[Leica] Victory now Kursk

[dorysrus at mindspring.com (Don Dory)]

Peter,
What you quoted is the traditional history as it came from the victors.
Relatively recent research in the German Army archives tell a somewhat
different picture.

First, after Kursk, the German Army was strictly defensive so the Soviet
Army was dominant as you state.  However, it was the Soviet tank force
that was decimated, only Tankograd saved that aspect of the war.  In
reality, the Allied invasion of Italy caused Hitler to redeploy many
panzer divisions to the newly opened southern front.

The victors, once the German Army had to defend two fronts, had going
for them the ability to increase the size of their force in spite of
devastating loses.

I am not sure if anyone will really know how many were lost in the maw
of the Eastern Front, but the traditional number of Soviet casualties
for the brief final push to Berlin are in excess of 300,000.

Don
dorysrus@mindspring.com

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf
Of GREG LORENZO
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 11:37 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Victory Day

Nathan Wajsman wrote in part:
> 
> - the Russians who lost 20 million people during the war and whose 
> stand at Stalingrad was arguably the turning point of the war, 
> certainly on the Eastern Front;
> 

Hi Nathan,

>From a military standpoint Stalingrad cost the German Army in excess of
20 excellent infantry divisions and revealed the German high command's
inflexibility and inability to accept tactical realities.

These missing infantry divisions were a major factor behind the
subsequent German defeat at Kursk, in the summer of 1943, which I
believe to have been the true turning point of the war in Europe. At
Kursk, the Soviets largely destroyed Germany's Panzer force. The Soviets
continued to hold the initiative until the end of the war.

I believe that although the Western Allies helped hasten the end of the
war, the Soviet Union after Kursk simply could not lose and it was just
a matter of time until Germany's utter defeat.

Regards,

Greg


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