselves with loyal and talented lieutenants who got on with the job. Zhukov lacked the Eisenhower diplomatic skills.
Zhukov was dismissive of German generals because they were Nazi's and those that survived claimed that Germany lost the war because Hitler errors and interference, and the severity of the weather and the Red Army sheer weigh in numbers. Note the cold did not discriminate between German and Soviet soldiers.
Rommel was the only German General that can be compared Zhukov. He was lucky he never fought on the Russian front a destroyer of many German general and their reputation. Zhukov recognized von Manstein as enterprising. He was the one bold enough to disregard many of Hitler's instruction not to retreat strategically
Only after 1991 after the USSR fell has research been possible to strip away the myths and political distortions.
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Talk on Zhukov 27/3/25
The Marshal of Victory. Shortly before he died in 1974 Zhukov edited the 2nd edition. He added that he had done everything possible with clear consciences to do his duty. He urged the next generation to appreciate the colossal sacrifices of those who fought and to learn the lessons of history of our mistakes and successes. Today the view of Zhukov as a hero persists even though few share his unbreakable commitment to communism.
A third of the Soviet national wealth was lost and tens of thousand of villages towns and cities were lost and it really was a Pyrrhic victory, but the alternative was Nazi enslavement that they saw.
Zhukov won decisive victories, he had flexibility in the face of battle and meticulous planning for every operation. His talent was for deployment not for innovation. Threatening punishment to troops is not the most effective way to elicit best efforts. Rokossovsky managed to use encouragement and coaxing. For those around Zhukov he generated a confidence of success. Zhukov was never perturbed by the prospect of defeat. In the Stavka(War cabinet) he fought hard for the decisions he wanted. He showed will power discipline and decisiveness.
The the wars early years he failed in the necessary adaptability. In summer of 41 he should have abandoned offensive operations and moved to strategic defense to contain the Blitzkrieg. He commanded an army of peasant conscripts of limited education with basic military training. Many of these peasants with their parents and grandparents had experienced the forced collectivization which they had been hostile to. To get them unified into a fighting force perhaps only a regime of discipline and punishment worked. The Soviets executed 158,000 of their own troops or put them in penal battalions where only the lucky 50% survived.
Stalin's management of his generals that mattered as much as their individual talent and skills. (He sometimes played them off against each other) Eisenhower noted that Zhukov had longer experience as a responsible leader in great battles than any other man at the time. Eisenhower was Zhukov's favorite American General and both men surrounded themselves with loyal and talented lieutenants who got on with the job. Zhukov lacked the Eisenhower diplomatic skills.
Zhukov was dismissive of German generals because they were Nazi's and those that survived claimed that Germany lost the war because Hitler errors and interference, and the severity of the weather and the Red Army sheer weigh in numbers. Note the cold did not discriminate between German and Soviet soldiers.
Rommel was the only German General that can be compared Zhukov. He was lucky he never fought on the Russian front: a destroyer of many German generals and their reputation. Zhukov recognized von Manstein as enterprising. He was the one bold enough to disregard many of Hitler's instruction not to retreat strategically
Only after 1991 after the USSR fell has research been possible to strip away the myths and political distortions.
In WW2 450,000 Americans died while in the Soviets 27,000, 000 died, and unlike US territory, Russia's land was left devastated. The Soviets tore the guts out of the German war machine.
Mikhail Tukhachevsky a Marshal of the Red Army collaborated with Trotsky to build up the Red Army, and represented the Soviets at George V funeral in London. In both London and Paris he proposed a pre-emptive trike against Germans growing danger of armaments. Tukhachevsky was executed on trumped up charges in 1937 with his associates. 35,000 officers out of 144,000 were purged. All 8 Admirals and 3 of 5 Marshals were removed.
