How much of "Enemy at the Gates" was accurate?

Factual Questions
21

To clarify, it’s a common perception, especially to generally uneducated Americans - scratch that, the lower 2/3rds of the American educational rung probably don’t even know Russia was involved in ww2 at all - but those who do know a little, unfortunately, only know a little.

They tend to grasp onto the idea of Russians as this barbaric force who never fought intelligently, but always simply threw their troops at the enemy in hopeless, stupid charges.

Now, human wave style attacks DID happen on the eastern front - and the reason they’re typically noted in journals in such was because they were unusual, desperate measures. Generally speaking, the Russians used modern combined arms tactics when they could, and only resorted to human wave attacks to desperate situations with conscripts. It happened a lot, but it wasn’t the default mode of Russian attack, all they were capable of, as most people seem to think.

The Russians only outnumbered the Germans by an average of 1.6x during the entire war, if I recall. How many troops can you possibly waste with only that much of an advantage? The Stupid Russian myth makes us think that the Russians swamped the Germans with 10 times their numbers, or something, when that simply wasn’t the case. The Russian army won because they outfought the germans. The Red Army, later in the war, really started to become a cohesive fighting force, with leading modern tactics, equipment, and experienced troops. This was against a crumbling German war machine - the soldiers of which should be commended by their remarkable achievements, but they were simply outfought and pushed back by the Russians. Not because of massive numerical superiority (1.6:1, remember), but because eventually, when the Red Army really started to get it’s act together, it was a very effective fighting force.

Since the cold war immeadiately followed ww2, it’s not a surprise that the “Russian as barbaric idiot” myth was propogated.

22

…and of course the Russians were responsible for inventing the main battle tank in the form of the T34 and the A??. These tanks were developed in secret and their existance is testimony to a sophisticated approach to warfare at the time when Russia was invaded. These Russian tanks gave the Germans a shock - the Germans previously convinced that their tanks were the best in the world. The very heavy German tanks that most people commonly associate with the second world war only came later and in response to experience on the Russian front.

23

A 1.6:1 size advantage for the Soviets may have been true at the start of Operation Barbarosa, but that quickly changed. The Germans had 10,000,000 soldiers during the war. The Soviets had 20,000,000 men in uniform. The Germans at the time were fighting on the Soviet front and in North Africa, had to keep the occupied lands in line, and had to defend against possible invasion. The Russians were fighting a 1-front war and could put almost all of their forces up against the Germans. At the start of hostilities their main resource was manpower, which they made use of in ways hard to understand by the West. They traded lives for time in defense of their land.

For comparison: Of 10,000,000 soldiers the German’s lost 3,300,000 (33%) killed/missing. Of 20,000,000 Soviet soldiers there were 13,600,000 (68%) killed/missing (including 1,500,000 dying in (or on the way to) POW camps and 500,000 executed by the Germans).
(Numbers came from World War II Almanac by Robert Goralski)

24

Actually, this isn’t entirely true. It is true that the Germans were in for quite a shock for the T34, but it isn’t generally considered a main battle tank. The first main battle tank is generally considered the German Panther.

Also, the Germans weren’t really under the impression that they had the best tanks in the world - at least in conventional ways of evaluating tanks - because they fought far tanks far superior in armor, armament, and mobility in France. There was a German armor superiority over Russian tanks in general largely due to the use of radios, 2 man turrets, and thorough training at the platoon and company levels for tank crews. It was coordination, rather than traditional tank superiority (armor, armament, mobility) that gave the Germans the advantage.

25

Hijack: I know it’s totally off the subject, but what was Carlos Hathcock’s nickname? Carlos The -something-. Maybe it was like that. Any help?

26

Give me till tomorrow on this so I can hopefully locate the proper sources.