Materials on the Great Patriotic War in the USSR

Dear comrades:

Hello everyone! For lovers of World War II, the Soviet-German war that broke out in 1941 is no stranger, some people are obsessed with Guderian's "blitzkrieg tactics", and some people are obsessed with Zhukov's wonderful command art, all in all, the Soviet-German war has given us a lot of inspiration, today, we will discuss why the Soviet army lost troops in the early stage of the war, and retreated.

Let me first tell you about the situation at that time, the three major military districts of the USSR (Western Special Military District, Kiev Special Military District, Leningrad Special Military District) suffered heavy losses, the air force of the Western Military District was completely lost on the first day of the war, and about 16 divisions were routed (note: even Stalin's son was captured!). ), the commander General Pavlov was shot.

The situation in the Kiev Special Military District was not much better, on the first day 7 infantry divisions, 9 armored divisions and 8 aviation regiments were annihilated, followed by the main forces in the Battle of Uman, the Battle of Kiev, the commander of the Front, the Chief of Staff of the Front Army was killed, the commander of the Fifth Army (the leader in the defensive war in the Soviet Army) Major General Potapov was seriously wounded in the brain and captured, the situation of the Leningrad Special Military District was better, but it was still defeated all the way to Leningrad.

It should be said that the German offensive in the early stage was very difficult to resist, 49 elite armored divisions, 87 motorized infantry divisions were more than enough for the Soviet army with only 107 divisions (for example!). The German army advanced 57 kilometers in one day, while the Soviet army could only advance 43 kilometers), but Stalin and other Soviet high-level leaders could not accept such huge losses in a short time, so they shot the commanders of the front line (1 general, 7 lieutenant generals, 16 major generals), demoted 2 marshals to major generals (Marshal Kulik was shot after the war), and demoted the chief of the Soviet General Staff to General Zhukov, the deputy chief of the General Staff General Antonlov, and the head of the Operations Department of the General Staff Lieutenant General Shtemenko to the front line (later, Zhukov organized the first Soviet counter-assault campaign of the Great Patriotic War in Yenary, inflicting heavy losses on the German army and directly supporting the Soviet army in the Moscow direction).

In my opinion, this mechanized combat method of the German army was a great success in the Soviet Union (5 weeks after the start of the war, 59 Soviet divisions were annihilated, 27 divisions were defeated, and only 8 divisions were lost; Within half a month, occupy Kiev, Minsk, and go to the banks of the Don River. Although I like the Soviet Union very much, in fact, the strategic thinking of the Soviet army lagged behind for 80 years (mainly the scattered use of tanks and did not form a certain combat effectiveness), and it was this strategic thinking that led to the great rout of the Soviet army in the early stage. The performance of the German army in the early period played a huge role in the development of strategy in later generations (it can be said to be a milestone in strategy!). From this, we should realize the tremendous power of mechanized and information-based warfare. Let's work hard to increase our national defense knowledge and consolidate our national defense! Thank you!