1939 Japanese troops had made a surprise attack and crossed into friendly Mongolia which the Soviets had a treaty to protect. Zhukov at Khalking Gol severely mauled killing 45,000 Japanese to 17,000 Soviet soldiers. After that Japan in 1940 signed a border treaty saving Stalin from a 2 front fight. After this Stalin had made the pact with Hitler so Japan was not going to attack Russia again. From Stalin's point of view the pact with Hitler brought lots of benefits to Russia including machine tools and German mechanical expertise that helped Russia prepare her army. Zhukov beating the Japanese caused them to look southward and that is why the had to attack Pearl Harbour.
The Finish War indicated how unprepared the Red Army. The Russians lost more soldiers than there were soldiers in the Finnish army. Finland 25, 904 soldiers killed while the Soviets 126,875 killed.
The vastness of European Russia and lack of roads made it hard to keep the German divisions supplied, especially where the dirt roads turned into swamps.
Stalin called for the entire population to start partisan warfare. Soldiers had been trained for this before the war started. Especially in Belarus, but as the Germans penetrated it was more difficult for partisans to get supplies. They attacked railway lines and trains later leading the Germans to keep more troops back from the front.
Richard Sorge told Stalin that Japans intentions were not to attack Russia but the USA.
1942 Jan to 1943 March. Battle of Rzhev or the Rzhev meat grinder as over 700,000 were killed on missing after this. Rokossovsky was released from the Gulag and reinstated.
Stalingrad showed that the Red Army had learned to win and was greeted with enthusiasm in America.
Kursk. The Soviets had good intelligence including their spy network of Ultra transcripts in Britain.(Perhaps Filby) Artillery's attacked the German both in the front and over their heads to the back. Kursk was Hitler's last throw of the dice.
Here Zhukov wanted to wear the enemy out by defensive battle and knew that the Germans would use a lot of tanks. They would need a lot of anti tank equipment. By this stage Stalin had a lot of faith in Zhukov's judgement and in Dec. 1942 Zhukov made Time Magazine cover. Calling him Stalin's favorite.
Operation Bagration
1944 June 22 to August 19th. Zhukov had spent 6 years commanding in Belorussia and knew the area well and went into details in preparing the Operation Bagration and they planned in detail about the coordination of the troops between infantry , tanks armillary and aviation. The logistics necessary to supply food, fuel and ammunition and get to know the generals in charge. There was jealousy about Zhukov exalted status and personal relationship to Stalin.
There was a brutal guerilla war with Hitler's armies with partisans attacking the long German lines of communications and railway lines on a regular basis. In one night in June 21st they cut off all railway track communication as well as bridges and blew up trains, water pumping stations and attacked garrisons. There were many Soviet officers and men left behind when the Red Army fled as well as Komsomol members. These drew soldiers from the front to the rear. But in some places it was almost civil war as many official and police were German collaborators. Most railway workers were still Russians.
140,000 partisan began attacking the Germans in the rear organized in 200 detachments. Attacking German communications , staff headquarters and airfields. and acting as forward observers of the bombing attacks.
The Red armies attack converged in smashing against the Centre Group headquarter in Minsk. This was portrayed with 57 thousand German prisoners being led by their generals though Moscow. This was followed by the capture of Vilnius. From these few week the German Central Army ceased to exist but it had cost the Russians 750 thousand casualties.
An American soldier Sergeant Joseph Beyrle was captured by the Germans and escaped across the Russian lines he met up with a Red Army tank crew and persuaded them to let him fight he was an expert in explosive use. He was wounded and landed in hospital and Zhukov happened to visit the hospital and gave him a document to travel to Moscow and then to the States.
Operation Bagration was the 5th offensive aimed at liberating Byelorussia. It annihilated Hitler Army Group Centre and trapped Army Group North , neutralizing almost a million men. 40% of the Red Army was committed to this campaign. By this time capable officers were starting to be available on the battlefield.
Stalingrad and Kursk paved the way for Soviet Victory Bagration ensured that Hitler would never regain the initiative.. The laurels of the victory go to Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky.(1896 to 1968) At the end of 1944 the Red Army manpower peaked and showed what the Soviets were capable of. The opening of Bagration ended in the liberation of Minsk.
