Since Uncle Misha forbids copy-pasting threads from a fake site, then I copy-paste this thread from the fun site YaPGo...
On the eve of Victory Day, we remember not only friends, but also enemies. The Red Army had to fight not only with the German Wehrmacht, but also with a whole horde of Hitler's allied armies and national units, representing at least half of Europe.
Here are just a few of them.13 photo and some text.
Hitler's most western military ally was formally neutral Francoist Spain, which sent a volunteer "Blue Division" to the Eastern Front. The Spaniards fought against the Red Army near Novgorod until October 1943 and received quite high marks from their German "colleagues". After the disbandment of the Blue Division, many of its fighters moved to the German Foreign Legion. In encircled Berlin, 7,000 Spaniards fought before the surrender.
Not the largest, but the most combat-ready army in the camp of Hitler was the Finnish army, led by Marshal Mannerheim, a former general of the Russian army.
Finland was the only democratic country from the satellites of the Reich and pretended to be fighting against the USSR as if by itself, during the Winter War of 1939-40. However, this did not prevent the Finns from occupying a huge part of Karelia, and even the regions of the Leningrad and Vologda regions. In relation to the Russian population, the Finns behaved worse than the Germans, in Karelia they thought of sending all Russian men from the age of 15 behind barbed wire.It was extremely difficult to fight the Finns, and only in the summer of 1944 was it possible to recapture part of the occupied territory from them, after which a truce was concluded between the USSR and Finland.
Finnish infantry on the march
The Hungarians also turned out to be a rather stubborn enemy for the Red Army, who sent several divisions to the southern sector of the Soviet-German front.Hungarian soldiers, 1941
Hungarian soldier in Budapest, 1939One of the most numerous armies that fought on the side of Hitler was the Romanian. The Romanians participated in the siege of Odessa and reached Stalingrad with the Germans, where they were entrusted with covering the flanks of the Paulus army.
Romanian infantry circa 1943
The largest of the satellite armies was the Italian one, but it was never known for its fighting efficiency.
Already in July 1941, Mussolini agreed to send Italian troops to Russia, where they ingloriously ended their journey in the snow near Stalingrad. The surviving Italians were recalled home in April 1943Bulgaria also found itself in the camp of the enemy, but its army was not sent to fight in Russia. It was the only ally of Germany that did not fight against the USSR, despite all the persuasion of Hitler.
Bulgarian soldiers, March 1941.
Nevertheless, Bulgaria's participation in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia and military operations against Greek and Yugoslav partisans freed up German divisions to be sent to the Eastern Front. In addition, on December 6, 1941, Bulgarian patrol ships sank the Soviet submarine Shch-204 near Varna.Bulgarian soldier, March 1941
In addition to the regular armies of the satellite countries, many national units from the occupied states and territories fought on the side of Hitler, which would have to be listed for a very long time.Among the best known to us is the Latvian Legion of the Waffen-SS.
And here are the soldiers from the Legion of French Volunteers in Smolensk, 1941.
It is known that they were even specially dragged to the Borodino field, in the area of \u200b\u200bwhich in the fall of 1941 there were heavy battles.
In addition to national combat units, there were all kinds of police and collaborator units, some kind of "self-defense units", etc. formations that actively fought against the partisans and helped the Germans to terrorize the civilian population of the occupied territories.This picture shows a policeman in Kyiv in the autumn of 1941.
All of Europe fought against us
The very first strategic counter-offensive of the Soviet troops in the Great Patriotic War revealed a very unpleasant circumstance for the USSR. Among the captured enemy troops near Moscow there were many military units France, Poland, Holland, Finland, Austria, Norway and other countries. The imprint of almost all major European firms was found on captured military equipment and shells. In general, as one could assume and as they thought in the Soviet Union, that the European proletarians would never go up in arms against the state of workers and peasants, that they would sabotage the production of weapons for Hitler.
But exactly the opposite happened. A very characteristic find was made by our soldiers after the liberation of the Moscow region in the area of the historical Borodino field - next to the French cemetery of 1812, they discovered fresh graves of Napoleon's descendants. The Soviet 32nd Rifle Division of the Red Banner, Colonel V.I. fought here. Polosukhin, whose fighters could not even imagine that they were being opposed "French allies".
A more or less complete picture of this battle was revealed only after the Victory. Chief of Staff of the 4th German Army G. Blumentritt published a memoir in which he wrote:
“The four battalions of French volunteers operating as part of the 4th Army turned out to be less persistent. At Borodin, Field Marshal von Kluge addressed them with a speech, recalling how, during the time of Napoleon, the French and Germans fought here side by side against a common enemy - Russia. The next day, the French boldly went into battle, but, unfortunately, they could not withstand either the powerful attack of the enemy, or the severe frost and snowstorm. They had never had to endure such trials before. The French legion was defeated, having suffered heavy losses from enemy fire. A few days later he was taken to the rear and sent to the West ... "
Here is an interesting archival document - a list of prisoners of war who surrendered to Soviet troops during the war years. Recall that a prisoner of war is one who fights in uniform with a weapon in his hands.
Hitler takes the parade of the Wehrmacht, 1940 (megabook.ru)
So, Germans – 2 389 560, Hungarians – 513 767, Romanians – 187 370, Austrians – 156 682, Czechs And Slovaks – 69 977, Poles – 60 280, Italians – 48 957, French people – 23 136, Croats – 21 822, Moldovans – 14 129, Jews – 10 173, Dutch – 4 729, Finns – 2 377, Belgians – 2 010, Luxembourgers – 1652, Danes – 457, Spaniards – 452, gypsies – 383, Norse – 101, Swedes – 72.
And these are only those who survived and were captured. In reality, much more Europeans fought against us.
The ancient Roman senator Cato the Elder went down in history by the fact that he always ended any public speech on any topic with the words: "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam", which literally means: "Otherwise, I believe that Carthage must be destroyed." (Carthage is a city-state hostile to Rome.) I am not ready to completely become like Senator Cato, but I will use any excuse to mention once again: in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the USSR, with an initial strength 190 million. people, fought not with 80 million of the then Germans. The Soviet Union fought practically with all Europe, the number of which (with the exception of England allied to us and partisan Serbia not surrendering to the Germans) was about 400 million. human.
During the Great Patriotic War, overcoats in the USSR were put on by 34,476.7 thousand people, i.e. 17,8% population. And Germany mobilized into its armed forces already 21% from the population. It would seem that the Germans in their military efforts strained more than the USSR. But women served in the Red Army in large numbers, both voluntarily and by conscription. There were a lot of purely female units and divisions (anti-aircraft, aviation, etc.). During a period of desperate situation, the State Defense Committee decided (remaining, however, on paper) to create women's rifle formations, in which only heavy artillery loaders would be men.
And among the Germans, even at the moment of their agony, women not only did not serve in the army, but there were very few of them in production. Why is that? Because in the USSR one man accounted for three women, and in Germany - on the contrary? No, that's not the point. In order to fight, you need not only soldiers, but also weapons with food. And for their production, men are also needed, who cannot be replaced by women or teenagers. Therefore, the USSR was forced send women to the front instead of men.
The Germans did not have such a problem: they were provided with weapons and food by all of Europe. The French not only handed over all their tanks to the Germans, but also produced a huge amount of military equipment for them - from cars to optical rangefinders.
Czechs with only one firm "Skoda" produced more weapons than all of pre-war Great Britain, built the entire fleet of German armored personnel carriers, a huge number of tanks, aircraft, small arms, artillery and ammunition.
The Poles built airplanes, Polish Jews explosives, synthetic gasoline and rubber were produced in Auschwitz to kill Soviet citizens; the Swedes mined ore and supplied the Germans with components for military equipment (for example, bearings), the Norwegians supplied the Nazis with seafood, the Danes with oil ... In short, all of Europe tried its best.
And she tried not only on the labor front. Only the elite troops of Nazi Germany - the SS troops - accepted into their ranks 400 thousand. "blonde beasts" from other countries, and in total they joined the Nazi army from all over Europe 1800 thousand. volunteers, forming 59 divisions, 23 brigades and several national regiments and legions.
