DOCSLIB.ORG

Table of Contents Item Transcript

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Table of Contents Item Transcript DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Vladimir Metelitsa. Full, unedited interview, 2007 ID EST021.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4mh3w ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TABLE OF CONTENTS ITEM TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2 CITATION & RIGHTS 13 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 1/13 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Vladimir Metelitsa. Full, unedited interview, 2007 ID EST021.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4mh3w ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION —Today is October 29th, 2007. We are in the capital of Estonia – Tallinn, meeting a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Please introduce yourself: your first name, patronymic and last name. Where and when were your born, what do you remember about your life before the war, about your family where you grew up. How did the war start for you, how did you end up in the army, and what were the years of the war like for you. Please [begin]. I am Vladimir Isayevich Metelitsa. I was born on September 11, 1925 in Smolensk. Let us start by talking about my parents. My father was Isay Abramovich, Metelitsa. He worked at Rumyantsev’s sewing factory as a general laborer, and worked his way up to deputy director. My mother also worked at the sewing factory, as a seamstress. I attended Smolensk school #25 up to eighth grade. I entered eighth grade in 1941. Eighth grade. 1941. On June 22nd along with my father’s colleagues, his subordinates, we travelled to the country, to a place called Krasniy Bor, for May celebrations. Not far from [Krasniy Bor], on the 401st km from Moscow, was a military base. When we arrived the military would not let us through and that’s how we discovered that the war began. We returned to the city of Smolensk on the 22nd and already on that same night a German plane appeared above the city. The plane was a “Rama” (BA note - Frame, in Russian, nickname of the Focke-Wulf Fw 189). We looked up and it was already hovering above us. Boys were climbing on rooftops to watch. It was a spectacle, a game. The jet flew off; it was a reconnaissance mission, this Rama German jet. The older people said: “now just wait for the bomber jets to arrive”. The same day, the school, which had just been let out, summoned us back. There was such an air of patriotism in the room, we were feeling like “let’s go, lets fight!” So a whole bunch of us headed for the military registration office. Of course we were turned away immediately: “You boys are interfering with our work.” On the 23rd they were already bombing us. Three times we were bombed with large-caliber incendiary bombs. We organized these outposts where we stood guard on the rooftops: some sand and tongs. You had to get the bomb into the sand so that it wouldn’t ignite. We started attending to this on the 23rd. The city was in panic mode, of course. Everyone in the city was panicking. The Germans dumped leaflets, warning that they would kill all Jews and communists, and called for the rest of the people to remain put. On the 28th they dropped a leaflet instructing that everyone should abandon the city because it would be destroyed. My mother and sister and I left the city. All of the city’s citizens left (cries). When we returned to [Smolensk] our house – (weeps). Forgive me, I remember this with such [emotion]. It wasn’t just the house, all of my toys, my little toy gun, my sister’s doll. In the snap of a second we ended up on the street. And when I hear about the [massive] fires in the US, I feel for them, because I know how hard that is. [It makes] my memories return to me. So, my father was immediately mobilized to join the Tallinn defense unit. 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 2/13 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Vladimir Metelitsa. Full, unedited interview, 2007 ID EST021.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4mh3w ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN —Tallinn? Sorry, I meant Smolensk. The city of Smolensk. He received a stipend. He was already 49 years old. I ended up on the street. A neighbor from a nearby house offered shelter to my mother and sister. So my father took me into his unit with him. He convinced the commander to give me a stipend as well. I began to complete tasks that were given to me, like guarding the linen plant. We would stand guard on the roof making sure the bombs didn’t [ignite]. On July 3rd I was told to gather my schoolmates, boys and girls, and we were instructed to dig trenches. I ran [to complete my assignment]. There were three cars [for us] and shovels. Guys from the unit were in charge. They didn’t have uniforms, well they had uniforms, but they were the old military uniforms. With these three commanders in charge we set out towards the town of Lelekvino, located 80 km from Smolensk. When we reached the town, German troops awaited us. We had barely debarked cars. One car was destroyed, burnt to the ground, right in front of me. The second car, we – myself and another girl who was my first love, Zhenya - had ran away to the right, into the woods (cries). She was killed. The Germans came up to us from a distance of maybe 50-60 meters and opened fire. Zhenya was killed. I was under the impression that they were drunk, playing the harmonica, playing their harmonicas and laughing. They were entertained