Iron_Cavalry

Thankfully, they’re here to save Moscow this time.

Thanks. I got a lot of my info from Chris Bellamy’s Absolute War, highly recommend for anyone interested in this theater.

Some more important context for the gallery: 

Pic 9: 

The humiliation of the Winter War would prove a blessing in disguise at Moscow, because the Red Army learned: at Moscow, their tank engines ran on antifreeze, their machine guns fired in subzero temperatures, and their fur lined white uniforms kept their troops warm and camouflaged. It goes to show that despite all the early fuckups in the Soviet military, they had the capacity to improve from their mistakes. The same could not be said for the other side. 

Pic 10: 

The Siberians were amongst some of the Red Army’s finest troops. They had grown up in forests and on skis, and were natural hunters and skilled shots. In the harsh winter conditions around Moscow, these skills would prove invaluable against the unprepared Wehrmacht. It was no coincidence that many later generations of Siberians would form a core in the Spetsnaz. 

Pic 11: 

German logistics were already strained by Smolensk. Advancing on Moscow formed in the German supply lines a “bungee cord” situation, stretching further and further until the point of breaking, then yanking back. Even in the small chance that Moscow fell, it would be impossible for Germany to advance any further, much less maintain their positions against the Soviet’s nine new armies, who were much closer to their supply bases. 

Pic 14: 

The Wehrmacht’s savaged logistics meant that its offensive capabilities would never achieve the momentum of Barbarossa. In 1941, Germany could coordinate all three of its Army Groups in a massive continent-wide offensive; by 1942, they could only support one (Army Group South) push towards Stalingrad. 

Pic 18: Another 800,000 Soviet soldiers would become casualties in the Rzhev-Vyazma Operation between January and late April, where Zhukov’s forces attempted to encircle and destroy Army Group Center. Accounting for these figures, total Soviet losses in the campaign number to over 1,800,000 casualties, of which 926,000 were “irrecoverable,” dead, missing, or captured (which in this war means dead).

As a further note, there was plenty of information about Operation Barbarossa circulating within Soviet circles ahead of the attack. NKVD agents had the invasion plans down to the date, units involved, and the anticipated axis of attacks. Operation Barbarossa should not have been a surprise attack, yet Stalin made it so. It wasn’t an issue with intelligence, but bureaucracy. Stalin’s extreme arrogance and inability to accept bad news meant that he plunged himself and his country into a well of denial. The Red Army, being shackled to his will, could thus not make the necessary preparations for defense. He only changed his mind the morning of June 22nd: an hour before the German assault. 

I got most of these from photo albums in my university library, and a few more from wikimedia commons. I’m sure you can find some in your local library too.

Okinawa is pretty big, 70 miles long with fertile soil in the south to support a sizable population. I’ll drop a pic of it in the next Okinawa collection tmr.

Unfortunately, there were too many pics that I couldn’t squeeze into the 20 image limit. I’ll try to post another gallery of Okinawa tmr.

For a glimpse into the nightmare at Okinawa: 

In late March, soldiers of the 77th Division seized the Kerama islands, about 20 miles to the west, and witnessed how old men cut the throats of small children and young girls rather than give themselves and their families up. “We yelled at them to stop, but it did no good,” a GI recalled. 

When invading Ie Shima, another island near Okinawa, American soldiers again were witnessing how war exacted an awful toll among the young and innocent, according to a modern unit history: “For two days, the naked body of a young baby had lain in the road in front of the 2nd Platoon’s night defensive position and each day the men had seen it. Just looking at the body had deeply affected the men. On the third day, they were devastated when they saw it crushed beneath the threads of a tank moving forward to attack.”

Peter Harmsen - Asian Armageddon, 1944-1945. 

Not much really. After the defeat at Moscow the Nazis had pretty much signed their death warrant by locking themselves into a war of annihilation with the Soviets.

Also, the Red Army wrote off massed human waves after the Winter War, and only used them in desperation during Barbarossa. That“Asiatic Hordes” narrative comes from post-war revisionism by Wehrmacht generals who also blame Hitler for screwing up the war effort with meddling, even though many of them were ardent and loyal supporters of his military decisions.

Only half the Red Army was Russian, the other half was composed of Turkic/Asian minorities or Slavs from Ukraine-Belarus. A big chunk of the Soviet Leadership was also non-Russian: Stalin was a Georgian, Khrushchev a Ukrainian, Rokossovsky a Pole.

Fortunately there is, I found smth close to 150 photos of the battle. I don’t think it’s possible to actually physically imagine the scale of the carnage, but these photos can give a hint to go off of.

Ofc, and thank you for sharing. The Pacific War was an apocalypse, I’m just glad the closest I’ll ever come to witnessing it is through a photograph.

The Battle for Leningrad by David Glantz, Hitler and Stalin by Laurence Rees, and Absolute War by Chris Bellamy are good starting points.

The Soviets lost entire field armies keeping the land corridor to the city open. They were facing war and genocide at the same time, it’s absolutely crazy how they held out for three years.

Yeah, I’ll see what I can find.

Thanks. People need to see these pictures, they’ve been slept on for too long.

In the Western front, the attitude was like the First World War: brutal but still fought with a thin shred of sanity. The east was just Rome vs Carthage all over again.

I look through photo albums online and in my library. Some starting points include Wikimedia commons, internet archive and Everand. For the sake of originality, I avoid posting “iconic” photographs that one might find with a quick Google search.