“300 Villages Fall” to Soviet troops.
300 Villages today, 450 a few days ago, a thousand last month ... what a toll of human suffering.
I’ve previously posted the reasons the Soviets always talk about the “populated places” re-occupied by Soviet troops. Although the Soviet steamroller is rolling along, the Germans are still inflicting heavy casualties. So when the Soviets “liberate” these populated places, every male between the ages of 15 and 45 are given some scrap of uniform, a weapon, a few hours of training and a bottle of vodka. They are then considered fit to be Red Army soldiers and go take their revenge on the Germans. As long as they are Russians, they are highly motivated to do so. But they aren’t well trained and that’s one reason the Germans inflict so many casualties on them. But so long as the Soviets can keep occupying these “populated places,” they get sources of fresh meat for the meatgrinder. Given the nature of the war in the east, it’s the only way the Soviets can keep the steamroller going.