by our fear as we darted back-and forth. Bullets were barely missing us, and we ran, there was nothing else to do. We ran into the woods to the sounds of their laughter and their shots. When I returned, we walked back home, we were covered in blood, our feet were raw with scrapes. Also, on the way back, we were almost killed [again], a guardsman halted us, “who’s there?” Miraculously, we remained alive, even though they opened fire at us. They grabbed us, cursed us, “Who sent you?!” That was life. When I got back to my father, only four of us returned. Zhenya, she was wounded and she died on the way back. We left on the 3rd and got back on the evening of the 4th. We walked all day and all night. Father was naturally worried. Then the evacuation of the city began. The trains did not have any passenger cars, just flatcars. People were loaded in. You could only take a few belongings, but we didn’t even have anything to take. I had some old boots, a shirt, and someone had given me a cap. Essentially – I didn’t have anything. My mother evacuated together with our neighbor, the Poluchayevskiye [family], who were also Jews, her name was Lena, no, Lyubochka. Father insisted that I leave the city and go with my mother and my sister. I resisted, I didn’t want to leave, “I’ll stay with you and the squad”, I told him. He was very firm, told me that I was to leave at once. He walked us to the train station. It was the 15th or 16th of July. We spent entire days on guard. The entire city was destroyed. 70% of the city was destroyed. Boys climbed through the ruins, [this way] I found a handgun and some other things. On the 16th or 15th, father put us onto [the flatcar]. The city is divided by the Dniepr River into Upper City and Lower City. The train station was by the Dniepr. He loaded us on and hurried back because he had heard that the bridge would be blown-up. And once he crossed the bridge – I was watching – shortly after he crossed, the bridge was destroyed. On the 16th the 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 3/13 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Vladimir Metelitsa. Full, unedited interview, 2007 ID EST021.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4mh3w ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN Upper City of Smolensk was surrendered. If it wasn’t for his insistence, we would have been captured by the Germans. He spent a month and a half hiding in the woods, trying to get out of occupied territory, because the Germans were ahead of him. He was deep in the German rear. Luckily, he was not captured by the Germans and came out somewhere near Kaluga. We first arrived somewhere near Vyaz’ma, where there had been terrible battles. The bombardments, bombardments were horrible. Germans had skirted Smolensk a bit, and they moved through the fields. The occupation of Smolensk went from one side to the other, several times, because it was quite staunchly defended. We were brought to Kaluga, where father had also been, but we did not meet him there. Then we were forced to dig trenches on the outskirts of Moscow, near Kaluga. Later we were put on another train and sent to the Tambov region. This was already fall 1941. Sometime around the 22nd- 23rd of September we arrived in Tambov region, Umyotsky District, the village of Maslovka. We were greeted with much warmth, we were fed and given shelter. I started to work in the kolkhoz???????????. My sister was three years older than me, wasn’t able to bear all of the hardships and died. Only my mother and I remained. I was a member of the Komsomol at the time.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • BATTLE-SCARRED and DIRTY: US ARMY TACTICAL LEADERSHIP in the MEDITERRANEAN THEATER, 1942-1943 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial
    BATTLE-SCARRED AND DIRTY: US ARMY TACTICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE MEDITERRANEAN THEATER, 1942-1943 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Steven Thomas Barry Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2011 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Allan R. Millett, Adviser Dr. John F. Guilmartin Dr. John L. Brooke Copyright by Steven T. Barry 2011 Abstract Throughout the North African and Sicilian campaigns of World War II, the battalion leadership exercised by United States regular army officers provided the essential component that contributed to battlefield success and combat effectiveness despite deficiencies in equipment, organization, mobilization, and inadequate operational leadership. Essentially, without the regular army battalion leaders, US units could not have functioned tactically early in the war. For both Operations TORCH and HUSKY, the US Army did not possess the leadership or staffs at the corps level to consistently coordinate combined arms maneuver with air and sea power. The battalion leadership brought discipline, maturity, experience, and the ability to translate common operational guidance into tactical reality. Many US officers shared the same ―Old Army‖ skill sets in their early career. Across the Army in the 1930s, these officers developed familiarity with the systems and doctrine that would prove crucial in the combined arms operations of the Second World War. The battalion tactical leadership overcame lackluster operational and strategic guidance and other significant handicaps to execute the first Mediterranean Theater of Operations campaigns. Three sets of factors shaped this pivotal group of men. First, all of these officers were shaped by pre-war experiences.
