Victory at Stalingrad - 12:00 February 2nd 1943

"The sudden silence was overwhelming and some of our soldiers, habituated to the constant din of fighting, couldn't stand it. The only time there was silence was just before an enemy attack. Men were shooting rifles, letting off grenades, just to relieve the tension." (Lieutenant A. Mereshko, 62nd Army).
"Then all our soldiers began to sing. We sang the Russian songs which helped to sustain us when all seemed hopeless." (Mark Slavin, 45th Division)

The German surrender at Stalingrad in February 1943 was the strategic turning point of WW2. After Stalingrad, the Germans had no hope of winning on the eastern front and that meant inevitable defeat in the wider conflict for WW2 was primarily a Soviet-German war.

When Germany launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22nd 1941 and invaded the Soviet Union, they launched a war of annihilation, a war to destroy ’judeobolshevism’ by the mass murder of Soviet citizens. Over the next four years more than 26 million Soviet citizens were killed, almost 11 million from the Armed Forces - at Stalingrad alone a million Russian people lost their lives.

In remembering the battle of Stalingrad we pay homage to the immense heroism of the soldiers of the Red Army. Despite Antony Beevor's attempt to denigrate, contemporary evidence is overwhelming: it was the sheer valour and guts of the soldiers of the 62nd Army, particularly the 13th Guards, which turned what was a militarily hopeless position into final victory.

"For us, it was life and death which met on the Volga. And it was life which won the fight." (Marshal K. Rokossovsky)

Welsh Guards salute Victory Day in Moscow

For the first time since the end of WW2 British soldiers have taken part in the annual Victory Day parade in Moscow's Red Square.

76 Guardsmen from 2 Company The 1st Battalion The Welsh Guards joined 10,500 Russian soldiers and contingents from the US, France and Poland in the parade to mark the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Germany in 1945.

The sacrifices made by the Soviet people in WW2 were staggering - almost 25 million citizens were killed (including 10 million military personnel). It is not surprising, then, that the annual Victory Day parade still has an immense emotional hold on the Russian people.

Guardsman Ian Mundy said: "There is a sense of pride to be in this massive parade on Red Square. It seems that everyone is interested in us as well and I'm proud to be a part of that.'

Major Dai Bevan, Company Commander, commented: “This (experience) typifies the polarity of our job as Guardsmen and as infantry soldiers – last year we were in Afghanistan and now we’re marching in Red Square as part of his incredible occasion.

The Guardsmen's presence in the parade not only recognised that Britain and the Soviet Union fought together to defeat Germany in 1945 but also reflected the current wish of the Russian leadership to improve relations with NATO.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said: “At this solemn parade, the soldiers of Russia, the states of the CIS and the anti-Hitler coalition march together. Only together can we counter present-day threats. Only as good neighbours can we resolve problems of global security in order that the ideals of justice and good triumph in all of the world and that the lives of future generations will be free and happy.”


WalesOnline: Welsh Guards march in Moscow parade
BBC: British troops mark VE Day with Red Square parade
MoD: British soldiers march on Red Square in historic parade

Victory at Stalingrad - 12:00 February 2nd 1943

"The sudden silence was overwhelming and some of our soldiers, habituated to the constant din of fighting, couldn't stand it. The only time there was silence was just before an enemy attack. Men were shooting rifles, letting off grenades, just to relieve the tension." (Lieutenant A. Mereshko, 62nd Army).
"Then all our soldiers began to sing. We sang the Russian songs which helped to sustain us when all seemed hopeless." (Mark Slavin, 45th Division)

The German surrender at Stalingrad in February 1943 was the strategic turning point of WW2. After Stalingrad, the Germans had no hope of winning on the eastern front and that meant inevitable defeat in the wider conflict for WW2 was primarily a Soviet-German war.

When Germany launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22nd 1941 and invaded the Soviet Union, they launched a war of annihilation, a war to destroy ’judeobolshevism’ by the mass murder of Soviet citizens. Over the next four years more than 26 million Soviet citizens were killed, almost 11 million from the Armed Forces - at Stalingrad alone a million Russian people lost their lives.


