Comments by "Mitch Richards" (@mitchrichards1532) on "Stalin’s Purge of the Red Army and Its Effects on the WW2 Eastern Front" video.

  1. That was happening because the Soviet military expansion had not kept pace with events, and especially not kept pace with Germany.
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  2. There is much mention of better trained officers coming out of the academies/schoolhouses to replace older officers of the Civil War era. First of all, an officer coming out of an academy or schoolhouse is a STUDENT being thrown into a position of leadership without the luxury of a Western style NCO cadre to lean on. They know the schoolhouse process, solution, etc. and that's it. According to COL David Glantz, most of them came into a situation where there weren't enough officers to keep up with the overly rapid expansion of the Red Army, so most were put into levels of command one or two levels higher than what they were trained for. You cannot assume that a schoolhouse adequately trains an officer to be proficient at their job, that is actually rare even in Western armies. Now picture a freshly trained student/officer taking command at a level above his training with a unit lacking manpower, specialists, equipment, and training, then being thrown into combat against an enemy that is far superior. That kind of explains what happened in 1941, no?
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  3. Great post, but 99% of folks here won't have a clue about what you wrote.
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  4. In the military, school trained does not mean competent. So take "school trained" officers in brand new units that lack men, equipment, etc. and elevate them two levels up in rank beyond their training. They don't know their role, don't know their job in a technical sense, most people with experience have either been purged or are afraid of it and their unit is partially equipped and manned. What combat value can you expect from that unit? Once a unit is manned and equipped, it can START to train as a cohesive unit per it's doctrinal role. Thats how officers gain experience and it cannot be replicated any other way. So tell us again how the purges were good? lol
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  5. Agreed, and the same goes for rookie staff officers who don't know what to track, what to report, and aren't capable of providing expert opinion. Think of that in context of the spotty information coming from the field from the incompetent junior officers you mentioned.
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  6.  @fridriechrussofobber3500  Good comment though.
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