How the Russians defeated the Nazis. The Russians fought better than the Germans (1 photo)

There are three main points of view about the Victory over Hitler.
First: the USSR lost 27 million people.
Second: the USSR accounts for between a third and half of all global losses.
Third: The USSR won by overwhelming the enemy with corpses.

This difference in judgments is due to the ideological preferences of the authors - who is inclined towards what. Which one is closer to the Truth of War? Is it true real life- not in the ideology of the authors, but in the demographic figures. Most researchers begin to calculate losses based on information about those killed in battle, in captivity, etc. That is, based on individual individual losses. But this is not the most reliable method for estimating losses.
It is much more reliable to proceed from demographic patterns and population size in specific years - before the war and after the war.
On east direction Hitler's war swept through Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Let us unite them under a single concept - the Russian World. It was precisely the colonization of the Russian world that Hitler set his sights on in the East.

On westward Hitler concentrated on the war against Great Britain. The rest of the countries of Northern, Western and Southern Europe either they fought on Hitler’s side, or they helped Hitler with “active neutrality.” For example, every third Hitler tank was made from Swedish ore and steel.

We must not forget that Hitler’s campaign to conquer the Russian World included formations staffed by citizens of Romania, Hungary, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Albania, Luxembourg, Sweden, Poland and other countries.
In total, Hitler recruited 1 million 800 thousand soldiers and officers from European countries into his troops. Of these, 59 divisions and 23 brigades were formed. There were 26 Waffen SS volunteer divisions alone. For example, the Viking division was formed from volunteers from Norway, Denmark, Holland and Flanders.

Let us unite the countries of Northern, Western and Southern Europe under one concept: Europe of Fifteen - these are Great Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Greece. How they participated in the war, together with Hitler or against him, is unimportant from the point of view of losses. Simply because in the 1940s, all of them, without a single exception, increased their numbers. And those participating in the war (Great Britain, France, Italy, Finland), and “neutrals” (Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland).
We will single out Germany as a third region and take a special look at it.

About demographic losses

For a clear understanding, let’s estimate the losses based on the real-probable population dynamics, which is estimated in the absence of a war with Hitler. The real-probable dynamics are determined by the population size in specific years - before the war and after the war, taking into account the natural increase in years of peace before and after the war. Natural increase is the difference between the annual number of births and deaths.

The Russian world in the peaceful years of the first half of the twentieth century was characterized by a stable natural increase. In the second half of the 1930s and the second half of the 1940s, its average was 1.2% per year. Based on it and the size of the Russian world: in 1940 - 160.5 million, in 1950 - 145.7 million people. - it can be estimated that the realistically probable demographic losses of the Russian world from Hitler’s war are in the range of 30-31 million people. (They also include the losses of the war with Finland and Japan, but they are two orders of magnitude smaller).

Readers may be puzzled to compare 30-31 million with official figure losses of the entire USSR equal to 27 million. Why such a discrepancy? This shouldn't be surprising. The fact is that there are demographic losses that official statistics it simply does not take into account, since it operates only on the current composition of the population. For example, it does not take into account children not born due to the war, who, if not for the war, could have been born and raised. However, they must be taken into account in demographic losses. Moreover, child losses are the most reliably calculated parameter according to population census data.

Similarly, we can estimate Germany's demographic losses at 10-10.5 million people. But in Europe Fifteen - 14 million demographic GROWTH. So, as they say, feel the difference in the influence of Hitler’s war on the Russian world and Europe of the Fifteen! Now let's move on to assessing children's losses. Most people have a hard time accepting: how can you estimate the losses from unborn children?!

The total child losses in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are estimated at 10-11 million unborn or dead children. If not for Hitler’s war, then in the 1940s, 49-50 million children could have been born and raised in the Russian world. It has grown - only 38-39 million. Similarly, one can estimate the childhood losses of Germany and Europe Fifteen.

Comparing them, we see:
- ONE out of FIVE children was not born or died in the Russian world;
- in Germany - ONE out of SIX children;
- and in Europe Fifteen is only ONE out of FIFTY.

As they say, feel the huge difference in the influence of Hitler’s war on the Russian world and the Europe of the Fifteen. Now let's move on to considering adult losses. Every person is mortal, old age comes and a person dies of old age. So adult losses are combat losses and those who died prematurely due to war conditions.

Subtracting 3 million child losses from Germany's 10-10.5 million demographic losses, we get 7-7.5 million German adult losses.
Subtracting 10-11 million child losses from 30-31 million demographic losses, we get 20 million adult losses in the Russian world.
Why is there such a difference between the losses of the Russian world and Germany?..

