Viktor Suvorov and Operation Barbarossa: Tukhachevskii Revisited

Abstract

On the sixth of July 1941 at 0330 hrs Moscow Time, tens of thousands of Soviet guns tore the silence into shreds, informing the world that the Red Army’s great liberating march had begun. The Red Army’s artillery, in numbers and quality, is superior to the rest of the whole world’s titanic reserves of ammunition were concentrated at the Soviet frontier. The firing tempo of the Soviet artillery swiftly grows, transformed into a hellish roar on the thousand-kilometer front [stretching] from the Black Sea to the Baltics. The first artillery salvo was timed to coincide to the minute when thousands of Soviet aircraft crossed the state frontier. The German airfields, positioned right up to the border, were extremely unlucky, as the German pilots had no time to get their planes into the air. A huge collection of aircraft had been gathered at the German airfields. They are parked wingtip to wingtip, and the fire spreads from one airplane to the next, like the fire in a box of matches.1 Viktor Suvorov, Ledokol: Kto nachal vtoruyu mirovyu voinu? (Moscow: Izdatel’stvo AKT, 2000), pp. 410–411. The artillery preparation picks up intensity. At the frontier itself, the Soviet battalions and regiments brought to readiness by the alert are receiving their vodka. In the forests near the border, a thunderous “Urah” rumbles as the troops are read the combat order of Comrade Stalin—the Supreme Commander-in-Chief: “The day of reckoning has arrived. Soviet intelligence has uncovered Hitler’s treachery, and the time has come for him to be accountable for all his evil deeds and crimes! Heroic Warriors, the world is watching you and awaits liberation!” In violation of all established standards and restrictions, the soldiers are told the quantity of Soviet troops, tanks, artillery, aircraft, submarines taking part in their march of liberation. Once again, a thunderous “Urah!” rumbles over the forest meadows and clearings.2 Ibid., pp. 411–412.