Counter-Offensive.

This is coolbert:

From a prior blog entry:

"the definitive Soviet counter-offensive, occurring on 5 December, 1941. A counter-offensive which was intended not merely to protect and 'save' Moscow from German attack, but had the intention of destroying and obliterating German Army Group Center."

And from the book: "War on the Eastern Front" by James Lucas:

[this particular extract describing the Soviet counter-offensive, 5 December 1941, on the outskirts of Moscow.]

"For their counter-offensive STAVKA had taken the artillery principles of General Voronov [based upon the principles of the German Colonel Bruchmuller] and had enlarged them . . . For the opening barrage the Soviet artillery was massed not in divisions but in corps and began a bombardment which could be adequately described as earth shattering. Thousands of guns of every calibre, marshalled under STAVKA direction and well supplied . . . fired simultaneously. It was claimed that for this single bombardment on the central front more guns were brought together than had been assembled in the armies of all the major Powers throughout the First World War."

"The storm of steel smashed down . . . and behind it moving into the assault were one and one half [1 1/2] million Red infantry men . . . In guns the Soviet superiority was immeasurable, in armour the imbalance was in places more than twenty to one, and in infantry it was more than three to one. The aim of the Russian Command was not merely to save the capital but to destroy completely [the German] Army Group Centre."

There you have it. The rest of the story. NOT the textbook history as written or read.

I have mentioned this before and will do so again. This book by Lucas is outstanding. I highly recommend it to one and all. If you can get a copy, please do so. Peruse and enjoy!

coolbert.