Quote:
Originally posted by tabs
Two questions abut the Russo German War of 41-45.
The easy one....
What did Stalin do to save Moscow from the Germans in Nov-Dec 1941, and why was he able to do it?
This is the tough one and if U get this, its hats off to U MRM.
How did Reinhard Heydrichs actions indirectly help save Moscow from the Germans in Nov-Dec 1941?
Whew Daddy if anyone gets this U know your WW2 History.
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Sorry Tabs, working overseas now so could not chime in earlier...
SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich was a very interesting man. He could snow the people around him with stories that were later proven to be totally false, yet he was strong enough and powerful enough that they did not call him on it. His marriage then dismissal from the Heer (Navy) is a good example. How he got out of this one is still a mystery.
Before the war Heydrich was involved in espionage that involved, among others, pushing Stalin into purging many of his top generals, a move which really hurt him only 3 years later when Adolf invaded Russia. Heydrich was one of the German spooks who provided the information (most of it false) to Russian agents, who then passed it to Stalin who in turn purged most of the experienced generals in his army. When Hitler invaded 3 years later all of the experienced top leaders were either dead or in Siberia.
Regarding the Eastern front, Heydrich had a hand in the downfall of two powerful German Army generals. War Minister, Werner von Blomberg and Commander in Chief of the Army, Werner von Fritsch. When they were let go, Hitler took command of the Army and he had the vast experience of being a Corporal in WW1, so it was the blind leading the blind here. The Eastern Front followed and without proper leadership it was doomed from the beginning. Yes the winter did have a large part to do with it but both sides had to work with the winter. At least the Ruskies were used to it.
Had Hitler not invaded Russia they would eventually have eventually taken England and the world as we know it would be greatly different.
Heydrich was a man of many talents. Even though he was far too old for this type of thing, he was also a pilot and flew a BF-109 in combat on the Eastern Front when time permitted. No one knows exactly how many missions, but he was awarded a metal that usually required at least 60 combat missions. Shot down by the Ruskies and crash landing close to German lines, he made his way back to safety but was then ordered to stop playing with fire by doing this and stopped flying over enemy occupied areas after this time.
A hated man because of his actions and viewpoints towards anyone or thing that was not Deutsch (German), Heydrich's life ended early in the war when two Czech patriots, who had trained in England with the SOE, returned home and killed him. Unfortunately Hitler killed thousands of innocent people after this and Heydrich's death only made Himmler more powerful when he took over many of his projects.
Now for more obscure WW2 facts. Without looking on google, how about "Dusko Popov" ....