Daryl Wakeham
Mar 25, 2023

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I have just a small problem with this statement:

"The Soviet Union with her well-trained, disciplined and modernized militaries."

The Soviet army was riddled with problems and often relied on human mine-sweepers in the so-called prison/penal battalions.

If not for the endless supply of Allied arms and trucks and other material, the Soviet Armed forces would have continued to be as ineffective as they were at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa.

After all, the paranoid Stalin had denuded the military command structure prior to the invasion, insisted on placing often murderous Commissars amongst the chain of command and thought nothing of staggering losses...indeed, if a Soviet POW camp was liberated, those soldiers were automatically considered fascist sympathizers and the first forced to join the so-called 'Shtrafbats' or штрафбат, штрафной батальон.

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