Page 229 - The Chief Culprit

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All the Way to Berlin!

e peasant-worker Red Army will be the most aggressive of any attack army that ever
existed.
—FIELD STATUTE OF THE RED ARMY,

y sending all his divisions to France, Hitler had turned his back on Stalin. Stalin then
feverishly destroyed his defenses and increased the attacking power of the Red Army.
B e Dnepr military flotilla was one of the many defense systems of the Soviet Union.
e great river Dnepr blocked the way into the depth of Soviet territory to aggressors from
the west. All the Dnepr bridges were mined before 1939, and they could be demolished in
such a way that nothing would be left to restore. In all preceding campaigns, German troops
had never had to cross a single water barrier equal to the Dnepr. e pressing of a few but-
tons, at least in the middle and lower Dnepr regions, could stop German tank units. In the
early 1930s, the Dnepr military flotilla was created to prevent the crossing and establishment
of temporary bridges across the river. By the beginning of World War II, the flotilla counted
120 warships and motorboats, including eight powerful coastal monitors with cannon up
to 130 mm. On top of that, the Dnepr flotilla had its own air force, and shoreline and air-
1
defense batteries. e left bank of the Dnepr was suitable for river warships: it had many
islands, bypasses, and backwater hideaways, which allowed warships, including the largest
ones, to hide from the enemy and carry out surprise attacks, preventing the enemy from
crossing the river.
e Dnepr water barrier—with its bridges primed for demolition and the river flotilla
that could act together with field troops, artillery, and aviation—could securely close off the
roads to the industrial regions in the south of Ukraine and to the Black Sea bases of the Soviet
Navy. e German blitzkrieg could be stopped on the Dnepr line, or at least be held up for
several months. If that had happened, the entire course of the war would have been different.
However, just when Hitler turned his back on Stalin, Stalin ordered the removal of mines
from the Dnepr bridges and the disbanding of the military flotilla. e Dnepr flotilla could

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