The valor of the Russian defenders of the Fatherland in the memories of the German invaders
Today, the whole country congratulates the veterans-heroes and heirs of the immortal glory of Russian soldiers and officers, who at all times were known as valiant and fearless warriors. "Never fight the Russians," Bismarck wrote, and never did. However, his followers, the rulers of Germany, were not so far-sighted. Learning about the heroism of Russian weapons during the World Wars, the Germans paid tribute to him in diaries, monographs and memoirs.
World War I
At the end of the Battle of the Masurian in 1915, in which the soldiers of the 20th corps of the Russian army, having shot all the ammunition, went into a bayonet attack on German machine guns, war correspondent Brandt wrote:
The German military historian General von Poseck, in his work "German Cavalry in Lithuania and Courland", praised the Russian cavalrymen:
The diary of an Austro-Hungarian army officer, Dietrich von Chodkiewicz, contains rave reviews of the enemy:
World War II
German Field Marshal Ludwig von Kleist believed that the initial successes of the German army were due solely to better preparation for war:
General Gunther Blumentritt, Chief of Staff of the 4th Army:
And this is an excerpt from Blumentritt's memoirs, written a few years after the German surrender:
Memoirs of an infantryman from the book "1941 through the eyes of the Germans" by Robert Kershaw»:
And one more quote, not about bravery, but about the character of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. The mysterious Russian soul struggled to comprehend the soldier who was captured:
Keywords: War | History | Soldiers | World war II | World War I | Russians | Great Patriotic war | Memories | Bravery | Courage | Red army