Vladimir Putin says there was nothing wrong with Soviet Union's pact with Adolf Hitler's Nazi German

[happyslug]

95. That space should have been decisive, but was not....

As I explained above the Soviet Army was geared to ATTACK not DEFEND. The Soviets had even taken troops and supplies from their previous defensive positions (The Stalin Line) to provide more supplies and weapons for the troops in the attack formation (thus the Stalin Line, when reached by German Forces, had no troops or supplies to defend the Stalin line with, thus fell quickly).

Stalin took three days to recover from the shock of the attack. Stalin had NOT been expecting it and we hear nothing from him for three days after the attack. Stalin had dismissed the talk of an attack as stupid, for it was almost July, and winter comes early in Russia and thus if you attack Russia in the Summer you try for May, maybe early June but NOT late June or July. That six weeks can be crucial in any attack.

As I said above Stalin was an numbers made and understood reality when it came to grand strategy. Thus Stalin would never have attack Russia at the end of June if he was in Control of Germany and like most people Stalin had a hard time thinking like someone who does NOT think like himself.

Hitler was a Demigod, he had a poor grasp on "facts on the ground'. On the other hand he could get people to do what he wanted, even when they knew better. Hitler had managed to avoid debacles in Poland and France do to the skills of his Generals and his Troops (and weaknesses of his enemies), but sooner or later numbers do catch up with people and in Russia the number caught up with Hitler.

As to the War in Russia, Stalin had the wrong type of army on his front line. As I wrote above, it was an army geared to attack not defend. Such an army is easy to destroy if the other side attacks first (which is what Hitler did). This gave the Germans the advantage in Russia for the next six months. The problem was Stalin had access to troops to replace the one's destroyed in June and July 1941. On the other hand, the German Generals had decided they needed to take Moscow before winter, but to do so they had to leave all of their winter equipment behind. The Germans did not have the transport to haul that winter clothing and the fuel, ammo and food the army needed to take Moscow by Winter. Thus when the German Army failed to take Moscow in December, the German Army froze up. No winter clothing, no winter boots (which was the biggest mistake lead to massive frostbite injuries) no winter oils for lubrication etc.

When the Russian Counter Offensive pushed the Germans away from Moscow in December 1941 and January 1942, it was a shortage of supplies to the Russians that stopped the Russians not the German Army. When Spring 1942 came around it was clear that Germany could NOT attack Moscow, to many dug in Russian Soldiers (In classic defensive positions) were in the way. Thus Hitler's plan to attack on the weaker southern Russian Front that ended in Stalingrad and that debacke.

My point was had the Soviet Army been in a defensive position with the Stalin line as its fall back position the whole German attack would have failed on the Frontier. The Red Army could not attack in 1941, once the German Army attacked, but the massive lost of land to the German Army would have been avoided. Some how Stalin had set his army to attack, the real question is why? As I discussed above I think he had a deal with Churchill and maybe even FDR but was holding out for either something in writing or something else, I do not know.