European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 23, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A review of russian strategy and tactics from fhe defense of Home Battle lines to the breakthrough that opened the Way to the red army offensive that began on 12 was aimed at Berlin and at the shortest pos sible route to the end of the War in to get to the russians mounted the great est land offensive of the War to this russian offensive was the culmination of a Long Range plan that went into action even As the German invasion was spreading past russian according to russian Many military journals and Allied on whose opinions this article is there have been roughly three phases to this plan initial re attrition after the germans were stopped and finally the there has been nothing accidental about this it has carried Over while the red to use prime minister Church ills has been tearing the guts out of the great bulk of the German and while the russian people have seen their country in flames and some 20 million of their countrymen killed missing or and it has been based on one principle the Complete and final crushing of the German there Are Many reasons Why the russians have licked the the russians have won because they understood the meaning of fascism and Why they could not live in the same world with it because they understood the mean ing of total War because they had the vital help of they have won also because their generals were some of their equipment better and their strategy sounder than according to one russian school of military thought which dwells primarily on the Early phases of the German invasion of russian the German general staff simply failed to learn the lessons of the first world the germans Conception of the difference Between the first and second world wars is very says a russian general in red the official Publica Tion of the russian they held that the first War was exclusively one of but that the second was a War of Man Euver in fortified fronts play Only a secondary they overlooked the fact that a fortified and hence fire artillery and would be inherited by the second they believed that the decisive Factor of this War would be Mobile formations the germans relied on mobility alone to achieve the results in the East which they had gained in the West in the earlier Days of the they assumed that their Surprise breakthrough would crack the russian lines and Lead to free Man Euver of their tanks in the russian the breakthrough did crack the first lines of but the red army Learned to Retreat before the fury of the Blitz and let it spend the red army bled the advancing germans with guerrilla warfare and local counterattacks and uncovered the no famous russian it stopped the germans at Moscow and and forced them to resort to what they had tried to warfare along a wide when the red army assumed the the germans had to fortify this they were forced to relearn the positional lessons of the first world War the hard the positions that the red army cracked from Stalingrad to Breslau have been very Well for in a mile Long sector of the East prussian front the germans had built 18 pillboxes with Iron and Concrete Walls from six to nine feet one of the pillboxes was three stories High and had a Garrison of 69 consider this in terms of the length of the front and its which stretched from the caucasus to Germany an outstanding red army achievement was to smash this front from top to says the general in red is a Stoni not the russians strategy was based on a Long they realized that they were up against a striking Force of unprecedented with the wealth and slave labor of Europe behind their plan was not Only to absorb this Force in the great expanse of their but to Stop it at three decisive these spots were to prevent the germans from breaking through and cutting off the outside world from the North the heart of the soviet Union and Stal from which the germans could have Cut South to reach vital Oil and North to outflank the Moscow they  take by frontal the red army stopped the germans at each of these and the defeat of the sixth German army group before Stalingrad is generally considered the turning Point of the the russian tactics were based on three principles encirclement and Renvel these Are not particularly original Mili tary but they pay in the 1944 sum Mer offensive the red army broke through the German defences from Vitebsk to the Black sea before they stopped they had encircled 10 nazi divisions at Vitebsk and 10 Divi Sions at Kishinev in 30 divisions in Latvia and some men in As the red army these tactics have been consummated on a larger and larger where they were breaking through on a localized front two years they Are breaking through along an entire front enveloping whole provinces such As East Prussia and out flanking entire defense As they did to the German defense system in Poland by their drive through the Balkans to it is important to remember the largeness of red army conceptions and the scale on which they for German propaganda made much of the fact last Winter that the russians had stopped before Warsaw for political but during the period that the germans claimed the red army was stalling in it was Clearing its flanks by trapping the German divisions in the Baltic preparing the Bridgehead the Vistula from which their present offensive jumped off and conducting a major Campaign in the Balkans that an estimated 70 German divisions in that area the pause of the red army in Central Poland was an operational pause that was part of the marshal Gregory who main drive on Berlin As head of the first White russian army general soviet the Success of the pres ent offensive is proof of How sound that Strat egy has it took the red army time to pre pare for this offensive As it took us time to pre pare for our Normandy landings the preparation seems to have been Worth the time it is an elementary truism that an offensive should pick up Speed As it goes this Means that an artillery and Supply system must be prepared to be As Mobile As the attacking when a russian offensive it hits hard and fast and keeps on As a the red army usually cracks the enemy tactical defences Dur ing the first two Days of any major at the German lines were breached in the first Day on the fifth Day soviet forces yank the army weekly 1945 had gone 120 Kilometres and surrounded the main German at the German line was cracked the first and the russians had gone 100 Kilometres by the seventh in the summer of the German defences in White Russia were broken during the first two Days of the offensive on the fifteenth Day the red army had gone 400 the red army encircled von Kleist army group in six the red army broke the entire Ger Man defense system in Poland in four there Are several factors behind these Swift there is always an extremely thorough relying a great Deal on reconnaissance in the russians also depend a Good Deal on guerrilla then there is terrific artillery concentration a Crew of red army Trench mortar men sends supporting fire ahead of infantry advancing in front of North sea Neu Munster Lubeck Baltic sea Gid Stolp Rostock Graf Iswald Emden Oldenburg Weser Munde Luneberg Bremen Hamburg Schwerin Stettin Stargard Osnabrock enschede a Munster Bielefeld Ebe Swalde Hannover Berlin Braunschweig Brandenberg 9 Hildesheim Potsdam 1st White russian Ilsen Kirchen i Essen Dortmund Ferbach Dusseldorf Lude Scheid it Siegen marburg Kachnei Dwren in Halberstadt Paderborn Kassel 1 n k Magdeburg Dessau Halle Leipzig Frank Fui 1st ukrainian a Egnutz Erfurt 100 Miles Jena Chemnitz Gorlitz Dresden Wiesbaden m Mainz Neinkirchen Icken Frankfurt Offenbach Darmstadt Wurzburg Plauen Bamberg Hirshberg Neisse Gle Iwitza Mannheim Heidelberg Furth Nuremburg Heilbronn Regensburg 7th is Ulm Freiburg Augsburg Munich Linz 3oo Miles Salzburg Vienna Wiener Neustadt Innsbruck 0 Groz