Comparison of losses of the Russian world and Germany

According to the assessment of the commission under the leadership of Colonel General G. F. Krivosheev in the Soviet Army during the Great Patriotic War 29,574,900 people were mobilized. Irreversible losses amounted to 11,444,100 people. Irreversible losses are taken into account by military authorities - these are those killed in battle, missing at the front, those who died from wounds on the battlefield and in medical institutions, who died from diseases acquired at the front, or who died at the front from other causes and were captured by the enemy.

Irretrievable losses do not provide an answer to the number of deaths. After all, some of them were captured, some ended up with the partisans, some escaped encirclement and were enlisted in another unit. But they can be used to compare the losses of the USSR and Germany. Based archival documents, works published in Germany, the Krivosheev commission compiled the “Balance of the payroll personnel Armed Forces Germany during the Second World War." It follows from it that the irretrievable losses of the Germans and their allies at the time of surrender amounted to 11,844 thousand people. Of course, we must take into account about 300 thousand combat losses of Germany and its allies in Western Front. After all, the following countries participated in the war on Hitler’s side: annexed Austria, Italy, Romania, Finland, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia. Some of the 300 thousand losses occurred in these countries.

But even in this case the ratio irrecoverable losses The Russian world and Germany are one to one. Therefore, the statement: “The USSR won by filling the enemy with corpses” is monstrous lie. Let's compare those who died in captivity.

According to the German historian Christian Streit, there were 5,700 thousand Soviet prisoners of war in German camps, of which 3,300 thousand died. According to the conclusions of the Krivosheev commission, over all the years there were 4,126,964 German prisoners of war in our camps, 580,548 people died. So:
- ONE German out of SEVEN died in Russian captivity.
- and in German captivity THREE out of FIVE Russians died.

Feel the difference! We have to admit: the conditions in German captivity were an ORDER more CRUEL than in the Russian camps.
Now let's look at why the demographic losses of the Russian world are THREE times MORE than in Germany? The reason for this difference is that Hitler's war on German territory lasted only 3 months. And on the territory of the Russian World - THREE and a HALF years. Therefore, non-combat civilian casualties are strikingly different.

Loss researchers often forget about this important factor, as a breakdown of the previous order of Russian life. How scrapping affects adult mortality - this can be understood from very recent events - the “reforms of the 1990s”, when in just a year or two the adult mortality rate in Russia increased by ONE AND A HALF times, and of those of the working age by TWO times.

Scrapping usual order Living at war with Hitler inevitably caused a sharp increase in non-combat adult deaths. These are those adults who did not fight in the Soviet Army, but died or died prematurely during the war. After all, the war was on huge territory Russian plain.

Firstly, these are losses among the civilian population of cities, towns and villages - one way or another, caught in the battle zone between units of the Soviet Army and Hitler’s armies. The reality of the war was that shells and bombs, when falling, did not distinguish where a military man was and where a civilian was.

This can be illustrated using the example of Leningrad. On the eve of the blockade, it had 2 million 244 thousand inhabitants, plus 344 thousand refugees from the advancing Germans. 1 million 273 thousand were evacuated. After the blockade was lifted, 560 thousand remained. So, 1-1.1 million civilians died during the defense of Leningrad.

But there were also Stalingrad, Minsk, Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, Sevastopol and hundreds of other cities and thousands of villages for which Russian soldiers fought. First retreating under pressure from Hitler's armies, and then liberating them. Secondly, these are the dead from among the people taken away from the occupied territories to work in Germany under Himmler’s directive. According to Nuremberg trials From the Soviet Union, the German occupation authorities sent 4,978,000 civilians to Germany. It is quite clear that their mortality rate was many times higher than in their homeland.

Thirdly, these are excess deaths of the adult population, Ukraine, Belarus and the occupied regions of Russia. After all, the breakdown of their usual order of life was very strong. And in the years when Hitler’s troops stubbornly sought to reach the Volga. And in the years when the liberation of the occupied territories was underway.

Fourthly, these are excess deaths among the population of Russian territory free from occupation. Of course, there was less disruption of the usual order of life in them than in the occupied territories. But there were great wartime hardships. The burden on women both in the city and in the countryside has increased sharply. Men over 45 were not drafted into the army, but were mobilized to the “labor front.”
All non-combat adult losses of the Russian World are estimated at 12-13 million.

Of course, there were non-combat adult casualties in Germany as well. But they are incomparably small compared to the losses of the Russian world. As a matter of fact civilian population Germany suffered only in Berlin and even in Dresden, which was bombed by British and American bombers for two nights at the end of April 1945, although there were actually no real military installations in this city.
Germany's non-combat adult losses are estimated at no more than 0.4 million people.

