| Quote:
|
Whats wrong Dima old mate?
Dont you view Colin D. Heaton and World War 2 magazine as credible sources?
|
| Quote:
|
|
By 1945 the Eastern Front was on Germany's back porch. Soviet forces entered East Prussia in January of that year, throwing Adolf Hitler into a tirade. When German General Heinz Guderian, inspector of armored troops, requested that Hitler authorize the withdrawal of the 300,000-man force from the Kurland region, Hitler refused, condemning those soldiers to death. They would disappear in the marshland and the fog of war.
|
| Quote:
|
|
There was still one major obstacle to the Soviet advance--the rolling plains and plateaus of an area known as the Seelow Heights, only 35 miles from the German capital.
|
| Quote:
|
|
Not since 1210, when the Order of Teutonic Knights had forced the Poles out of Prussia and crossed the Vistula River, had an enemy approached the Prussian frontier from the east.
|
| Quote:
|
|
The Soviets drove a wedge into Prussia, but their losses were heavy. Six Soviet infantry and two tank divisions were wiped out after a series of assaults on Vitebsk, Orsha, Allenstein and K?nigsberg.
|
| Quote:
|
|
Konev ordered his armor to attack on a broad front, converging into a spearhead and then swinging around the left flank of the German defenders.
|
| Quote:
|
|
On April 8, after several smaller encounters, the Soviet armor proved inadequate, even with infantry support.
|
| Quote:
|
|
By the end of the first day of the assault, the Soviets were learning just how expensive the Seelow Heights were going to be. Soviet losses added up to 75 tanks, 2,250 killed, 3,400 wounded and 12 Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik fighter-bombers lost.
|
| Quote:
|
|
April 9 saw another massive effort by the Red Army. The first wave of T-34 medium tanks, numbering about 50, was utterly destroyed by rockets, Stukas, mines and Panzerfausts. The second wave attacked at 1150 hours, following the same route as its predecessor, hoping to take advantage of the cleared paths through the German minefield. Soviet fighters managed to keep the Stukas at bay, but nothing could overwhelm the German troops, who were equipped with anti-tank rockets. The second Soviet wave suffered a fate similar to that of the first, leaving 34 smoking wrecks and several hundred dead littering the open plains.
|
| Quote:
|
|
The first wave of T-34 medium tanks, numbering about 50, was utterly destroyed by rockets, Stukas, mines and Panzerfausts. The second wave attacked at 1150 hours, following the same route as its predecessor, hoping to take advantage of the cleared paths through the German minefield.
|
.
.
