History 11/03/20 the Main mistakes of the high command of the red Army in the Great Patriotic
the Soviet Union’s Victory in the great Patriotic war has always been Western States is ambiguous. In many ways, this attitude can be called biased. But today we will tell about the reaction of the foreign media, analysts and commanders on the really important mistakes and failures of the Soviet command.
Treacherous attack
a New York Times Correspondent in the USSR in the period from 1938 to 1953, Adam Matthews, in one of his articles on the outbreak of war writes:
“the German troops suddenly attacked, violating non-aggression Pact. On the basis of the erroneous assessment of the intentions of the Nazi leadership, Stalin forbade Soviet military command to carry out the necessary mobilization measures, to carry out a regrouping of troops in the border districts and to bring them to combat readiness.
Lavrenti Beria was rejected by all the information coming from intelligence agencies. In his memo to Stalin 21.06.1941 he insists on the recall and punishment of the Ambassador in Berlin, Dekanozov, who assured the Soviet leadership that Hitler planned to attack USSR on 22.06.1941. Beria was critical of reports from the military attache in Germany, Tupikova, who claimed that groups of the Wehrmacht will advance on Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev.”
Authoritative opinion
the Famous British General Bernard Montgomery in his memoirs wrote:
“the Main reasons for the defeat of Soviet troops early in the war was that the war found the Soviet armed forces under their reorganization and re-equipment with more sophisticated weapons; that Krasnoarmeyskaya border troops had not been timely brought to the wartime, was not given in full combat readiness and deployed by all the rules of the operational art for active defense…
These faults is still increasing the advantages of the enemy that had superior forces of the Soviets in quantity and quality, as well as the strategic initiative was the enemy – all these factors have played a crucial role in the beginning of the war”.
About the Supreme Commander
the Famous French journalist and columnist for Le Figaro Andrea Maurois draws attention to the figure of Joseph Stalin and the duality of his position:
“differently to the causes of the defeat of the red Army at the beginning of the war came Stalin. To divert blame from himself, he and his entourage have organized a court. On the basis of falsified sentences were convicted and executed a large group of generals. Among them – the commander of the Western front, Pavlov, chief of staff of the same front Klimovsky, the commander of 4th army Korobkov and other military leaders.
In conditions of strict control for various kind of “conversations” those generals who tried to understand the causes of the defeats came under suspicion and was subjected to repression. So, for confidential conversations with colleagues about possible errors of the command of the strategic issues a major military researcher, General Melikov was accused of “defeatism” and imprisoned, where he died.
Along with the reprisals for the analysis of the reasons for the defeat of heavily extended version of the surprise attack of the enemy and other half-truths.”
the General and the particular
the Military expert from Ireland Landon Hudson devotes unsuccessful entry of the USSR into world war II following thoughts:
“in Any field of human activity should not be so acute the question of the quality of leadership in the armed struggle. This is because in this struggle for all have to pay the price in blood – both successes and failures, and for failures, shortcomings and mistakes much higher price than even for the large achieve on a strategic scale. That’s why to lead troops in a combat situation by “trial and error” is absolutely unacceptable. As shown by military history, to avoid mistakes is possible only with a high professionalism of the command personnel, a deep knowledge of their combat experience and methods of actions of the opponent. Such personnel and not enough of the USSR in the initial period of war.”
Bureaucracy
the Canadian historian Sam Shelton-Davis is surprised by the creation of the USSR many, seemingly useless, item devices:
“In the literature often States that in the beginning of the great Patriotic war when the establishment of the emergency bodies of the State Defense Committee (GKO) and the Supreme command (WMC) – considers the experience of the civil war period. There is, however, reason to believe that the emergency authorities in these wars are very different, as well as methods of their activities.”
the Experience of the civil war
the German military analyst of the postwar period, Otto Wisthoff again focuses on Stalin and his decisions:
“Stalin actually rejected the experience of the civil war in the area of organization strategic management of the armed forces. Although the Rate and number in different periods of from six to eight members, in fact there were two or three people. According to Marshal Vasilevsky, Stalin gave little importance to the affiliation of those or other commanders to Rate.
As you know, during the Second world war, Stalin occupied a number of important party and government posts. He was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), the Chairman of the Council of people’s Commissars, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and the people’s Commissar of defense of the USSR. In addition he was given and other senior functions: head of the Transport Committee, almost daily to deal with the commissariats responsible for the production of arms and ammunition, to deal with Commissars and design issues of improvement of military equipment, etc. Naturally, this overload of the Supreme Commander could not have a negative impact on the quality of his actual military activities interfered eatyou have to understand the essence of problems.”
Russian Seven
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