What are the combat losses of the Germans and Russians? It is quite clear that real combat losses are less than irretrievable losses. According to the Krivosheev Commission, the combat losses of the Soviet Army amount to 8,668,400 people. Comparing the shares of the number of peoples of the USSR according to the 1939 census, that is, on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, with the share of mobilization during the war years according to the Institute Military History, we will see: the Russian world, making up 78% of the USSR, provided 88% of the soldiers of the Soviet Army. The remaining nations, making up 22% of the USSR's strength, make up only 12% of the fighters.

So the intensity of the mobilization of non-Russian peoples of the USSR into the Soviet Army was TWO times LESS. Consequently, participation in the defense of the Motherland and losses were also less. The combat losses of the Russian World are estimated at 7-8 million fighters. As you can see, combat losses are TWO times less than non-combat losses.

This is the harsh reality defensive war on its territory. What were the German losses on the Eastern Front?

To this question comprehensive research No. And if we approach it correctly, then it is impossible to count all combat losses individually.
Therefore, it is better to estimate Germany’s combat losses on the Eastern Front, starting with demographic losses of 10-10.5 million people, subtracting from them: 3 million child losses, 0.4 million non-combat adult losses and 0.3 million combat losses on the Western Front. As a result, we find that the minimum combat losses of the Germans on the Eastern Front are in the range of 6-7 million people.

Of course, there are a number of calculations that show significantly – MILLIONS – fewer German combat losses. But such estimates can only be justified on the condition that the number of immigrants from Romania, Hungary and other countries Central Europe these same MILLIONS are less than the number of Germans who left Germany for the USA, Canada, South America and Australia. But this cannot be, since before 1950 no more than 0.5 million Germans left there.

We can confidently say: the overwhelming majority of Germany's adult losses are combat losses. And the statement that “the Russians won by covering Hitler with corpses” is a monstrously unscrupulous lie.

The main lesson of war

The fact that the West is not ruled by prime ministers or presidents, but by a “world behind the scenes” striving for world domination is no secret. In 1941, the “world behind the scenes” pitted the rulers of Russia and Germany against each other, sending Hitler to the East with the help of the “fifth column”. Now one of the tasks of the “fifth column” is to “fool the brains” of the people.

So they “powder”, slipping in statements like - the Russians won, filling the Germans with corpses. Although any thinking person, relying on demographic sources of information, he can see for himself that this is a monstrous lie. Statements that the USSR accounts for one third to half of all global losses are also “powder on the brain.”

The “fifth column” needs it in order to convince the reader that the MAIN LOSSES from Hitler’s war were suffered by Western countries.
In relation to that war of Hitler, the essence of the actions of the “world behind the scenes” is expressed by the principle of Western politicians: “If Germany wins, we will help Russia, if Russia wins, we will help Germany. And let them kill each other as much as possible."

Take another look at the above numbers. They specifically illustrate that this is exactly what happened in the 1940s. In that main lesson war. And this lesson of war must be remembered by both us Russians and Germans. And to prevent the “world behind the scenes” from creating something similar to Hitler’s attack in the 21st century.

Again. Very important.

Wikipedia:

It is believed that the Germans fought better than the Russians (or the Soviets - it doesn’t matter), and the Russians defeated them only in numbers, not in skill. How do we know that the Germans fought better? And from there, the Germans quickly defeated the professional Red Army in June 1941. And this is true and fact.

But what follows from this? And from this it follows that the Germans were driven back into the hole from which they crawled out, not by professional military men, but by ordinary Russian civilians who had no military experience, who had completed short military courses or without them at all. And they drove him into the hole confidently and irrevocably. Almost all Soviet offensive operations were very successful. And these operations involved not professional military personnel, but inexperienced, hastily trained ones. And they defeated the best professional, experienced German army in the world.

That is, in fact, the question comes down not to the fact that the Germans fought better than the Russians, but to the fact that inexperienced Russian recruits fought better than experienced professional Russian soldiers. And, of course, Russian inexperienced soldiers fought better than the Germans, since it was the Russians who won in Berlin, and not the Germans in Moscow.

So, was the professional Soviet army weaker than peaceful Soviet citizens who took up arms for the first time? How so?

