Second World War: Frozen To Death By The Fuhrer

Hitler was proud of his hardiness in the cold, boasting how "having to change into long trousers was always a misery to me" Photo: PA

From The Telegraph:

In an extract from his new book, historian Andrew Roberts shows how Hitler's troops were fatally ill-equipped for the 1941 invasion of Russia in 1941.

The Russians have a saying that there is no such thing as cold weather, only the wrong kind of clothing. Prior to Operation Barbarossa, the Nazis could have been certain that their invasion of Russia, which began on June 22, 1941, was in for a very cold winter.

It was a matter of simple statistical analysis, the kind at which Adolf Hitler's High Command was supposed to excel. But the German commissariat had hubristically not transported anything like enough woollen hats, gloves, long johns and overcoats to Russia.

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My Comment: My father served in the Russian Army during this time (1941-1945) .... and I asked him the question .... was it that cold, and was this the reason why the German advance into Russia stopped.

His answer was interesting .... from his perspective the Germans were dressed just as well as the Russians in the first winter campaign. It was only in the second winter campaign that the Russian Army was better dressed .... which helped them to reverse the German advances. But he felt that the big advantage that the Russian Army had in fighting against the Germans was that he and his fellow troops were use to the winter .... and they could easily acclimatized (as they always had to every year) to the effects of the cold. The Germans were not use to -20 or -30 degree winters, nor the impact that wind can have in worsening the effect of cold.

I had a taste of what my father was talking about this past winter. I live north of Montreal (the Laurentians), and the winters here are just as bad as the winters in Russia. My brother and his wife came to Montreal before Christmas .... and I looked forward to how my sister-in-law (who is a Southern Californian girl and who has never had a taste of real winter) would react to a Canadian winter.

She suffered "big-time" in the week that she was here .... she could never have enough clothing .... the heat was never high enough .... and she could never figure out how could I go out in a simple jacket, gloves, sneakers, and baseball hat in this extreme cold. I had to explain to her that Quebec was actually experiencing a warm spell .... it was only -5 Celsius outside .... and that it is only when it is -25 Celsius that you start to feel the cold. She did not believe me until the last day that she was here .... the temperature hit -27 Celsius.

The German soldiers (like my sister in law) were not use to cold winters, high snow drifts, and the biting cold. Even with the proper clothing ..... they never had a chance.