Hitler’s Plans. Death Match
OM AH HUM
When the leadership of the Third Reich initiated military aggression against the Soviet Union, it not only seized our territory, but also declared a goal, truly monstrous in its design — to exterminate 90% of the Slavs. In one of his speeches, Hitler proclaimed: «We need to further develop the techniques of desolating… By this I mean the elimination of entire races… I have the right to destroy millions of people of an inferior race«. This Nazi doctrine formed the basis of the general plan «Ost», which entailed the destruction, within the space of a few years, of up to 50 million Soviet citizens.
As for the surviving part of the population, their lot was to become common slaves, destined to work from early morning until late at night for their masters — the people of the Third Reich. To this purpose, ever since the beginning of the war, tens of thousands of captured Soviet people were sent to Germany…
In short, the seizure of territories, the destruction of the population and the transfer of our people to Germany became reality from the first days of the war. To ensure the more successful accomplishment of these plans, Hitler urged designers and engineers to create new models of medium and heavy tanks that could effectively oppose such Soviet tanks as T-34 and KV.
In the winter of 1942, thePanther project was presented to Hitler. In May of that year, the project was accepted and the firm MAN was ordered to increase the production of the tanks up to 600 units per month (in May1940, this figure stood at 125 units per month). Hitler also ordered to develop a diesel engine for medium and heavy German tanks and to begin the development of platforms for transportation of super-heavy tanks. There had been an increase in the production of self-propelled guns and the Т-2 tanks, with plans to increase the figures up to 100 units per month and 190 units per month, respectively.
Hitler believed that the use of shaped charge shells would help to increase the German tanks’ firepower. He was anxious about whether the T-4 tank’s armor was thick enough, so he ordered to increase its front armour to 80 mm, and the Tiger tank’s to up to 120 mm.
The companies Krupp and Porsche began developing a tank weighing up to 100 tons. According to plans, by October 1942, 60 «Tigers» were to be produced by Porsche and 25 by Henschel. By March of 1943, 220 tanks were to be produced.
At the 23rd June 1942 meeting, the following production figures for the year 1943 were announced: armored vehicles on the chassis of the T-2 tank — 131 units; «Panther» tanks – 250 units; «Tiger» tanks — 258 units.
Interestingly, in November 1942, our so-called «allies» had landed their troops in North Africa. Clearly, they wanted to wrestle a slice of the cake from the Germans, who were becoming more and more preoccupied in the East. As for the Second Front — something that would have helped the Soviet war effort — it has been often mentioned that the allies had absolutely no intention in opening it at the time.
Like alldictators with ambitions of world domination, Hitler had a passion for giant-sized military vehicles (tanks weighing up to 100 tons) and guns (the Gustav — a 800mm gun that was mounted on a mobile platform, designed to be transported along double-track railroads). Together with Dr. Muller, he discussed the possibility of using the Gustav for shooting at Soviet tanks. Hitler also asked Guderian what he thought of the idea. «You can shoot at them,» the Inspector-General replied, «But, to hit them — that’d be unlikely. A 45-minute reload time is too long for firing at tanks».
Curiously, F. Halder (Chief of the German General Staff until the end of September 1942) wrote in his diary, in the first days of June 1942, that Washington assured that, in 1943, there would be no Second Front.
We’re left to wonder — who exactly was Washington (the capital of the USA, USSR’s supposed ally) assuring in the Summer of 1942 that the Second Front won’t be opened in 1943?
We’ve guessed this before and are positive about it now — the Americans (meaning the American government) have never been our allies. Their main interest lay in crushing Bolshhevik Russia by the hands of Nazi Germany (while preferably weakening both countries as much as possible). That’s why they first supported the losing side, in order to weaken Germany, and then, vice versa — did their best to postpone the opening of the Second Front, so that the Russian people would suffer as heavy losses as possible.