No not like this. Professional Soviet army in June 41st they were defeated not in normal battles. They took us through cunning and foolishness, not at the military level, but at the political level. Cunning, because they did everything so that the Russians did not expect an attack not only on that fateful day, but in general in the foreseeable future. Why would the friendly small country of Germany suddenly attack the Soviet giant at night? Germany is also a socialist country, where ordinary workers live quite decently. In the German press, they tried not to write anything militant against the Russians and Stalin, but, on the contrary, to praise. The Germans specially concluded a bunch of trade agreements with the Russians on the eve of the attack, visits of various delegations are planned - entrepreneurs, politicians, athletes, cultural figures, etc. There were no signs of war with the largest Soviet trading partner in the foreseeable future. Therefore, the Red Army lived in peacetime. And Hitler struck the sleeping giant with an ax. According to the sleeping one. Any midget can gouge out the eye of a SLEEPING GIANT. This does not mean that the midget is stronger.

Again. Very important.

Comrade Stalin and all Soviet people created the most big army in the world, the best army in the world at that time, they supplied it with the best weapons in the world, so that no fool would think of attacking Soviet Motherland. But the fool attacked. The bad Germans defeated this army in a few days, or to be more precise, in a few hours.

The Red Army is no more. She doesn't exist. But we need to fight. And the inexperienced civilians went to fight soviet people. Mostly. With few exceptions. And they defeated the professional, most experienced German army in the world.

So, as warriors, the Russians are better than the Germans. Russians are worse in terms of cunning and meanness - they cannot portray a peaceful friend as coolly as the Germans and at the same time strike a blow with a club to the head of a peacefully sleeping comrade.

In the same way, Japanese aircraft destroyed the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. Not because the Japanese fight better, but because the most powerful and best fleet in the world was in peacetime. Not ready for an attack. The sailors scattered among the local women, drinking whiskey in bars, ammunition in warehouses, guns sheathed, command in hotels, etc. This does not mean that America is weaker than Japan or fights worse. Military prowess has nothing to do with it at all. There's nothing to do with this but cunning.

And, by the way, the Americans showed greater naive stupidity than the Russians. After all, Pearl Harbor happened after June 22! A smart person must learn from the mistakes of others.

This is very modern important story with a similar unexpected attack with an ax, which few people know:

“The reaction to the brutal murder of Armenian Armed Forces officer Gurgen Margaryan by an Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov is very indicative. The incident occurred during a 2004 NATO training operation under the Partnership for Peace program in Budapest. Safarov cut off Margaryan's head with an ax while he was sleeping, agitating the whole world with his act.

The Hungarian court responded to this atrocity as befits, sentencing Ramil Safarov to life imprisonment in 2006. Six years later, Azerbaijan requested the transfer of the convicted officer to serve his sentence in his homeland. Hungary complied with the request, handing over the killer to Baku. And, apparently, she made a big mistake. The way Azerbaijan disposed of the officer’s fate cannot be criticized. This is simply a mockery, it is also a spit in the face of Armenia.

As soon as Safarov arrived in Azerbaijan, he was immediately pardoned and promoted to military rank to major, were given an apartment and salary for the 8 years that he spent in Hungary, and also elevated to the status folk hero! Almost everything international organizations condemned the glorification of Safarov, but the President of Azerbaijan called the claims “far-fetched.” And the Commissioner for Human Rights (!) under the President of Azerbaijan, Elmira Suleymanova, said that “Safarov should become an example for young people.” If such human rights exist in Azerbaijan, then it is not surprising that this country is so actively supported by Turkey, where the president can demand two life sentences for journalists who wrote (!) “the wrong thing”.”

In general, the Azerbaijani easily defeated the sleeping Armenian. Does that mean he's stronger? Or that he brave hero? The same thing happened in the Soviet-German friendship on June 22, 1941.

And large losses in the war occur precisely in the initial period of the war, which was not a war but the cutting off of the head of a sleeping man, and are counted as general military losses. If we consider the defeat of the Americans at Pearl Harbor in this way, then it turns out that the Americans fought 100 times worse, if we take into account the ratio of losses.

It must be taken into account that for the USA the fleet is the same as for the USSR ground army. Because there are no potential enemies of the United States on the American continent. Enemies are on the other side of the ocean, and therefore the main weapon of the United States is the fleet. That is, the situation is completely similar to the Soviet one. But Stalin’s critics “don’t notice” this. Stalin - bloody dictator, missed the attack, and Roosevelt is a brilliant peace-loving democratic sage.

But defeat in the initial period is not the topic of my article. I want to draw attention to the fact that the professional trained experienced army of a united Europe was defeated not by professional military men, but by those divorced from peaceful life unprepared Soviet people. People's Army.

They say: the Germans reached the “equator of war”, to Moscow and the Volga in a few months, and their weak Russian soldiers drove them back for 3 years! But that's the point. In order to chase the enemy without a professional army, it takes time to at least somehow prepare and train people cut off from peaceful life. I'm not talking about transfer military industry inland. Time played on the Russians and the Russians took advantage of it.

