Post by SolomonWIn his book "The battle of Moscow by Col Albert Seaton" he states the
following in his conclusion
"It is difficult to escape the conclusion that Stalin was the sole military
commander and that the plans for the defence of Moscow, and the subsequent
counter-offensive were drawn up at his direction. Except that he was
commander of the largest of the four fronts, Zhukov took little or no part
in the planning of the counter-offensive ... Far from being dependent on
any of his generals, Stalin, caustic and insulting, treated them little
better than serfs."
What are your thoughts on this comment?
My thoughts are, Yes, but...
Yes, Stalin was in command of the battle, he imagined himself to be the
only trustworthy commander, and he ridiculed and disregarded much of the
advice from his generals. But, I think it would be a serious
misjudgment to give the credit to Stalin for winning the battle. The
real credit goes to Adolf Hitler.
Hitler and Stalin each attempted to outdo the other in making serious
mistakes. Stalin made more mistakes than Hitler, but the advantages on
his side were so great that he won in spite of that.
Stalin's mistakes began with the Red Army purges in the late 1930's.
They continued with his throwing away the Soviet Air Force in suicidal
attacks on the advancing Germans that resulted in most of the planes and
experienced pilots being lost. This was followed by misguided counter
offensives at Smolensk and misguided attempts to hold the lines
resulting in "cauldrons" at Smolensk, Kiev, Bryansk, Vyazma, and
elsewhere in which entire armies were captured, and much of the
available equipment captured or destroyed.
Stalin's basic strategy seemed to reduce to:
1) Attack wherever possible, even if the men on the scene say it's
hopeless. Stalin specialized in sending unsupported troops into lines
of German artillery and machine guns. Some of them didn't even have
rifles, being told to pick up guns from the ground as their comrades died.
2) Defend everywhere, even if the defensive positions cannot be held and
the men will be killed or captured, again disregarding the opinions of
the men on the ground.
3) Shoot anyone who baulks at 1) or 2).
As the war went on, Hitler more and more adopted this war losing
strategy while Stalin, more secure in both his winning position and in
trust of his generals, began to allow more creative and intelligent
thinking.
Here are the mistakes that Hitler made that cost him the battle of Moscow:
1) He started too late. The destruction of Yugoslavia set the invasion
plan back.
2) He held up the army too long in the center, deciding to move north
and south for a while and only starting the final offensive against
Moscow on October 2nd, leading to point 3.
3) He misjudged, or perhaps more accurately, failed to even think about,
the winter weather in central Russia. Neither motor vehicles, weapons,
or men were properly equipped for the sub-zero weather that was
encountered. There was no preparation for the mud, the ice, or the
miserable state of the railroads and roads needed to support the front,
or the resources needed to move supplies and ammunition.
4) He turned all of the local people against him with his "war of
annihilation" that considered all Slavs to be subhumans whose lives
meant nothing and whose property now belonged to him.
Fortunately for Stalin, although he had thrown away most of his formerly
formidable European armies, he still had an excellent army in Siberia,
well equipped and experienced for winter operations, that he was able to
bring to Moscow to save the day.
Even so, Stalin managed to get a huge number of them killed, but not
before they saved him and Moscow.
Alan