Russian WW2 interesting stats and facts

And a couple more from my archives, recent purchases...

 

Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ryti-Ribbentrop letter of agreement of June 26, 1944, signifies the closest to an alliance Finland and Nazi Germany came during World War II. According to the agreement -in the form of personal letter from President Risto Ryti to Führer Adolf Hitler- Risto Ryti, then President of Finland, undertook not to conclude peace in the Continuation War with the Soviet Union unless in agreement with Nazi Germany. The deal was the result of negotiations with Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Third Reich's foreign minister, who surprisingly had arrived in Helsinki on June 22. The letter was given after considerations with Marshal Mannerheim and the war cabinet, but was expressed as Ryti's personal undertaking, deliberately avoiding the form of a binding treaty between the governments of Finland and Nazi Germany, that would have required involvement of the Parliament of Finland.

The agreement became obsolete as Ryti resigned on July 31, 1944, and was succeeded as president by Mannerheim. Mannerheim, when queried by the head of the German headquarters, OKW, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, informed the Germans that he did not consider him or Finland bound by Ryti's concession. Within six weeks, Finland had concluded an armistice with the Soviet Union. In accordance with the armistice conditions, the Lapland War was commenced to evacuate the Wehrmacht from Northern Finland by force.

 

Some weird stuff can happen in war:

A sudden outbreak of vivax malaria among Finnish troops in SE-Finland and along the front line in Hanko peninsula in the southwest occurred in 1941 during World War II. The common explanation has been an invasion of infective Anopheles mosquitoes from the Russian troops crossing the front line between Finland and Soviet Union.

Dynamics of positional warfare malaria: Finland and Korea compared

 

Fleas and lice I easily believe, but anopheles? Strange indeed! But the article clearly states that the troops carried spores in their bloodstream that were then transmitted to uninfected Finnish mosquitos, who then passed them on to the Finnish troops.

Lesson learned: Next time Finland thinks the Soviet Union will invade, vaccinate their mosquitos beforehand. Or teach them not to bite Soviets!

 

Among brutalities against Soviet prisoners of war must be included branding with special identification marks, which was laid down by a special order of the German Supreme Command, dated 20th July, 1942. This order provides for the following methods of branding:

"The tightly drawn skin is to be cut superficially with a heated lancet dipped in india ink."

Nuremberg - The Trial of German Major War Criminals (Volume VI)

 

Who did that, Kublai Khan's Mongols?

 

Nice official "unofficial" WW2 badge for the co-operation in Lapland between the Finnish and German forces 1941-43

Pohjoisrintama-Die Nordfront 1941-43 risti !! - Mitalit ja kunniamerkit - Huuto.net

There´s also a second version with the enamel behind the flags in white.

 

Interview with Olga Mikhaylovna Lisikova

Interview with Olga Lisikova

and more:

http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/english/index.htm

 

Demyansk pocket 1942

Between the forming of the pocket in early February to virtual abandonment of Demyansk in May, the two pockets (including Kholm) received 65,000 tons of supplies (both through ground and aerial delivery), 31,000 replacement troops, and 36,000 wounded were evacuated. However, the cost was significant. The Luftwaffe lost 265 aircraft, including 106 Junkers Ju 52, 17 Heinkel He 111 and two Junkers Ju 86 aircraft. In addition 387 airmen were also lost.

Demyansk Pocket - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Interesting how during wartime some enemy losses seem to get quite huge....

On Feb 23rd 1943 Stalin´s official report to the nation on German losses:

Germany and its allies has lost during the last three months:

7,000 tanks
4,000 planes
17,000 pieces of artillery
700,000 dead soldiers
300,000 as prisoners

Since the beginning of war enemy ( German ) losses 9 million men of which 4 million dead.

From Alexander Werth Russia at war 1941-45

Alexander Werth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Kai;
Finland was in it for one reason-to preserve Finland. And surely the Finnish people recognized that being swallowed by the Hitlerite empire was no more desirable event than being swallowed by the Red Empire. Von Mannerheim was one shrewd player! And I think the Finns more correctly assessed the strength of the USSR even during the Barbarossa phase.
JeffinMNUSA
PS. Here is a doctored version of one of your great pictures-hope you don't mind.

