The Battle for Dubno-Lutsk-Brody
On June 23, the battle for Dubno-Lutsk-Brody (320 km west of Kiev) starts. The General of the Army G. Zhukov, who came to the scene, rejects the idea of the Chief of Staff of the South-Western Front to withdraw troops and create a solid defense line. The new plan was an immediate strike by five mechanized corps in 2,800 (later 3,100) tanks for four (subsequently – five) German tank divisions of 720 tanks and 70 assault guns.
Wehrmacht connections, in addition to combat vehicles, include large units of infantry, artillery, and also highly skilled repair brigades. Bulky (about 400 tanks) mechanized corps make marches of 300 km, losing at least only a mechanical breakdown of at least a quarter of the machines.
The Soviet system of production of military equipment allegedly does not provide for the release, delivery, not even worth a half-word, of «small things» for repair, for example, gaskets or tank tract. Guidelines for driving and servicing the newest tanks, at this time – are classified even from potential mechanics. Sometimes, so carefully stored from the crews of the car, at the most crucial moment refuel not with diesel fuel, but with gasoline.
Approximately the same situation in the Air Force. In order to avoid any breakdown of equipment, getting accusations of wrecking, the most unfortunate consequences, the lower command is gradually sabotaging real military training. To realize how this or that thing works, one must at least break it down – it’s a simple, but an immutable truth. The fact that in the German educational units is punishable with salty jokes or a reprimand to a newcomer, the Red Army may end in execution.
Perhaps, it can be argued that in a society of formal equality and the «territorial organization of the community», any sign of distinction is qualified, no less than an accessory to a special caste. The Commander of the Red Army at all costs aspires to secede from the soldiers’ masses, although of course this does not go as far as in the Tsarist army. These maxims completely agree with the author’s observations during his time in the army of the Soviet, and then Russian. The German army from the middle of the nineteenth century implies, with (paradoxically) the strict observance of subordination, the attitude of the officer to the soldier as an equal to himself. Cohesion, a trusting relationship to each other, even, as it is said there, on the basis of blood ties, determines the high level of command and control.