The more famous Soviet ground units of WWII.....

[Gpig]

heh

Yeah.

It's funny really how when you put it all into perspective, regarding world wars . . . all the giant clashes of arms and explosions of sacrifice . . . it all comes down to guys fighting for their buddies. Kind of sweet and bitter in a way.

Gpig

[Grisha]

Originally posted by Gpig:

Speaking of Rodmitsev's 13th Division . . . Wasn't that division practically completely destroyed (over and over) during the siege of Stalingrad?

They made it across the Volga in the nick of time to aid the 62nd in the early days of the battle for stalingrad. But in doing so, they were smashed to pieces, no?

Also, I wonder if a unit that gets such accolades, maintains a high "spirit" or morale amongst newcomers.

For instance, if a green recruit got shipped to a vanilla infantry division with no former glory . . . would he perform less well than a similar recruit sent to a "famous" unit? A unit that has a valiant history, but has already been turned over (manpower-wise) two or three times?

Kind of like Easy company, I guess. They had something like 200% casualties over the course of WWII, but still fielded a competent unit towards the end of the war.

Hmmmm . . .

Gpig

Well, the esprit de corps, or cadre, carried on after Stalingrad, it seems.

In August 1943, on the attack north of Kharkov, 13th Guards overran a German infantry regiment, pushed 20km through the German front in three days, and then added one of its battalions to a tank force to form an 'ad hoc' mobile group striking into the Germans' rear. After the tanks had all been knocked out, the battalion hung on singlehandedly until the rest of the division came to reinforce it.

- from Sharp's Soviet OOB WWII, Vol.IV

[ January 18, 2003, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: Grisha ]