102 - Tanks, but no Tanks - Hitler Hinders the Blitzkrieg - WW2 - August 8, 1941

by Panzer
Yeah, they’re close to Leningrad.
It might be tough to surround, I mean, there’s the big lake, and the Gulf of Finland and
all, so it wouldn’t be air tight.
All I'm saying is It might take a while.
Okay
August 8, 1941
Germany invaded the USSR in June, and the Soviets have struggled to organize and reorganize
their high command since then, even as they lost enormous amounts of men and land to the invaders.
This week, their chain of command gets more concrete.
I’m Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.
Last week, the Japanese occupied French bases in Indochina, and the US and the Dutch responded
by freezing Japanese assets.
The US will also build up its forces on the Philippines as a deterrent to further aggressive
Japanese behavior.
The Germans were advancing in the USSR in the north and the south, and in the center
new orders came calling for the spearhead units to rest and refit, and Georgy Zhukov
was replaced as Red Army CoS by Boris Shaposhnikov.
There have been a bunch of changes in Soviet High Command, actually.
This week on the 8th, after what David Glantz describes as “a bewildering series of changes
in name and membership” since it was first activated June 23rd as the Stavka of the Main
Command, the Stavka of the Supreme High Command emerges- a war council with Josef Stalin as
Supreme High Commander.
The Stavka, though, and the General Staff, and in fact all government departments and
things related to the war effort, are subordinate to the GKO, the State Defense Committee, whose
resolutions have the full strength of law.
This was established back on June 30th.
The GKO and the Politburo direct the Stavka, whose job is to evaluate strategic conditions,
create units and groups of units, and coordinate operations, whether at the field army, front,
or group of fronts level.
It also directs the reserves and tech support.
The Red Army General Staff is under the Stavka, and it is tasked with strategic direction
of the the conduct of the war.
So, the General Staff and the various front commanders propose campaigns and strategies,
the Stavka discusses them with party and state leaders and reaches its decisions re campaigns
and operations.
The Stavka directly supervises the various fronts and the naval fleets.
It ALSO directs the Partisan Movement through the central HQ of the Partisan Movement.
In actual practice, however, the word Stavka is now loosely used to describe the General
Staff, Supreme High Command, or Josef Stalin.