The Great Patriotic War: SmokinDave - Blubel

[Blubel]

„The History of the Great Patriotic War“ by Comrade Blubel

English translation
Published 1989




A. Introduction

At dawn of the 22nd of June 1941 fascist German Forces and their allies, led by Feldmarschall Smokindave, crossed the border on multiple points between Kretinga and Novoselitsa in an unprovoked attack.
Thus the Great Patriotic War started.

In this work it shall be told how the brave soldiers of the Soviet Union stood proud and defiant against the invaders, how the the horrible struggle went on for years and how, in the end, the Motherland was saved and the Communist Party stood victorious.
Many a great Hero of the Soviet Union has written about his personal perceptions of the war, many a great scholar about the strategical aspects or the detailed history of specific battles. These topics will not be covered in great detail in this work. Instead this work will mostly cover the operational aspects of the war.


B. The unprovoked Attack - Operation Barbarossa

Due to the nature of their cowardly attack, the German Army made much headway in the first few weeks. Most of the First Operational Echelon was destroyed or pocketed at the outset. Many Soviet reservists were not able to reach their units before these were surrounded or even destroyed. Because of this and a lack of reliable information not much could be done to outright stop the invaders in the first weeks after the attack. There was however much to be done. Reserves were railed forward and troops were ordered to men defensive positions. The Army was mobilized and many a man voluntered for service.

I. Week 1 - The Frontier Battles

a) North-Western Direction
In the North many units of Northwestern Front had been destroyed or pocketed. The enemy had captured Riga and crossed the Daugava. Few divisions stood between the Germans and Leningrad.
It was therefore necessary to withdraw from the newly liberated Republics and to set up defensive positions along the old border centering on Pskov.
The following old military maps have been cleared by STAVKA and show the general situation at the point reasonable reports started to come in.

[Blubel]

b) Western Direction
In the Centre about half the divisions of Western Front were trapped around Bialystok and at a smaller pocket around Lina. Enemy troops almost reached Minsk. The enemy used rearguard action and battalion sized units to make it impossible to break the encirclement. These units are shown on the strategic maps as dark grey territory between the main enemy formations.

It was decided that a delaying action was to take place between the border and Smolensk.

[Blubel]

In Brest the defenders stood defiant on the walls of the great citadel.
The 45th Rifle Division of 15th Rifle Corps (under Fedyuninsky) at Lyuboml fooled the invaders plans. They held of 4 enemy attacks and only repositioned to a better defensible position after the 5th attack. These brave soldiers were clearly among the finest and first to Guard the Motherland. As they still lacked many of their men, they were to be repositioned. They later proudly guarded Kiev.

[Blubel]

c) South-Western Direction
In the Southwest, many of the Motherlands finest soldiers were trapped in a big pocket around Lvov and Stanislav. Sadly due to the enemies near perfect positioning it was not possible to free them.

[Blubel]

Although there were still many good divisions in the south, it was deemed neccesary to withdraw the rest of the forces. A stand was to be made along the fortified positions west of Zhitomir. There our valiant troops were expected to hold the invader until reinforcements arrived.
The map below depicts the situation after some of the movement orders had been handed out.


Strangely enough there had not been any enemy activity on the rest of the Romanian border.

[Blubel]

d) Order of Battle
The OOBs after the fascist attack.

[Blubel]

e) Casualties
Many of our brave soldiers died or were severly wounded in the first few days. Many were missed in action. Most of them, it has been learned since, have also died for the Motherland. The invaders did not suffer many looses in their unprovoked attack against our peaceful troops.

[Blubel]

Many of our aircraft and all to many men were destroyed in cowardly airfield attacks.


The situation was obviously bleak, but the great people of the great Soviet Union did not lose heart.