The most elite of these divisions did not have numbers, but their own names indicating their national origin: Wallonia, Galicia, Bohemia and Moravia, Viking, Denemark, Gembez, Langemark, Nordland ”, “Netherlands”, “Charlemagne”, etc.
Europeans served as volunteers not only in the national, but also in the German divisions. So let's say an elite German division "Greater Germany". It would seem that, if only because of the name, it should have been completed only by the Germans. However, the Frenchman who served in it Guy Sayer recalls that on the eve of the Battle of Kursk, there were 9 Germans out of 11 in his infantry unit, and besides him, the Czech also did not understand German well. And all this in addition to the official allies of Germany, whose armies shoulder to shoulder burned and plundered the Soviet Union - Italians, Romanian, Hungarians, Finns, Croats, Slovaks, besides Bulgarians who at that time burned and plundered partisan Serbia. Even officially neutral Spaniards sent their "Blue Division" near Leningrad!
In order to evaluate by national composition all the European bastards who, in the hope of easy prey, climbed up to us to kill Soviet and Russian people, I will give a table of that part of the foreign volunteers who guessed to surrender to us in time:
Germans – 2 389 560, Hungarians – 513 767, Romanians – 187 370, Austrians – 156 682, Czechs And Slovaks – 69 977, Poles – 60 280, Italians – 48 957, French people – 23 136, Croats – 21 822, Moldovans – 14 129, Jews – 10 173, Dutch – 4 729, Finns – 2 377, Belgians – 2 010, Luxembourgers – 1652, Danes – 457, Spaniards – 452, gypsies – 383, Norse – 101, Swedes – 72.
This table, first published at the end of 1990, should be repeated again and for these reasons. After the accession of “democracy” on the territory of the USSR, the table is continuously “improved” in terms of “enlarging lines”. As a result, in “serious” books by “professional historians” on the topic of war, say, in the statistical collection “Russia and the USSR in the Wars of the 20th Century” or in the reference book “The World of Russian History”, the data in this table are distorted. Some nationalities have disappeared from it.
Jews disappeared first., which, as you can see from the original table, served Hitler as many as the Finns and the Dutch combined. And I, for example, do not see why we should throw out Jewish verses from this Hitler song.
By the way, the Poles today are trying to push the Jews away from the position of “the main sufferers of World War II”, and there are more of them on the lists of prisoners than the Italians who officially and actually fought with us.
Why, and the presented table does not reflect the true quantitative and national composition of the prisoners. First of all, it does not represent at all our domestic scum, who, either due to acquired idiocy, or because of cowardice and cowardice, served the Germans - from Bandera to Vlasov.
By the way, they were punished to insultingly easily. It’s good if a Vlasovite fell into the hands of front-line soldiers as prisoners. Then he most often got what he deserved. But after all, traitors contrived to surrender to the rear units, dressed in civilian clothes, pretended to be Germans when they surrendered, etc. In this case, the Soviet court literally patted them on the head.
At one time, domestic anti-Sovietists published collections of their memoirs abroad. One of them describes the judicial “sufferings” of a Vlasovite who defended Berlin: he changed clothes ... to the Soviet soldiers who captured him ... introduced himself as a Frenchman and thus got to the military tribunal. And then reading his boasting is insulting: “They gave me five years of distant camps - and that was lucky. In a hurry, they considered it for the worker-peasant petty. Soldiers captured with weapons and officers were sculpted ten. When escorted to the camp, he fled to the West.
Five years for the murder of Soviet people and treason! What kind of punishment is this?! Well, at least 20, so that the spiritual wounds of widows and orphans heal and it would not be so insulting to look at these vile hari ...
For the same reason, they are not listed as prisoners of war. Crimean Tatars who stormed Sevastopol for Manstein, Kalmyks etc.
Not listed Estonians, Latvians And Lithuanians, who had their national divisions as part of the Nazi troops, but were considered Soviet citizens and, therefore, served their meager terms in the GULAG camps, and not in the GUPVI camps. (GULAG - the main department of the camps - was engaged in keeping criminals, and GUPVI - the main department for prisoners of war and internees - prisoners.) Meanwhile, not all prisoners even got into the GUPVI, since this department counted only those who got into its rear camps from frontline transit points.
Estonian legionnaires of the Wehrmacht fought against the USSR with particular fury (ookaboo.com)
But since 1943, national divisions of Poles, Czechs, and Romanians began to form in the USSR to fight the Germans. And the prisoners of these nationalities were not sent to the GUPVI, but immediately to the recruitment points for such formations - they fought together with the Germans, let them fight against them! By the way, there were 600 thousand. Even de Gaulle was sent to his army 1500 French.
Before the start of the war with the USSR Hitler appealed to the Europeans to crusade against Bolshevism. Here is how they responded to it (data for June - October 1941, which do not take into account the huge military contingents Italy, Hungary, Romania and other allies of Hitler). From Spanish volunteers ( 18000 people) in the Wehrmacht, the 250th Infantry Division was formed. In July, the personnel took the oath to Hitler and departed for the Soviet-German front. During September-October 1941, from French volunteers (approx. 3000 people) the 638th Infantry Regiment was formed. In October, the regiment was sent to Smolensk, and then to Moscow. From Belgians in July 1941, the 373rd Walloon Battalion was formed (approximately 850 people), transferred to the 97th Infantry Division of the 17th Army of the Wehrmacht.
From Croatian Volunteers were formed by the 369th Infantry Regiment of the Wehrmacht and the Croatian Legion as part of the Italian troops. About 2000 Swedes signed up as a volunteer in Finland. Of these, approximately 850 people participated in the fighting near Hanko, as part of the Swedish volunteer battalion.
By the end of June 1941 294 Norwegians already served in the SS regiment "Nordland". After the start of the war with the USSR in Norway, the volunteer legion "Norway" was created ( 1200 human). After taking the oath to Hitler, he was sent to Leningrad. By the end of June 1941, the SS division "Viking" had 216 Danes. After the start of the war with the USSR, the Danish "Volunteer Corps" began to form.
Stand apart in aiding fascism are our Polish comrades. Immediately after the end of the German-Polish war, the idea of creating a Polish army fighting on the side of Germany came up with the Polish nationalist Wladislav Gizbert-Studnitsky. He developed a project to build a Polish 12-15 million pro-German state. Gizbert-Studnitsky proposed a plan to send Polish troops to the eastern front. Later the idea of a Polish-German alliance and 35 thousandth Polish army supported by the Sword and Plow organization associated with the Home Army.
In the first months of the war against the USSR, Polish soldiers in the fascist army had the so-called status hi-wi (volunteers). Later, Hitler gave special permission for the Poles to serve in the Wehrmacht. After that, in relation to the Poles, it was categorically forbidden to use the name hi-wi, because the Nazis treated them as full-fledged soldiers. Every Pole aged 16 to 50 could become a volunteer, it was only necessary to pass a preliminary medical examination.
The Poles, along with other European nations, were urged to stand "in defense of Western civilization from Soviet barbarism." Here is a quote from a Nazi leaflet in Polish: “The German armed forces are leading the decisive struggle to defend Europe from Bolshevism. Any honest assistant in this struggle will be welcomed as a comrade-in-arms ... "
The text of the oath of the Polish soldiers read: “I swear before God this sacred oath that in the fight for the future of Europe in the ranks of the German Wehrmacht I will be absolutely obedient to the Supreme Commander Adolf Hitler, and as a brave soldier I am ready at any time to devote my strength to fulfill this oath ... "
It is amazing that even the strictest guardian of the Aryan gene pool Himmler allowed to form units from the Poles SS. The first sign was the Goral Legion of the Waffen-SS. Gorals are an ethnic group within the Polish nation. In 1942, the Nazis convened a Goral Committee in Zakopane. Was assigned "Goralenführer" Vaclav Krzheptovsky.
He and his inner circle made a number of trips to cities and villages, calling them to fight against the worst enemy of civilization - Judeo-Bolshevism. It was decided to create a Goral volunteer legion of the Waffen-SS, adapted for operations in mountainous areas. Krzheptovsky managed to collect 410 highlanders. But after a medical examination in the SS bodies, it remained 300 human.