In remembering the battle of Stalingrad we pay homage to the immense heroism of the soldiers of the Red Army. Despite Antony Beevor's attempt to denigrate, contemporary evidence is overwhelming: it was the sheer valour and guts of the soldiers of the 62nd Army, particularly the 13th Guards, which turned what was a militarily hopeless position into final victory.

"For us, it was life and death which met on the Volga. And it was life which won the fight." (Marshal K. Rokossovsky)

Russian soldiers have to carry on making do and mending

On the subject of cuts in the Russian military (see below), Moscow has decided that it can now no longer afford to go ahead with the planned replacement of the army's uniforms.

Last July the Russian Federation Ministry of Defence announced that it was going to replace the current drab Soviet-style uniforms with snazzy, designer outfits more appropriate (well, they thought anyway) for a modern army.

Since then, like everywhere else, money has become tight in Moscow and so the guys in the Russian army are going to have to carry on patching their old kit. Mind you, having reduced the size of the army so massively, there must be storage depots packed full of surplus stuff; but there again, that's probably long since mysteriously disappeared.

BBC: Russian army scraps new uniforms

Top heavy Russian officer corps faces the axe

While Britain's Armed Forces are still trying to boost recruitment to reach their target strengths, the Russian military is shedding personnel by the thousand.

The Russian news agency, Tass, earlier in the week quoted one of the country's Deputy Defence Ministers,
Nicholai Pankov, as saying that more that 35,000 officers are to be culled in 2009 as part of sweeping military reforms.

This is in line with Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov's announcement at the end of last year that new restructuring would eventually see the current 355,000 officers reduced to 150,000 by 2012.

Russia's Armed Forces have already been reduced to 1.13 million troops from the 4 million in the Soviet Army of Cold War days. So you can understand why they've now got round to decimating the officer corps. The planned reforms aim to further decrease the number of troops to below 1 million.

As you would expect, this "downsizing" has met with considerable grumbling from Russia's military brass. Several top generals who opposed them have lost their jobs.

Defence Committee report on UAVs contribution to ISTAR

The House of Commons Defence Committee has just published the results of its inquiry into Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and their contribution to Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) capability. The report is both comprehensive and incomprehensible (to me anyway). I think it basically says that the capabilities of UAVs have increased significantly in recent years and they are collecting increasing amounts of ISTAR information for dissemination to commanders on the ground (in Iraq and Afghanistan).

The three main concerns raised by the Committee are

• The current shortage of ground operators (48%) and specialist intelligence analysts (18%) could undermine the potential of UAVs. There are "substantial deficits in the number of UAV operators in the Army and the position may worsen when the Watchkeeper UAV system enters service at the end of the decade. .... The MoD must address the manning deficits in these areas in order to gain the maximum value from its current and future UAV systems,"
• Although UAVs are now providing British troops with "battle-winning" electronic surveillance capabilities, the MoD was slow to appreciate their potential and has had to buy in UAVs (Reapers, Desert Hawks and Hermes 450s ) as a "stop-gap filler" while it awaits the delivery of its new Watchkeeper system in 2010. That these purchases have been made through Urgent Operational Requirements (UORs) underlines their unplanned nature. "The MoD must push forward with its planned improvements so that our Armed Forces can continue to achieve information superiority over the enemy."
• It also warned that the MoD needed to improve the way the material gathered by the UAVs was processed and disseminated to commanders on the ground, with one major programme already experiencing delays.
  

Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth said UAVs had proved to be an invaluable asset giving our forces the vital information they need to stay one step ahead of the enemy. "Whether it be targeting Taliban or supporting troops on patrol, their ability to feed back images and videos in real time, loiter over and survey an area for enemy activity means they are an invaluable asset for our ground commanders. They have a crucial role to play in future operations and we will continue to invest in them."

Two interesting innovations in the Robotic Arms Race (RAR) mentioned by the Committee are

• Autonomous UAVs. The development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) will provide UAVs with battlefield autonomy. "Using on and off board sensors to gain situational awareness of the local battlespace and tactical picture, the autonomous system will then prioritise the vehicle actions taking into account weapon and fuel states, target priorities and deconfliction (?) with other air operations."
• Armed UAVs. The MoD has recently used a Reaper UAV to fire weapons during current military operations in Afghanistan. DEFCOM has asked the MoD to look into the impact armed UAVs could have on future manned aircraft (Joint Strike Fighter). It also asked that the MoD sets out the broad ethical and legal issues which arise from using military UAVs and how it is seeking to address these; whether the MoD is best qualified to do this is debateable.
  

