Should I get SH4?

[WernherVonTrapp]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

Some German sources, in noting the lack of offensive spirit shown by Soviet naval commanders in the Second World War, have speculated as to whether it was Stalin's intention to husband his warships in order to be in a better position to challenge the naval supremacy of the Anglo-Americans after the war. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is more probable that the sea war was of no interest to Stalin, except that he wanted war supplies delivered to Murmansk, Archangel and Vladivostok. It is more likely that, even if the Soviet Navy had the ability and means to undertake the task, which it obviously had not, he saw no reason why the USSR should exert itself to sweep the Arctic Sea of German bombers and U-boats for the benefit of allies whom he deemed to be well provided with a plethora of top notch warships and aircraft.

It is doubtful whether Stalin's interest in the Soviet Navy ever went much beyond cynically seeing it as a ready reserve of manpower to provide bayonets for the land fighting. Between June and September 1941 six marine infantry brigades, each about 5,000 men strong, were formed from the Baltic Fleet crews to fight in the Siege of Leningrad. This was later increased to nine, and in the end the Baltic Red Banner Fleet gave up 13,000 officers and ratings to fight on dry land. Eventually, thinned by causalities, many of these marines infantry brigades were marine only in name, since they were by then commanded by Red Army officers and received their reinforcements from Central Siberia, from men who had never seen the sea. It points out the difference between the two dictators, Stalin and Hitler. Unlike the czars, Stalin was never much swayed by the prestige of seapower, or deceived into thinking his war would be won on the sea.

Well, I tend to agree to a great extent. Most of his reserves that fueled his offensive drive came from Siberian and Asian divisions. Not sure what bearing this has on my previous comment but, yeah, I tend to agree. I think a lot of it had to do with the vast land areas that made up the country. Much more conducive to ground, rather than, naval forces. My point was industrial/technical might, and yeah, there are reasons for that too but, nevertheless, they could not have matched our industrial/technical abilities. Besides, the Soviet Union/Russia wasn't really known (historically) as a successful naval power, aside from some very brief periods of world history. The Japanese Navy defeated them as recent as (I think) 1905. Then, we defeated the Japanese Navy (and army).