Another Polish Legion of the SS was formed in mid-July 1944. It was entered 1500 Polish volunteers. In October, the legion was based in Rzechow, in December near Tomaszow. In January 1945, the legion was divided into two groups (1st Lieutenant Macnik, 2nd Lieutenant Errling) and sent to participate in anti-partisan operations in the Tuchol forests. In February, both groups were destroyed by the Soviet army.
President of the Academy of Military Sciences, General of the Army Mahmut Gareev gave such an assessment of the participation of a number of European countries in the fight against fascism: During the war, all of Europe fought against us. Three hundred and fifty million people, regardless of whether they fought with weapons in their hands, or stood at the machine, producing weapons for the Wehrmacht, did one thing.
During World War II, 20,000 members of the French Resistance died. And 200,000 French fought against us. We also captured 60,000 Poles. 2 million European volunteers fought for Hitler against the USSR.
In this regard, it looks at least strange to invite military personnel from a number of countries NATO take part in the parade on Red Square in honor of the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory, - says a member of the International Association of Historians of the Second World War, Professor of the Military Humanitarian Academy, Colonel Yuri Rubtsov. - This insults the memory of our defenders of the Fatherland, who died at the hands of numerous "European friends of Hitler".
Helpful Conclusion
During the Second World War against the Soviet Union, which had an initial population of just over 190 million. people fought a European coalition of more than 400 million. people, and when we were not Russians, but Soviet citizens, we defeated this coalition.
All of Europe fought against us but
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WHO AND IN WHAT NUMBER OF THE PEOPLES OF THE USSR Fought ON THE SIDE OF FASCIST GERMANY Our opponents (and for me - enemies) along that front line in Novorossia, in defiance of our identification of them with genetic traitors - Bandera, cite some crazy numbers about a million, otherwise and two Russians who fought on the side of the Germans. Some agree to the point that this number of the Russian population of the USSR fought in the Vlasov army alone. Follow the content in the group. There will be a continuation of the topic below. I will derive data on those who collaborated with the Nazis as a percentage of the number of peoples mentioned below, according to the 1939 census. Very interesting data are obtained. And for Ukrainians as well. Almost ahead of the rest. And they were far ahead of the Russians in terms of the number of traitors. 3 times ahead. The vaunted Cossacks also turned out to be leaders in terms of traitors. In vain Kolya Kozitsyn is crucifying that they have always stood guard over the people. More often people were sold or robbed, as in Novorosiya now. Pleased with the Kazan Tatars, in last place in terms of the number of collaborators. This was a revelation for me. But the Krymchaks are in the lead, the crests are far behind, having 4.6% compared to the Ukrainians, with their 0.9% of the population in 1939. I didn't expect anything else here. I know how massively they surrendered to the Germans in the Patriotic War. Not for beautiful eyes they were evicted from the Crimea. Russian, by the way, was 0.3% collaborating with the Germans. Sad descendants of Bandera and Shukhevych. And now on the topic of who sold the Motherland and how. And for how many pieces of silver. Even talking about the two million Russians who fought against the Bolshevik regime (the essence is against their own people), they probably also count 700 thousand emigrants. For all that, not all of them were ethnic Russians. These figures are given for a reason - they are an argument for the assertion that the Great Patriotic War is the essence of the Second Civil War of the Russian people against the hated Stalin. What can be said here? If it really happened that a million Russians stood up under the tricolor banners and fought to the death against the Red Army for a free Russia, shoulder to shoulder with their German allies, then we would have no choice but to admit that yes, The Great Patriotic War really became the Second Civil War for the Russian people. But was it so? To figure it out, one way or another, you should answer a few questions: how many were there, who were they, how did they get into the service, how and with whom did they fight, and what motivated them? WHO TO COUNT? The cooperation of Soviet citizens with the occupiers took place in various forms, both in terms of the degree of voluntariness and the degree of involvement in the armed struggle - from the Baltic SS volunteers who fought fiercely near Narva to the "Ostarbeiters" forcibly driven to Germany. I believe that even the most stubborn anti-Stalinists will not be able to enlist the latter in the ranks of fighters against the Bolshevik regime. Usually, these ranks include those who received rations from the German military or police department, or who held weapons received from the hands of the Germans or pro-German local government. That is, to the maximum, potential fighters against the Bolsheviks fall into: foreign military units of the Wehrmacht and the SS; eastern security battalions; building parts of the Wehrmacht; auxiliary personnel of the Wehrmacht, they are also "our Ivans" or Hiwi (Hilfswilliger: "voluntary helpers"); auxiliary police units ("noise" - Schutzmannshaften); border guard; "Air defense assistants" mobilized to Germany through youth organizations HOW MANY THERE WAS? We will probably never know the exact numbers, since no one really considered them, but some estimates are available to us. A lower estimate can be obtained from the archives of the former NKVD - until March 1946, 283,000 "Vlasov" and other uniformed collaborators were transferred to the authorities. The estimate from above can probably be taken from the works of Drobyazko, which serve as the main source of figures for the proponents of the "Second Civil" version. According to his calculations (whose method, unfortunately, he does not disclose), the following passed through the Wehrmacht, the SS and various pro-German paramilitary and police formations during the war years: 250,000 Ukrainians 70,000 Belarusians 70,000 Cossacks 150,000 Latvians 90,000 Estonians 50,000 Lithuanians 70,000 Central Asians 12,000 Volga Tatars Crimean Tatars 7,000 Kalmyks 40,000 Azerbaijanis 25,000 Georgians 20,000 Armenians 30,000 North Caucasian nationalities 310,000 people. There are, of course, other calculations that give a smaller total number, but let's not waste time on trifles, let's take Drobyazko's estimate from above as the basis for further reasoning. WHO WERE THEY? Hiwi and soldiers of the construction battalions can hardly be considered civil war fighters. Of course, their work freed German soldiers for the front, but exactly the same applies to the "Ostarbeiters". Occasionally, the hiwi were given weapons and fought alongside the Germans, but such occurrences are described in the unit's combat logs more as a curiosity than as a mass phenomenon. It is interesting to calculate how many were those who actually held weapons in their hands. The number of hiwis at the end of the war by Drobiazko is about 675,000, if you add construction units and take into account the losses during the war, then I think we are not very wrong in assuming that this category covers about 700-750,000 people out of a total of 1.2 million. This is consistent with with a share of non-combatants among the Caucasian peoples, in the calculation presented by the headquarters of the eastern troops at the end of the war. According to him, out of a total of 102,000 Caucasians who passed through the Wehrmacht and the SS, 55,000 served in the legions, Luftwaffe and SS and 47,000 in hiwi and construction units. It must be taken into account that the proportion of Caucasians enrolled in combat units was higher than the proportion of Slavs. So, out of 1.2 million who wore German uniforms, only 450-500 thousand did this, holding weapons in their hands. Let's now try to calculate the layout of the really combat units of the Eastern peoples. Asian battalions (Caucasians, Turks and Tatars) were formed 75 pieces (80,000 people). Including 10 Crimean police battalions (8,700), Kalmyks and special units, there are approximately 110,000 "combat" Asians out of a total of 215,000. It quite beats with the layout separately for Caucasians. The Baltics endowed the Germans with 93 police battalions (later partly reduced to regiments), with a total number of 33,000 people. In addition, 12 border regiments (30,000) were formed, partly staffed by police battalions, then three SS divisions (15, 19 and 20) and two volunteer regiments were created, through which about 70,000 people probably passed. Police and border regiments and battalions were partly directed to their formation. Taking into account the absorption of some units by others, in total, about 100,000 Balts passed through the combat units. In Belarus, 20 police battalions (5,000) were formed, of which 9 were considered Ukrainian. After the introduction of mobilization in March 1944, police battalions became part of the army of the Belarusian Central Rada. In total, the Belarusian Regional Defense (BKA) had 34 battalions, 20,000 people. Having retreated in 1944 together with the German troops, these battalions were consolidated into the Siegling SS Brigade. Then, on the basis of the brigade, with the addition of Ukrainian "policemen", the remnants of the Kaminsky brigade and even the Cossacks, the 30th SS division