But it was a war of engines and high technology. A simple peaceful Russian man learned to as soon as possible control airplanes, boats, tanks, conventional and rocket artillery. It took at least some time to study.

And after the “equator” the war for the Russians became offensive, and for the Germans it became defensive, or rather, retreat. What does it mean? According to military science, when breaking through the defense, the attacking side suffers much greater losses. The defender will sit behind the concrete fortifications, bury himself deep in the ground and go and dig him out of there. And yet, Russian offensive quickly improved as it accumulated combat experience surprisingly to military experts around the world. It is not possible to attack well-fortified German iron-concrete-armored positions for three years without greater losses than the defenders.

When the Germans were the attacking side at the very beginning of the war, they suffered very few losses, not because they fought better, but because they attacked an unprepared sleeping enemy. They sleep peacefully soviet soldiers in the barracks, and a bomb falls on them in the middle of the night. Is not military prowess Germans, but military cunning.

The main thing I want to repeat is that after the defeat of June 41, it was actually militias, not professional soldiers, who fought the Germans. A simple Russian man, using a plow or a drawing board, defeated the professional, experienced army of a united Europe.

As for Stalin’s stupidity in not expecting the attack, I completely understand him. By and large, the attack on Soviet Union deadly for Germany. The forces are not equal. Neither human nor material resources. And most importantly, technical equipment The Red Army was better. Especially in the main weapon of that era - tanks. The Russians had fantastic tanks from the future. And there were incredibly many of them.

Wikipedia:

“It should be noted that, in the opinion modern historians, the Wehrmacht did not have a clear qualitative superiority in technology. Thus, all tanks in German service were lighter than 23 tons, while the Red Army had medium tanks T-34 and T-28 weighing over 25 tons, as well as heavy tanks KV and T-35 weighing over 45 tons.

In fact, Soviet tanks were the next generation from the German ones, that is, superiority, both between jet fighter and propeller."

Here is a photo of a German medium tank (left) T-3 next to a Soviet heavy KV-1. Elephant and pug:

That is, in fact, the question comes down not to the fact that the Germans fought better than the Russians, but to the fact that inexperienced Russian recruits fought better than experienced professional Russian soldiers. And, of course, the inexperienced Russian soldiers fought better than the Germans, since it was the Russians who won in Berlin, and not the Germans in Moscow.

So, was the professional Soviet army weaker than peaceful Soviet citizens who took up arms for the first time? How so?

No not like this. The professional Soviet army was defeated in June 1941, not in normal battles. They took us through cunning and foolishness, not at the military level, but at the political level. Cunning, because they did everything so that the Russians did not expect an attack not only on that fateful day, but in general in the foreseeable future. Why would the friendly small country of Germany suddenly attack the Soviet giant at night? Germany is also a socialist country, where ordinary workers live quite decently. In the German press, they tried not to write anything militant against the Russians and Stalin, but, on the contrary, to praise. The Germans specially concluded a bunch of trade agreements with the Russians on the eve of the attack, visits of various delegations are planned - entrepreneurs, politicians, athletes, cultural figures, etc. There were no signs of war with the largest Soviet trading partner in the foreseeable future. Therefore, the Red Army lived in peacetime. And Hitler struck the sleeping giant with an ax. According to the sleeping one. Any midget can gouge out the eye of a SLEEPING GIANT. This does not mean that the midget is stronger.

Again. Very important.

Comrade Stalin and the entire Soviet people created the largest army in the world, the best army in the world at that time, equipped it with the best weapons in the world, so that no fool would think of attacking the Soviet Motherland. But the fool attacked. The bad Germans defeated this army in a few days, or to be more precise, in a few hours.

The Red Army is no more. She doesn't exist. But we need to fight. And the inexperienced peaceful Soviet people went to fight. Mostly. With few exceptions. And they defeated the professional, most experienced German army in the world.

And, by the way, the Americans showed greater naive stupidity than the Russians. After all, Pearl Harbor happened after June 22! A smart person must learn from the mistakes of others.

Here is a very important modern story of a similar surprise ax attack that few people know:

“The reaction to the brutal murder of Armenian Armed Forces officer Gurgen Margaryan by an Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov is very indicative. The incident occurred during a 2004 NATO training operation under the Partnership for Peace program in Budapest. Safarov cut off Margaryan's head with an ax while he was sleeping, agitating the whole world with his act.

The Hungarian court responded to this atrocity as befits, sentencing Ramil Safarov to life imprisonment in 2006. Six years later, Azerbaijan requested the transfer of the convicted officer to serve his sentence in his homeland. Hungary complied with the request, handing over the killer to Baku. And, apparently, she made a big mistake. The way Azerbaijan disposed of the officer’s fate cannot be criticized. This is simply a mockery, it is also a spit in the face of Armenia.