Link> DEFCOM: The contribution of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to ISTAR capability
Link> Armed Forces International: Potential of British Military UAVs Undermined: MPs

Жди меня и я вернусь - Wait for Me

WW2 poem by Konstantin Simonov - written November 1941
Wait for me and I'll return, only wait very hard.
Wait when you are filled with sorrow as you watch the yellow rain.
Wait when the wind sweeps the snowdrifts.
Wait in the sweltering heat.
Wait when others have stopped waiting, forgetting their yesterdays.
Wait even when from afar no letters come for you.
Wait even when others are tired of waiting.

Wait for me and I'll return, but wait patiently.
Wait even when you are told that you should forget.
Wait even when my mother and son think I am no more.
And when friends sit around the fire drinking to my memory
Wait and do not hurry to drink to my memory too.

Wait for me and I'll return, defying every death.
And let those who do not wait say that I was lucky.
They will never understand that in the midst of death
You with your waiting saved me.
Only you and I will know how I survived:
It was because you waited as no one else did.

visit aquilavictrix.com Great Patriotic War

Link> Константин Симонов: Жди меня, и я вернусь
Link> YouTube: Жди меня (wait for me)bekle beni
Link> YouTube: Жди меня (Poem Wait for me)

Russia sells off army property

It could be that the Brown Brothers may be getting ideas to sell off military establishments from our friends in Russia. According to Izvestia, more than 20 properties near Moscow, St Petersburg, Kalininigrad and Vladivostock will be up for grabs in an auction being held on 8th April. The properties include mansions, barracks and even whole towns.
The Kremlin is saying that the money raised from the sale will be used to provide new accommodation for the families of Russian army officers - some 122,400 military families are said to have been waiting years for self-contained accommodation. One officer is quoted as saying: "I didn't know the army had anything left to sell. I thought it had all been stolen long ago."

Link> BBC: Property sell-off by Russian army
Link> AV: Corporate Warriors: the privatised future for the British Army

Link> The Guardian: Russian army sell-off to pay for housing

священная война - The Sacred War

Brest War Memorial

The war memorial at Brest in Belarus. The Hero Fortress of Brest was a place of a heroic siege during the WW2. For more than a month (June 1941) the small garrison of Soviet soldiers defended the fortress against German occupation well behind the enemy front line which was advancing towards Moscow. It's an incredibly emotive place. For a good account of the events read S.S. Smirnov "Heroes of Brest Fortress"

NB It was also in this fortress that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which marked Russia's exit from WW1, was signed in 1918 by Germany and the new Soviet Republic.

Do not call me, Father

Russian poem from 1942

(Son to Father…)
Do not call me, father. Do not seek me.
Do not call me. Do not wish me back.
We’re on a route unchartered, fire and blood erase our track.
On we fly on wings of thunder, never more to sheathe our swords.
All of us in battle fallen – not to be brought back by words.

Will there be a rendezvous? I know not. I only know we still must fight.
We are sand grains in infinity, never to meet, nevermore to see light.

(Father to son…)
Farewell then my son. Farewell then my conscience.
Farewell my youth, my solace, my one and my only.

Let this farewell be the end of the story,
A solitude vast in which none is more lonely,
In which you remained barred forever
From light, from air, with your death pains untold.
Untold and unsoothed, never to be resurrected.
Forever and ever an 18 year old.

Farewell then.
No trains ever come from those regions,
Unscheduled and scheduled.
No aeroplanes fly there.

Farewell then my son,
For no miracles happen, as in this world
Dreams do not come true.

Farewell.
I will dream of you still as a baby,
Treading the earth with little strong toes,
The earth where already so many lie buried.

This song to my son, then, is come to its close.

Extract from a poem by Junior Lieutenant Vladimir Pavlovich Antokolski who was killed in action on 6th June 1942.

Visit aquilavictrix.com for the full poem