was deployed, which was subsequently used to staff the 1st Vlasov division. Galicia was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was seen as a potential German territory. It was separated from Ukraine, included in the Reich, as part of the General Government of Warsaw and put in line for Germanization. On the territory of Galicia, 10 police battalions (5,000) were formed, and subsequently the recruitment of volunteers for the SS troops was announced. It is believed that 70,000 volunteers turned up at the recruiting sites, but that many were not needed. As a result, one SS division (14th) and five police regiments were formed. Police regiments were disbanded as needed and sent to replenish the division. The total contribution of Galicia to the victory over Stalinism can be estimated at 30,000 people. In the rest of Ukraine, 53 police battalions (25,000) were formed. It is known that a small part of them became part of the 30th SS division, the fate of the rest is unknown to me. After the formation in March 1945 of the Ukrainian analogue of the KONR - the Ukrainian National Committee - the Galician 14th SS division was renamed the 1st Ukrainian and the formation of the 2nd began. It was formed from volunteers of Ukrainian nationality recruited from various auxiliary formations, they recruited about 2,000 people. Of the Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians, about 90 security "Ostbattalions" were formed, through which approximately 80,000 people passed, including the "Russian National People's Army" reorganized into five security battalions. Other Russian combat formations include the 3,000-strong 1st Russian national SS brigade Gil (Rodionov), who went over to the side of the partisans, the approximately 6,000-strong "Russian National Army" of Smyslovsky and the army of Kaminsky ("Russian Liberation People's Army"), which arose as the self-defense forces of the so-called. Lokot Republic. Maximum estimates of the number of people who passed through Kaminsky's army reach 20,000. After 1943, Kaminsky's troops retreated along with the German army and in 1944 an attempt was made to reorganize them into the 29th SS division. For a number of reasons, the reorganization was canceled, and the personnel were transferred to the understaffing of the 30th SS division. At the beginning of 1945, the armed forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (the Vlasov army) were created. The first division of the army is formed from the "ost battalions" and the remnants of the 30th SS division. The second division is formed from the "Ostbattalions", and partly from volunteer prisoners of war. The number of Vlasovites before the end of the war is estimated at 40,000 people, of which about 30,000 were former SS and Ostbattalions. In total, about 120,000 Russians fought in the Wehrmacht and the SS with weapons in their hands at different times. The Cossacks, according to Drobyazko's calculations, put up 70,000 people, let's accept this figure. HOW DID THEY GET INTO THE SERVICE? Initially, the eastern parts were staffed with volunteers from among the prisoners of war and the local population. Since the summer of 1942, the principle of recruiting the local population has changed from voluntary to voluntary-compulsory - an alternative to voluntary entry into the police is forced deportation to Germany, "ostarbeiter". By the autumn of 1942, the undisguised coercion begins. Drobyazko, in his dissertation, talks about raids on peasants in the Shepetovka region: those caught were offered a choice between joining the police or being sent to a camp. Since 1943, compulsory military service has been introduced in various "self-defenses" of the Reichskommissariat "Ostland". In the Baltic States, through mobilization, since 1943, SS units and border guards were recruited. HOW AND WITH WHOM DID THEY FIGHT? Initially, the Slavic eastern parts were created to carry out security services. In this capacity, they were supposed to replace the security battalions of the Wehrmacht, which, like a vacuum cleaner, were sucked out of the rear zone by the needs of the front. At first, the soldiers of the Ostbattalions guarded warehouses and railways, but as the situation became more complicated, they began to be involved in anti-partisan operations. The involvement of the Ostbattalions in the fight against the partisans contributed to their disintegration. If in 1942 the number of “Ostbattalion” soldiers who went over to the side of the partisans was relatively small (although this year the Germans were forced to disband the RNNA due to massive defections), then in 1943 14 thousand fled to the partisans (and this is very, very quite a few, with an average number of eastern units in 1943 of about 65,000 people). The Germans had no strength to observe the further decomposition of the Ostbattalions, and in October 1943 the remaining eastern units were sent to France and Denmark (while disarming 5-6 thousand volunteers as unreliable). There they were included as 3rd or 4th battalions in the regiments of the German divisions. Slavic eastern battalions, with rare exceptions, were not used in battles on the eastern front. In contrast, a significant number of Asian Ostbattalions were involved in the first line of the advancing German troops during the battle for the Caucasus. The results of the battles were contradictory - some showed themselves well, others - on the contrary, turned out to be infected with deserter moods and gave a large percentage of defectors. By the beginning of 1944, most of the Asian battalions also ended up on the Western Wall. Those who remained in the East were brought together in the East Turkic and Caucasian SS formations and were involved in the suppression of the Warsaw and Slovak uprisings. In total, by the time of the Allied invasion in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, 72 Slavic, Asian and Cossack battalions with a total number of about 70 thousand people had been assembled. In general, and in general, the Ostbattalions in battles with the allies showed themselves poorly (with some exceptions). Of the almost 8.5 thousand irretrievable losses, 8 thousand were missing, that is, most of them were deserters and defectors. After that, the remaining battalions were disarmed and involved in fortification work on the Siegfried Line. Subsequently, they were used to form parts of the Vlasov army. In 1943, Cossack units were also withdrawn from the east. The most combat-ready unit of the German Cossack troops, formed in the summer of 1943, the 1st Cossack division von Panwitz went to Yugoslavia to deal with Tito's partisans. There, they gradually gathered all the Cossacks, deploying the division into a corps. The division took part in the battles on the Eastern Front in 1945, fighting mainly against the Bulgarians. The Baltic States gave the largest number of troops to the front - in addition to three SS divisions, separate police regiments and battalions took part in the battles. The 20th Estonian SS division was defeated near Narva, but later restored and managed to take part in the last battles of the war. The Latvian 15th and 19th SS divisions in the summer of 1944 came under attack by the Red Army and could not withstand the blow. Large scale desertion and loss of combat capability are reported. As a result, the 15th division, having transferred its most reliable composition to the 19th, was assigned to the rear for use in the construction of fortifications. The second time it was used in combat in January 1945, in East Prussia, after which it was again withdrawn to the rear. She managed to surrender to the Americans. The 19th remained until the end of the war in Courland. Belarusian policemen and those freshly mobilized in the BKA in 1944 were assembled in the 30th SS division. After the formation, the division in September 1944 was transferred to France, where it took part in battles with the allies. Suffered heavy losses mainly from desertion. Belarusians ran across to the allies in batches and continued the war in the Polish units. In December, the division was disbanded, and the remaining personnel were transferred to staff the 1st Vlasov division. The Galician 14th SS division, barely smelling gunpowder, was surrounded near Brody and almost completely destroyed. Although she was quickly restored, she no longer took part in the battles at the front. One of her regiments was involved in the suppression of the Slovak uprising, after which she went to Yugoslavia to fight Tito's partisans. Since Yugoslavia is not far from Austria, the division managed to surrender to the British. The armed forces of the KONR were formed in early 1945. Although the 1st division of the Vlasovites was staffed almost entirely by veterans-punishers, many of whom had already been at the front, Vlasov soared Hitler's brains by demanding more time to prepare. In the end, the division still managed to get to the Oder front, where it took part in one attack against the Soviet troops on April 13. The very next day, the division commander, Major General Bunyachenko, ignoring the protests of his German immediate superior, took the division from the front and went to join the rest of Vlasov's army in the Czech Republic. The Vlasov army fought the second battle against its ally, attacking the German troops in Prague on May 5. WHAT MOVED THEM? The driving motives were completely different. First, among the eastern troops, one can single out the national separatists who fought for the creation of their own nation state, or at least a privileged province of the Reich. This includes the Balts, Asian legionnaires and Galicians. The creation of units of this kind has a long tradition - to recall at least the Czechoslovak