During World War II
(you may have heard of it), Germany, under the racist leadership of Adolph
Hitler, thought it would be a swell idea to attack the Soviet Union in 1940. Yes, the same Soviet Union which had signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop, or non-aggression, pact with Germany on August 24, 1939.
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| "Und, ve promise to never invade you. Pinky svear, ja?" |
Mind you, this was before the Nazis had dispatched Great Britain. But, hey, nothing like a little two-front war among Axis buddies, right? After all, it worked great during World War I, amirite?
Wait.
NOTE: Yes, sigh, I know that the Russians, after
they became the Soviets, dropped out of the fight against the Kaiser, thus
eliminating the two-front war. But,
you get my point.
NOTE after the NOTE: Pretty punk move on the part of the
Soviets by dropping out, if you ask me. Especially since some people blame Russia for starting the whole
shebang in the first place. Not me, you
understand, but some.
The Germans were
probably shook up, then, when “der Untermensch” didn’t exactly roll over and
die. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of
Soviets died, but they didn’t give up, either.
Another…sigh…NOTE: “Untermensch” is a German term meaning “subhuman.” Hey, come to think of it, that would be a
good word for ‘U’!
In what is
arguably (and, IMO, definitely) the turning point of the European theater of
the war, Axis Powers (yeah, mostly German) found themselves bogged down in the
Soviet city of Stalingrad, now known as Volgograd.
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| In this corner, we have a homicidal maniac with a mustache. In the other corner, we have a homicidal maniac with a mustache. |
Operation Uranus, launched by the Soviet Union from September 19-30, 1942, was a strategic maneuver that successfully led to the encirclement of the German Sixth Army, the 3rd/4th Romanian Armies, portions of the German 4th Panzer Army,
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| and a troop of Italian Boy Scouts who neglected to bring a good map. |
This successful operation trapped between 250,000 and 300,000 soldiers in Stalingrad (although, luckily, the Scouts managed to whittle an escape tunnel).
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| Like this. But, in pink. |
Hitler, because he was a prideful dick (despite that goofy-looking mustache), insisted the Germans not attempt to break out of the trap or, worse, surrender.
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| Because, I mean, how bad could the Russian winter be? |
He was confident that his army could be resupplied by the Luftwaffe, Door Dash,
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| or Amazon drones |
The end
result? His Sixth Army surrendered on
February 2, 1943, setting the stage for the push to Berlin.
Huh, Operation Uranus. I hadn’t known all of this, did you?
They seriously called it that? Good grief!
ReplyDeleteI was pretty surprised. I suppose I could’ve figured out the rationale but I was giggling too much.
DeleteWell, if they were better tacticians, they might have won the war. Good thing they weren't.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Luckily, Hitler cocked it up.
DeleteI wonder if it was called Uranus because, well, that's what they told the Krauts. My poor uncle was 19 when he was wounded near the end of the war. He was German and on the Russian front. He was not a nazi just an idiot who thought it would be fun and heroic. My mom had a letter from my uncle, written when he was I a German prison for not agreeing with a Nazi officer. He just said he knew what he said was wrong and was apologetic. There were a lot of black blocks hiding what he wrote to his mom, my Oma. Anyways, he died, along with 173 other German soldiers of their wounds all on the same day. The only ones left on the hospital were Russians. 19 is just too young
ReplyDelete