parsifal
Colonel
Halder's Diary 23 August 1941
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"This is the seventh or eighth time in this campaign that the army group has succeeded in encircling the enemy. But I'm not really happy about it, because the objective to which I have devoted all my thought, the destruction of the enemy armies, has been dropped. Perhaps we will overrun the Russians in from of my northern wing and thus get things going to the point that at least pressure on my eastern front is relieved...If, after all the successes, the campaign in the east now trickles away in dismal defensive fighting for my army group, it is not my fault" - Field Marshall Bock.
"Napoleon in his glory and genius spread his Empire far and wide. ... Napoleon's armies had a theme. They carried with them the surges of the French Revolution - Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. ... There was a sweeping away of outworn, medieval systems and aristocratic privilege. There was the land for the people, a new code of law. Nevertheless, Napoleon's empire vanished like a dream."
"I will smash this scoundrel Guderian, no doubt about it."
"It seems possible to envelope the Starodub position, destroy the enemy in Starodub and close up the 13th and 21st Armies' flanks. The Supreme High Command considers the conduct of such an operation completely feasible and capable of yielding good results." - Stavka message to Eremenko directing him to stop Guderian's advance along the Brainsk Front.
"Although personally I am quite content with the existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement, and I therefore think that action should be taken in the sense proposed by Lord Cherwell" - Winston Churchill upon approving of the MAUD Committee's suggestion that development of an atomic bomb must go forward.
This incident is taken as an excuse by the Vichy government to round up many of its opponents, describing them as communists. This is not the first act of violence by the French Resistance. Last week a German officer cadet called Moser was shot in the Paris metro. Six Communists have been executed in reprisal."An audouillette is like a government," Laval once said of black pudding, "you need some dung in it, but not too much."
"..offers broad assurances of its peaceful intent, including a comprehensive assurance that the Japanese Government has no intention of using without provocations military force against any neighboring nation".
"Employ the Briansk and Reserve Fronts' air forces, the 1st Reserve Aviation Group, and no fewer than 100 DB-3 aircraft for the operation to destroy the enemy tank group. In all, 450 combat aircraft must participate in the operation. The operation will begin at dawn on 29 August or 30 August and will be completed by day's end on 31 August 1941." - Stavka orders to Eremenko after his first attempt at a counterstroke fails.
Many Americans started turning against Lindbergh at this time, as Gallup polling showed that the public favored the president's specific interventionist moves."If our interventionists want to free a country from the dominion of another country, we ought to declare war on Great Britain to free India. I have never seen such slavery as I saw in India a few years ago."
"Launch an offensive and, while attacking in the direction of Roslavl' and Starodub, destroy the enemy grouping in the Pochep, Novgorod-Severskii, and Novozybkov region. Subsequently exploit the offensive in the general direction of Krichev and Propoisk and reach the Petrovichi, Klimovichi, Belaia Dubrava, Guta-Karetskaia, Novozybkov, and Shchors region by 15 September." - Stavka's increasingly desperate orders to Eremenko as Guderian continued to move on the Briansk Front.