Russian forces re-enact WW2 battle

[Ironsight 1]

Quote[/b] ]Russian forces re-enact WW2 battle

Tuesday, December 7, 2004 Posted: 1958 GMT (0358 HKT)

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Russian soldiers in World War II-style uniforms slogged through early winter slush Tuesday to re-enact the Soviet Union's defeat of Adolf Hitler's armies in the Battle of Moscow near the Russian capital 63 years ago.

President Vladimir Putin joined elderly survivors of the battle at the Alabino training range to watch the 90-minute commemoration.

The 2,500 soldiers and equipment created a chillingly detailed re-enactment, with soldiers in sheepskin coats and white camouflage, vintage rifles and artillery, and three dozen wartime T-34 tanks.

The Battle of Moscow was the first large-scale defeat inflicted on the German armies that had overrun Europe and then invaded the Soviet Union, reaching as far as the suburbs of the capital.

Full article

Russian soldiers wear white camouflage as they re-enact the World War II battle of Moscow at the Alabino training range near Moscow.

The 2,500 soldiers in sheepskin coats created a chillingly detailed re-enactment with vintage rifles and artillery, and three dozen T-34 tanks.

[Nemesis6 0]

"Right, so who wants to play the Germans? ..... Come on, don't be shy. Raise your hands if you wanna be the Germans... Guys, please don't make me pick 'volounteers!'"

So how was this done? Rifles with blanks? It would be nice to get some details!

[red oct 2]

whoa! 2500 people were in the re-enactment?! that had to pretty awsome to watch. we had D-day landing re-enactments up at Lake Erie complete w/ both German and American era uniforms and equipment w/ P51's doing fly-bys, but we never had that many people. only at most a few hundred.

[Winters 1]

I'm sure those guys were a lot warmer than their historical counterparts had been.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

"We won the battle because we were stronger in spirit, and on account of the heroism of our people," Putin said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Yeah, dream on buddy. Seems like Putin is trying to tackle the modern minority complex of the russian people.

Well to attack an army that has tanks with frozen petrol and soldiers that are already half frozen is no great act of heroism.

And then to loose three times the amount of warmly dressed and well equipped sibiran soldiers is no great success either. Typical russian to define their Pyrrhus victories as "great russian achievements".

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/battles.htm#Battles

[Ares1978 0]

Typical russian to define their Pyrrhus victories as "great russian achievements".

I think that's a bit unfair. Every people wants to celebrate their victories, no matter how small or how rare they were.

[Foxtrot87 0]

Considering the fact that it's not a small victory...

Quote[/b] ]Yeah, dream on buddy. Seems like Putin is trying to tackle the modern minority complex of the russian people.

Pay respect to the people who gave away their life in war against fascist regime.

Quote[/b] ]Well to attack an army that has tanks with frozen petrol and soldiers that are already half frozen is no great act of heroism.

Excuse me, who was the first to attack the USSR?

Quote[/b] ]And then to loose three times the amount of warmly dressed and well equipped sibiran soldiers is no great success either. Typical russian to define their Pyrrhus victories as "great russian achievements".

Think of the millions of people who died in this war. Such comments disgust me. I've lost all respect towards you, Albert.

[Placebo 29]

Ok that's 1-1, let's call it a draw and get back to the thread, before the thread gets closed and people get hit on the head with a large hammer called PR

[void_false 1]

placebo, somebody already deserves to be hit with your hammer.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Quote[/b] ]Pay respect to the people who gave away their life in war against fascist regime.

oh, dont deliberately misinterpret me.

Hell I do. And I am actually one of very few in Berlin defending the russian memorials. They are huge, they were build for propaganda purposes, but they remember the fallen russian soldiers. As ugly as they may be, I want them to stay.

But dont forget, russia never build them to remember the soldiers but to show the superiority of the stalinistic empire.

I have no problem respecting and honouring those russian soldiers that died in WWII.

On the other hand I make no difference between the US and Russia dealing and abusing the death of soldiers for political purposes. As if Stalin cared about his soldiers, as if he cared about whether they had bullets, a rifle or just a wodden stick.

Also, a great percentage of russian soldiers did not fight that war because of their heroic conviction but because they were forced into battle. Many resistance fighters had zero to no connection to the Red Army and many were later on executed because they were not loyal enough.

The russians had any right to defend themselves. It was the germans that started it and dont push me against the wall, accusing me of saying the russians were the "bad guys".

Let the soldiers speak for themselves and not a silly Putin do it.  Putins statement deliberately tries to declarify all circumstances of this battle. I just hate historical clarification moving backwards. Honour the soldiers, but never forget the role that BOTH bloodthirsty governments played in that war.

[red oct 2]

im just curious, did any Russians go to watch this re-enactment? i've been to war re-enactments but never something this big and i would love to see some more pictures if anybody would have any.

[Foxtrot87 0]

You've got mail, Albert

Quote[/b] ]And I am actually one of very few in Berlin defending the russian memorials.

I'm glad you're doing that. I wrote everything in the PM.

Quote[/b] ]im just curious, did any Russians go to watch this re-enactment?

I think it was for veterans only

Here's the link to some video footage of that reenactment.

http://www.1tv.ru/owa....66;t=56

Turn the volume down a bit when it starts because there's a loud intro

Pictures:

[pogingwapo 0]

Somebody please post a link to a complete account of the Battle for Moscow.

So many people are talking about Kursk and Stalingrad but not this one.

[IceFire 0]

Didn't the Russians win by starving the Germans of shelter and the cold weather.

I heard they burned Moscow down as the Germans advanced so the Germans had nowhere to stay and were forced to go back home.

Silly Germans trying to invade Russia in the winter.

[Billabong81 0]

Silly Germans trying to invade Russia in the winter.

I thought they invaded during the late summer/early fall and hoped to capture Moscow before winter arrived...but that didn't work out as we all know ...

[cozza 24]

I' just amazed how the russian winter works. It manged to push Nepolian back as well as the germans. Russia's 2nd line of defence Winter

[-33ker 0]

Hitler thought it would be easy to break through to Moscow with the mobile Wehrmacht and Blitzkrieg tactics. But he didn't think of the vast Russian space he had to cross with his support lines. That was the main problem. No proper support with winter gear to the frontline troops when the winter began! Germany was pretty close and was already shelling the outskirts of Moscow, but they couldn't stay there any longer to advance further because they didn't have the necessary gear!

Russia's advantages were the winter and the size of the country with the sibirean resources.

[der bastler 0]

Some informations about the Battle of Moscow:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moscow

and the commanders:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Zhukov

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedor_von_Bock

The defender of the Russian capital --Zhukov-- later took the enemy's capital...