As soon as Safarov arrived in Azerbaijan, he was immediately pardoned, promoted to the rank of major, given an apartment and salary for the 8 years he spent in Hungary, and also elevated to the status of a national hero! Almost all international organizations condemned the glorification of Safarov, but the President of Azerbaijan called the claims “far-fetched.” And the Commissioner for Human Rights (!) under the President of Azerbaijan, Elmira Suleymanova, said that “Safarov should become an example for young people.” If such human rights exist in Azerbaijan, then it is not surprising that this country is so actively supported by Turkey, where the president can demand two life sentences for journalists who wrote (!) “the wrong thing”.”

In general, the Azerbaijani easily defeated the sleeping Armenian. Does that mean he's stronger? Or that he is a brave hero? The same thing happened in the Soviet-German friendship on June 22, 1941.

It must be taken into account that for the United States the fleet is the same as the land army for the USSR. Because there are no potential enemies of the United States on the American continent. Enemies are on the other side of the ocean, and therefore the main weapon of the United States is the fleet. That is, the situation is completely similar to the Soviet one. But Stalin’s critics “don’t notice” this. Stalin is a bloody dictator who missed the attack, and Roosevelt is a brilliant peace-loving democratic sage.

But defeat in the initial period is not the topic of my article. I want to draw your attention to the fact that the professional trained experienced army of a united Europe was defeated not by professional military men, but by unprepared Soviet people cut off from peaceful life. People's Army.

They say: the Germans reached the “equator of war”, to Moscow and the Volga in a few months, and their weak Russian soldiers drove them back for 3 years! But that's the point. In order to chase the enemy without a professional army, it takes time to at least somehow prepare and train people cut off from peaceful life. I'm not even talking about the transfer of the military industry to the interior of the country. Time played on the Russians and the Russians took advantage of it.

But this was a war of engines and high technology. A simple peaceful Russian man learned to fly airplanes, boats, tanks, conventional and rocket artillery in the shortest possible time. It took at least some time to study.

And after the “equator” the war for the Russians became offensive, and for the Germans it became defensive, or rather, retreat. What does it mean? According to military science, when a defense is broken through, the attacking side suffers much greater losses. The defender will sit behind the concrete fortifications, bury himself deep in the ground and go and dig him out of there. And yet, the Russian offensive quickly improved as combat experience accumulated, to the surprise of military specialists around the world. It is not possible to attack well-fortified German iron-concrete-armored positions for three years without greater losses than the defenders.

When the Germans were the attacking side at the very beginning of the war, they suffered very few losses, not because they fought better, but because they attacked an unprepared sleeping enemy. Soviet soldiers are sleeping peacefully in the barracks, and a bomb falls on them in the middle of the night. This is not the military prowess of the Germans, but military cunning.

As for Stalin’s stupidity in not expecting the attack, I completely understand him. By and large, an attack on the Soviet Union would be fatal for Germany. The forces are not equal. Neither in terms of human or material resources. And most importantly, the technical equipment of the Red Army was better. Especially in the main weapon of that era - tanks. The Russians had fantastic tanks from the future. And there were incredibly many of them.

Wikipedia:

“It should be noted that, according to modern historians, the Wehrmacht did not have a clear qualitative superiority in technology. Thus, all tanks in German service were lighter than 23 tons, while the Red Army had medium tanks T-34 and T-28 weighing over 25 tons, as well as heavy tanks KV and T-35 weighing over 45 tons.

In fact, Soviet tanks were the next generation from the German ones, that is, superiority, like between a jet fighter and a propeller-driven one.”

Here is a photo of a German medium tank (left) T-3 next to a Soviet heavy KV-1. Elephant and pug:

This is a tank without any guns or even machine guns. They took a light machine gun and stones with them into battle to throw at the Russians:

All the large German tanks Tigers and Panthers appeared after 2-3 years of war, but they are most often shown on TV. But at the beginning of the war there was nothing like this.

In the photo on the left is the Soviet main medium tank T-34, captured by the Germans. The Russians had 1200 of these. The Germans had a total of 3000 tanks. Almost half of them had no guns at all, as in the right picture.

On the right is a purely German light comic supposedly T-I tank without a cannon, armed with only 2 machine guns. There were 180 of these false tanks. I specifically selected 2 pictures of tanks compared to the size of a person. Otherwise, it is not clear how big the tanks are unless you compare them with each other. Soviet tanks were several times larger only in linear dimensions.

