Currently reading "The Devil's Alliance,
which recounts the events and consequences of the Hitler-Stalin Treaty of Non-Aggression and Economic Co-operation, September, 1939. Though only in effect for 22 months (ended by Barbarossa, June, 1941) the Molotov-Ribbentrop deal totally shattered the political world with effects reaching out to today. I would like to use the multiple-image flexibility of this thread to discuss the deal .... pictures tell the story. Pictures out of order, sorry, but the storyline here is: The Deal goes down. Guderian meets his Soviet counter-part. They work out the lines. The troops fraternize and compare equipment, The Soviet arrive very late to the Party, which was in Brest, Poland, which Guderian had already taken. Blitzkrieg Army meet Soviet "occupation" force.
.... by all accounts the troops got along well enough, the Germans didn't think much of the Soviet tanks and were shocked at the Soviet artillery being pulled by shaggy, stunted ponies. Known as Panje Horses.
Ah ... the German Hubris ...
Ah ... the Irony of War ....
In 32 months those selfsame shaggy Panjes would be the only thing that saved the German front after the Moscow collapse. The tall German horses were fine on a road network but they died in Russia.
Millions of Panje ponies prevented disaster in mud and snow seasons in Russia.
[Source: The Anvil of War, German Generalship studies on the Eastern Front]