Wwii Soviet
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Wwii Soviet
Fighting Spirit of Nature
In WWII trenches, the army combat efficiency and the morale of the troops were largely depended on the quality of daily life and its organization. Lack of consideration of individual household factors such as warm clothing in the harsh winter weather or insufficient water supply in the desert, could very negatively affect the course of combat operations or result in hardship and lead to unnecessarily large losses of personnel.
In fact, the soldier's daily life conditions can be attributed to an important element of victory and reasons of defeat. For example, in 1939-1940, in so called 'winter' Soviet-Finnish war the Red Army had experienced itself the natural factor in full its measure, when entire battalions were frozen and lost combat effectiveness due to severe frostbites. This sad experience was taken into account by the Soviet Command. Therefore, the army met first winter of the Great Patriotic War (1941) with a good winter clothing supply.
WWII veterans recall: "We were given the highest class winter outfit- long-johns, undershirts, warm knitted underwear, field a woolen shirt, quilted jacket and pants, woolen jackboots with thick socks, fur padded mittens and an ushanka. Ushanka is a Russian winter hat made of fur, woolen fabric or combined. It is a well-known and widespread hat in Russia. Its name came after its ear flaps. It sounds – 'ushi' – in Russian. The ear flaps could be lowered and turned down but usually up and tied on the crown. When it is really cold the ear flaps could be untied and turned down to protect real ears from frost and wind, as well as cheeks and chin.
On top of the jacket, we wore a sheepskin coat. Long fur mittens with one finger were shoved in the sleeves of this jacket. Usually, a woolen balaclava was worn under the ushanka hat, only the eyes were visible. The balaclava also had the small hole for the mouth.
All soldiers had snow camouflage coveralls. It was even possible to live in the snow with this outfit".
That what actually happened when the band of brothers had to spend the winter in December 1941 - January 1942 in the snow. "We dug holes around meter depth with the shovel. We put there spruce branches, covered it with the field cape and crawled into the den together. You could breathe inside despite extreme cold outside".
Moreover, comparison of Russian and German winter uniforms of World War II was not in favor of the enemy.
One of the veterans recalls again: "The German soldiers and officers in comparison with us were dressed very lightly. They wore ersatz (made of an artificial leather) jackboots, great coats and garrison caps. When we took prisoners, they were wrapped up in shawls and all kinds of covers. They wrapped their feet by all sorts of rags, newspapers to protect themselves somehow from the frost".
Such enemy unpreparedness to face "the General Frost" was explained by Hitler's plans to "blitzkrieg"- a quick war. Germans expected to conquer us in two weeks and celebrate Christmas at home. Therefore, they met the Russian winter in summer uniforms.
However, later in the winter of 1942-43, near Stalingrad they were dressed not much better and just like in the 1941st year. They wrapped themselves in rags, and woman's scarves, failing to adapt to the Russian climate.
About the Author
You can find more information about Russian winter hat at ushankahat.com
What were some successes of the Soviet Union in the post-WWII era?
What were some successes of the Soviet Union in the post-WWII era? How was the Soviet command economy a failure? i don't understand this
After WWII, Nakita Kruschev and Brezniv were done as prime ministers and Mikhail Gorbechev took over. He establish policies of perestroika and glasnot meant "restructuring" and "openness" respectively. This led to a treaty made between the US and Soviet Union during the Reagan Era and ended the Cold War.
russian female sniper, ww2, gudovantseva