[BITList] Humour and History

[John Feltham]

Appended is a small write-up on General Semyon Moiseevich Krivoshein a Jewish general in the Soviet Army who took on the famous General Heinz Guderian. He was among the first to enter Berlin during that last battle. Almost 200 Jewish generals served in the Soviet Army. This is testimony to the role of Jews in the former USSR and indeed in the present Russian Federation.

------------------------------------------------------------
Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact in August 1939. Both countries agreed to divide and occupy Poland along a pre-determined line. The Soviet Union wanted to regain territory taken by Poland by the Riga Treaty of 1921, and Germany aimed at penetrating as far eastwards as possible toward the Soviet border. Rapidly advancing into Poland on 01 September 1939, some elements of the German Army went beyond the agreed-upon demarcation line and encountered the Soviet Army which, advancing westwards, had also attacked Poland on 17 September 1939.

Advancing through the Bug region toward the city of Brest-Litovsk, General Krivoshein, commanding the 29th Light Tank Brigade, found that German troops had already occupied the town. In such a situation, a local commander must use own initiative and act quickly to safeguard his country’s interests. General Krivoshein cleverly placed some tanks athwart a railway line and successfully blocked a Nazi train carrying General Heinz Guderian’s tanks further east.

A livid Guderian demanded that the tanks be removed at once. Keeping a straight face, General Krivoshein audaciously replied, “…sorry General, but our tanks are out of fuel!” 

General Heinz Guderian invited Krivoshein to his Headquarters for breakfast. While partaking breakfast, Krivoshein successfully persuaded him to vacate Brest-Litovsk and withdraw westwards to the previously agreed upon demarcation line. Later on Guderian ruefully remarked that the withdrawal was “disadvantageous” to Nazi Germany.

Semyon Moiseevich Krivoshein was born in Voronezh on 28 November 1899. His father was a Jewish artisan shop owner. In 1918 he enlisted in the Red Army during the Civil War. In 1943 Krivoshein commanded the 3rd Mechanized Corps in Mikhail Katukov's 1st Tank Army of the Voronezh Front during the decisive Battle of Kursk. His crucial task was to fight the most capable of all German Field Marshals: Erich von Manstein. By the end of 07 July 1943 German aerial reconnaissance reported: "The Russians are not falling back. They stand there on line. Our tanks are stopped. They are burning." The 1st Tank Army counterattacked on 12 July and the Germans lost the greatest tank battle in history. For his outstanding generalship Krivoshein was promoted to Lieutenant General and awarded the highest Soviet decoration - the Order of Suvorov.

In the spring of 1945, Krivoshein led his corps as part of Marshal Georgy Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front in the final assault on Berlin. Krivoshein fought his way to the Reichstag building. For outstanding leadership and personal courage in this final battle, Krivoshein was conferred with the order of a Hero of the Soviet Union.

In 1946 Krivoshein was appointed the head of Department at the Frunze Military Academy. On 4 May 1953 he retired after 35 years of service. He spent the rest of his life writing his war memoirs. During service Krivoshein received the following awards: Hero of the Soviet Union (1945), three Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, Second Class Orders of Suvorov, First Class Order of Kutuzov andOrder of the Red Star. This brave officer died on 16 September 1978, and was buried in Moscow.


Strategic question

The General at a Russian Military Academy  gave a lecture on "Potential Problems and Military Strategy in Future Wars".  At the end of the lecture, he asked if there were any questions.

An officer stood up and asked, "Will there be a third World War? And will Russia take part in it?" The general answered both questions in the affirmative. Another officer asked, "Who will be the enemy?" The general replied, "All indications point to China." Everyone in the audience was shocked... A third officer remarked, "General, we a nation of only 150 million, compared to the 1.5 billion Chinese.  Can we win at all, or even survive?"

The general answered, "Just think about this for a moment :  In modern warfare, it is not the quantity of soldiers that matters but the quality of an army’s capabilities.  For example, in the Middle East we have had a few wars recently where 5 million Jews fought against 150 million Arabs, and Israel was always victorious."

After a small pause, yet another officer – from the rear of the auditorium asked,

"Do we have enough Jews......???"



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20130613/b0b1d5b3/attachment-0001.htm