Corps or the Polish Legion in the First World War. These would fight against the central government, no matter who was sitting in Moscow - the tsar, the secretary general or the popularly elected president. Secondly, there were ideological and stubborn opponents of the regime. These include the Cossacks (although partly their motives were national separatist), part of the personnel of the Ostbattalions, a significant part of the officer corps of the KONR troops. Thirdly, we can name the opportunists who staked on the winner, those who joined the Reich during the victories of the Wehrmacht, but fled to the partisans after the defeat at Kursk and continued to flee at the first opportunity. These probably made up a significant part of the Ostbattalions and the local police. There were also those on the other side of the front, as can be seen from the change in the number of defectors to the Germans in 1942-44: 1942 - 79769 people 1943 - 26108 people 1944 - 9207 people Fourthly, these were people who hoped to break out of the camp and with a convenient opportunity to go to theirs. It is difficult to say how many of these there were, but sometimes they were recruited for a whole battalion. And, finally, the fifth category - people who would rather survive. This includes the bulk of the hiwi and construction workers, who in this capacity received a much more nutritious ration than in the camp. AND WHAT IS THE RESULT? And the result is a picture completely different from what is drawn by ardent anti-communists. Instead of one (or even two) million Russians rallying under the tricolor flag in the fight against the hateful Stalinist regime, there is a very motley (and obviously not reaching a million) company of Balts, Asians, Galicians and Slavs who fought each for their own. And mostly not with the Stalinist regime, but with partisans (and not only Russians, but also with Yugoslav, Slovak, French, Polish), Western allies, and even with the Germans in general. Doesn't look much like a civil war, does it? Well, except to call these words the struggle of partisans with policemen, but the policemen fought by no means under the tricolor flag, but with a swastika on their sleeves. For the sake of justice, it should be noted that until the end of 1944, until the formation of the KONR and its armed forces, the Germans did not provide an opportunity for Russian anti-communists to fight for the national idea, for Russia without the communists. It can be assumed that if they had allowed this earlier, more people would have rallied “under the tricolor flag”, especially since there were still plenty of opponents of the Bolsheviks in the country. But this is “would” and besides, my grandmother also said in two. And in real history, no “millions under the tricolor flag” were observed. List of sources 1. S.I. Drobyazko Eastern formations in the Wehrmacht (dissertation) 2. S. Drobyazko, A. Karaschuk Russian Liberation Army 3. S. Drobyazko, A. Karaschuk Eastern volunteers in the Wehrmacht, police and SS 4. S. Drobyazko, A.Karashchuk Eastern legions and Cossack units in the Wehrmacht 5. O.V.Romanko Muslim legions in World War II 6. J.Hoffmann History of the Vlasov army 7. V.K.Shtrik-Shtrikfeldt Against Stalin and Hitler 8. N. M. Konyaev Vlasov. Two faces of the general.
The Soviet soldier left to fight for his native land, and in the end cleared the whole world of the Nazis
The further this day goes, the more gaps in the memory of descendants become. The voices of madmen are heard louder and louder, who are trying to convince the whole world that the contribution of the USSR to the victory over fascism is minimal. Silent about the fact that almost all of Europe diligently contributed to the strengthening of the Nazi army, and not to its defeat.
The countries occupied by Hitler always presented themselves as victims. Like, evil invaders came, what could we do against them? It was impossible to fight. They were forced to work under pain of death, starved and tortured. However, in reality, it turns out that in the West under the Germans, everything was not so bad. It was our troops, retreating, who blew up industrial enterprises so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy. Partisans and residents of the territories occupied by the Nazis staged sabotage and sabotage. In most occupied European countries, workers worked diligently, getting paid and drinking beer after work.
All for the front, all for victory
In 1938, the balance of power in the German and Czechoslovak armies was comparable. Moreover, the Czechs were technically well equipped: they provided 40 percent of world trade and military equipment, and their tanks were the best in Europe. And now this country surrenders to Hitler without a single peep. In addition to trophies, Germany gets at its disposal well-known factories: Skoda, CKD, Poldi, Zbroevka. And the complaisant Czechs begin to work diligently for the Nazis. Small arms, armored vehicles, self-propelled guns, Czech-made aircraft account for at least a quarter of the entire armament of the fascist army. Plus cars, ammunition and parts for V-2 missiles.
Life in the occupation on the territory of the USSR ... (photo privetsochi.ru)
Without the Czech military industry and Czech tanks, we would not have had four tank divisions, which would have made it impossible to attack the Soviet Union, - admitted Helmut Ritgen, lieutenant colonel of the Wehrmacht tank troops.
The workshops of the weapons factories stopped only on May 5, 1945. And throughout the war, not a single attempt at sabotage or sabotage! On the contrary, designers are modernizing weapons and fighting with Austrian colleagues for the right to develop and introduce an all-terrain vehicle designed for impenetrable Russian forests and swamps. And why not try if the owner is satisfied, and those who work well are given food at higher rates.
- The Czechs gave us all the necessary information about their tanks, - the German engineer Lieutenant Colonel Iken recalled with gratitude. - Czech officers were sure that their vehicles fully met the needs of the Wehrmacht. And we have never had to deal with acts of sabotage or any kind of resistance.
... and in France it was strikingly different (pictured is the poster for the photo exhibition "Parisians in Occupation")
In the German war, only guns are worth
The fascist company, equipped with French flamethrower tanks, especially distinguished itself in the capture of Sevastopol. Armored vehicles, howitzers, mortars, anti-tank guns, ammunition regularly came to the Wehrmacht from factories in France. The largest howitzer was produced here: shells weighing 1654 kg fired from it crushed the quarters of Leningrad. About 10,000 tanks, self-propelled guns and basic vehicles for their creation were supplied to Hitler by France and the Czech Republic. The allies of the Third Reich - Italy and Hungary gave half as much.
Industry and the economy continued to work rhythmically, trucks for the Wehrmacht rolled off the assembly line at Renault enterprises, - reported Otto Reile, assistant head of German military intelligence. - The French, without any coercion, produced in large volumes and without complaints products for our military industry.
The “frames” assembled in the Czech Republic and France hovered over our positions, indicating to the enemy artillerymen where it was better to aim. It was very hard to knock them down.
French aircraft engines were on the German Henschel-129 anti-tank attack aircraft and on the Messerschmitt-323 transport aircraft, which lifted seven times more cargo into the sky than any other, it even transported armored cars. 750 out of 894 Focke-Wulf-189 twin-hull artillery spotters - the famous "frames" that caused a lot of trouble to our troops - left the assembly lines of factories in Bordeaux and Prague. The Peugeot and Citroen factories also worked for the Nazi army: then the French auto industry was more powerful than the German one. Its products accounted for one-fifth of the fleet of the Nazi army.
Yes, there was a resistance movement in the country. However, the heroism of the underground is somewhat lost against the backdrop of the scope with which France provided assistance to the invaders. We have heard a lot about the 72 heroic pilots from the Normandie-Neman Aviation Regiment. And almost nothing about the 200,000 French volunteers who fought on the side of Hitler.
Almost 20,000 volunteers from Spain, formally neutral, fought on the side of HITLER. A medal was made especially for them, which veterans continued to wear after the war.
Helped as much as they could
10,000 armored vehicles, 9,000 aircraft, 17,000 aircraft engines, 12,000 artillery mounts, 350,000 trucks were received by the Fuhrer from little Austria. By virtue of their industrial capacities, factories in Poland, Holland, Denmark, and Norway regularly supplied products.
Strategic raw materials, weapons, materials, equipment - a united Europe provided the Nazis with everything they needed. Including human resources: about 2,000,000 people volunteered for the Nazi army. And often such warriors were more cruel than the Germans.
There are several sorties in my memory when they flew to the rear to bomb, - recalled Boris Rapoport, who during the war years was the navigator of the Po-2 night bomber. - In the summer of 1944, militants of the Polish Home Army massacred our hospital in the city of Minsk-Mazowiecki, killing 200 wounded and all the staff. After the attack, the Poles took refuge in the forest. So we were attracted - to bomb this ill-fated forest.
In total, according to experts, 350,000,000 people fought against the USSR. And it does not matter whether they fought with weapons in their hands or worked hard in mines and factories.
