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These are the cold facts. Over 25 million killed in the largest land conflict in history. The largest armies the world has ever known faced each other across a thousand-mile front and fought to a standstill through 400 miles of territory. More tanks clashed there than in any other theater of war. The scale of this conflict was unprecedented and we hope will never be equaled again.
Despite the titanic size of this war, which dwarfs the battles that were fought in the West, it is odd that just over 50 years later this conflict is virtually unknown in the United States. Monumental acts of heroism and inhuman depravity have virtually evaporated in the public consciousness. One of the Soviet Union's first war heroes and Marshal Zhukov's ablest field commanders, General Andrei Andreyevitch Vlasov, was captured by the Germans and immediately switched sides. He recruited an army of Russian prisoners and fought for the Germans for the rest of World War II. He was captured in Czechoslovakia by American General George Patton and returned to the Soviet Union, where he was tried and hanged.
In just two months, Stalin lost 2,500,000 men; 22,000 guns; 18,000 tanks; and 14,000 planes. In 1941 and 1942 the Russians lost over 3,500,000 men as prisoners to the Germans. For us it is as if some vast chapter of history were somehow overlooked. But the numbers don't really communicate the incredible scale of human misery and suffering that is the true legacy of what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War. This is best told in the words of the people who lived through this special branch of hell. Here are a few:
| "Then the weather suddenly broke and almost overnight the full fury of the Russian winter was upon us. The thermometer suddenly dropped to thirty degrees of frost. This was accompanied by heavy falls of snow." |
| - General Gunther Blumentritt |
| "If only the battle for Moscow had started fourteen days earlier, the city would have been in our hands. Or even if the rains had held off for fourteen days. If -- if -- if. If Hitler had started 'Barbarossa' six weeks earlier as originally planned, if he had left Mussolini on his own in the Balkans and had attacked Russia in May, if we had continued our sweeping advance instead of stopping at the Schutsche Lake, if Hitler had sent us winter clothing. Yes, if, if, if -- but now it was too late." |
| - Heinrich Haape German Medical Officer |
| "I felt helplessness, hatred. I wanted to charge into that cliff. One weapon was left to us: ramming them, to finish off three more bombers . . . The decision was taken, and when we turned, the enemy met us with a rapid fire, head-on attack. I aimed right for the lead plane, the flagship plane, intending to hit him from the top with the propeller. I waited for the strike, for the blow. There was none. I didn't understand. I heard nothing. |
| "I opened my eyes. Sky. Why sky? . . . Turning around, everything became clear. Those huge, enormous, colossal planes, those multi-ton bombers had been unable to resist our offensive, our head-on attack. . . . Afterwards, the three of us landed. My wingman was Demian Chernyshev, from Belgorod. . . . He was a young boy, 23 years old, with very, very dark, black hair. But after that mission, his temples had turned white." |
| - Arsenii V. Vorozheiken Russian Fighter Pilot |
| "The human tide continued to roll toward us, making our scalps crawl. Only the weight of our helmets kept our filthy hair from standing straight up on our heads, although the idea of death itself no longer terrified us. My eyes remained fixed on the smoking metal of the F.M. in the steady hands of the veteran. The trembling belt of cartridges moved forward into the machine, shaken as if by a titanic frenzy." |
| - Guy Sajer German Soldier |
| "Around three o'clock that afternoon, the first day of the war, I was able to make one reconnaissance flight, from Brest to the region of Lvov along our border. I could see the entire area on our side was -- if one could put it that way -- on fire. Everything, the towns, the villages, the settlements, everything was burning." |
| - Lt. Fedor Archipenko 17th Fighter Aviation Regiment |
| "The truth is the knowledge that this is the grimmest of struggles in a hopeless situation. Misery, hunger, cold, renunciation, doubt, despair, and horrible death. . . . I cannot deny my share of personal guilt in all this. But it is in a ratio of 1 to 70 millions. The ratio is small; still, it is there. I wouldn't think of evading my responsibility; I tell myself that, by giving my life, I have paid my debt. One cannot argue about questions of honor." |
| - Unknown German Officer |
Sajer, Guy. The Forgotten Soldier
. New York: Brasseys, Inc., 1967; p.199
Sulzberger, C.L. World War II
. Avenel, New Jersey: Wings Books, 1966; pp. 272-273, 299
Whelan, James R. Hunters in the Sky
. Washington, D.C.: Anthony Potter Productions, published by Regnery Gateway, 1991; pp. 44, 59-60
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