70 years since Barbarossa

We are fast approaching the 70th anniversary of the start of the biggest armed clash in the 20th century.

To mark this I have started a blog that follows the daily news leading up to June 22 as it appeared in the press:

http://zilederazboi.wordpress.com/

I plan to follow Barbarossa day by day and I would be glad to hear your suggestions.

After the first days I covered I have to say the war between Germany and the Soviet Union was hardly a surprise. Everyone with money to buy a newspaper knew it was coming.

Very interesting initiative, bookmarked.

What about Sep.1939

Thank you!

Once Barbarossa starts I will post the brief official reports that the high commands of the two sides issued every day. I bet you will find them interesting, although they aren't as spectacular as one might expect.

@Petre

Operation Barbarossa was the largest military operation in human history in both manpower and casualties. [Peter Antill, Peter Dennis. Stalingrad 1942. Osprey Publishing, 2007,ISBN 1-84603-028-5, 9781846030284. p. 7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barbarossa

Thank you!

Once Barbarossa starts I will post the brief official reports that the high commands of the two sides issued every day. I bet you will find them interesting, although they aren't as spectacular as one might expect.

@Petre

Operation Barbarossa was the largest military operation in human history in both manpower and casualties. [Peter Antill, Peter Dennis. Stalingrad 1942. Osprey Publishing, 2007,ISBN 1-84603-028-5, 9781846030284. p. 7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barbarossa

"We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down"

Guess what was Restricted Security Information in January 1952, at Washington DC...
http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/20234/20234.html

If you click on the book cover, you can see it bigger and read it.
Lower in this link you can click on "Contents".

Interesting website: lots and lots of maps !
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/maps.htm

Romania:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/map...944S.htm#2UF_RM

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/map...944S.htm#3UF_RM

Hungary:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/map...44S.htm#Hungary

This post has been edited by Florin on March 23, 2012 03:44 am

Imperialist wrote:

Good project, Imperialist. Where do you find the day-by-day quotes? I am sure they must be public record, but are they compiled in one place or scattered? In any case, looks like you gave up on the effort? Too bad, it would have provided an interesting angle.

Florin wrote:

Florin, it is no secret the Americans (and all other large allies) were interested in obtaining MI knowledge in combined arms warfare conducted by Germany against USSR. At one point in the late '40's-early '50's, they had a "pool" of more than 100 (later down to 60) former Wehrmacht generals who contributed with written detailed case studies of their battles on the Eastern Front. In their writings they include tactical mistakes/successes as well as assess the Soviets' military behavior.
Some of these have long been declassified and can be purchased as books. General Raus's case studies and experiences were deemed particularly useful for the US from a tactical perspective in dealing with a potential US-USSR conflict. Note: the Raus Memoirs currently available on amazon are just a summary of some of his experiences aimed at the general history buff. There was, however, a previously published Raus book divided into distinct case studies and analyses of battles. Almost like a series of lectures. Interesting stuff. Thanks for bringing it up.

The YouTube link below goes to some propagandistic bulls**t – Hitler's speech on October 3 - 1941 (I am assuming in Reichstag), justifying Operation Barbarossa.
If it is too annoying or boring to follow it, jump to moment 3:44. From there it worth a little bit of attention – and at moment 4:20 the subject is Romania.
Romania is mentioned again at 13:28.
He made typical politician statements… "Catch me if you can" (that's my statement).
The images and video clips do not synchronize with the speech, but that is the YouTube author’s problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CksyZ2xIKXk&feature=related

This post has been edited by Florin on September 07, 2012 12:54 am

Thank you. Yes, I had to abandon it for the time being because my plan of posting stuff on a day-to-day basis turned to be difficult to keep up. Other life events became a priority. I'll try to pick up where I left. But I need some feedback. What would readers be more interested in - the day-to-day stuff (the feeling of reading the daily newspaper) or me posting only if I find something interesting and worthy of attention, irrespective of date?

Well, both variants are interesting, but it's certainly easier to post only the "big" stuff...
Try it that way and eventually you can "upgrade" it!