Russia at war 1941-1945

importance of Britain's resistance to Germany between the fall of France and the summer of 1941; one Soviet author went so far as to say that the Battle of Britain was something of a myth; there had really been no such thing. There had been important air battles over Britain, but it had never come to a real clash between the "bulk" of the German and British forces. One explanation currently offered in recent histories is that Hitler's fear of the Red Army stopped him from making an all-out attempt to invade England.

Although this assertion may have some substance, one might as well recall that, on

August 23, 1940, i.e. just as the Battle of Britain was about to start in real earnest, Pravda as good as egged Hitler on to attack England. In its editorial that day, celebrating the first anniversary of the Soviet-German Pact, it wrote:

The signing of the Pact put an end to the enmity between Germany and the USSR,

an enmity which had been artificially worked up by the warmongers... After the

disintegration of the Polish State, Germany proposed to Britain and France a

termination of the war— a proposal which was supported by the Soviet

Government. But they would not listen, and the war continued, bringing hardships

and sufferings to all the nations whom the organisers of the war had dragged into the bloodbath... We are neutral, and this Pact has made things easier for us; it has also been of great advantage to Germany, since she can be completely confident of

peace on her Eastern borders.

[Emphasis added.]

After referring to the Economic Agreement of February 11, 1940, the article concluded that Soviet-German relations had "honourably stood the test of time", which was all the more valuable with a great war raging elsewhere.

The most notable news items in the Soviet press during the last week of August and the beginning of September were a brief announcement on August 24 of Trotsky's death

[This read as follows: "London, August 22 (TASS). London radio reports that Trotsky has died in hospital in Mexico City of a fractured skull, the result of an attempt on his life by one of the persons in his immediate entourage."]; another Timoshenko speech on the reorganisation of the Red Army; a TASS denial of a Japanese report that Stalin had, at the end of August, discussed with Ambassador Schulenburg an agreement between the

USSR, Germany, Italy and Japan on the abolition of the Anti-Comintern Pact: "TASS is authorised to state that this is a pure invention. During the last six or seven months Comrade Stalin has had no meeting with Schulenburg." On September 5, there was a report on the destroyers that the United States had given to Britain. From September 9 on, following the first great German air-raid on London on the night of September 7, more and more space was devoted to the Battle of Britain—though it was never called that.

There was at first scarcely any first-hand reporting of news from "our own

correspondent", but the coverage, consisting chiefly of official German and British communiqués, extracts from DNB and Reuter reports, and quotations from the British

and American press, etc., ran into two or three columns every day, and was reasonably well-balanced. Thus, on September 16 TASS reported from London: "According to

Reuter, it was officially stated that the Germans lost today 185 planes, and the British 25." On October 1, there was a similar report from London saying that, during

September, the Germans had lost 1,102 planes and at least 2,755 airmen, against a loss of 319 British planes. "168 British airmen baled out over British territory."

Despite the dryness of this reporting, the news from England undoubtedly stirred the imagination of the Russian public. Several Russians later told me that the most common reaction at the time had been: "Well, at last these German bastards are getting it in the neck from somebody." There was something else that made an even greater