I would just suggest to check these two zip files (#5 and 6th, so called malinovka) not to get lost in the tonns of other docs there:
www.soldat.ru...
They contain all the declassified documents, including intelligence (agents')reports of 1941. with online translator you can read them
\There is an American officer, named Glantz, who claims to have been given access to Soviet archives and has written numerous books on the
Soviet/German war. \
Yes, Glantz did have access to the archives.
I read some of his books: "on Initial period of war .." is of course out of date now and not recommended since tonns of new documents have been
declassified since then.
From his recent books i read the book on the greatest defeat of Zhukov: operation Mars... Well, Glantz did study a lot of material, true!
But this book of his contains some serious factual errors which lead him to the corresponding conclusions.
in reality, 5 tank and mechanized divisions, not 7 as Glantz writes, were involved in the operation Mars.
He doesnt consider and doesnt even mention the postponement of this operation for a month (when the grouping of the troops has been already made)/ And
he doesnt consider the data of Sudoplatov about the dispatch of the double agent Dem'yanov the purpose of which was to inform the Germans about the
coming operation...e.t.c
In reality it was an auxiliary operation/ The attack (mars - at rzhev) was initially dependent on the beginning of operation "Uran" (at Stalingrad)
- thus postponements. The Germans learned about the operation at Rzhev, and strengthened their forces, but the attck at Stalingrad was a total
suprise for them...
And the fact is that the casualties of Mars operation were less than of Uran.
at Rzhev - 215 000 dead and injured/ Uran was twice more
These important facts escaped attention of Glantz and brought him to the wrong conception.
[edit on 29-1-2009 by Russi]