Death Match
The Soviet press and television often addressed the subject of the so-called «Death Match», an event that took place during the war, at one of Kiev’s stadiums (later known as the Start Stadium). Allegedly, on 22 June, 1942 (the first anniversary of Nazi Germany’s attack on Soviet Union), a football match took place between the German team Luftwaffe and the players of Dynamo Kiev. The supposed purpose of the match was to use the German players’ victory as a demonstration of the Aryan race’s superiority over the non-Aryans (even though geneticists have long since proven that the Slavs, and not the Germans, are the true descendants of the Aryans).
However, as the match went underway, it soon became apparent that the German airmen stood little chances against professional football players of Dynamo Kiev. The popular version of the story goes that, anxious to save their faces, the Germans assembled the Dynamo players during half-time and warned them: «Either you lose the match, or we’ll have you shot».
Despite this ultimatum, the footballers of Dynamo Kiev continued to play at full power and won with the score of 5:3… Apparently, the Germans kept their promise and the whole Dynamo team was executed right after the game.
In reality, as researchers have discovered, there was not one match, but several — all of them against different teams. In each case, the adversaries were «amateurs» that couldn’t present a serious challenge for Dynamo Kiev. The match against the Luftwaffe was the last in this series, and the Germans assumed that the exhausted Dynamo would be unlikely to beat the airmen. However, moral motivation, willpower and pure class naturally allowed our players to defeat the Luftwaffe, as well.
Regarding the executed Dynamo players — I. Kuzmenko, O. Klimenko, N. Korotkykh and N. Trusevich, there is evidence that they were conducting underground activities in the German-occupied Kiev and had connections with the NKVD. Those were the real reasons for their execution — and not the victory against a German football team.
There is a theory that, upon discovering the Dynamo players’ covert activities, the Germans offered to change their sentence from shooting to placement in a concentration camp, if they agreed to lose the last match. But — the players still chose victory and death. There are other versions of the events, indicating that our footballers weren’t shot immediately after the match, but later — after their connection with the underground was discovered. And it wasn’t the whole team that was executed, but a few of its members only.
In 1971, a monument was unveiled at the «Dynamo» stadium in Kiev — a granite stele with four reliefs portraying the executed footballers.
Eternal remembrance and glory to our players!
Sutra 55. The Guerrilla Movement.
OM AH HUM
In the first days of World War II, the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union passed a directive that set up a program of establishing guerrilla movement under the leadership of party officials behind enemy lines. The formation of guerrilla units went on parallel with the activity of special commando schools, where people were trained for subsequent deployment on German-occupied territory. Part of the guerrilla detachments were formed entirely from soldiers. Guerrilla units were further reinforced both by the members of local population and by the soldiers of the Red Army, who ended up on enemy ground following their regiments’ retreat but managed to avoid being surrounded, or fled from concentration camps, etc.
Throughout the whole of 1941 and until the end of Spring of 1942, there was no centralized leadership of the guerrilla movement. Then, in late May1942, the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement was created as part of the Supreme High Command General Headquarters. It was headed by PanteleimonPonomarenko, First Secretary of the Belarusian Communist Party Central Committee (from the beginning of the war, Ponomarenko served as a member of the military councils of various fronts). As for the post of the Commander in Chief of the guerrilla movement, Stalin allotted it to Kliment Voroshilov (Deputy to the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union (a post held by Stalin himself), Chairman of the State Defense Committee, etc.).
The central leadership’s efforts to coordinate the guerrilla movement were hindered by the fact that the vast majority of guerrilla units did not have radios and, therefore, could not maintain radio communication with the Mainland (the High Command).
One of the most important tasks was to ensure the adequate provision of guerrilla units with weapons, ammunition and explosives. Throughout the war years, the Central Headquarters of the Guerrilla Movement kept paying special attention to this issue. As a result, the guerrillas had received almost 60 000 rifles and carbines, 34 000 submachine guns, 4 000 infantry machine guns, 2 500 anti-tank rifles, 2 000 mortars, 500 000 grenades and a large quantity of ammunition.
The guerrillas derailed trains carrying equipment and ammunition, attacked German garrisons, destroyed the soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht, mined and blew up bridges.
