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N0KFQ > TODAY 29.06.13 17:20l 88 Lines 4261 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 29
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Jun 29, 1941:
Germans advance in USSR
One week after launching a massive invasion of the USSR, German
divisions make staggering advances on Leningrad, Moscow, and
Kiev.
Despite his signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin knew that war with Nazi Germany--the USSR's
natural ideological enemy--was inevitable. In 1941, he received
reports that German forces were massing along the USSR's eastern
border. He ordered a partial mobilization, unwisely believing
that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler would never open another front
until Britain was subdued. Stalin was thus surprised by the
invasion that came on June 22, 1941. On that day, 150 German
divisions poured across the Soviet Union's 1,800-mile-long
eastern frontier in one of the largest and most powerful military
operations in history.
Aided by its far superior air force, the Luftwaffe, the Germans
raced across the USSR in three great army groups, inflicting
terrible casualties on the Red Army and Soviet civilians. On June
29, the cities of Riga and Ventspils in Latvia fell, 200 Soviet
aircraft were shot down, and the encirclement of three Russian
armies was nearly complete at Minsk in Belarus. Assisted by their
Romanian and Finnish allies, the Germans conquered vast territory
in the opening months of the invasion, and by mid-October the
great Russian cities of Leningrad and Moscow were under siege.
However, like Napoleon Bonaparte in 1812, Hitler failed to take
into account the Russian people's historic determination in
resisting invaders. Although millions of Soviet soldiers and
citizens perished in 1941, and to the rest of the world it seemed
certain that the USSR would fall, the defiant Red Army and bitter
Russian populace were steadily crushing Hitler's hopes for a
quick victory. Stalin had far greater reserves of Red Army
divisions than German intelligence had anticipated, and the
Soviet government did not collapse from lack of popular support
as expected. Confronted with the harsh reality of Nazi
occupation, Soviets chose Stalin's regime as the lesser of two
evils and willingly sacrificed themselves in what became known as
the "Great Patriotic War."
The German offensive against Moscow stalled only 20 miles from
the Kremlin, Leningrad's spirit of resistance remained strong,
and the Soviet armament industry--transported by train to the
safety of the east--carried on, safe from the fighting. Finally,
what the Russians call "General Winter" rallied again to their
cause, crippling the Germans' ability to maneuver and thinning
the ranks of the divisions ordered to hold their positions until
the next summer offensive. The winter of 1941 came early and was
the worst in decades, and German troops without winter coats were
decimated by the major Soviet counteroffensives that began in
December.
In May 1942, the Germans, who had held their line at great cost,
launched their summer offensive. They captured the Caucasus and
pushed to the city of Stalingrad, where one of the greatest
battles of World War II began. In November 1942, a massive Soviet
counteroffensive was launched out of the rubble of Stalingrad,
and at the end of January 1943 German Field Marshal Friedrich
Paulus surrendered his encircled army. It was the turning point
in the war, and the Soviets subsequently recaptured all the
territory taken by the Germans in their 1942 offensive.
In July 1943, the Germans launched their last major attack, at
Kursk; after two months of fierce battle involving thousands of
tanks it ended in failure. From thereon, the Red Army steadily
pushed the Germans back in a series of Soviet offensives. In
January 1944, Leningrad was relieved, and a giant offensive to
sweep the USSR clean of its invaders began in May. In January
1945, the Red Army launched its final offensive, driving into
Czechoslovakia and Austria and, in late April, Berlin. The German
capital was captured on May 2, and five days later Germany
surrendered in World War II.
More than 18 million Soviet soldiers and civilians lost their
lives in the Great Patriotic War. Germany lost more than three
million men as a result of its disastrous invasion of the USSR.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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