    [Show full text]
  • Nestor Makhno and Rural Anarchism in Ukraine, 1917–21 Nestor Makhno and Rural Anarchism in Ukraine, 1917–21
    Nestor Makhno and Rural Anarchism in Ukraine, 1917–21 Nestor Makhno and Rural Anarchism in Ukraine, 1917–21 Colin Darch First published 2020 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Colin Darch 2020 The right of Colin Darch to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7453 3888 0 Hardback ISBN 978 0 7453 3887 3 Paperback ISBN 978 1 7868 0526 3 PDF eBook ISBN 978 1 7868 0528 7 Kindle eBook ISBN 978 1 7868 0527 0 EPUB eBook Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England For my grandchildren Historia scribitur ad narrandum, non ad probandum – Quintilian Contents List of Maps viii List of Abbreviations ix Acknowledgements x 1. The Deep Roots of Rural Discontent: Guliaipole, 1905–17 1 2. The Turning Point: Organising Resistance to the German Invasion, 1918 20 3. Brigade Commander and Partisan: Makhno’s Campaigns against Denikin, January–May 1919 39 4. Betrayal in the Heat of Battle? The Red–Black Alliance Falls Apart, May–September 1919 54 5. The Long March West and the Battle at Peregonovka 73 6. Red versus White, Red versus Green: The Bolsheviks Assert Control 91 7. The Last Act: Alliance at Starobel’sk, Wrangel’s Defeat, and Betrayal at Perekop 108 8. The Bitter Politics of the Long Exile: Romania, Poland, Germany, and France, 1921–34 128 9.
    [Show full text]
  • Destruction of Army Group Center by ER Bick
    Layout: Chris Cummins Battleplan, Report 003 Photos: ER Bickford October 2009 World at War #9 – Destruction of Army Group Center By ER Bickord Historical Scenario surrounded in entrenchments This campaign is set in the northern half of the along the Berezina River. Using eastern front, beginning in late June 1944. There are air support, the Soviet 65th Army nine weekly turns, culminating at the end of August and a cav-mech group manage 1944. The scale is 16 miles per hex and the units are to reduce the panzers. Just to corps-sized. Victory and defeat balances on Soviet VP, the north of Mogilev, Soviet which are collected by capturing towns and cities. In 31st and 33rd Armies attack 39th order to win the Soviets need 31 VP. Two of the large Panzer Corps, which is forced VP awards are for Koenigsberg and any coastal hex to retreat. Then 11th Guards and west of Riga. They each yield 10 VP. another cav-mech group push the th The German player has decided to pull back as weakened 27 Corps into Orsha. th th much as possible, because the front line is too vast to The 5 Army and 5 Guards Tank rd defend. That won’t be easy, though, as the Soviets will attack 53 Corps with Soviet air support. That forces th attack relentlessly and try to maintain contact with the the Germans to retreat. The 9 Infantry Corps is pushed th retreating Germans. to the north of Borisev. The 6 Shock Army attacks the Turn One, 23-30 June 1944 fortified town of Polotsk, which falls easily for another VP.
    [Show full text]
  • The Russian Army and the Conduct of Operations in 1914
    British Journal for Military History, Volume 2, Issue 2, February 2016 The Russian Army and the Conduct of Operations in 1914 STEPHEN WALSH Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT The scale of the fighting on the Eastern Front in 1914 is reasonably familiar but the Russian campaign of 1914, apart from Tannenberg, is poorly understood. The Russian Army’s military strategy, the choices it made, what it was trying to achieve, why and how, are not well known. This article will analyse Russian strategy and operations in a thematic rather than narrative manner, placing the Russian conduct of operations in the context of Russian military thinking at the time. It will argue that the relative importance of the East Prussian and Galician Operations has been misunderstood, especially the Russian operations in northern Galicia. In late August 1914, the Russian Army faced strategic catastrophe on the entire Eastern Front, not because of events in East Prussia, but in northern Galicia where the chronic lack of correlation between ends and means in Russian military strategy became acute. The Russian high command’s desire to launch a third operation into eastern Germany, in August 1914, distorted Russian strategy to the point where the Russian Army flirted with catastrophe in northern Galicia, a brush with disaster that rescued Russian strategy from its own illusions, enabling them to defeat the Austrians and force the German Army into a sustained two- front war. ‘The history of the campaign of 1914 is nothing else but the story of the consequences of the strategical errors of the War Plan’1 On 31 July 1914, Tsar Nicholas II authorised the mobilisation of the Russian Army, a defining moment2 in the sequence of events that began the First World War, a war 1 N.N.