In 1945, hardly anyone would have dared to downplay the role of our army in the victory over Nazism.
To whom is war, and to whom is mother dear
The banks of neutral Switzerland held the finances of the Nazi government, as well as gold bars - 75 percent of the captured gold. Including melted down from teeth torn from the victims of concentration camps and jewelry removed from them. Swiss insurance companies also made a profit: until 1944 they issued 206,000 insurance policies in Germany. Business also did not lag behind: high-precision instruments, telephones, walkie-talkies, watches were regularly supplied to the Nazis. And the gas for use in concentration camps came from the laboratories of the chemical company Ciba (in 1996 it became part of the well-known pharmaceutical giant Novartis). Those prisoners who did not end up in the gas chambers could end up in Swiss factories. One of the companies that used slave labor is Nestlé, now well known to us.
However, there were also noble people in Switzerland. For example, doctors of the Red Cross, who voluntarily went to the battlefields. But they only helped the wounded of one side - not ours. And although the country took in 60,000 civilians who fled from Germany and Austria, 20,000 Jews were extradited to the Nazis and subsequently destroyed in concentration camps.
And the trial of the underground from Geneva, who collaborated with members of the French Resistance, looks absolutely stunning. They received a term, albeit a suspended one, for “violating neutrality”! However, there were no complaints against the neighbor of one of the heroes, who denounced them to the Nazis.
Sweden, which also declared neutrality in World War II, supplied Germany with iron ore and steel: a third of German ammunition and weapons were made from Swedish raw materials. In the period 1941 - 1943. it provided its territory for the transit of Nazi troops, weapons and cargo. And the Swedish king Gustav V in a personal letter thanked Hitler in October 1941 for the defeat of Bolshevism.
Just a fact
* A third of Japanese schoolchildren are sure that the Soviet Union dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
French Kiss
While Russian women plowed the land, harnessing themselves instead of cattle, Parisian women appeased the Nazis.
The occupation did not become a time of hardship and deprivation for the inhabitants of Paris. Judging by the photographs of those years, they felt quite comfortable. Social life in the capital of France continued to seethe. Despite the Nazi flags hung on government offices and crowds of people forced to wear yellow stars on their clothes.
The French researcher Patrick Boisseau in his book "1940 - 1945. Erotic years" describes the "horizontal cooperation" of Parisian women with the Germans. The Nazi army, having occupied the city, requisitioned all the brothels for their own needs. But this is not surprising, but the fact that French women lined up to serve the invaders. Eager to please their clients, they learned German and dyed their hair black for an exciting contrast to the blond Aryans. They created home comfort for the military detached from their homeland. In gratitude, the command allowed employees and visitors to brothels not to observe the curfew.
With the advent of the Germans, the number of "employees" of brothels increased six times
The fee for visiting elite brothels, where, for example, Hermann Goering visited, was comparable to the weekly salary of a high-ranking official. Somewhere there were besieged Leningrad, concentration camps with gas chambers, pain, hunger, death. And here, loving French women served the Nazi leadership champagne in antique glasses, the freshest cakes on silver trays, and delighted their ears with classical music. And with tears they escorted their clients to the Eastern Front.
These were the best years of my life, - the manager of one of the elite brothels, Madame Fabienne Jamet, recalled the times when half the world was buried in blood. - I have never spent time so cheerfully and carelessly. The nights during the occupation were fantastic!
Of the German troops concentrated on June 22, 1941 on the German-Soviet border, 20% were the troops of Hitler's European allies
Seventy years ago, the Great Patriotic War began. The date is as tragic as it is majestic. For all peoples of the former Soviet Union. But for Europe, sorry, - shameful. And I am by no means blasphemous. Judge for yourself.
In July 2009, in Vilnius, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly adopted the resolution “Reuniting a Divided Europe: Promoting Human Rights and Civil Liberties in the OSCE Region in the 21st Century”. This document, timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, contains the words, stunning in their cynicism: "... in the twentieth century, European countries experienced two powerful totalitarian regimes, Nazi and Stalin ..." If you follow this logic of European deputies, it turns out that Hitler and Stalin together attacked Europe. You see, gentlemen, they forgot that there was also the Anschluss of 1938 - the annexation of Austria to Germany, after which Austria disappeared, Ostmark appeared instead. Dear gentlemen, they do not remember that by the treacherous Munich Agreement (conspiracy) of 1938, Europe gave Czechoslovakia to be torn to pieces by Hitler. Apparently, the fact that Poland was defeated in 18 days, and only then Soviet troops were brought into its eastern regions, fell completely out of the mass consciousness of Europeans, France fell after 14 days (capitulated, pay attention to this strange coincidence, 22 June 1940) and Hitler's entire European campaign took six weeks.
And already by that time the Third Reich was not only Germany. It also officially included Austria, the Sudetenland, the "Baltic Corridor" captured from Poland, Poznan and Upper Silesia, as well as Luxembourg, Lorraine and Alsace, Upper Corinthia cut off from Yugoslavia. Germany's allies included Norway, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Spain, which allowed Hitler to form an additional 59 divisions during the war years, including 20 SS divisions, 23 separate brigades, several separate regiments, legions and battalions.
The Fuhrer believed that on August 25 his troops would march victoriously through Moscow, as planned by the Barbarossa plan. (Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, we note, was a participant in the Third Crusade, during which he drowned in the river. Symbolically, however!)
In June 1941, the crusade also began, the last and decisive one, designed to finally crown the triumph of Western civilization. The dream of Pope Pius XI came true, who back in February 1930 called for a united campaign against the USSR, and in 1933 concluded a concordat (agreement) with Nazi Germany. The era of thousand years of struggle was to be replaced by the era of thousand years of European domination. The defeat of Hitler proved to be the collapse of the centuries-old strategy of the West. And the West to this day cannot forgive itself for the biggest civilizational failure in history. First of all, this is evidenced by the very fact of the adoption of the OSCE PA resolution, by which Europe, equating the Soviet Union with Nazi Germany, assigns equal responsibility for the outbreak of World War II to both states. With frank cynicism, thus trying to remove, first of all, responsibility for the Great European War. Even despite the fact that on September 1, 2009 in Gdansk, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared to the whole world: “We recognize that Germany attacked Poland, unleashed the Second World War and caused incredible suffering,” the drums sounded again in Europe and frighteningly sounded: "Die Russen kommen" ("The Russians are coming").
Yes, calm down, finally, no one is coming to you with a sword, and is not going to go. It was you who came to us 70 years ago as uninvited guests almost in full European composition. Finland allocated 16 divisions and 3 brigades for the war with the USSR, Romania - 13 divisions and 9 brigades, Hungary - 4 brigades. In total - 29 divisions and 16 brigades of allied forces.
And when Italian and Slovak contingents joined the Germans a little later, by the end of July 41, the troops of Germany's allied countries amounted to almost 30% of the fascist forces.
Even in the victorious April 1945, the formations allied to the Red Army - Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Czechoslovak, French - accounted for only 12% of the number of Soviet troops operating at the front.
In total, 5.5 million people, 47.2 thousand guns and mortars, 4.3 thousand tanks and about 5 thousand combat aircraft were concentrated in the eastern grouping of troops of fascist Germany and its allies. The Wehrmacht was also armed with captured tanks of Czechoslovakia and France. The armies of Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia participated in the war against the Soviet Union. The Bulgarian army was involved in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia; there were no ground units on the Eastern Front. Large military contingents of France, Poland, Belgium, Albania and other countries fought against the USSR. The anti-Hitler coalition was also opposed by the collaborating states - Vichy France (the capital of Vichy, the puppet regime of Pétain), Norway (the Quisling regime), the Netherlands (the Mussert regime), Slovakia (the pro-fascist Tiso regime). Thus, participation in the “campaign to the East” was practically institutionalized.
Together, so to speak, with the official allies of Germany in the war against the USSR, citizens of those countries that did not officially fight the USSR and even, strange as it may seem, were, like, our allies. The "Legion of French Volunteers" mentioned above, numbering over six thousand people, went to the Eastern Front already in August 1941.
