Posted on 02/12/2024 7:40:53 AM PST by marcusmaximus
The higher the Soviet Death Toll, the better for Stalin. It was his bargaining chip at Yalta and Potsdam.
Yup - the Red Army were expended at horrific rates so Stalin could control Eastern Europe when the war was finally over.
I should also mention that he was vicious enough to expend American lives in his quest for domination: look at what he did to us in Poltava, when we sent a B-17 unit there to bomb Ploesti from the East. He let the Germans know we were there and we were attacked before we had a chance to attack them.
Stalin was a cold-hearted sonofab_tch
And Stalin was more than happy to let Hitler take care of his “Jewish Problem.”
I don’t know why you are doing this.
I am a former US Air Force officer. Study of Soviet military doctrine was required for Squadron Officers School.
The official numbers of lend lease aircraft to the Soviets numbered about 18,000.
Soviet produced aircraft in substantial numbers. The Ilyushin-2 was produced numbering 36,182 and thus was the most produced military aircraft of all time. It was the IL-2 that won WW II because it prevented Luftwaffe resupply of the encircled 6th Army at Stalingrad.
The other Soviet fighter aircraft were Yak versions of 1, 3, 7 and 9. These were produced numbering 36715.
Note that these two categories, IL-2 and Yak variants accounted for about 50% of total Soviet aircraft inventory. Note this reality compared to the 18K Lend Lease shipments (not all of which arrived airworthy).
When you finally realize that US history books are propaganda, you are freed to do the necessary study of reality. This is not a particular US failing. Most countries do this sort of thing. That’s why you must read broadly.
The reason that the IL-2 was the most-produced aircraft? Because they were piloted by novices and annihilated in droves. There was a reason why German aces racked up such huge numbers of kills: IL-2s. And the IL-2 didn't "win" the Battle of Stalingrad: the Red Army did when they completely encircled Stalingrad and set up massive antiaircraft batteries to shoot down the lumbering JU-52s, when the weather even allowed them to fly.
Typical Air Force "air power wins the wars" silly stuff. We win wars when the ground pounders run our flag up their flagpole.
Unlike you, I derived my data from speaking to actual veterans of WWII over the years - including Soviet veterans.
I know all about propaganda - and the communists are the world's leading lying propagandists. If lying and spying were Olympic events, the Russians would win the Gold, every time. My daughter brought home some US propaganda in her 6th Grade history book. It had exactly one sentence about the Vietnam War, my war - and it was "Vietnam was an unpopular war, and young people across the country rose up in opposition to it". There was a whole more about our war than that.
If you want to catch up on your reading, you are welcome to read from my library.
None of that is all that relevant.
The Soviet aircraft numbers dwarfed Lend Lease. But Lend Lease is an obsession of US WW II history.
I had command of a small satellite recon development squadron. Constant assignments of counting Soviet nuclear assets while reviewing TRW submittals for upgrades. If you were there, you shoulda looked up and waved. You may be on disk somewhere.
You will like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-2
While I was working on a project to distribute humanitarian aid under Ambassador Armitage in 1991, I was given command of a Russian infantry company for two weeks. At the end of that assignment, I had 120 Russian (and assorted other ethnicities) who wanted to rotate home with me. One of my accomplishments during two week period was to obtain a replacement Bronze Star medal for a veteran of the "great Patriotic War" who received it for a courageous act he did in front of an American officer when they met at the Elbe.
I served for 27 years, finishing as an Artillery Battalion Commander. If you find my photograph among your satellite images, I am likely smiling.
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