First Russia introduced ever more powerful armor and revitalized the Red Air Force. The Soviets were made up of vast numbers of ethnic groups such as Armenians, Byelorussians, Georgians, Tajiks, Ukrainians and Uzbeks.
Stalin said that the Western allies are afraid the Soviets will rout the Germans before them.
Zhukov pointed out that once the Central German Enemy in Byelorussia their entire strategic defenses will collapse. and the enemy must be pursued and destroyed. Stalin wanted one major thrust and Rokossovsky said they have to have 2 to divide the Germans. Rokossovsky had suffered such tortures 3 years in the Gulag that he was not afraid to tell Stalin his views.
Byelorussia at the start of the war their had been 9.2 million people a 3rd of them were gone by the end. Jews and people taken as slave labour mostly didn't return. To confuse the enemy a dummy armor corps was set up in Ukraine and the Germans were led to believe that the first blow of the summer campaign would be in the Ukraine and not Byelorussia. After Kursk this was the most thoroughly prepared Russian operation. 5000 trains each with about 50 freight cars making 90 trips a day to the front.12000 trucks at the railheads. There were 294 hospital beds ready for casualties. The Red Airforce had 5,327 combat aircraft and 1007 bombers ready.
From a tankist. They were wearing winter garb, valenki (felt boots), quilted pants, quilted jackets ,underneath greatcoats with fur lined tankist helmets. Russian soldiers would only abandon a tank if it was on fire so so badly damaged it could not shoot or move, otherwise they could be charged for cowardice. The equipment was valued more than the men inside. If you could hit the Tiger under the turret it jammed this and it lost the ability to turn. The Tiger would then throw out a smoke grenade turn around and retreat. They had lice but unlike with the infantry they were not widespread.
Ukraine so quickly that the Germans did not have time to blow up the communications centre railway station or pumphouse. They found a German military cemetery with graves in straight lines and crosses on each individual grave.. Russian soldiers were buried in common graves or 20 or even 30 bodies just thrown in. Overt displays of religion were officially banned.
The American Sherman had padding inside so that you did not bump yourself and its medical kit as well as sulphidin. The tracks were too narrow for the Russian conditions.
The end of WW2 the Red army dropped from 11 million to 3 million but with the Cold War increased to 5.4 million. However they had the most powerful army at the start of the Cold War.
Soldiers who died in WW2
British Empire 580,497
USA 407,316
Soviets 10,725,347
Germany 5,318,000
Japan 2,121,955
The figures below give an indication but are not very accurate.
German losses soldiers tanks Russian losses soldiers tanks
Khalkhin Gol (Japanese) 24,903 17,364
Finland (Finns) 25, 904 126,875
Leningrad 580,000 1,500,000
Meatgrinder of Rzhev Battles 668,100 2,300,000 ?
Stalingrad 500,000 1,500 674,900 4,341
Kursk 280,000 750 850,000 6,000
Bagration
Number who went in 849,000 1,670,000 3,841
Killed 450,000 600,000 2,959
Some important persons below:
Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Richard Sorge, Konstantin Rokossovsky. Ernst Busch, Fritz von Manstein.
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An impeccable Spy by Owen Mathews 2019 (free sample)
Born in Baku as he father was an engineer on the oil wells. They returned to Germany afterwards. Richard had fought in the Kaiser Army WW1 but had now become a communist. The Russian navy had started the Revolution in 1905 on the Potemkin and the German Navy had the Kiel mutiny in 1918. The revolutionaries had forced the Kaiser to abdicate and the Princeling lost their positions.
1895 to 1944 It was Richard Sorge's tragedy that his masters were venal cowards who placed their own careers before the vital interests of the county that he laid down his life to serve" He was the spy who finally convinced the Russians that Japan wasn't going to invade Russia. He was based in Tokyo for 9 years and his best friend was his employer Eugen Ott the German ambassador who was in constant contact with Hitler. His top Japanese agent was Hotsumi Azaki who was in advisory council and talked to PM Prince Konoe.
When he was arrested in 1944 was hoping that Stalin would save him but Stalin didn't want to admit that he had disregarded Sorge's information about the start of Barbarossa.