In addition to the French, separate battalions of the Dutch, Norwegians, and Danes fought with the Red Army on the Eastern Front as part of the Wehrmacht. Although Spain was not officially at war with the Soviet Union, nevertheless, from October 1941 until the end of 1943, the Spanish Blue Division was on the Eastern Front. 47,000 people passed through the division in rotation, 4,000 of them died, more than 1,500 were captured. The "Blue Division" was located, mainly under the besieged Leningrad.
The issue of besieged Leningrad should have been raised separately for a long time, and at a level not lower than the UN. In its odious resolution, the OSCE noted the "uniqueness of the Holocaust." But an act of genocide was actually committed against the Leningraders.
In Leningrad, 700,000 people died of starvation alone. The city was blocked by the troops of Germany, Spain, Italy, Finland. Their crime is that they did not provide the population with humanitarian corridors for the transport of food and for the exit of civilians from the besieged city, which caused enormous casualties.
Europe is obviously impressed only by the Katyn graves of Polish officers, but by no means the Leningrad graves of the elderly, women and children.
And if we continue talking about "crimes against humanity", which are emphasized in the European resolution, then it must be said about the attitude towards prisoners of war. In Soviet captivity, in addition to the Germans, there were 1.1 million citizens of European countries, among them - 500 thousand Hungarians, almost 157 thousand Austrians, 70 thousand Czechs and Slovaks, 60 thousand Poles, about 50 thousand Italians, 23 thousand French, 50 thousand Spaniards. There were also Dutch, Finns, Norwegians, Danes, Belgians and others. In our camps, 14.9% of all captured Nazis died. In German - 58% of the captured Red Army soldiers, 2.6% of the French and 4% of the Americans and the British.
There is an opinion that millions of Soviet soldiers died in captivity because Stalin did not sign the Geneva Convention, which regulates the humane treatment of prisoners. But Germany signed it and was obliged to abide by it. The signature of the USSR did not matter. The Nazis simply did not consider Russian people. The conclusion is clearly not in favor of Europe. Especially given that, say, France lost more than 600,000 troops in the war killed and wounded (Arthur Banks, A World Atlas of Military History, B.Ts. Urlanis, Wars and European population,
"History of the Second World War 1939-1945", vol. 3.): 84 thousand fell in hostilities in the defense of the national territory, 20 thousand - in the Resistance. And where did the remaining 500,000 French citizens die and get injured, on which German fronts? The question is purely rhetorical. A very similar situation with Poland, Belgium and other "active fighters against fascism." By the way, the weapons that Germany captured in the occupied countries were enough to form 200 divisions. Why, then, are the Europeans, who today put the Stalinist and Hitler regimes on the same level, but did not arm themselves and did not act against both dictators at once? Or - at least against one? Instead, the European countries silently assumed the costs of maintaining the German occupation troops on their territories. France, for example, from the summer of 1940, allocated 20 million German marks daily, and from the autumn of 1942 - 25 million each. These funds were more than enough not only to provide the German troops with everything necessary, but also for the war against the USSR. European countries supplied fascist Germany with more than 80 billion marks, of which 35 billion were given by France.
And not in the Wehrmacht, I emphasize, concentrated the most ideological non-German participants in the war. Much more of them were in the SS.
In 1943-1944. seven new SS divisions appeared: an Albanian mountain rifle division, a Hungarian cavalry division and two infantry divisions, two Croatian mountain rifle divisions, and the 14th SS Grenadier Division "Galicia" formed in Western Ukraine. The Germans also considered the Dutch, Belgians, Danes and British to be peoples of Germanic origin. The so-called German formations of the SS troops in the second half of 1943 consisted of the divisions "Netherlands", "Landstorm Netherlands", "Nordland", "Langermak", "Wallonia". The 29th SS Infantry Division (Italian), the 31st SS Infantry Division "Bohemia and Moravia" (from Czech volunteers, mainly Volksdeutsch), the 33rd SS Infantry Division "Charlemagne" (from French volunteers). On the number and nationality of the "German" volunteers in the SS troops as of January 31, 1944, the following data are available (persons): Norwegians - 5,878, Danes - 7,006, Dutch - 18,473, Flemings - 6,033, Walloons - 2,812, Swedes - 601, Swiss - 1,584, French - 3,480, English - 432, Irish - 115, Scots - 107. Total: 46,521 people, that is, a full-blooded army corps. The last soldier to receive the Knight's Cross for bravery on April 29, 1945 in the Reich Chancellery was the French SS volunteer Eugene Valo, and the French SS battalion from the Charlemagne division defended the Reichstag when the Germans had already fled from there (Special Forces of Russia, N 07 (58) , July 2001). During the war years, the German Wehrmacht and the SS troops replenished over 1.8 million people from among the citizens of European states and nationalities.
Let us remind those who today, while restoring the "national memory", suddenly lost their historical memory, one curious detail. The criminal nature of the organization of the SS as a whole was recognized by the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal: “The SS was used for purposes that are criminal and include the persecution and extermination of Jews, atrocities and murders in concentration camps, excesses committed in the administration of occupied territories, the implementation of the program for the use of slave labour, mistreatment of prisoners of war and their murder ... "The Tribunal included in the SS members of the Waffen-SS and members of any kind of police services, emphasizing that "it is impossible to single out any part of the SS that would not take part in this criminal activity" . And today, before the eyes of the whole of Europe, in the Baltic States, in Ukraine, the fascists and their modern descendants are being glorified. There is, it is clear, for what and for the sake of what.
The entire European economy, from Norway to France and Czechoslovakia, worked for the fascist war machine. Even neutral countries such as Sweden and Switzerland provided assistance to Nazi Germany, some with iron ore, steel, others with money, precision instruments, and so on. The Swedes also supplied bearings and rare earth elements to Germany. German military orders were carried out by all the large, technically advanced enterprises in Europe. Suffice it to say that only the Czech Skoda factories produced as much military products in the year before the attack on Poland as the entire British military industry. The entire European potential was thrown into the war against the USSR, whose potential, according to formal economic standards, was about four times less (and decreased by about half in the first six months of the war).
One English historian correctly wrote that it was then that "Europe became an economic whole." So, shouldn't she recognize Hitler as the first president of the European Union (posthumously) today, what is called in fact?
But that's not all. Germany received significant assistance through intermediaries from the United States and Latin America. The Rockefeller oil corporation Standard Oil, for example, sold Hitler $20 million worth of gasoline and lubricants through the German concern I.G. Farbenindustry alone. One Venezuelan branch of Standard Oil sent 13,000 tons of oil to Germany every month, which the powerful chemical industry of the Reich immediately processed into gasoline. Until the middle of 1944, the tanker fleet of "neutral" Spain worked almost exclusively for the needs of the Wehrmacht, supplying it with American "black gold", formally intended for Madrid. It got to the point that German submarines, refueling with American fuel directly from Spanish tankers, immediately went to sink American transports carrying weapons for the USSR.
Fuel was not limited. The Germans received from across the ocean tungsten, synthetic rubber, parts and spare parts for the automotive industry, which the Fuhrer supplied with his great friend Mr. Henry Ford Sr. It is known that the Wehrmacht received 30% of tires manufactured at Ford factories, and only in the autumn of 1942, the Ford branch in Switzerland repaired two thousand German trucks. As for the total volume of Ford-Rockefeller deliveries to Germany, there is still no complete information: a commercial secret, they say. But the information that has leaked out is enough to understand that trade with Berlin was no less intensive than with Moscow. The profits that the Americans have received are in figures of a truly astronomical order. However, as practice has shown, sworn friends also helped the Soviet Union, not at a loss to their own pocket.
Lend-Lease was not free. We paid for everything in gold, caviar, fur. In addition, already in the 70s, the USSR undertook to pay the US 722 million dollars in stages. After the collapse of the USSR, Russia took over the Lend-Lease debt, transferring the last installment in 2001.
