By Neil Short
Throughout the Russian Civil conflict, the purple military created a chain of fortified parts, or ukreplinnyje rajony (UR), which have been for use not just for defence yet have been additionally to behave as staging issues for offensive operations. Following the top of the struggle those defences have been prolonged, making a entrance that stretched over 2,000km from the Baltic to the Black Sea, that consisted of greater than 3,000 positions from forts to computing device gun and antitank positions, emplaced tank turrets, and statement and command positions. by way of the outbreak of worldwide battle II, those defenses - referred to as the Stalin Line - have been mostly complete.
However, after the Soviet profession of jap Poland in October 1939 the Stalin Line used to be too a long way at the back of the hot border to be of use as a springboard for an offensive. So, a brand new set of defenses used to be began, named after the Soviet overseas Minister, Molotov. gear used to be stripped from the Stalin Line, yet merely 25 percentage of the positions have been accomplished by the point of the German invasion in June 1941 and it proved no fit for the Wehrmacht - positions have been often empty or just bypassed throughout the improve. Illustrated with cutaway paintings and infrequent images this booklet offers an in depth exam of the advance of those shielding traces, and the scuffling with that happened round them in 1941, and is filled with element and knowledge that's not available within the English.
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Extra info for The Stalin and Molotov Lines: Soviet Western Defences 1928-41 (Fortress, Volume 77)
Sample text
Workers would march to the construction site, but if that was some distance from their barracks they often did little more than rest and then march back to their quarters. If the construction site was closer then some work was completed, but it was far from satisfactory. 195). Grigorenko’s experience was typical of many engineer officers, but as a junior officer he escaped the worst excesses of Stalin’s purges. The Inspector, later Chief of Engineers, General Nikolai Petin was not so lucky, and was killed in 1937 in spite of the fact that he was awarded the Order of Lenin in recognition of the sterling work he had completed on the defences.
But even such desperate measures failed to meet the requirement and it proved necessary to hire civil labourers. Local peasants were also used, often to transport building materials. Indeed those living in or near a fortified region were obliged to work a certain number of hours on the defences. The army conscripts who were sent to the construction units would spend three months at a building site before being relieved. This cycle continued for nine months from the spring through to the autumn, when work was suspended because of the severe winter weather.
To the south of 1st Panzer Army, Stülpnagel’s 17th Army continued its drive south-east. By the middle of July 1941, one of its units, 101st Jäger Division, had reached the Stalin Line, and on 15 July 228th Regiment attacked and captured four bunkers. With the bunkers cleared the regiment crossed the River Ljadowa to secure a bridgehead. During 16 July 101st Jäger Division continued to fight its way through the defences, but it was a slow and dangerous job. Often the defenders would vacate their bunkers and take up perfectly camouflaged field positions to assail the enemy attackers.