1 Soviet tank will not be able to defeat either 10 or 100 German tanks T-I tanks because they don't have a gun.

From these photographs you can see, in addition to size, also in shape, the infinite superiority of Soviet tanks over German ones. Sloping armor, streamlined shapes, wide tracks. Huge gun.

Quote from Wikipedia:

The Wehrmacht allocated 3,332 tanks for the invasion of the USSR, of which about
230 lightly armed “commander” tanks,
180 T-I,
746 T-II,
772 38(t),
965 T-III,
439 T-IV.

A Russian tank can defeat a German T-II only if the German sticks his 20 mm mini-cannon directly into the window of the T-34. The remaining 3 types of tanks can defeat a Russian tank no longer by sticking a cannon through the window, but by approaching point-blank at a distance of several steps. Their T-34 can destroy them at a distance of several kilometers. And when the shells run out, he can simply crush them with his tracks.

Something similar to soviet tanks T-34 and KV were only the heavy German T-IV. But there were 1,300 Soviet tanks of these types in the border districts, and only 439 German ones - three times less. And T-IV was heavy according to the German classification. In Russian he did not even reach intermediate level.

There are many examples when 1 Soviet tank in initial period war killed several dozen Germans. The main losses of Soviet tanks were not in combat. Either they didn’t deliver the shells, or they brought them up but the wrong ones, then the diesel fuel ran out, then the shells ran out, and all around there were Germans and an unarmed tank they were already finishing off at point-blank range. But more often the crew left the car without shells and ran away.

This photo shows that this tank from the future, fantastic for the Germans, was fired at by several German tanks and could not penetrate the armor. I counted 27 hits. Like the Moon or Mars in meteorite craters. Maybe he has 100 more hits outside the photo.

Here are the facts from Wikipedia:

“The crew of the KV-1 tank near the city of Raseiniai (in Lithuania) in June 1941 held back the Kampfgruppe for 24 hours ( battle group) 6th Panzer Division of General F. Landgraf, equipped mainly with light Czech tanks Pz.35(t).
During the battle on June 24, one of the KVs turned left and took a position on the road parallel to the direction of advance of the Kampfgruppe Seckendorf under the command of Lieutenant Colonel E. von Seckendorff, finding itself behind the back of the Kampfgruppe Routh.
The KV-1 tank stopped for some time the Kamfgruppe Zeckendorf, which made up slightly less than half of the tank division.
War log of the 11th tank regiment 6th TD reads:
“The Kampfgruppe Routh bridgehead was held. Before noon, as a reserve, a reinforced company and headquarters of the 65th tank battalion were pulled back along the left route to the crossroads northeast of Raseinyaya. Meanwhile, a Russian heavy tank blocked the communications of Kampfgruppe Routh. Because of this, communication with Kampfgruppe Routh was interrupted for the entire afternoon and subsequent night. The 8.8 Flak battery (these are the most powerful Wehrmacht anti-aircraft guns with a caliber of 8.8 cm) was sent by the commander to fight this tank. But her actions were as unsuccessful as the 10.5 cm batteries. In addition, the attempt failed assault group sappers blow up a tank. It was impossible to approach the tank due to heavy machine gun fire."
The lone KV in question fought against Kampfgruppe Seckendorf. After a night raid by sappers, which only scratched the tank, they tackled it a second time with the help of an 88-mm anti-aircraft gun, which they managed to install behind the tank. A group of 35(t) tanks distracted the KV with its movement, and the 8.8 cm FlaK crew scored six hits on the tank, but only three managed to penetrate the tank’s armor.

Please note that the tank was destroyed only by cunning. To knock out just 1 Soviet tank, the Germans staged an entire multi-step, multi-day, ingenious operation with diversionary maneuvers. For this purpose it is involved in total several dozen tanks and several hundred people.

Another one. Again with fifty hits.

Attention!

Most of the German shells left no traces at all and we can’t count them. These visible ones are not see-through! Only very powerful German guns left holes or dents. Wikipedia:

“At the beginning of the war, the KV-1 tank received the nickname “Gespenst” (translated from German as ghost) among the Germans prone to mysticism, since the shells of the standard 37-mm Wehrmacht anti-tank gun most often did not even leave dents on its armor. This episode is described in detail in the memoirs of Colonel Erhard Routh, whose group tried to destroy a Soviet tank.
6th tank division The Wehrmacht fought for 48 hours with a single Soviet KV-1 tank. The fifty-ton KV-1 shot and crushed with its tracks a column of 12 supply trucks that was heading towards the Germans from the captured city of Raiseniai, then destroyed an artillery battery with targeted shots.”

