Since June 22, 1941, Germany and Romania have joined the war with the USSR. The basis of military operations for Bucharest is understandable – the year-earlier exclusion of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. A day later, Slovakia entered the war. On 26 June, Kosice, which was Slovakia three years earlier, was bombed by unmarked aircraft, but, at that time, Hungary. 27 tons of bombs were dropped. It is still unclear whether this was the Soviet air force, bombed the city because of the confusion and obsolete maps, Germanic or even Romanian (to push the opposing ally to active action), but on June 27, Hungary declared the USSR a war. Almost at the same time, on June 25, Soviet aviation strikes at several settlements and 18 Finnish airfields. On some of them, German planes were actually based, formally, Finland was one of the Axis countries. On the same day, Suomi declares war, and by the end of the year he occupies a large part of Karelia, including its capital, Petrozavodsk (which has become Einislinna). About 70,000 civilians (from non-Finn-related peoples, according to racial anthropological surveys) are taken to Finnish concentration camps. Later, one third of them will die from malnutrition, disease and ill-treatment. Photography – and failed to take off (or made a forced landing) Soviet fighter I-16. The mass of the equipped aircraft is 1300 kg., The speed is 450 km. h, flight range of 480 km., armament – two rapid-fire machine gun 7.62 mm. Produced about 10,000 units. The second half of June 1941, the USSR
The Soviet fighter I-16, shot down on take-off, June 22, 1941.
The “Decree of Military Jurisdiction of the Barbarossa Plan” of 13 May 1941 states: “For actions that Wehrmacht servicemen and allies commit against the enemy civilian population, there is no prosecution, even if this action is simultaneously military crime or misdemeanor… I release you from the chimera, called conscience. “Further on this topic: “I reject Christianity, because it is the product of Judaism, because it is internationalistic and because it preaches peace on earth.” (Adolf Gitler). In general, we can say that the entire people of the USSR, the Soviet Army (RKKA), are moving towards God during the war, and Germany (the Axis countries), on the contrary, step by step, move away from it. “Got mit uns”, i.e. “God is with us,” the inscription engraved on buckles of belts becomes an empty formality. In the second half of the war, the funeral rites of SS men are most often conducted, according to the pagan custom of the Vikings, with the Lebens rune (the rune of life, something like an arrow pointing downwards, or a trident, or Toten-Rune, or Tyr-Rune) on the grave, instead of a cross. In the prewar picture – the military pilots of the USSR near the I-15 fighter. These people have to understand what total war is, and make almost impossible
Since June 23, 1941, the battle starts for Dubno-Lutsk-Brody (320 km west of Kiev). The General of the Army G. Zhukov, who came to the scene, rejects the idea of the Chief of Staff of the South-Western Front to withdraw troops and create a solid defense line. The new plan was an immediate strike by five mechanized corps in 2,800 (later 3,100) tanks for four (subsequently – five) German tank divisions of 720 tanks and 70 assault guns. Photo – German soldiers visiting the abandoned Soviet heavy tank T-35. Weight 50 tons, 11 crew, reservation – forehead 30 mm., Board 20 mm., All towers 20 mm. The real speed for rough terrain is 10—12 km. h. Armament – one 76.2 mm, two 45 mm. guns and six to seven machine guns. Made 59 units. Until June, tanks in military operations do not participate, confining themselves to demonstrating the power of the Soviet Union in military parades
Wehrmacht connections, in addition to combat vehicles, include large units of infantry, artillery, and also highly skilled repair brigades. Bulky (about 400 tanks) mechanized corps of the Red Army make marches of 300 km, losing at least only a mechanical breakdown of at least a third of the machines. The Soviet system of production of military equipment allegedly does not provide for the release, delivery, not even worth a half-word, of “small things” for repair, for example, gaskets or spare trains. Guidelines for driving and servicing the newest tanks, at this time – are classified even from potential mechanics. Sometimes, so carefully stored from the crews of the car, at the decisive moment refuel not with diesel fuel, but with gasoline. Approximately the same situation in the Air Force. In order to avoid any breakdown of equipment, getting accusations of wrecking, the most unfortunate consequences, the lower command is gradually sabotaging real military training. To realize how this or that thing works, one must at least break it down – it’s a simple, but an immutable truth. The fact that in the German educational units is punishable with salty jokes or a reprimand to a newcomer, the Red Army may end in execution. In the photo – the Soviet tanks BT-7 damaged and abandoned by crews. Weight 14 tons, crew 3 people, reservation 15—20 mm., Gun 45 mm., 1—3 machine guns. Speed, according to the design of the designers – the main advantage of the “high-speed” tank – on the tracks, on the highway 52 km. h, on wheels-72 km. h.
Perhaps, it can be argued that in a society of formal equality and the “territorial organization of the community”, any sign of distinction is qualified, no less than an accessory to a special caste. The Commander of the Red Army at all costs aspires to secede from the soldiers’ masses, although of course this does not go as far as in the Tsarist army. These maxims completely agree with the author’s observations during his time in the army of the Soviet, and then Russian. The German army from the middle of the nineteenth century implies, with (paradoxically) the strict observance of subordination, the attitude of the officer to the soldier as an equal to himself. Cohesion, a trusting relationship to each other, even, as it is said there, on the basis of blood ties, determines the high level of command and control. The photo shows the T-34-76 tank as part of a broken Soviet convoy. June-July, 1941 Weight 26 tons, crew 4 people, armor anti-ballistic 45 mm, in all directions in the horizontal plane (feed 40 mm.) Gun 76 mm., Course and paired with a gun machine gun. Speed along the highway 54 km. h, cross-country – 36 km. h (if you can turn on the desired gear)
So, there are counter tank fights near Kiev, sometimes successful, more often – no, massive frontal offensives on the positions of German anti-tank guns, maneuvering without communications and normal maps, separation from supply and repair lines. The result: by 30 June the Red Army loses 2,600 tanks, the Wehrmacht – 180 (irretrievably). The entire South-Western Front is crashing down. Stalin realizes the reality of such a picture: he is confronted with a group of German generals, with Hitler, compelled to answer their questions, unimaginably small and pitiful. This Dzhugashvili does not like, and he, even if not immediately, begins to make more or less correct decisions. The principle of eliminating problems, before – to see only the good, to discard all that is not part of smart plans. If someone talks about dying of hunger – they should be made to confess to espionage to Britain, and the question is solved. Twenty years after the Revolution, the people live worse than in 1914 – let’s say that this is not true, and the end is the matter. In Moscow (supply in a special category), after the cards have been canceled, thousands of queues are snapping around the stores – comrades from the NKGB warn the townsfolk without proper registration, that their next visit to the capital will be punished by article for speculation – and the crowds quickly disappear. Why bother with the actual development of the production of this boring consumer goods? The Scout believes that the Finns will not take the bread and salt of the Red Army – he should be summoned to Moscow and eliminated. It is the same with reports