 

And here's a few more doctoring jobs I did while waiting for my granddaughter to get up from her nap.

 

Walter Bradel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Bradel (31 July 1911 – 5 May 1943) was a Luftwaffe Bomber pilot and Geschwaderkommodore of KG 2 during World War II.

Bradel flew the Dornier Do 17 until 1942, and then the Dornier Do 217. Bradel was awarded the Knight's Cross on 17 July 1941 for his units particular effectiveness over the Grodno area, in which the Soviet 6th Cavalry Corps was routed, and lost 105 tanks.

Ritterkreuzträger Walter Bradel Oberstleutnant

 

Red Army Navy E-boat(?) captured by the Finns probably in the Gulf of Finland autumn 1941.

 

Several of the Red Air Force's ranking aces flew the P-39 for a major portion of their combat sorties. The top ace in the P-39 and number four overall was Guards Major Gregoriy Rechkalov, who shot down 50 of his total 56 kills while flying a P-39. Guards Colonel Aleksandr Pokryshkin, who finished the war as the number two Soviet ace with 59 individual and 6 shared kills, reportedly flew the P-39 for 48 of his kills. Another high scorer in the P-39 was Guards Major Dmitriy Glinka, who destroyed 20 German aircraft in 40 aerial engagements in the summer of 1943, and finished the war with an even 50 kills, 41 of them while flying the P-39. Third-ranked Soviet ace Guards Major Nikolay Gulaev transitioned to the P-39 in early August 1943 with 16 individual and 2 shared kills. He flew his last combat sortie on 14 August 1944 (ordered to attend higher military schooling), leaving the battlefield with an additional 41 individual victories and 1 shared kill after just over one year in his P-39.

Bell P-39 Airacobra - Fighter Airplane Used by Russia in WW2

 

" Between July and December 1941 the Red Army mobilized 143 new rifle divisions and replaced 84 rifle divisions that had been destroyed in combat. The Moscow Military District was the greatest source of recruits, supplying 26 divisions, possibly because its manpower reserves were swollen by refugees and stragglers."

From "Ostfront" by Charles Winchester

 

"The Germans are not human beings. Henceforth the word German means to us the most terrible curse. From now on the word German will trigger your rifle. We shall not speak any more. We shall not get excited. We shall kill. If you have not killed at least one German a day, you have wasted that day. If you think that that instead of you, the man next to you will kill him, you have not understood the threat. If you do not kill the German, he will kill you. If you cannot kill your German with a bullet, kill him with your bayonet. If there is calm on your part of the front, if you are waiting for the fighting, kill a German before combat. If you leave a German alive, the German will hang a Russian and rape a Russian woman. If you kill one German, kill another - there is nothing more amusing for us than a heap of German corpses. Do not count days; do not count miles. Count only the number of Germans you have killed. Kill the German - this is your old mother's prayer. Kill the German - this is what your children beseech you to do. Kill the German - this is the cry of your Russian earth. Do not waver. Do not let up. Kill."

"Kill" by Soviet propagandist Ilya Ehrenburg 1942

 

Some Ostfront pics....

 

Between July 1942 and march 1943, the Ostheer´s monthly strength returns show an average of about 2,500 tanks in Russia, of which an average of 1,500 were operational at any one time. Over the same period, a total of 2,426 replacement tanks were shipped from Germany. 1,031 of them in the first three months of 1943 when the SS Panzer Corps was transferred from France to the Kharkov battle.

In January 1943 German tank strength in the east peaked at 2,803 of which 1,475 were operational, plus about 500 Sturmgeschütze assault guns. They faced a total of 8,500 Russian tanks in five tank armies, backed by another 400 in Stavka reserve, and 4,300 in training commands and non-operational formations.

From Ostfront by Charles Winchester

 

Russian tank losses:

1941: 22,600

1942: figures not included

1943: 22,400

1944: 16,900

Of these, about 66 percent were destroyed in action: the rest were lost to mechanical breakdown. Soviet figures reveal that of tanks knocked out in battle 10 percent could be repaired by the unit, 15 percent could be repaired at Russian factories, and 75 percent were beyond repair.

From Ostfront by C Winchester