Due to their role as the primary means of supply of equipment, ammunition and food to German troops, railways became the main target of guerrilla activity. In 1943, the guerrilla movement conducted two major operations, «Rail War» and «Concert», destroying railroads in many different places at once. Thanks to these operations, the rail transit capacity on enemy-occupied territories was lowered by a third. In August 1942, guerrilla groups derailed 148 trains; in September -152; in October — 210; in November — 238… Guerrilla activity helped to tie down enemy forces, including up to 20 police divisions, etc.
Among the most successful guerrilla explosive experts/commandos was Colonel IlyaStarinov — a true genius in his field of work. Despite this fact, he was never given the rank of General. IlyaStarinov had lived a long life and only died recently.
In addition to the above-mentioned, another important aspect of guerrilla units’ activity was intelligence gathering, which allowed to determine the number of German troops concentrated on various axes.
Some guerrilla units consisted of up to a thousand or more fighters. They were not only equipped with mortars, but artillery; and sometimes even tanks and planes.
When possible, the guerrillas hindered the sending of our prisoners of war and civilians to concentration camps, taking advantage of opportunities to free people from Nazi captivity.
Of the 3 million (3.4 million) Soviet soldiers and officers captured during 1941-1942, by the end of that period, 2 million people were shot or otherwise executed. According to the data from German archives, in Nazi concentration camps, about 6 000 people were shot daily. 280 000 captives agreed to serve the Germans as policemen and in other capacities. Of all those taken prisoner by the Germans during the Great Patriotic War, only one in five people had survived to see it’s conclusion.
During the war, Soviet guerrillas derailed over 11 000 trains and 34 armored trains; blew up 30 railway stations, 948 military headquarters and almost the same number of ammunition depots; destroyed 300 airplanes and more than 1000 tanks and armored personnel carriers.
For their wartime achievements, 87 guerrillas were awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union; 120 000 were awarded orders and medals.
Both the regular troops and the guerrillas benefited considerably from the assistance provided by the Soviet intelligence operatives. Among them was Nikolai Kuznetsov, who acted on the German-occupied Ukrainian territory in tandem with the guerrilla unit led by D. Medvedev. Thanks to his mastery of the German language, Kuznetsov managed to legalize his stay in the city of Rivne, using documents in the name of Ober-Lieutenant Paul Siebert. Due to Kuznetsov’s efforts, our side had gained access to valuable military information. Furthermore, he eliminated such Nazi officials as Alfred Funk (Chief Judge of Ukraine); Hans Gehl (Imperial Advisor); Otto Bauer (Deputy Governor of Galicia District) and helped to kidnap General Max IIgen (Commander of the punitive troops in Ukraine).
Dedicated to our intelligence officers:
So brave and daring, you know no fear,
Always patient, reliable and deft.
You’re the country’s eyes and ears,
When there are no other options left.
Your sacrifices are beyond count,
The good you have done is well known.
You fearlessly died for your Motherland,
And we’ll honor you as Heroes ever on!
Whether you lived in Warsaw, or Berlin,
Many times, you’d balanced on the edge —
Calmly strolling on the knife’s edge thin,
Hanging by a thread so direly stretched…
In your dreams, you saw your dear ones’ faces,
And your souls yearned for a homecoming.
You had oft assumed the guise of strangers,
But your hearts had never left your native country.
You had never craved awards and titles,
Fame and wealth were far from your concerns.
You became a legend that inspires us,
Russia’s greatest, most admired sons.
Your sacrifices are beyond count,
The good you have done is well known.
You fearlessly died for your Motherland,
And we’ll honor you as Heroes ever on!
Glory and eternal memory to our Guerrillas and Intelligence Operatives!
About the author:
Chegerama Haridgnan Amigo ( Vitalievich), was born in 1968, in the Lugansk region.
He has finished the Secndary School №1 in the town of Aldan, Yakutia (Sakha Republic).
Since the end of November, 1986, until the beginning of December, 1988, he served in the Soviet Army, in Germany (Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, GSFG).
He entered the Moscow State University (Faculty of Philosophy) in 1991 and graduated in 1996.
A political scientist by education, he takes interest in religious teachings.
ChegeramaHaridgnan Amigo has compiled and wrote three books.
His hobbies include football, chess and table tennis.
