Even heroes of the Soviet Union can be dumb sometimes
by DazSamueru
Even heroes of the Soviet Union can be dumb sometimes
by DazSamueru
4 Comments
As the saying goes, “we are humans after all.”
From Kavalercik’s *The Tanks of Operation Barbarossa*
>[The former head of the GRU’s Information Department] describes Zhukov’s reaction to a report, prepared on the basis of an analysis of the ‘Official account of the French General Staff on the French-German War 1939–1940’, that was given by the Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, Gamelin, to the Soviet military attache in Paris. Handing over this document, the French general had said, **‘Take it, study it and look to see that such a fate doesn’t befall you.’** An entire group of officers of the Information Department worked over the analysis of the experience of this war, and soon the report ‘O franko-nemetskoi voine 1939–1940’ (On the French-German War of 1939–1940) was completed and presented to Zhukov. In it, in addition to an analysis of the reasons for the rapid defeat of the French Army and the British Expeditionary Force, the report contained proposals to improve the organizational structure of the Soviet armed forces. However, this wasn’t to be: ‘The answer received was such that it is embarrassing to write about it. A decision had been written out clumsily and ignorantly on our report above the signature of Zhukov: “**I don’t need this.** Let me know how many refills of fuel were expended per one wheeled vehicle.” Having read this statement, the officers of the Information Department shrugged their shoulders and quietly looked at each other and at me.’ Meanwhile, in addition to everything else, the report contained an analysis of the use of the German panzer corps and the panzer groups (in fact, panzer armies) that had just been created by the Germans for the first time, the attacks of which just a half year later threw all of the Soviet plans into disarray.
In May 1941, when intel told Stavka that Germqns will invade on 15th of May, Zhukov approached Stalin with proposition that further hundreds of thousands of reserves be called upon right now and put all on western border. Stalin declined. He made a right call for wrong reasons.
Massing armies on western border made swift encirclement possible in USSR ssme as in France s year earlier. They failed to understand what happend and paid the price. Zhukov was also one responsible for disaster at Rovne-Brody and Operation Mars.
Detailed explanation of how Vietnam beat us. – France
U.S.: This is worthless!
The loser most of the time is more experienced than the newcomer or even the winner.