talian bersaliers (arrows of elite units) on the street of the Serbian city, April 1941.
For some political reasons, the seizure of Yugoslavia prompts Hitler to render more effective assistance to his Italian allies. And, on April 6, 1941, from the territory of Bulgaria, German troops invade Greece. Athens is captured on April 27, after another three days Greece will capitulate. A month later, the Wehrmacht invaded the island of Crete, considered primarily as an airfield for control of the Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean. In the photo coastal Greek city after shelling with artillery of the Wehrmacht. April 1941
The brave but poorly armed Greek soldiers are preparing to meet the German troops. April 1941, Greece
The large losses of paratroopers do not allow further operations to be carried out to capture Cyprus and the Suez Canal immediately. Losses of Greece: 14,000 killed, allies 900, with 14,000 prisoners, the Wehrmacht 1,450 killed, Italy about 20,000 people. It is believed that the need to seize Yugoslavia, as well as the stubborn resistance of Greece, delayed the beginning of the invasion of the USSR from May 15, 1941 to June 22, and these five weeks had a decisive effect on the course of the entire war. It seems that Serbia has returned the debt of Russia, since 1914. In the photo German soldiers deploy a Nazi flag near the Athenian Acropolis. April-May 1941
In the Battle of Crete (May 2031, 1941) the decisive force is the German paratroopers. On both sides perish about 5 thousand people. More than 5 thousand Greeks and 12 thousand allies (Englishmen, New Zealanders, Australians) are taken prisoner. The operation as a whole is successful, but since then the German command has refused to practice large parachute assault forces. Such a decision by Hitler allows Britain to retain the strategically important island of Malta
Count the forces of the warring parties. The population of the Soviet Union according to the results of the 1939 census is 170 million. It should be borne in mind that the leaders of the 1937 census, who showed the result of only 162 million for undercounting of the population, were shot. In 1940, territories with a population of 18 million people were annexed to the USSR, though not always loyal to the new system, having a different mentality. We assume that the results of the shot population census are the only correct ones, then by 1941 the population of the colossal state was 180 million people. The Third Reich, 1941, ie, Germany, Austria, the Sudetenland and some other territories inhabited by ethnic Germans subject to conscription 90 million people. Hungary 9.3 million (there were 800,000 Hungarians killed on the Eastern Front), Romania 20 million (453,000 people died). These two countries are the unconditional allies of Germany, whose human reserves it could dispose of as its own. The contingent of volunteers in 64 thousand was allocated by 44 million Italy (during the war years the corps was renewed several times, 374 thousand were killed), and 25 million Spain 18 thousand hours (irretrievable losses of 15 thousand). Slovakia 36 thousand hours, 3 thousand people died, Croatia 2,200 people, the number of dead is unknown, Finland about 300,000 people, losses of 70,000 (against 108,000 Soviet losses on this front, including 18,000 people killed in captivity)Wehrmacht also owned resources, the industry of France, Norway, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic. German soldiers on the border with the Soviet Union conduct reconnaissance, June 21, 1941 Left 20 mm. automatic anti-aircraft gun 2 cm FlaK 30, to the right an early-release T-4 tank, with short-barreled 75 mm. tool
The only ally of the USSR at the time is the 47 millionth Great Britain with 1.2 million (including parts located in the colonies), battered after the Dunkirk army. Her war with Germany until 1944 is similar to a ritual battle, a knight tournament, where, according to established rules, knights with knuckled gloves and all sorts of ammunition seize. England had fifteen thousand aircraft, a dozen aircraft carriers, many cruisers, destroyers and submarines. After Dunkirk, the British did not have more than 100 tanks, but thanks to the developed industry, their number constantly increased. Fought here rather, the technique, not people. The interest of Germany, whose peoples spirit is now ruled by the ancient German gods, lies in the Northeast. According to the plans of the Hitlerite command, German colonies on the territory of the USSR should be organized on the model of Ancient Sparta, with an autochthonous population reduced to 50 million, turned into slave-helots, respectively. In the photo Soviet pilots before the fighters I-15 or I-16
Since June 22, 1941, Germany and Romania have joined the war with the USSR. The basis of military operations for Bucharest is understandable the year-earlier exclusion of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. A day later, Slovakia entered the war. On 26 June, Kosice, which was Slovakia three years earlier, was bombed by unmarked aircraft, but, at that time, Hungary. 27 tons of bombs were dropped. It is still unclear whether this was the Soviet air force, bombed the city because of the confusion and obsolete maps, Germanic or even Romanian (to push the opposing ally to active action), but on June 27, Hungary declared the USSR a war. Almost at the same time, on June 25, Soviet aviation strikes at several settlements and 18 Finnish airfields. On some of them, German planes were actually based, formally, Finland was one of the Axis countries. On the same day, Suomi declares war, and by the end of the year he occupies a large part of Karelia, including its capital, Petrozavodsk (which has become Einislinna). About 70,000 civilians (from non-Finn-related peoples, according to racial anthropological surveys) are taken to Finnish concentration camps. Later, one third of them will die from malnutrition, disease and ill-treatment. Photography and failed to take off (or made a forced landing) Soviet fighter I-16. The mass of the equipped aircraft is 1300 kg., The speed is 450 km. h, flight range of 480 km., armament two rapid-fire machine gun 7.62 mm. Produced about 10,000 units. The second half of June 1941, the USSR
The Soviet fighter I-16, shot down on take-off, June 22, 1941.
The Decree of Military Jurisdiction of the Barbarossa Plan of 13 May 1941 states: For actions that Wehrmacht servicemen and allies commit against the enemy civilian population, there is no prosecution, even if this action is simultaneously military crime or misdemeanor I release you from the chimera, called conscience. Further on this topic: I reject Christianity, because it is the product of Judaism, because it is internationalistic and because it preaches peace on earth. (Adolf Gitler). In general, we can say that the entire people of the USSR, the Soviet Army (RKKA), are moving towards God during the war, and Germany (the Axis countries), on the contrary, step by step, move away from it. Got mit uns, i.e. God is with us, the inscription engraved on buckles of belts becomes an empty formality. In the second half of the war, the funeral rites of SS men are most often conducted, according to the pagan custom of the Vikings, with the Lebens rune (the rune of life, something like an arrow pointing downwards, or a trident, or Toten-Rune, or Tyr-Rune) on the grave, instead of a cross. In the prewar picture the military pilots of the USSR near the I-15 fighter. These people have to understand what total war is, and make almost impossible