    [Show full text]
  • XII Corps History & Personnel
    2020 www.BritishMilitaryHistory.co.uk Author: Robert PALMER, M.A. A CONCISE HISTORY OF: XII CORPS (HISTORY & PERSONNEL) A concise history of XII Corps, a higher level formation of the British Army in existence from 1940 until 1945. It saw operational service in North West Europe in 1944 and 1945. In addition, known details of the key appointments held during that period are included. Copyright ©www.BritishMilitaryHistory.co.uk (2020) 15 June 2020 [XII CORPS HISTORY & PERSONNEL] A Concise History of XII Corps (History & Personnel) Version: 1_1 This edition dated: 15 June 2020 ISBN: Not yet allocated. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means including; electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, scanning without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Author: Robert PALMER, M.A. (copyright held by author) Assisted by: Stephen HEAL Published privately by: The Author – Publishing as: www.BritishMilitaryHistory.co.uk © www.BritishMilitaryH istory.co.uk Page 1 15 June 2020 [XII CORPS HISTORY & PERSONNEL] XII Corps The XII Corps was formed in the United Kingdom circa June 1940. The first commanding officer of the Corps was Lieutenant General Andrew THORNE. XII Corps was stationed in the south east of England in the counties of Kent and Sussex, and had its headquarters located at 10, Broadwater Down in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. The first formations it had under command were: • 45th Infantry Division, • 1st London Infantry Division. The 1st London Division was renamed as the 56th (1st London) Infantry Division on 18 November 1940.
    [Show full text]
  • Military Unit Index
    MILITARY UNIT INDEX Australian Army 38th Infantry Brigade, 70 1st Leinster, 184–5 Divisions 2/19th London, 169–70 52nd Lowland Division, 172 Australian Cavalry Division, 156–7, 160 2/10th Middlesex, 169 6th Prince of Wales Cavalry, 196 Other military units Royal Engineers, 50, 89 Australian Light Horse, 193 Royal Field Artillery, 203 Royal Horse Artillery, A Battery, 36 Royal Horse Artillery, N Battery, 36, 51 British Army Royal Horse Artillery, Q Battery, 36 Royal Horse Artillery, U Battery, 36 Armies Royal Horse Artillery, V Battery, 36 3rd Army, 172 Royal Horse Artillery, Y Battery, 36 5th Army, 172 2nd Royal Irish Fusiliers, 178, 182, 186 8th Army, 231–44 1st Royal Irish Regiment, 180 10th Army, 233–4 Royal Scots Regiment, 290 14th Army, 254, 274, 276, 295, 301, Royal West Kent Regiment, 290 328–9, 452 72nd Sappers and Miners, 183 53rd Welsh Division, 169 Divisions 1/4th Wiltshires, 169 74th Yeomanry Division, 169 7th Armoured Division, 318 2nd British Division, 277 13th British Division, 69, 98, 125, 135, Canadian Army 139 9th Division (13th Corps), 46, 56 Other military units 10th Irish Division, 169, 178 Canadian Cavalry Brigade, 36, 38, 41, 50 21st Division, 46 Fort Garry Horse, 36, 42, 49, 50, 58 Royal Canadian Dragoons, 36 Other military units Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, 36 Bedfordshire Regiment, 382 2nd Black Watch, 95 German Army 5th Connaught Rangers, 179 2/4th Dorset, 169 Armies 1st (Kings) Dragoon Guards, 36 6th Dragoons (Inniskilling), 36 Panzerarmee Afrika, 242, 243 7th Dragoon Guards, 36, 49, 50, 52–7, 59, 201 Divisions
    [Show full text]
  • Mass, Mobility, and the Red Army's Road to Operational Art 1918-1936
    WARNING! The views expressed in FMSO publications and reports are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. Mass, Mobility, And The Red Army's Road To Operational Art 1918-1936 by Dr. Jacob W. Kipp Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, KS. 1988 The first requirement for this paper is to deal with the problem of exactly what we mean by the three terms employed in the title. Mass in the Russian context has a double meaning. To some it unquestionably calls to mind the image of the Russian steamroller, which provided nightmares of Schlieffen and his planners in the decades before World War I. A simple process of extrapolation based upon the size of Russia's standing army, the -number of conscripts being inducted in any year under the universal military service statute, and the Empire's total population provided a rough estimate of the total number of rifles and bayonets which the tsar could put into the field. The tsarist government's adoption of the Grand Program for rearmament in 1912 thus threatened to change the military balance on the continent.1 Those forces would mobilize slowly, but, like a steamroller, their momentum would carry all before them. Given the predominance of a short-war paradigm among European general staffs, this threat was real but not immediately compelling. The Germans assumed it could be answered by a rapid victory over France before such numbers could make their weight felt.
