Photos WW2 Soviet Forces

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The SU-122 was the first in a new generation of Soviet SPGs. Traditionally, Soviet SPGs had their fighting compartment located in the rear, but the SU-122 was the first to have it in the front. The SU-122 didn't last for too long in production since the chassis was needed to make the SU-85 tank destroyer, but the SU-122 SPGs that were produced ended up fighting until the very end of the war.

 

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“When Germans encircled Leningrad (St. Petersburg) on September 8th, 1941 they planned to quickly freeze and starve the city. They had no idea the devastation and horror that the people of Leningrad would be willing to endure without ever giving in. The siege is one of the longest in history and one of the deadliest as well. Here are just a few things you might not know about the siege that devastated Soviet Union.
The death toll from the siege of Leningrad varies anywhere from 600,000 to 2,000,000 but most put it closer to 1,500,000. That makes the siege ten times deadlier than either of the death tolls (on the first day) from the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Many of the deaths occurred from starvation and freezing as many tried to survive in the surrounded city. But that was not the only thing that citizen of Leningrad had to fear. Many were also killed by the bombs that the Germans were frequently dropping on the besieged city.
By the time the siege had ended only 700,000 of the 3 million citizens of Leningrad remained alive and in the city. All others had died or been evacuated. For the credit of the people of Leningrad, they never gave up and even as they were starving they did everything they could to help the army defeat the Germans.

 

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Red Army field kitchen, date and location unknown.

 

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Red Army soldiers. Winter war 1940.

 

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Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik in flight during WW2
Not only was the Il-2 the most-produced combat aircraft of WW2, it is also the second most-produced aircraft ever, exceeded only by the Cessna 172
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Archives

 

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[Иван Феоктистов]

Tank T-34-76 with its own name "Motherland" on the Square of the Fallen Fighters in Stalingrad. To the left you can see the famous building of the central department store, badly damaged during the fighting. January 1943.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Field Marshal Paulus, General Schmidt and Colonel Adam were taken to the village of Beketovka, where the headquarters of the 64th Army was stationed. January 31, 1943.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

The captured Field Marshal Paulus and his adjutant are escorted to the headquarters of the 64th Army. January 31, 1943

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

“At first Paulus turned away from our lenses, tried to hide behind our backs, but we got up in such a circle that wherever he turned away, but still got into our viewfinders, and when he realized this, he stopped paying attention to us” (Nikolai Vyakhirev , cameraman).

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Captured Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus and Chief of Staff of the 6th Army Lieutenant General Arthur Schmidt. Interrogation at the headquarters of the 64th Army of General Shumilov. Beketovka, January 31, 1943

Photo: Anatoly Egorov

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

A group of fighters of senior lieutenant Ya.G. Vdovin
January 31, 1943, Stalingrad.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Red flag over the square of the Fallen Heroes of liberated Stalingrad. January 31, 1943. In the background - the building of the department store, where the headquarters of the encircled Wehrmacht 6th Army, led by the army commander, Field Marshal Paulus, was taken prisoner. On the square - German trucks captured by Soviet troops.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Station square of Stalingrad on the day of the surrender of German troops in the Battle of Stalingrad. Soviet T-34 tanks are entering the square. January 31, 1943.

 

[uktabber]

Wow, great pics.....thanks for sharing!!

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Wow, great pics.....thanks for sharing!!

Well, if so, I can share a large archive of photographs dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad. This battle, in my opinion, was a grandiose turning point in the course of the entire Second World War. Near Moscow the Germans suffered their first strategic defeat, in Stalingrad there was a turning point in the war, and near Kursk the Germans lost their strategic initiative.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Злой и упрямый, по грудь в земле,
Насмерть солдат стоял.
Знал он, что нет дороги назад –
Он защищал Сталинград.

(Zloy i upryamyy, po grud' v zemle,
Nasmert' soldat stoyal.
Znal on, chto net dorogi nazad –
On zashchishchal Stalingrad.)

Angry and stubborn, сhest-deep in the ground,
The soldier stood to death.
He knew that there was no turning back -
He defended Stalingrad.

Stalingrad before the war was the largest industrial center of the entire USSR. There were many factories and enterprises in the city - "Stalingrad Tractor Plant", "Red October" plant, "Barrikady" plant, "Metiz" plant and many others. The city had a large river port for ships sailing along the Volga. The city itself was beautiful, clean and green - this city had the largest number of trees in the USSR. The Stalingrad embankment of the Volga was the most beautiful in the USSR.

...but what the German air and artillery raids and multi-day battles turned him into. In the city itself, not a single whole block remained, not a single whole house. Before the battles, many evacuees and wounded appeared in the city. Orphanages rescued from the Germans were brought to the city. The brutal raids of the first days of the battles (when the German aircraft destroyed the city almost completely) led to the death of many civilians. The exact number of the dead is still unknown, but the count is definitely in the tens of thousands. The Soviet army was able to take part of the population to safe areas, but it was simply physically impossible to save several hundred thousand civilians.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

In the center of Stalingrad in 1942, a few days before the start of the Battle of the Volga.