Today, APRIL 14, 2015. On this day in the war years:
In 1941:
The chief of the General staff of the red army issued an urgent Directive on the enforcement of the long-term combat readiness of all fire buildings, fortified areas with installation in them of weapons combat troops in the absence of personnel. The story of the fortified – one of the most enigmatic pre-war stories associated with the defense of the country and has played a fatal role after the German attack on the USSR. During 1938 were reconstructed, all available at the Western border of the 13 fortified areas who formed their garrisons consisted of 25 machine-gun battalions (18 thousand people). In late 1938 and early 1939 were built 8 more fortified areas. However, with the transfer of the border to the West, it was decided the construction of 20 fortified areas along the new border. The old line of defense – on the personal order of Stalin – was actually destroyed: they were all disarmed; the weapons, munitions, sensors, communications were delivered to the warehouses. Some facilities were handed over to the collective farms as vegetable stores, most covered with earth. Moreover, also on the personal order of Stalin, in the late spring of 1941, on the very eve of war, mighty reinforced concrete revetments, gun emplacements, command and observation posts – tens of thousands of long-term defensive structures of the old line were blown up, although the history of wars shows that 2 lines of defense are better than one. A new line of defense began to build in 1940, but by mid-April 1941, despite the fact that construction had already 140 thousand people and was allocated 10 million roubles, the Commission of the Main political Directorate of the red army came to the conclusion that they are mostly not armed, not equipped – in short, not efficient. Not work were completed, and by June 22; between fortified areas were the gaps, reaching 50-60 kilometres, where deployed troops cover had no support and protection. Another interesting detail: pillboxes, revetments new line was constructed in immediate proximity from the border, in full view of the Germans, who could see the smallest details of construction to the naked eye; the construction was carried out at night under the spotlights. The Germans are reported to Berlin that these works – probably a Russian trick, the real line of defense is being built somewhere in the nooks of a few kilometers in the depths of Soviet territory. By all the laws of common sense it was supposed to be: firing points, command posts should be masked (otherwise they will be destroyed by a direct hit in the first minutes of hostilities) and are not on the border, otherwise the soldiers on alert and will not have time to run to the gun.
Historians are still wondering (many of the documents of the pre-war period and the great Patriotic war is still classified), how could it be that in 1940-1941 when the war was in Europe, Asia, Africa, when every Soviet citizen knew that the fight will end and we, our Western border was left without fortifications. Versions are put forward so far, and the most diverse.
1. Stalin himself was preparing an attack on Germany, to the new frontier since the beginning of 1941 there were convoys of troops and weapons, the old line of defense was destroyed and the construction of a new, not crossed, because our strategy was based on attack, not defense.
2. This is the result of the usual Russian sloppiness, coupled with the Soviet-esteem (throwing their caps) and fear: Stalin considered himself a consummate strategist, who dares to argue when he gave the order to blow up the old line of defense?
In 1942:
In Varanger-fjord Soviet submarine M-173 sank a tanker of the enemy, and the submarine M-172 – transport.
In the UK entered a double tax on entertainment and amusement places.
In German captivity killed a Russian mineralogist, a specialist in meteorites Leonid A. Kulik (1883-1942), one of the organizers of the national meteorite studies. In the 1920-30s, he made numerous expeditions to the crash site in 1908 the famous Tunguska meteorite and gathered at a relatively "fresh" understanding for this still remains a mysterious natural catastrophe. At the beginning of the great Patriotic war Kulik volunteered in the militia, was wounded and taken prisoner.
In 1943:
In the concentration camp Sachsenhausen was killed 36-year-old Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili (1907-1943), the son of Joseph Stalin from his first marriage. Once in the environment, the commander of an artillery battery of the 14th howitzer regiment, senior Lieutenant Dzhugashvili shell-shocked, was taken prisoner in July 1941 in the battle near the village of Liozno, near Vitebsk. After the captivity of Yakov, the Germans launched a frenzied propaganda campaign, throwing the front of the leaflets with the portrait of the son of the "father of Nations" and calls to follow his example and go to the side of the Wehrmacht. In captivity Jacob behaved with dignity and courage, as became clear already in the perestroika times, in 1977, was posthumously awarded the order Patriotic war of I degree.
In 1944:
Troops of the 1st Ukrainian front liberated the Pilots. During occupation and fights Hitlerites killed in the city and around 28 thousand civilians, several thousand people were taken away to Germany. By the time of liberation the city had about 1000 people. The invaders destroyed about 2.5 million homes, took equipment 29 industrial enterprises and blew up the rest.
In the port of Bombay blew up a military transport ship "Fort Stikin". It is 155 gold bars worth 5 million USD 8 700 Kip Punjab cotton, sulphur, rubber, and was a secret military cargo – a strong 1395 tons of explosives and 300 tons of TNT. Evening glow over the port and part of the city was visible for 75 miles. The sum of the caused damage amounted to $ 1.5 billion.
In 1945:
In the South-West of Konigsberg, our troops took more than 60 settlements, on the territory of Czechoslovakia and Austria – 22, West of Vienna is over 60.
The allied troops on the Western front continued to advance, they had crossed the Elbe and are close to Magdeburg, and 11 kilometers from Leipzig.
The allied troops in the Ruhr cut the bag into 2 parts. Received a belated order from Hitler to fight out of the encirclement, General-field Marshal Walter Model that led to this elaborate defense around the perimeter of the encirclement, the troops disbanded and fled.
