Posted on 09/06/2009 6:03:06 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
This was entirely horse cavalry, correct? The guy who wrote this article would have benefited from a critique by General Patton.
Paulus had made his bones on the General Staff. Basically a staff jockey. He did much of the work on the final draft of BARBAROSSA.
Prior to receiving command of Sixth Army, Paulus had been sent by Halder to North Africa to evaluate Rommel. the report was not favorable [and fit in nicely with Halder’s opinion of Rommel]. So it really is amusing to see the two of them, in late 1942 - early 1943 faced with the same choice: obeying Hitler, and sacrificing their arnmies, or disobeying Hitler and saving their men. Guess who chose which?
Problem that showed up clearly in Russia was the combination of distance, poor road net and largely ‘leg’ infantry formations [with largely horse drawn transport] comprising the bulk of the German Infantry Divisions. What is truly amazing is not that they failed to close the cauldrons, but that they achieved the marches they did, at speed.
Great reading. And now we know why the French were so vague in their reports.
It was entirely horse cavalry, but not really intended to fight as such, with lances and sabres and whatnot. Instead, the proper 18th or 19th Century term would have been “Dragoons.” They were armed with rifles, usually light carbines, and in the event of a firefight, intended to dismount and fight on foot as light infantry. By 1939, the whole horse thing was intended for mobility to the battlefield, not on it.
Sounds like mounted infantry, They were doing this in the US Civil War, not a good idea against tank cavalry.
I want to stay at the Hotel Empire!
Churchill thought the Irish might be hiding and supplying U-Boats?
After that blundering bombing raid this must have been really worrying for the top brass.
I was pretty taken aback by that too. I see a lot of the reporting so far fall more under the category of wishful thinking than reality. I guess it makes sense in a way. In many respects there is not a lot of concrete information and the journalist is left to fill in the blanks, or they have an agenda, or both.
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