This is something often heard and read about. Many claim that Operation Barbarossa only occured some weeks or even days before the russians would launch their own attack. But are there any proofs or hard evidence for that opinion?
The red army had hugh amounts of troops on the border with german poland..... and everywhere else. The biggest bit of evidence as to why the ussr woudnt invade germany is that the best soviet troops, the crack siberian divisions were sevral thousand miles away.
Come back Izaak, all is forgiven! http://www.fun-online.sk/forum/viewtopi ... &start=100 http://www.fun-online.sk/forum/viewtopi ... 64&start=0 http://www.fun-online.sk/forum/viewtopi ... 21&start=0 as a starting point... Weren't they guarding against a possible Japanese attack?
But not if your rear is threatened by a competant army that (even when you whop its arse) requires a lot of work to kill. IIRC the Siberian divisions were finally released from the Far Eastern chunk of the USSR when Sorge revealed that Japan was definately striking south, not north.
True i suppose but surly if stalin wanted to invade he would have sent at lest some of the siberians to the front
I believe he left because he felt his ideas on the state of Israel, as posted here, posed a threat to his health. I never quite understood what made him think this, but apparently it was sufficient. A real pity. Were the Siberian divisions really the elite of the Russian army in 1941? It seems that it is all too easy for us to consider them some sort of elite because they turned the tide before Moscow in late 1941, but were they really special even before they did so?
Besides being somewhat better equipped, trained, and more resiliant to freezing temperatures, there was little, if anything, elite about Russia's Siberian troops. The language barrier was difficult for the Red Army to work around, for many of these troops spoke languages only found among certain peoples in Central and Eastern Russia. If the USSR was to invade Germany, it probably would not have been until 1942. There is no way the Russians could have successfully invaded in 1941 for look how quickly Western Russia was sliced up when Germany invaded. The Russians only fight good in Russia. Once they leave Russia, they are like a dog not on his own territory anymore.
Equally I would consider that the best place for your most experienced Siberian troops fully accustomed to the freezing cold would be the frozen lands of Siberia, not on the Polish border in summer time.
Um, 1) the Soviets did so badly in 1941 because they were gearing up for their offensive and were not properly prepared to fight defensively. Plus the usual effect of 'Blitzkreig' on an army not used to it... I have read in many places (usually websites ) that the Soviets had also recently changed their defensive doctrine to 'counter-attack', and were still working through the system for this when suddenly it was needed. Many units were effectively destroyed when counter-attacking in an uncordinated manner. 2) The Soviets seemed to do just fine when over-running Poland (for the secong time, not the first) & East Prussia...
Some claimed that Hitlers attack only preceded Stalins by some weeks.... But altough in the summer of 1941 the germans captured whole soviet army groups including their staffs, not one single document was found relating to any soviet attack plan. Now isn't that strange.I mean if the red army was about to launch an offensive, there should have been thousands of orders for attack objectives, supply routes....at different levels of hierarchy. I tend to agree with what has been said that Stalin of course knew that war with Germany was inevitable sooner or later, an dprepared for war, but I do not think that he was about to launch an attack in 1941.
My point is that if they were gearing up for an assualt in 1941, much of the Soviet equipment, training, and leadership was inferior to that of the German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, even at that time. An attack would surely, IMO, ended in a German victory. I was only making fun. As a rule of thumb, though, the Russian military is no good outside Russia.
they fold under the attack then retreat then do scortch earth then wait for winter then hit there enemy . Hitler and napolean found this out the hard way
