EXTRA EXTRA CREDIT

The Forgotten Front (Retreat)

In the winter of 1941 to 1942 the Soviets became well supplied with weapons, munitions and well trained troops from Siberia. The Russians began their counter offensive against the Germans that winter trying to push out of the nearly encircled cities. With the Germans weakened by the cold the Soviets begin to gain their first victories on the eastern front.

With the coming of spring German troops were forced to fall back. This proved to be more difficult than it sounds, mainly because of the mud. Russia at this period in history lacked a decent road system. Most roads turned in to goo when the ground unfroze from the long winter.  It was hard to move troops and artillery because the artillery was pulled by horses and troops had to walk through the slop all day exhausting them.

Fun fact: the Germans cut down scores of roadside trees in Russia to make the roads with them.

The Germans were continually but slowly pushed back by the ever growing mass off Soviet troops and machinery.  The German situation was not helped by the attack by the allied forces in France. This split the German army in two, it was a devastating blow to their reinforcements.  The Russians also began to fight more fierce than every do to learning of the atrocities done to Jews, civilians, and prisoners by German rear guard and SS troops behind German lines.

Not so fun fact: Roughly 225,000 Jews were executed while Germany occupied soviet soil.

Eventually the soviets entered Germany out numbering the German soldiers nearly ten to one.

The soviet advanced through the weakened German defenses with ease, now fighting mostly tired disheartened soldiers, old men, and young boys. The German army prayed to be captured by the allies moving in from the west to avoid the stern hand of Russian captivity.

Fun fact: The German army reenlisted officers that had previously been discharged for wounds ( mainly amputees)  to lead the remaining troops.

Orders for the German soldier were not to retreat at all costs and hold the city of Berlin, the last holdout of German troops. On April 29,1945 Adolf Hitler supreme leader of the German army committed suicide. Berlin was taken by the Soviet Union on May, 12,1945 ending the war in Europe. Now the Germans were free of socialist control but stuck behind the iron curtain of communism.

I believe the Russian Campaign was a campaign of bravery, tactics, and brutality. It was a side of war much more primitive than that on the western front.  The people, the weapons and the landscape of this battle are all things that intrigue me and I wish to learn much more about this time in history.

fun fact: Some German prisoners were not released by the Soviets until 1956 and all soviet soldiers who had been outside the Soviet Union were forced into prison camps for two years by their own government for “reeducation”.

 Good books about the Eastern front:

1. At Leningrad’s Gates
2. Red Sniper on the Eastern Front
3. Sniper on the Eastern Front
4.  Blood Red Snow
5. Panzer Commander
6. Soldat

EXTRA CREDIT

The Forgotten Front (Advance)

World War 2 is a topic that peaks my interest but in the last few years I have found the eastern front (forgotten front) far more intriguing than any other aspect of the war. The average American usually has little to no knowledge about the events on the eastern front (1939-1945) other than what they may have seen in Hollywood films such as Enemy at the Gates. I find the tactics and people of this campaign very interesting.

In 1939 the start of the campaign on the eastern front began with Germany advancing into Poland.  Russia and Germany had previously signed a peace agreement to split the nation Poland and remain allies, but this agreement did not last long.  In early summer of 1941 the Germans cut Russian communications lines and advanced across Russia’s border surprising them. The operation was called

Operation Barbarossa.  German blitzkrieg units advanced quickly across the sparsely defended steppe at an alarming rate. 

The idea of blitzkrieg (lightning war), I think was a very revolutionary idea. Sending armor units through the front to harass the enemy from the rear really wreaked havoc on the opposing troops. And with soldiers distracted with the tanks infantry had a relatively easy job over taking the position. It also helped that at this time in the war Russian troops were under trained and under supplied.

Armor and artillery played huge rolls in the German advance to Moscow, Stalingrad, and the city of Leningrad. From biographies and the written soldier’s accounts I have read both sides feared shelling and were almost constantly shelled.  German soldiers later in the war particularly feared the Russian t34 tank, arguably the deadliest tank of the war.

Fun fact: The soviets used dogs with mines strapped to their backs as anti-tank weapons, but most times the dogs blew up Soviet t34’s because that is the tank the dogs were trained with.

 The German’s advance was halted at cities like Stalingrad, Leningrad and Moscow where Russian troops put up fierce resistance. Fighting was barbaric unlike anything ever seen before. For the first time in modern history house to house fighting was used on a large scale. The implement of the oh so controversial sniper also played a huge role in the battles  for Russia’s Industrial giants. The fighting that took place was so barbaric yet so modern all at the same time. Respect for human life was out the window. So many atrocities against civilians and prisoners happened  during those crucial years of the war, worsening the severity of battle. 

Fun fact:  Vasily Zaitsev(star of Enemy at the Gates) is not even in the top ten best soviet snipers- Ivan Mihailovich Sidorenko is the #1 soviet sniper with a recorded 500 kills.

I believe the turning point in the campaign on the eastern front was the arrival of the Russian winter. The men of the German army had never experienced such fierce weather. This is where the Russians had the upper hand, they were accustomed to the extreme conditions. The tide had turned, now the Germans were fighting without winter gear and there precision made weapons could not hold up to the ice.  They were in the same exact shoes as the great conqueror Napoleon had been a couple hundred years earlier. Frozen on the vast Russian steppe

This is the beginning of the end…

The 28^th Amendment

                I believe a 28^th amendment should be proposed to disband the Electoral College and make presidential election and other important votes solely in the hands of the citizens of the United States.

I believe the people should have the deciding say in who is leading their country. We are the majority.  I believe if this was truly a democratic nation we should have the deciding vote in who rules us. I also believe this amendment should state that each presidential candidate is given an equal and fixed amount for campaigning and they should have to keep records on the amount spent. This addition would give every candidate a fair chance to campaign equally to the people.  Thus making the lesser known candidates  of lesser known party’s apparent to the people. That way we can make a well-educated decision on who leads us.