this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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Only real source I can find for this mentions it as a single incident:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Inside_the_Blue_Berets/AHHfAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22without%20parachutes%22

"By 12 March, when the 204th Airborne Brigade began to cross into German territory, it came under intense small-arms fire, punctuated by artillery. The German actions inflicted heavier and heavier casualties as the missions continued over the next few nights. The Germans also noted the flight of Soviet transport aircraft into areas behind their own lines, evidently dropping supplies to the advancing airborne groups. Some troops without parachutes were also dropped during the course of the operations. Slow-flying U-2 biplanes would skim close to the ground, and the paratroopers would leap off into deep snowdrifts. The first major attack occurred on 15 March when the garrison at Maloye Opuevo was overrun by about twelve hundred paratroopers from the 1st and 204th Airborne Brigades."

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago (1 children)

From the army who brought you "retreat and be killed"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Also, 1 gun per 2-3 man squad. You were to pick up the rifle of the person in front when they died.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This is a popular myth, but has little-to-no basis in reality. The Soviets had plenty of rifles to equip their infantry with.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Wasn't it in the history of the Russian sniper from that time?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It is from the movie Enemy At the Gates, which is at best, not very historically accurate.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It long predates that... It was reported during WWII.

Not saying the reports are more accurate, I really don't know.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

You are correct on both counts, that the myth far predates the movie and that it does have a basis in the actual reality of logistics and production quality problems for other Soviet equipment.

I was going to expand on this more but got caught up sperging out about Star Wars canon in another thread lol.

I think it is fair to say that, at this current point in time, Enemy At the Gates is probably the most widely known, most popular piece of media responsible for the 'Russians only had 1 rifle per 2 or 3 soldiers' meme.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Perfect, deep snow to ice your bruises and broken bones. That’s extremely efficient.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

"Is not bad, tovarisch. Snow makes it hurt less."

"By cushioning the fall, right?"

"..."

"... by cushioning the fall, right...?"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Don't worry, you can see how soft it is from here.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Look man, it was the 30s. No one knew how anything works and everyone was on benzedrine

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We'll say the same in 100 years about shit we do today.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Look man, it was the 20s. No one knew how anything worked and everyone was on horse ketamine and antidepressants

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Pretty sure they knew how gravity worked though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

We still don't know how gravity works 💀

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Truly a golden age!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Slow-flying U-2 biplanes would skim close to the ground, and the paratroopers would leap off into deep snowdrifts.

Were their experiments successful?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The source I found doesn't specify other than that it happened, so I can only assume at least some of them successfully survived the landing lmao

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

we got about a couple million of these guys, we can surely afford to cripple a couple hundered