Juanjo Cholbi has designed this web page. The photographic material contained in this web has been extracted from webs of free access and from bibliography of my property, it is not my intention to harm the author's copyright of anybody, this web only has a cultural character.
The aim of this web is neither revisionist nor partisan. The author despises any apology of the violence or of the war, as well as of any ideology that can lead to a situation like described in this web. Finished the war the USSR added up near twenty million dead men, 10 % of his population. The history is to remember it and to try not to repeat the same mistakes.
The object of this project is to satisfy a series of personal restlessnesses. If you want to know more of the author visits:
Grafic Behaviour
¿? Questions and Answers
Which were the reasons of the quick German advance in the USSR during 1941 and 1942?
First, in 1937 it had begun the purge of the Red Army. In all, 36.671 officials were "purified" (executed, imprisoned or dismiss). The proves against the officials were grotesque in the majority of the cases and were answering to a mixture of megalomania and revenge. Rokossovsky, had to defend from proves presented in his against for someone dead twenty years before. These purges left commander of brigade the staff in a lamentable condition, only a third of the officials of superior degree were not seen "purified".Second, the Germany Army knew these Soviet lacks, during the Winter War against Finland only they began to advance when used five times more troops that the Finns. During the beginnings of the Operation Barbarroja, the German officials were surprised at the waste and men's sacrifice that the soviets realized.
Third, the Soviet officials had fear to the responsibility, and didn't act if they didn't have a solid order. Besides, a dual control existed in the soviets units, consisting of which the political commissar of the NKVD had to approve the military plans.
Fourth, the German army had infinite superiority strategic and tactics on the Soviet. We mustn't forget that the soviet tanks weren't lower than the Germans, what if it was low were the crews and the controls. This is a direct consequence of the purges mentioned previously.
Why the German army was defeated after having conquered almost the whole European Russia and having caused several million casualties?
First, the Wehrmacht wasn't the sufficiently strong to include a front so wide as the Soviet one for a long time. Hitler was ignoring the practical problems that the logistics supposed in a scene stage as the oriental front. In the conquests of France or Poland they had found these problems, but it didn't have anything that to see with fronts of thousands of kilometres and with a hostile climate.
Second, the delay and final failure in the capture of Moscow, which was not only the capital, but also the reference point of the communications and of the industry. The conquest in 1941, probably, would have supposed the collapse of the USSR. The General Chief of the Wehrmacht's staff, The Field Marshall Halder, qualified the delay as the biggest strategic mistake of the whole campaign.
Third, the scorn of the high Soviet control (Stavka) for the life of his troops. The Red Army, sacrificed to conscience hundreds of thousands of men in operations that only took as object win time, it happened in Kiev, Smolensk, Moscow or Stalingrad. The sacrifice of enormous quantities of human beings obtained vital delays in the German advance and allowed that Hitler's arrogant before big carnage, it will play in favour of Stalin.
Forth, the failure in the conquest of Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, were based on the suicidal resistance of the Red Army, which managed to stop the German advance. The principal advantage of the Germans was the speed, as soon as they were losing this advantage there were imposed another series of factors between which the resistance was standing out. Germany couldn't allowed a long war against a country that as the USSR was overcoming in population and, eventually, in industrial production.
Fifth, the fact that the Soviet factories were to another side of the Urals Mountains and, therefore, far from the scope of the German aviation, he supposed a definitive advantage when there began the massive bombardments of the allies on Germany.
Sixth, the entry in the war of the USA supposed for the USSR a certain relief, since the USA turned into the principal logistic support of the USSR during 1942. The food of the USA has been underestimated, but the certain thing is that they collaborated to supporting the front and, especially, the rearguard.
Seventh, the ambiguous Japanese position about the USSR. In August 1939, the battle of Jalkin-Gol, was produced, between Japanese and Soviets where the above mentioned, they defeated the first ones. The General Zhukov was the maker of this victory and possibly the principal reason of which the Japanese were not attacking to the USSR later on. The troops destined in the Asian zone of the USSR demonstrated to be very necessary during the course of the war.
