Mars!

This is coolbert:

Continuing with extracts and comment from those List Verse web site articles that have a military dimension.

"10 Epic Russian Military Disasters"

# 2 Operation Mars 1942.

"One of two major Soviet counteroffensives which followed Stalingrad, Operation Mars was such an incredible disaster that the Soviet Union simply omitted it from subsequent histories."

. . . .

"Despite heavy tank losses, Georgy Zhukov, the operation’s planner, continued the fruitless frontal assaults for three weeks in a desperate bid to match the success of the simultaneous Soviet offensive at Stalingrad. As a result, the outnumbered German defenders killed, wounded, or captured 500,000 Soviet soldiers in less than a month, while losing only 40,000 of their own number."

Those Soviet/Russian historians of the Great Patriotic War [WW2] with good reason omit the Mars operation as even having occurred.

Zhukov in the Soviet/Russian manner of waging war pig-headed, unable to accept defeat, reinforcing failure with disastrous consequences.

German hedgehog strong points NOT only manned in a defensive manner but also the troops engaging in counter-offensive action when possible,  logistical support to advance Soviet formations greatly impeded.

TWICE THE NUMBER OF SOVIET CASUALTIES DURING MARS AS THOSE GERMAN LOSSES OF THE SIXTH ARMY AT STALINGRAD!

See my previous blog entry regarding Zhukov as a commander during World War Two!

coolbert.