63 years ago today

Volklin · Post by **Volklin** » 23 Jun 2004 08:26

The Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union in Operation: Barbarossa

ViKinG · Post by **ViKinG** » 23 Jun 2004 18:49

Yes..it feels strange when the sun rises..and you look outside..and you can imagine the carnage that was wrought 6 decades ago on this very day. Just makes you think.

Viking

Doppleganger · Post by **Doppleganger** » 23 Jun 2004 19:03

And it's a date that most people don't even know about. The titanic struggle between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army is largely forgotten by the average person, particularly in the UK and US. It's like D-Day and Pearl Harbour were the only significant events of WW2

Topspeed · Post by **Topspeed** » 23 Jun 2004 19:39

ViKinG wrote:Yes..it feels strange when the sun rises..and you look outside..and you can imagine the carnage that was wrought 6 decades ago on this very day. Just makes you think.

Viking

Carnage on this very day sixty years ago happened with accompany of a balalaika music and Stalins organs.

In 1944 Soviets attacked with tramendous power especially on the finnish front at the Carelian Isthmus.

regards,

Juke T

Kunikov · Post by **Kunikov** » 23 Jun 2004 21:51

As I recall it was the 22nd, not 23rd.

Benoit Douville · Post by **Benoit Douville** » 24 Jun 2004 02:58

Yep, on June 22 1941 it was a clash between Nazism and Communism, Germany vs the Soviet Union. It was the most savage and brutal War of all time, 2 different ideology going at each other. We should remember and never forget and the Eastern Front was the most important theater of World War II.

Regards

Klaus Yurk · Post by **Klaus Yurk** » 24 Jun 2004 03:25

[/quote]It's like D-Day and Pearl Harbour were the only significant events of WW2 [quote]

That is all that is ever talked about in the US. It is like the US wishes that the Eastern Front never existed. Yet it was by far the most important action in WWII. Makes everything else look small time.

The History Channel presented weeks of hero worship concerning D-Day. Yet you see next to nothing on Barbarosa.

Sad.

It is like they are trying to rewrite History. And write the sacrifices of the Soviets out of WWII.

Volklin · Post by **Volklin** » 24 Jun 2004 06:27

It was past 12 when i posted that, forgot it was already the next day.

Globalization41 · Post by **Globalization41** » 24 Jun 2004 06:28

Berlin, By Telephone to The New York
Times, By C. Brooks Peters, Sunday, June 22,
1941: [Late Saturday, U.S. time] As dawn broke
over Europe, the legions of National Socialist
Germany began their long-rumored invasion of
Communist Soviet Russia, the non-aggression
and amity pact between the two countries,
signed in August 1939, forgotten. The German
attack began along a tremendous front,
extending from the Arctic regions to the Black
Sea. Marching with the forces of Germany are
also the troops of Finland and Rumania. ...
Adolf Hitler, in a proclamation to the German
people read over a national hookup by
Propaganda Minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels at
5:30 this morning, termed the military action
the largest in the history of the world. ... Herr
Hitler, in his proclamation here, [stated] that
the supreme German military command did not
feel itself able to force a decisive victory in the
west -- apparently on the British Isles -- when
large Russian troop concentrations were on the
Reich's borders in the east. ... The German
action, Herr Hitler explained to his fellow
National Socialists, is designed to save the
Reich and with it all Europe from the
machinations of Jewish-Anglo-Saxon warmon-
gers. [Nazi anti-semitism tended to self-
fulfill the idea of a vast Jewish conspiracy.]
... The German Foreign Minister, Joachim von
Ribbentrop, followed Dr. Goebbels on the air
with a declaration of the Reich Government
read before the foreign correspondents in the
Foreign Office. "Germany has no intention of
remaining inactive in the face of this grave
threat to her Eastern frontier," it was
proclaimed. "The Fuehrer has therefore
ordered the German forces to oppose this
menace with all the might at their disposal. In
the coming struggle, the German people are
called upon to save the entire civilized world
from the deadly dangers of bolshevism."

