MOSCOW, 22 Aug — RIA Novosti. the Day of memory and grief is celebrated in Russia on June 22, exactly 79 years ago with the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union began the Great Patriotic war. Previously, on this occasion, the Russian defense Ministry has opened on its website a special portal, which laid out the declassified documents related to the first days of the war.
“Then, suddenly, our country was hit by the troubles, had resulted in the deaths of millions of our countrymen and the destruction of thousands of cities and villages. For those who survived that war, for children and grandchildren of soldiers of the red Army who fought for the world in which we live today, this day is the Day of memory and grief,” — said in the Department of information and mass communications of the military.
On its website, the defense Ministry has posted summaries of the General staff, cryptogram, and the memories of the participants of the first battles. In this section you can find out how many divisions the Germans have concentrated at the borders of the USSR to the beginning of the war, to find front-line reports, a cryptogram, and the memories of the participants of the first battles and records them in journals.
First good luck
Among the documents found and confirm that in the beginning of the war, despite the extremely difficult situation of the red Army, in some parts of the front were able to smash the enemy and throw it across the border. As, for example, in the district of Rava-Ruska Lviv region, where part of the sixth army in the June 23, they destroyed 50 German planes.
According to perswade of the General staff of the red Army, 12th army South West front defused up to 800 German soldiers. And only for 24 June, the aircraft front destroyed 177 planes and six tanks of the enemy.
“Put the enemy in the breakthrough from Skeldon on Kraziai (Lithuania) Panzer division was met by fire the 9th anti-tank brigade In combat Panzer division, suffering losses and leaving a part of the tanks on the battlefield, and withdrew in disorder for Skeldon. Captured two German officers” — gives the Department a quote from one of the declassified documents.
Even before the attack on the USSR, German troops provoked the soldiers of the red Army. As he recalls in his diary the chief of staff of the 3rd army, Belorussian special military district major General Kondratyev, every day over Grodno was a German aircraft. More 20 June the commander wondered “why not give orders to meet the “guests” of our active funds.”
Know how, but I’m afraid
the Attitude of Soviet soldiers to the troops of the enemy were twofold. On the one hand, many commanders of the red Army stated that the Germans know how to effectively use mortars and well organize the interaction of infantry with aircraft with honktion of missiles.
However, judging by the front-line memoirs, at night, the Nazis did not attack, “showed carelessness in the arrangement of tank units on a rest”, and the gunners fired “without considering its validity in order only to show the strength of his fire.”
“participants in the fighting noted that “the Germans are very afraid of bayonet attacks, and after the cheers start to run. The appearance of our fighters, even one of the German bombers leave”, — told in the Department.
did Not hide the Soviet commanders and weaknesses of their soldiers. So, tankers, according to them, was not enough for the label, and in near the rear was not garages. In addition, there have been proposals to provide maps of the entire command structure, to replace the bulky pack on the haversack and issue in the summer instead of overcoats marching tent.
Information warfare
the defense Ministry stressed that the Soviet Union from the first days of the great Patriotic war attracted news coverage of the war by famous writers, including Sergei Mikhalkov and Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Mikhail Matusovsky, Boris Gorbatov, Vadim Kozhevnikov, Yevgeny Dolmatovsky.
They needed to “competently and professionally from the pages of the front and army Newspapers to cover the events fighting everyday life”. Thus, noted in the Department, the Soviet Union attached “great importance of information warfare”.
