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Aurelian -> RE: House rules (8/8/2016 1:58:57 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: schattensand2
I've been searching Inet for your numbers but do not find any of them. Much about exorbitant historical losses of 3,5 Mia/Kia in 1941 alone. Please where do you get your numbers from?
You didn't search enough. And I use books myself.
At the onset of Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941, the Red Army stood at a strength of roughly 5.5 million men, of whom approximately 3.3 million were concentrated in the Western districts - that is, who were in any position to react to the Axis invasion.1 This initial number alone is formidable, but belies the unfathomable strategic depth of the USSR at the point of the German invasion. The 1938 Universal Military Service Law ensured that the military infrastructure existed for the rapid mobilisation of a vast portion of the USSR's population, creating an effective manpower pool of some fourteen million reservists as well as the training schools and marshalling capabilities to call on them in short order. With the full mobilisation of the Red Army beginning June 22, 1941 following the Axis invasion, absolutely phenomenal efforts began for the organising, equipping and deployment of new forces. By the time the first phase of mobilisation was complete on July 1, 1941, the Red Army's nominal strength had increased from 5.5 million troops to 9.5 million troops. Naturally, the organisation, equipment and deployment of such a colossal force proved an extremely chaotic process, and the vast majority of the levied forces were of low quality and still in the Soviet interior, far from the front-line opposition to the Axis advance. Nonetheless, this was only the beginning of the Soviet mobilisation process. To quote Stahel:
"In July the Red Army added thirteen new field armies to its order of battle and fourteen more in August. In September there was one new army, in October four and in November and December eight, making a total of forty new Soviet armies in just six months."
August 11, 1941, the OKH Chief of Staff, General Franz Halder, observed
"At the outset of the war, we reckoned on about 200 enemy divisions. Now we have already counted 360... if we smash a dozen of them, the Russians simply put up another dozen."
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