According to the deputy of the State Duma, MGIMO professor Vladimir Medinsky, in 1940 there were eight million unemployed in America, in 1942 - not a single one. Medinsky also cites a very curious statement by a professor of history at the University of Kansas Wilson: "The spread of overeating was one of the signs of a marked increase in the standard of living of Americans during the war." And in a brief comment, he aptly notes: since then, the Americans have been the fattest nation on the planet, and they start to lose weight a little, somewhere a war immediately begins. Isn't it in North Africa and the Middle East now?
Blitzkrieg, however, did not work out. It also failed to defeat the Soviet Union. Moreover, from 190 to 266 of the most combat-ready divisions of the fascist bloc acted against the Red Army in various periods of the war. Note that the Anglo-American troops in North Africa were opposed by 9 to 20 divisions, in Italy up to 26, in Western Europe after June 1944 - from 56 to 75 divisions. On the Soviet-German front, the German armed forces suffered more than 73% of losses.
The Red Army defeated 507 Nazi and 100 divisions of its allies, almost 3.5 times more than the allies on all fronts of World War II.
The bulk of Wehrmacht military equipment was destroyed here: more than 75% of aircraft (over 70 thousand), up to 75% of tanks and assault guns (about 50 thousand), 74% of artillery pieces (167 thousand), etc. On the eastern front the fighting was carried out with the greatest intensity. Of the 1,418 days of the war, 1,320 were active battles. On the North African front, respectively, out of 1,068 - 309; Italian from 663 - 49. The spatial scope was: along the front 4 - 6 thousand km, which is four times more than the North African, Italian and Western European fronts combined. In terms of its scope and strategic significance, the four-year battle on the Soviet-German front became the main component of the Second World War, since the main burden of the fight against Nazi aggression fell on our country.
The Soviet people made the greatest sacrifice on the altar of Victory. The USSR lost 26.6 million people, tens of millions were injured and maimed, the birth rate dropped sharply, and the standard of living of the population dropped significantly. Huge damage was done to the national economy. The cost of damage amounted to 679 billion rubles. 1,710 cities and towns, more than 70 thousand villages, more than six million buildings, 32 thousand enterprises, 65 thousand km of railways were destroyed and burned. The war devastated the treasury, led to a number of negative consequences in the economy, demography, psychology, morality, which together amounted to incredibly large indirect costs of the war.
The given figure - 679 billion rubles, alas, does not exhaust all the losses of the USSR. During the period of the Patriotic War alone, the national economy in the occupied regions of the USSR was underproduced, therefore, lost: 307 million tons of coal, 72 billion kWh of electricity, 38 million tons of steel, 136 thousand tons of aluminum, 58 thousand tractors, 90 thousand machine tools, 63 million centners of sugar, 11 billion poods of grain, 1,922 million centners of potatoes, 68 million centners of meat and 567 million centners of milk. These colossal quantities of goods would have been produced even if production had remained at the level of 1940. But the rate of growth was constantly increasing.
No country in its entire history has suffered such losses. A huge territory in the west of the USSR by May 1945 lay in ruins. The enemy made 25 million people homeless. The material damage caused to the country by the war was equal to almost 30% of the national wealth. For comparison: in the UK - 0.9%, in the US - 0.4%.
When did we have to build that same democracy, the absence of which Europe constantly reproaches us, and even according to the model strictly set by it? Here - I would live!
Europe, it seems, has begun to see the light little by little. For some time now, there has been a discussion in Austrian society about who Austria was during the war years - the first victim or the first collaborator. And recently, the authorities of the Austrian capital announced plans to create a memorial in honor of the soldiers who deserted from Hitler's army. Well, what kind of war they had - now they have such heroes. Over one and a half million Austrians - one in four! - served in the Nazi army. Of the 35 divisions formed in the "Ostmark", 17 acted against the USSR. And after that, the Austrians still dare to argue: why not declare themselves victims of fascism? What refined hypocrisy! Quite characteristic, by the way, for the current European "fighters" against totalitarianism. Nevertheless, even such sly discussions do not take place in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Finland, former allies of Germany, or in the same Czech Republic, Poland, the Baltic countries, which produced weapons for the Third Reich and supplied it with their workers and soldiers. The heirs who were afraid of Hitler, apparently, do not have enough courage either.
On May 1, 2011, the Simon Wiesenthal Center published a list of nine countries in which the acts of Nazi criminals during the Second World War are not investigated due to the statute of limitations or "ideological restrictions". In addition to Austria, which gave the world Adolf Hitler, it also includes Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Norway, neutral Sweden, and even Canada, which fought on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition. Ukraine should also be included in this list, where veterans of the SS division "Galicia" and Bandera fighters of the OUN-UPA are honored.
It is noteworthy that as many Balts fought on the side of Germany as on the side of the USSR, in other words, for these republics, the Soviet-German war was, among other things, also a civil war.
About 100 thousand Latvians, 36 thousand Lithuanians and 10 thousand Estonians served in the German army, mainly in the SS troops. Therefore, today it is difficult to get rid of the idea that among the representatives of the current ruling stratum of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia there are many political heirs of that part of the elite of their countries, which in the early 40s of the last century advocated going over to the side of Germany. After all, the Germans repressed mostly Jews, Poles, and Russians, while the ethnic Balts, loyal to the New Order, eked out a relatively quiet existence. The Nazis were in no hurry to let them in on their plans, according to which, according to one of the "fuhrers" of the SS Konrad Mayer, from among the Baltic population in the places of their current residence, over 50% of Estonians, up to 50% of Latvians and up to 15% of Lithuanians could be left and Germanized . The rest of the Balts, like 80-85% of the Poles, were to be evicted "to a certain region of Western Siberia." The Poles, by the way, out of the 35 million population of the country lost six. If it weren’t for the Red Army, many who are now demanding compensation from Russia for the “Soviet occupation” would have experienced the Nazi slogans: “To each his own” and “Work makes you free,” as it was written on the gates of concentration camps.
In 1944-1945. The Soviet Union fulfilled its liberation mission by eliminating fascist domination in Europe. About seven million Soviet soldiers participated in the liberation of 10 European countries. Nearly a million people gave their lives for their freedom. Without the Red Army and its immeasurable sacrifices, the liberation of Europe from the cruel yoke of Nazism would have been impossible. But Europe demands repentance from Russia. Allegedly, following the example of the Germans, although no one has heard German repentance and is unlikely to ever hear. And what should the post-war generations repent of before the world? Everyone himself must atone for his sins, otherwise it turns out un-Christian. After all, Europe was set up and grew up precisely on the Christian faith, however, it has forgotten this - its main value. Only she and, above all, she herself is guilty of unleashing the most destructive and bloody war in the history of mankind. And the Soviet Union is the only force in the world that in 1941 stopped the victorious march of fascist Germany. Europe, terribly democratic and civilized, would fall on its knees before Russia in deep repentance. But it is Russia that she wants to see on her knees. And today it is quite legitimate to put the question this way: maybe Europe did not want liberation at all?
History has repeatedly taught us that we should not have illusions about "grateful humanity." Today, it is not so much the ideological as the geopolitical focus of the OSCE resolution that is most clearly visible. The international status of the Russian Federation still rests on the succession from the USSR. It is based on two so far unshakable substances - a place in the world club of nuclear powers and the position of one of the five members of the UN Security Council with the right of veto. And this status is a consequence of the victory of the USSR in World War II. The resolution is aimed precisely at undermining the legitimacy of Russia's status in the world. Western anti-communism has been replaced by openly herd Russophobia.
And with good reason, I will allow myself to call the resolution "The reunification of a divided Europe: the promotion of human rights and civil liberties in the OSCE region in the 21st century" - the Vilnius conspiracy.
It does not unite in any way, but, on the contrary, divides the reunited Europe, as the continent and the Munich Agreement once divided: on the one hand, again the West, and on the other side, again Russia. In such an incredible way, two sad 70th anniversaries are now intertwined. Rushing, it would seem, into the future, Europe actually descends into the past, into the post-versailles world order, which gave rise to both Hitler and the Second World War. And against whom are you going to fight this time, gentlemen Europeans?
Valery Panov
Special for the Centenary
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