    [Show full text]
  • 29-An Army in an Army
    1 1945 July 16-22 An Army in the Army (La Crosse Tribune, 1945 July 22, page 12) 2 In June and July 1945, there were many newspaper articles about La Crosse County men and women being brought back to the United States for reassignment or being discharged to civilian life. There are undoubtedly more to come the rest of the year. The article above, concerning Private First Class Louis Gueltzow of La Crosse, is typical. Gueltzow was a member of the 345th Infantry Regiment of the 87th Infantry Division. At various times, the 345th Infantry Regiment, as part of the 87th Infantry Division, was part of the 7th, 9th, 1st, and 3rd Armies in the European Theater. The concept of Armies in the Army may be confusing, so what does all of this mean? The key to understanding the nomenclature, and also appreciating the scope of World War II, is decoding the hierarchical structure of the United States armed forces, in this case the United States Army. Since United States Army infantry divisions were the most numerous units in World War II, this analysis will use them as an example. Squad = 8-12 men: commanded by a Corporal or a Sergeant Platoon = 3-4 squads: commanded by a 2nd Lieutenant (48-50 men) Company = 3-4 platoons: commanded by a 1st Lieutenant or Captain (150-200 men) Battalion = 3-4 companies: commanded by a Major (800 men) Regiment = 3 battalions: commanded by a Lt. Colonel (2,400 men) Division = 3 regiments: commanded by a Lt. [3-star] or Major [2-star] General (10,000 - 15,000 men) Corps = 2 or more divisions: commanded by a Lt.
    [Show full text]
  • 8 Army History & Personnel
    2020 www.BritishMilitaryHistory.co.uk Author: Robert PALMER, M.A. A CONCISE HISTORY OF: 8 ARMY (HISTORY & PERSONNEL) A concise history of the 8th Army, a higher level formation in the British Army in existence from 1941 until 1945. In addition, known details of the senior appointments held in that period are included. Copyright ©www.BritishMilitaryHistory.co.uk (2020) 2 May 2020 [8 ARMY HISTORY & PERSONNEL] A Concise History of 8th Army (History & Personnel) Version: 1_1 This edition dated: 2 May 2020 ISBN: Not yet allocated. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means including; electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, scanning without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Author: Robert PALMER, M.A. (copyright held by author) Assisted by: Stephen HEAL Published privately by: The Author – Publishing as: www.BritishMilitaryHistory.co.uk ©www.BritishMilitaryHistory.co.uk Page 1 2 May 2020 [8 ARMY HISTORY & PERSONNEL] 8th Army With the build-up of British Forces in Egypt and Libya to counter the arrival of German Forces in North Africa, the C in C Middle East (General AUCHINLECK) decided to create the establishment of an Army with two Corps under command for the campaign. On 9 September 1941, the 8th Army came into being, with elements of its new headquarters coming from the H.Q. Western Desert Force. It had under command: • XIII Corps (the former Western Desert Force); • XXX Corps (newly formed). 8th Army was the formation that fought throughout the rest of the campaign in Libya and Egypt.
    [Show full text]
  • The Soviet Plans for the North Western Theatre of Operations in 1939-1944
    FINNISH DEFENCE STUDIES THE SOVIET PLANS FOR THE NORTH WESTERN THEATRE OF OPERATIONS IN 1939-1944 Ohto Manninen National Defence College Helsinki 2004 Finnish Defence Studies is published under the auspices of the National Defence College, and the contributions reflect the fields of research and teaching of the College. Finnish Defence Studies will occasionally feature documentation on Finnish Security Policy. Views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily imply endorsement by the National Defence College. Editor: Pekka Sivonen Editorial Assistant: Harri Valtonen Editorial Board: Chairman Prof. Mikko Viitasalo, National Defence College Prof. Ohto Manninen, National Defence College Col. Erkki Nordberg, Defence Staff Dr. Kalevi Ruhala Dr. Col. (ret.) PekkaVisuri, Finnish Institute of International Affairs Dr. Matti Vuorio, Scientific Committee for National Defence Published by NATIONAL DEFENCE COLLEGE P.O. Box 7 SF-00861 Helsinki FINLAND FINNISH DEFENCE STUDIES 16 The Soviet Plans for the North Western Theatre of Operations in 1939-1944 Ohto Manninen National Defence College Helsinki 2004 ISBN 951-25-1476-1 ISSN 0788 5571 Edita Prima Oy Helsinki 2004 FOREWORD In this study my intention has been to analyse the operation plans made by the Red Army for the Finnish theatre of war in the eve of and during the Second World War. During my visits in Russia to research in the former Soviet archives it was not possible to see the origi- nal plans for operations. It was pointed out to me that the "ground level vegetation" is still the same in the border areas of Russia and Finland. This, of course, was a friendly way of saying to me that the legislation still forbids of giving those materials for researchers.
