Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
Japan has a major initial success. On December 8, 1941, the samurai stormed the dominion of Great Britain, Hong Kong. After 18 days of defense, the garrison capitulates. 9 thousand British and Canadian soldiers are taken prisoner. The irretrievable loss of Japan 2 thousand people. Anglo-Saxon allies lose 4 thousand. Expansion throughout the Pacific and mainland China is gaining an unprecedented scale. The photograph shows the parade of Japanese troops in Hong Kong, January 1941.
Since June 1941, thousands of trains with people and equipment being evacuated rush to the East of the USSR
New factories built in Siberia and beyond the Urals are sometimes leveled earthen areas, without walls and roofs, with rows of machines on which military products are manufactured. Mostly women and teenagers work here.
Teenager 1213 years at work. For adults, work shifts last for 1516 hours
The production of KV-1 tanks at the monstrously expanded Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant since 1941. New huge tank-building plant called «Tankograd»
After the fairly successful Moscow battle, Stalin perks up and stops listening to the advice again. The Supreme Commander believes that 1942 is the year of the «final defeat of the German fascist troops.» As a continuation of the battle near Moscow, the Rzhev-Vyazma operation starts on January 8 the general offensive of the Soviet troops on the enemys well-trained positions, without concentrating forces and assets in certain areas. N. Nikulin: « Attack! Calls the owner of the Kremlin. Well, if the colonel tries to think out and prepare the attack, check whether everything possible has been done. And often he is simply inept, lazy, drunk. Often he does not want to leave the warm shelter and crawl under the bullets Often, the artillery officer revealed the targets is not enough, and, not to risk, shoots from afar at the squares, its good, if not his own, although it happened quite often It happens that the supplier washed it down and had fun with the women in the nearest village, and the shells and food are not delivered Or the major went astray and took his battalion along the compass not at all where it should be Confusion, confusion, deficiencies, fraud, non-fulfillment of the debt, so characteristic of us in peaceful life, to War appear brighter than anywhere else. And for all one pay blood. Ivana go on the attack and die, and the one sitting in the shelter drives everything and drives them. The psychology of the person going to the assault and the one who watches the attack differs remarkably when you dont have to die yourself, everything seems simple: go ahead and go!..»
Soviet soldiers on the front line. Rzhev-Vyazemsky operation, January 1942. Front-line writer N. Nikulin: « Otherwise we could not and could not. I read somewhere that English intelligence has been training its agents for decades. They are taught in the best colleges, create athletes, intellectuals, capable of all experts in their field. Then such agents handle global affairs. In Asian countries, the task is given to a thousand or ten thousand somehow, hastily trained people in the hope that even if almost everyone fails and will be destroyed, at least one will fulfill its mission. There is neither time, nor funds for training, nor experienced teachers here. Everything is done in a hurry they did not have time before, did not think, or even did a lot, but not so. Everything is done by gravity, by intuition, mass, number. This is the second way we fought. In 1942, there was no alternative. The wise Master in the Kremlin understood everything perfectly, knew and, suppressing everyone with iron will, commanded one thing: Attack! And we attacked, attacked, attacked And the mountains of corpses near Pogosti, Nevsky Pyatachkov, nameless heights grew, grew, grew. So was preparing a future victory. If the Germans had filled our headquarters with spies and saboteurs, if there was mass betrayal and the enemies developed a detailed plan for the collapse of our army, they would not have achieved the effect that was the result of idiocy, dullness and irresponsibility of the soldiers »