Here you need to stop and take a breath. Imagine, a whole battery could not destroy just 1 tank. In an attempt to knock him out, the entire battery died. Continuation:

The Germans, of course, returned fire, but to no avail. Anti-tank gun shells did not even leave dents on his armor.
What about guns? Even 150-mm howitzers couldn’t penetrate the KV-1’s armor. True, Routh's soldiers managed to immobilize the tank by exploding a shell under its track. But “Klim Voroshilov” had no intention of leaving anywhere. He took up a strategic position on the only road leading to Raiseniai, and delayed the division’s advance for two days (the Germans could not bypass him, because the road passed through swamps where army trucks and light tanks got stuck).
Finally, by the end of the second day of the battle, Routh managed to shoot the tank with anti-aircraft guns. But, when his soldiers cautiously approached the steel monster, the tank’s turret suddenly turned in their direction - apparently, the crew was still alive. Only a grenade thrown into the tank's hatch put an end to this incredible battle.

Again, they won by cunning, and not by military methods. They threw a grenade straight into the hatch. But this is an oversight by the tank crew. You cannot leave the hatch open in close combat.

Lieutenant Helmut Ritgen from the German 6th Panzer Division:

“...the very concept of conducting has changed radically tank war, the KV vehicles marked a completely different level of armament, armor protection and tank weight. German tanks instantly became an exclusively anti-personnel weapon... From now on, enemy tanks became the main threat, and the need to fight them required new weapons - powerful long-barreled guns of a larger caliber.”

He’s talking about the battle with KV tanks near Raseiniai:

“These hitherto unknown Soviet tanks caused a crisis in the Seckendorf strike group, since it did not have weapons capable of penetrating their armor. The shells simply bounced off the Soviet tanks.
The infantrymen began to retreat in panic during a Russian tank attack.
Super-heavy Soviet KVs were advancing on our tanks, and our dense fire did not bring any results. The KV rammed the command tank and overturned it.

All this is about the KV-1 Tank. But the Russians had an even more fantastic supertank from the distant future, the KV-2:

This is a mobile fortress on tracks.

But, with the beginning of the war, KV tanks ceased to be produced as unnecessary. Not because they are bad, but for another, very simple reason - the Russians threw all their production forces into another tank - the T-34. Because all the advantages of tanks from the future KV type are nonsense compared to the most legendary tank T-34, which was somewhat smaller than the KV, but, on the other hand, more high-tech. If the KV tanks, in comparison with the German comic supposedly tanks, were tanks from science fiction books of the distant future, then the T-34 is an alien tank highly developed civilization, ahead of humanity by thousands of years.

According to the German Major General B. Müller-Hillebrand, the appearance of the T-34 tank marked the emergence of the so-called tank fear among German troops on the Eastern Front.
At that time, the 37mm gun was still our strongest anti-tank weapon. If we were lucky, we could hit the T-34 turret ring and jam it. If you are even more lucky, the tank will then not be able to operate effectively in battle. Certainly not a very encouraging situation!
The only way out was an 88-mm anti-aircraft gun. With its help it was possible to operate effectively even against this new Russian tank.
- Otto Carius, German tank ace
Borzilov, commander of the 7th Tank Division:
Personally overcame four anti-tank areas with KV and T-34 vehicles. The driver's hatch cover was knocked out in one car, and the TPD apple was knocked out in the other. It should be noted that it is mainly the guns and machine guns that are disabled; otherwise, the T-34 can easily withstand the blows of 37 mm guns, not to mention the KB.

In short, in terms of the quality of tanks, the Russians were at least 10 times superior to the Germans. Although, to be honest, 100 times.

There is a Jewish joke. A Jewish youth wants to find a bride so beautiful that her dowry does not matter, but at the same time she must be so rich that her beauty does not matter. The Russians had so many tanks that their quality no longer mattered. And the tanks themselves were so superior to the German ones that their number did not matter.

I don't want to go deeper now tank theme, this is not the topic of this article. On the other hand, the information about the quality and quantity of these tanks was so incredible that Hitler perceived it as primitive disinformation and did not believe it. This is the same as if they would now tell Obama that Putin has a million invisible flying saucers with laser guns in his arsenal.

A reasonable person, Comrade Stalin, could not take into account only one thing - Hitler's idiocy. He committed the same idiocy japanese emperor. He took and bit America by the tail. Well, the American fleet was unexpectedly defeated at Pearl Harbor. So, what is next? But the USA is 100 times more Japan in all respects. Isn’t it clear that in response they will create 10 more new fleets and crush Japan like a mosquito? It's like Bruce Lee getting hit in the ear unexpectedly while he's sleeping.

(I used the word “Russian”, although it means “Soviet” different nationalities, because it’s so common and easy to say).

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