    [Show full text]
  • The Battle of Stalingrad
    The Battle of Stalingrad: The Turning Point on the Eastern Front in WWII F. Courtney Lockwood Senior Thesis 1 Contents List of Maps 3 Introduction: Setting The Stage 5 The Battle Part 1: September-November 1942 13 The Battle Part 2: November 1942-late January 1943 21 Surrender and the March into Captivity 42 National Myth: Propaganda, Vergeltung, Total War 50 The Shockwave of Stalingrad: Psychological Shift, German Morale, Shortcomings of German High Command 60 Conclusion: Russian Agency and the Legacy of Stalingrad 74 2 List of Maps German Invasion of Soviet Union 1941-1942 4 Operation Blau 9 German Advance on Stalingrad, Autumn 1942 14 Operation Uranus 21 Manstein’s Breakout Attempt/Operation Winter Storm 31 Operation Ring 38 3 ‘German Invasion of Soviet Union 1941-1942’ Source: after map in Showalter, D. (2009) Hitler’s Panzers, p. 2 4 Introduction: Setting the Stage The rise and fall of the Third Reich continues to fascinate and confuse historians today. In particular the war against Russia not only was a monumental undertaking for the Nazi State in terms of economic and military resources, but also the invasion included an inherent all or nothing attitude for the future of National Socialism. Russia tempted Germany with land, natural resources, and possibly an end to Bolshevism and Judaism. Southern Russia looked particularly ripe for Hitler as he focused on gaining control of the lucrative grain and oilfields in the Caucuses. A total victory in Russia also spelled out the demise of the Jews and Communists, as Hitler believed Judaism and Bolshevism were intertwined and the extermination of both would allow the Aryan race and ethnic Germans to assert their supremacy.
    [Show full text]
  • Soviet Forces, Leningrad Front, 1 January 1942
    Soviet Forces Leningrad Region 1 January 1942 LENINGRAD FRONT 8th Army: Major General A.LO.Bondarev 10th Rifle Division: Colonel I.V.Romantsov 62d Rifle Regiment 98th Rifle Regiment 204th Rifle Regiment 30th Light Artillery Regiment 140th Howitzer Regiment 94th Sapper Battalion 168th Antiaircraft Battalion 86th Rifle Division: Colonel A.M.Andreev 169th Rifle Regiment 284th Rifle Regiment 330th Rifle Regiment 248th Light Artillery Regiment 383rd Howitzer Regiment 128th Antitank Battalion 109th Reconnaissance Battalion 120th Sapper Battalion 342nd Antiaircraft Battalion 95th Signal Battalion 14th Medical Battalion 20th Truck Battalion 31st Chemical Defense Company 1st Rifle Division NKVD 3rd NKVD Rifle Regiment 7th NKVD Rifle Regiment 33rd NKVD Rifle Regiment 102nd NKVD Rifle Regiment Tank Company (T-26 tanks) Tank Company (KV tanks) Artillery Battalion of 155mm howitzers 11th Rifle Brigade 4th Naval Infantry Brigade 101st Howitzer Artillery Regiment 6th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment 7th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment 20th Separate Mortar Battaion 486th Separate Anti-aircraft Battalion 28th Separate Armored Train Separate Armored Car Battalion 439th Fighter Aviation Regiment 2nd Separate Sapper Battaion 112th Separate Sapper Battaion 23rd Army: Lieutenant General A.I.Cherepanov 12nd Rifle Division: Colonel Ia. A. Panichkin 57th Rifle Regiment 192nd Rifle Regiment 214th Rifle Regiment 7th Light Artillery Regiment 1 238th Howitzer Regiment 142nd Rifle Division: Colonel V.K.Paramzin 461st Rifle Regiment 588th Rifle Regiment 701st Rifle Regiment
    [Show full text]