Russian WW2 interesting stats and facts

The first museum of the Great Patriotic War was established in March 1943.

FRom the book "Ivan´s war"

 

I was in Moscow about 8 months ago and went to ww2 museums very interesting and at the same time very sad. There was one concrete block that really stands out in my mind. A soldier wrote with a rock " Dying but no giving up, good bye mother Russia june 29, 1941". Till this day i think about that block and cant help but admire the russian courage and the will to rather die then give up.

 

wow, that is touching, i do admire the russians courage during wartime as well

 

yea i know right

 

If I recall correctly at the Brest-Litovsk fortress there were still some writings about the fighting continuing a month after the Barbarossa begun.

 

yes there were, also it wouldnt be uncommon for russian soldiers to put their last few words in before their final moment anywhere they could on the battle field. This soldier, the one that i saw was actually killed next to a house in a village his was defending, and with his last few ounces of strength he scrapped this message and didnt even leave his name.

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5176171698484431895&q=world+war+2+duration%3Along


intersting vid about ww2

 

Thanks for the link rifleman, ive seen this already though..... This however is purely U.S. prapoganda, aimed at convincing the U.S. population as to why they should enter the war. Countries in Europe didnt need those videos. In fact they were part of that U.S. film. But its a good clip thanks!

 

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-8236120443347321240&q=world+war+2+duration%3Along

This looks like a really interesting video about ww2 it has less propoganda in it and focuses more on the battles.

 

Rifleman,

lol, I own this video........but yes this is much better. thanks

 

Steven Newton: Hitler´s commander

June 28 1944: Walther Model was appointed commander of Army Group Center ( without relieving him of current position at Army Group North Ukraine ). The leadership of three quarters of ostfront armies had now been concentrated in the hands of Model or his protegé....

 

A couple of nice pics from the Finnish side...

 

Yeah Kai those are great pics!!!

 

I just Found 2 parts of this interesting documentary about the battle of russia.

http://www.archive.org/details/BattleOfRussiaI


http://www.archive.org/details/BattleOfRussiaII

you may of seen this before but its still worth watching again.

 

Upon looking at your referrences, ive noticed a couple of points that may draw a debate.

1. When Leningrad was surrounded the only life line that it had was not a "railroad" but a road carved out off ice which was operatonal 24/7. Many people lost their traveling that road because in some cases the ice would break and entire trucks would fall in.

2. The battle of Russia cause a little more the 800,000 German casualties.

 

Thank you, MGN!

 

What the Red Army soldiers talked about:

They talked endlessly. And a favourite subject was each man´s wedding. What interested them, however, was not the wedding night and sex, or even thoughts of love and home, but the scale and contents of the feast that had been set for each successive celebration.

From Ivan´s war by Merridale

 

Kai that was probably due to the fact that the Russian soldier was usually starving.

 

Early in Barbarossa , an Il-2 pilot was awarded the " Hero of the Soviet Union " medal after 10 successful missions, but very few pilots achieved this goal. In the second half of the war, 100 combat missions had to be flown to earn the award.

During the Great Patriotic war seven gunners lost their lives for every pilot killed in action
( for Il-2 ).

From Il-2 in action by H Stapfer
( Squadron/Signals publications )

 

Hanko front Finland: Soviet POW´s





The end of a solo attack by a Soviet tank ( 1939-1940 maybe?)....