The New York Times, Late Saturday evening,
June 21, 1941: The announcements made in
Berlin were heard here by shortwave listening
stations of both C.B.S. and N.B.C. ... Adolf
Hitler's proclamation [read by Goebbels at
5:30 A.M. Berlin time] was followed by a
statement containing a formal declaration of
war by Nazi Foreign Minister Ribbentrop. ...
Berlin announced that the German Army was
on the march and that "German troops all
along the Russian border from the Baltic to the
Balkans are moving into their last minute
positions." ... Finland and Rumania were
hailed in the proclamation as German allies,
and clear intimation was given that the invasion
had begun. ... "In this very moment," said
Herr Hitler's statement addressed to the
German people, "a marching of German armies
is taking place which has no precedent." ...
The statement indicated that Rumania, in
association with Germany, might stand ready to
attempt the recapture of Bessarabia seized by
Stalin's legions [from Rumania] earlier in the
war. ... Herr Hitler declared that German and
Rumanian soldiers, united under Premier Ion
Antonescu, stood ready "from the river of the
Danube to the Black Sea." ... "The task is to
safeguard Europe and thus save all," the
proclamation set forth. The phrase was seen as
a return by Herr Hitler to his assertion,
frequently made in earlier years, that Germany
stood as Europe's bulwark against bolshevism.
... Heavy concentrations of Nazi troops have
been reported for several weeks along the
borders of partitioned Poland in apparent
readiness for just such a stroke. Finland, now
referred to as an associate by Herr Hitler's
proclamation, recently announced advanced
degrees of army mobilization. ... Herr Hitler's
proclamation denounced the Russian occupation
of the Baltic state of Lithuania, annexed to the
Soviet Union with Estonia and Latvia [in 1940]
after Mr. Stalin's troops had been permitted [in
1939] to occupy bases there. "Russia," Hitler
said, "always put out the lying statement that
she was protecting these countries." ... Hitler
also charged that Russia "organized the putsch"
in Yugoslavia after the Yugoslav Government
had agreed to Axis terms.

Washington, Special to The New York Times,
Saturday, June 21, 1941: The members of the
National Guard and Reserve Officers Corps
will be kept in active service beyond the single
year planned when they were called [340,000
were called to active duty from September
15th, 1940, through March 1941] if a
recommendation made today by the War
Department is approved by President Roosevelt
and Congress.

The New York Times, Saturday, June 21,
1941: City College faculty members and
students who were enrolled Communists were
ordered to indoctrinate as many of their
associates as possible with Communist
philosophy, according to testimony [Saturday]
in the Court of General Sessions at the trial of
Morris U. Schappes, suspended English tutor
at the college. Schappes is accused of perjury
before the Rapp-Coudert legislative committee
investigating subversive activities in the city's
schools. [In other testimony, Communists were
alleged to have attempted infiltration of the
R.O.T.C. and (also) the power utility field.]

[Stay tuned for late breaking war bulletins.
... Globalization41.]

Oleg Grigoryev · Post by **Oleg Grigoryev** » 24 Jun 2004 17:29

It was also 60th anniversary of Bagration.

Globalization41 · Post by **Globalization41** » 24 Jun 2004 19:36

Operation Bagration

Bagration 1944: The Destruction of
Army Group Centre

If one takes the standard 20,000,000
estimated Soviet deaths in World War II and
divides that by the number of days from
6/22/41 to 5/7/45, which totals 1,415 days,
the answer converts to 14,134 average
deaths per day. The average daily deaths for
the U.S.S.R. is greater than the combined
American losses for both D-day and Pearl
Harbor. ... Taking the 400,000 estimated
American deaths and dividing by the number
days the U.S. participated equals less than
300 deaths per day (both theatres). ... Since
the American mass media generally omits
the impact of the Soviet Union on World
War II, one could safely assume that the U.S.
mass media is ignorant of history or they
unethically engage in manipulation of facts
so as to give an incorrect perception of
history.

Globalization41

Rommel8 · Post by **Rommel8** » 24 Jun 2004 22:20

Klaus Yurk wrote:

It's like D-Day and Pearl Harbour were the only significant events of WW2

That is all that is ever talked about in the US. It is like the US wishes that the Eastern Front never existed. Yet it was by far the most important action in WWII. Makes everything else look small time.

The History Channel presented weeks of hero worship concerning D-Day. Yet you see next to nothing on Barbarosa.

Sad.

It is like they are trying to rewrite History. And write the sacrifices of the Soviets out of WWII.

You know why?

Because it involved 2 of Americas greatest enemies, Nazis (Facism), and Communism

Oleg Grigoryev · Post by **Oleg Grigoryev** » 25 Jun 2004 02:35

Rommel8 wrote:
Klaus Yurk wrote:
It's like D-Day and Pearl Harbour were the only significant events of WW2

That is all that is ever talked about in the US. It is like the US wishes that the Eastern Front never existed. Yet it was by far the most important action in WWII. Makes everything else look small time.

The History Channel presented weeks of hero worship concerning D-Day. Yet you see next to nothing on Barbarosa.

Sad.

It is like they are trying to rewrite History. And write the sacrifices of the Soviets out of WWII.

You know why?

Because it involved 2 of Americas greatest enemies, Nazis (Facism), and Communism

eh? How were communists involved in either D-Day or Pearl-Harbor?

ViKinG · Post by **ViKinG** » 25 Jun 2004 03:57

that's exactly what I was thinking as well....

Viking

Globalization41 · Post by **Globalization41** » 25 Jun 2004 05:00

Communist Russia drew away the main bulk
of the German Army on D-day.

Globalization41

Axis History Forum

63 years ago today

63 years ago today

Nazi Germany Begins Long-Rumored Invasion of Soviet Russia

Operation Bagration

D-day and Communism