Dear CCI friends,
I’m forwarding you another piece about the “D-Day Snub of Russia.” It provides graphics that show the fierce power with which German forces tore into Russia and the magnitude of losses incurred by the USSR. The earlier article I sent on “Snub of Russia on D-Day” brought more personal “thank you” notes than any other topic we have printed in years. This tells something … what I’m not sure. But you obviously do care about injustice and the remaking of history by our media and leaders. I think you will appreciate the email below, “Today is June 22.”
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
(Email written by a friend of CCI)
Friends here and abroad,
Today is June 22.
The enormous significance of June 22, 1941 is practically unknown in the west. But in Russia every single person, youngest to oldest, knows this date and knows exactly what it means, what it means to Russia and what it means to every single family in Russia.
It was today in 1941 that Adolf Hitler pulled the trigger on Operation Barbarossa — Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union.
June 22, 1941 was an extraordinarily important hinge of world history.
June 22, 1941 began the largest invasion in the history of the world, and it heralded the beginning of the darkest days of WWII.
Adolf Hitler, on June 20, 1941, two days before he ordered Operation Barbarossa to commence, said to his generals: “We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.”
At that point in time this is what Europe looked like:
Then on June 22, 1941, 4,500,000 Nazi troops invaded the USSR along a 2,000 mile front. It constituted the largest invasion in the history of warfare before or since and to this day it remains the largest military operation, in terms of manpower, area traversed, and casualties, in human history.
The Eastern Front immediately became the biggest theater of war in world history and it heralded the beginning of the darkest days of WWII: the largest and most horrible battles ever witnessed, the deadliest atrocities, terrible loss of life, and horrific conditions for the Soviet and German military.
Operation Barbarossa ultimately resulted in 95% of all German Army casualties from 1941 to 1944. Let me say that again. During all of World War II, 95% of all German Army casualties resulted from Operation Barbarossa in the Eastern Front.
Had it not been for the Soviet Eastern Front there never would have been a D-Day Allied invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944. Which fact may assist you in understanding what an enormous insult it was to Russia to not be invited to attend the Allied celebration of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings held earlier this month. And when I say insult, I am not speaking of just an insult to the Russian government, which would have been bad enough. It was an enormous personal insult to each and every Russian because practically every Russian family lost immediate relatives during Russia’s campaign against the Nazi forces from 1941 to 1945. It was a deeply felt insult. And how very, very foolish and costly it was of our leaders to have insulted each and every Russian person and family in this manner.
To place it in perspective
Overall…
8,800,000 Germans died in WWII from over 5 years and 8 months.
24,000,000 Russians died in World War II over 3 years and 10 months.
235,000 Americans in Europe/Africa died in World War II over 2 years and 2 months.
Number of deaths in the WW2 per country
In aggregate Barbarossa became one of the most profound events in human history and Hitler came within an inch of causing the Soviet Union to fall.
Only the resistance of the Soviet military and civilians prevented it, and that should be remembered and honored forever.
Perhaps at the 100th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 2044 — by which time such so-called “leaders” as Trump and May and Macron and Trudeau will be gone and long forgotten — the new leaders of America and Britain and Canada and France will see fit to apologize for their countries’ gross insult to the Russian people in 2019 and invite Russia to be represented at the Centenary.