- 15 Feb 2008 05:52
#1453549
It certainly cannot be ignored that the Red Army was responsible for keeping most of the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS occupied during WWII. The Eastern Front of World War II was the bloodiest single conflict in human history, resulting in over half of the deaths of World War II, and about three times the deaths of World War I.
Ultimately what saved Russia were the twins of General Mud and General Winter. During the Autumn, Germany's narrow tracked Panzers bogged down in the mud of the Autumn rains. And the freezing winters were simply something that the entire German army, from its equipment to its soldiers, was never prepared for.
After the 1941 offensive ground to a hault, Stalin made the critical decision of allowing his generals to have a proper role in planning the war. This is when Hitler's blunder turned ultimately fatal.
The Russian counteroffensives gained back vital ground, and set the stage for Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht's most critical defeat. After in 1943, there was no stopping the Red Army.
Quite accidently, the Russians managed to outpace the Germans in mechanized military tactics. Germany, in reality had two militaries: a high tech mechanized Panzer military completely self-contained, and then massive number of normal infantry divisions still tied to rail and horse.
The Russian Tank Corps and Motor Rifle Divisions that dominated the Red Army's organizational charts ensured that the tank forces remained supported by infantry and artillery, all much more mobile then their German counterparts.
"The very notion that man dominates nature stems from the very real domination of human by human" - Murray Bookchin