The poorly-treated ethnic minority did not like Stalin.
Key point: Many were unhappy enough with Soviet rule that they went to the otherside. However, most of them would meet a gruelsome fate.
Between 1944 and 1947, over two million Russians who had been living in the occupied countries of Europe, some voluntarily, some not, were forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union. Many met death by execution immediately, while others were literally worked to death in the hundreds of gulags that dotted the largest slave society in history.
Whether these individuals were civilian or soldier, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin reasoned that anyone who had been living outside the borders of the Soviet Union was to be considered contaminated by anti-Soviet ideology and therefore could not be trusted. It mattered not that many had been forcibly removed from their homeland by the former German enemy.
Holding the Line at Smolensk: The Red Army s Bloody Attempt To Stop the Nazi Juggernaut
In Smolensk during the summer of 1941, the Soviet Red Army attempted to slow Hitler s Operation Barbarossa.
Here s What You Need to Know: The Red Army suffered over 600,000 casualties, including almost 400,000 men taken prisoner.
After crushing the first-line Soviet armies in brutal three-week cauldron battles at the border, the steamroller of German Army Group Center continued deeper into Soviet territory during the opening days of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, which began on June 22, 1941.
The twin armored spearheads of Army Group Center were Panzer Group 2 under the command of General Heinz Guderian and Panzer Group 3 under extremely capable tank general Hermann Hoth. Their coordinated offensive on July 10, 1941, unleashed the Battle of Smolensk, a bloody struggle around the ancient Russian city that was to last two long months.
The First Deadly Round of Fighting at the Battle of Monte Cassino
During the first of four bloody attempts to take Monte Cassino and the town that occupied its slope, the Allied Fifth Army was repulsed.
Here s What You Need to Know: The First Battle of Cassino would be a failure for the Allies.
By December 1943, the phrase “sunny Italy” had evolved from being a travel agent’s selling point to becoming an ugly joke for the British and American troops of the Allied Fifth Army, advancing north from Naples to Rome. Rain and snow turned ground to mud and made roads impassable. Valleys were seas of black mud. Troops on the mountains created shelters behind rocks and in caves.
Survivors of the siege on the city tell their miraculous stories.
Here s What You Need to Know: The great siege and the sacrifice of the people who suffered and died will always be remembered even as the number of survivors continues to dwindle.
Georgina’s mother sat next to me at her dining room table. She and her husband were veterans of the Great Patriotic War, and back in 1996 we all sat about the table on Victory Day and talked about the siege.
The old woman grasped my arm and talked in Russian while her husband listened. They both wore medals, one of his for “extreme bravery.” It was, of course, May 9, and everyone was in a jovial mood. The day was light and airy, and it reminded me of holiday dinners at home, or Fourth of July barbeques. It reminded me of any occasion where we celebrate, albeit with a certain twist. At home and in Europe we celebrate victories; on this day, citizens of St. Petersburg celebrate survival. There is a difference.
Operation Torch: Why Did America Fight French Forces in 1942?
Instead of welcoming American troops with brass bands, Vichy France’s colonial forces fought back with everything they had.
Here s What You Need to Know: Early in the North African campaign, American tankers battled the Vichy French.
Lucian Truscott needed a cigarette. The 47-year-old brigadier general was having the worst night of his life. Earlier that day, American troops under his command charged ashore on the Atlantic coast of French Morocco as part of Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. From the start, though, almost nothing went right.
“As far as I could see along the beach there was chaos,” Truscott recalled. “Landing craft were beaching in the pounding surf, broaching to the waves, and spilling men and equipment into the water. Men wandered about aimlessly, hopelessly lost, calling to each other and for their units, swearing at each other and at nothing.”