大象传媒

Message 2 - contribute

Posted on: 22 February 2004 by windtalker

this is not good story is very bad story is written by the child?

Message 3 - contribute

Posted on: 22 February 2004 by Sprey

You may think so but the basic facts are true and similar to many other theatres of WW2. I agree that it is not nice to read about but it did happen.

Message 4 - RUSSIA The great losses!

Posted on: 25 February 2004 by Peter - WW2 Site Helper

There was no specific Battle of Leningrad, or rather, that occurred later. What this thread refers to is the Siege of Leningrad (now St Petersburg). The city was surrounded by German troops with orders to raise it to the ground. The siege lasted for about 900 days, from 8 September, 1941 until 27 January, 1944. In January 1942, in the depths of an unusually bitterly cold winter with no available fuel, the food ration had to be reduced to 125 grams (about 4.4 ounces) of bread per day. In just two months, January and February, 1942, 200,000 died in Leningrad of cold and starvation. But some of the war industry still worked and the city did not surrender. In January 1943 the Siege was broken by the Red Army and a year later, on 27 January, 1944 it was fully lifted. At least 640,000 people had died during the siege.

We in the West tend to be insular in our assessment of WW2; it was undoubtedly the Red Army of the USSR which broke the Wehrmach's back not western Allied forces. We think of clashes like El Alamein, Arnhem, or Iwo Jima as being great battles, until we learn of such titanic clashes as that of the Red Army and the Germans at Kursk, the greatest tank battle in history. For the Battle of Kursk, the Germans had 900,000 troops, supported by 2,400 tanks, 10,000 artillery guns, and 2,000 aircraft, massed into fifty armoured divisions on a 35 mile front. It was the Germans who launched the attack at Kursk. They were routed by the Red Army under Marshal Zhukov.

To put the Russian contribution into perspective, about 400,000 United Kingdom fighting forces and civilians lost their lives in WW2. Horrendous as that figure is it bears no comparison with Russian losses even taking into account the difference in size of the populations: the USSR lost over 15 million, well over half the 25 million who died in WW2.

Peter

Message 5 - RUSSIA The great losses!

Posted on: 26 February 2004 by Sprey

Hi Peter, I was pleased to read your evaluation of the the Russians WW2 experience. A long time ago I was able to read a paper back written by a Russian soldier of his experiences at the Leningrad front the experience was horrific.Regards.JB.