David Stahel's latest book

[cifdale]

Been reading Retreat from Moscow by David Stahel and found something I had never read about before. Apparently one of the ways the Germans kept their bolt mechanism on their machine guns from freezing was to pour a small amount of gasoline on the bolt mechanism and light it. Otherwise they removed the bolt (once it cooled off) and put it inside their shirt while they awaited the next Soviet attack. Stahel uses a lot of letters and diaries of German soldiers for these interesting items. I was never in the military, but maybe this is something that soldiers the world over have been doing all along. I just found it interesting.

 

[R Hooks]

Yea little bits of trivia like that makes stories interesting.

 

[von Marwitz]

Otherwise they removed the bolt (once it cooled off) and put it inside their shirt while they awaited the next Soviet attack.

I have read this, too, someplace.

von Marwitz

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Our current winter warfare training is to not bring weapons inside of warm tents, to prevent the weapon from "sweating" and then freezing. Finns apparently took it to a whole new level:

 

[The Purist]

Been reading Retreat from Moscow by David Stahel.. <SNIP>

Strongly recommend Stahel's "Barbarossa" and "Kiev 1941" for excellent examinations of just how quickly German combat strength deteriorated in the first 3 months of the war. The reference to German diary entries shows how the average German soldier was effected by the resistance put up by the Red Army soldiers, the terrain, pace, lack of good food and water, dealing with losses and so on.

Definitely not the usual narratives of the German panzers bounding from one encirclement to the next.

 

[cifdale]

Strongly recommend Stahel's "Barbarossa" and "Kiev 1941" for excellent examinations of just how quickly German combat strength deteriorated in the first 3 months of the war. The reference to German diary entries shows how the average German soldier was effected by the resistance put up by the Red Army soldiers, the terrain, pace, lack of good food and water, dealing with losses and so on.

Definitely not the usual narratives of the German panzers bounding from one encirclement to the next.

Yeah, I've read both of these books as well. I make a point of picking up any new books by David Stahel.