Fighting on the eastern front: WWII

[Keba]

Not really true accept in being true to the myth. The spring of 1941 came late and the rains stayed longer than normal. Guderian himself has stated that they could not have attacked sooner since the rivers were still swollen (in particular the Bug) and the ground too soft in Poland and East Prussia for large scale movement of armoured units.

It isn't as much that spring came late, it was the Balkans that stalled the Germans. It cost them as much as a month of fighting ... more since the troops had to be moved to the borders with the SU. The weather may have been bad, I don't really remember, however the employement of troops after the beginning of the attack came out wrong ... the panzers were concetrated north, in terrain that didn't suit them, foolish orders for the tanks to wait for the infantry to catch up cost Germany a decisive victory. Now, while Moscow may not have been a vital position ... it's fall would have destroyed Soviet morale, just like Stalingrad would have. The Germans also wanted to strike south, at the oil fields first, but Hitler demanded the attack be concentrated on Moscow. Now, that decision was a mixed blessing, the Soviets were expecting a strike at the oil fields, and had concentrated their forces accordingly, however, in 41, those forces would have been insufficent.

It should also be added that the Red Army was in the process of a series of reforms and that the purges of the army had hurt badly. The learning curve was steep but one can clearly see the improvement in the combat techniques as early as Nov 1941. By late 1942 they are beginning to put into practice the operational doctrine known as "Deep Battle" which would prove to be far superior to blitzkrieg and better than anything developed by the western allies. The weather and Russian numbers are the old excuses of the defeated German officers and offer only a simplistic view of a hugely complex issue.

It was an idea on paper as early as '34, I believe. The reforms were intiated following the Winter War, where the Soviet army showed it's lack of ability. However, in the initial stages of the war, the proponents of static defense were more numerous and powerful, in general. By the time that the concept was actually employed, Stalin had learned to listen to his commanders, something that Hitler never did.

Sorry Keba but that is simply not true. The Kats were first used in mid-1941 and were based on a Russian chasis. Perhaps some were later used but the majority of the trucks (more robust and with larger cargo capacity) supplied by the US were used to haul troops and supplies. I have not seen any photos of a Katyusha on a US truck chasis.

Dunno, it was in one of the books I read on the subject ... IIRC, the Russians did order a whole lot of trucks from the USA as part of the war effort. The book claimed that they were used for Katyushas, however, I can no longer remember which book it was.