Comments on: Operation Bagration

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 02:26:06 +0000

Bagration and Overloard are hammer and anvil of the same strategy. While it’s true the US and UK supplied large quantaties of trucks and parts through Murmansk and Iran-don’t compare that to the blood shed by the Red Army. June 1944 is perhaps the greatest month of WWII. Normandy and Bargration were a one two blow to Nazi Reich. It was, finally, the beginning of the end. It’s a shame this was the zenith of Allied unity.

By: laport

laport — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 01:32:41 +0000

“bagration used immense quantities of USA supplied”

is this true? if it is, is it a good excuse for believing that Hitler was defeated by USA instead of by Russia, as it really was. Is USA in denial, why? what for?

By: gary

gary — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

“The operation began on 19 June 2004…”

Better late than never, I guess.

By: gary

gary — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I just can’t get that hepped up about a ‘bold surprise attack on the Wehrmacht’s rear’ that consisted of blowing up rail lines. To do that, I’d have to heroify Iraqis blowing holes in oil lines.

And given that the USSR might have conducted the entire war as Hitler’s ally had not Hitler abrogated the treaty between them, my sense of comradeship is tempered with cynicism.

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Somehow I like the idea of the “mighty Wehrmacht’s rear” lasting until 2004 in the bogs of Belorussia. That beats even the longest lasting Japanese soldiers (with much scrawnier rears) hiding in Pacific Island jungles.

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Gary – check out the rest of the article. Blown up rail lines was the least of the problems that Germany faced in the East. They suffered far greater casualties on the Eastern Front than in the West.

It’s also worth noting that, whatever we may think of guerrilla operations in general, they were an accepted part of war then – by all sides. The D-Day landings, for example, made extensive use of french guerrilla forces to sabotage rail links.

By: Alexei

Alexei — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

‘Better late than never’ is what most Russians would say of D-Day.

No doubt Moscow, Washington and London had agreed in advance on the timing of D-Day and Bagration so the latter would take some German troops off the Western front. The two should be seen as part of a joint strategy.

Davis overstates the “revolutionary elan”. Let’s keep it simple: no one likes to be occupied by a foreign power, especially one that is big on its racial superiority.

Also, guerilla troops weren’t particularly effective in the East for most of WWII, but they’ve always been heavily romanticized.

Too bad Davis sounds like a diehard socialist because his message is right if pompously delivered: without the millions of Russian casualties, Americans would not have kept theirs at a minimum.

By: Tim Newman

Tim Newman — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Bagration? He was one of the Generals who fought against Napolean in 1812 I believe, and features heavily in War and Peace.

By: Faranji

Faranji — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

The Russians killed over 3 million Germans – the British and American troops managed about 200,000….but to be fair, the Americans in the main, and the ‘forgotten’ British army in Burma, also accounted for large numbers of Japanese.

I have always wondered how it was that Americans eventually strongly supported the war in Europe, while battling their own major enemy, Japan.

It is perhaps not unreasonable to think that the Allies knew that if they didn’t liberate as much as they could, the iron curtain would have come down across the Channel.

By: Faranji

Faranji — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I have always wondered how it was that Americans eventually strongly supported the war in Europe, while battling their own major enemy, Japan.

It is perhaps not unreasonable to think that the Allies knew that if they didn’t liberate as much as they could, the iron curtain would have come down across the Channel.