740.0011 European War 1939/31868: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 10—5:04 p.m.]
1888. In his order of the day of November 7 which is addressed to the men and officers of the Red army and the Red fleet the Partisans and the workers of the Soviet Union Stalin reviews the successes of Soviet arms during the past year which he says have led to the reconquest of two-thirds of the Soviet lands which had been invaded by the Germans and have liberated tens of millions of Soviet people from the German yoke. He estimates German losses on the eastern front during the past year at more than 4 million officers and men of whom not less than 1,800,000 were killed. The picked divisions of the German Fascist army found an inglorious end on the Soviet front. “Together with them were buried forever the Hitlerite plans for world domination and the enslavement of nations.” The German army is still fighting stubbornly but its fighting spirit was broken at Stalingrad. Now the Germans fear encirclement and when threatened with it flee, abandoning their weapons and their wounded on the battlefields. In the offensive battles of the past year the Red army has been enriched by experience in conducting modern warfare. “The [Page 599] Red army has become the most powerful and well tempered of modern armies.”
Stalin pays tribute to the military contribution of the Anglo-American armies. “The victories of the Red army” he says “have further strengthened the international position of the Soviet Union. The offensive of our army was supported by the military activities of the Allied armies in North Africa on the Italian Islands and in the south of Italy. The air forces of our Allies have subjected the industrial centers of Germany to serious bombardment. There is no doubt that the blows of the Red army against the German troops from the east supported by the blows of the main forces of the Allies from the west will lead to the destruction of the military power of Hitlerite Germans and to the complete victory of the anti-Hitlerite coalition.”
Stalin praises the steady flow of supplies from all parts of the country to the front which has enabled the Red army to achieve its great victories and states that the Soviet people are successfully rehabilitating the liberated areas and utilizing their resources forthe needs of the front. He warns that heavy fighting still lies ahead and that there must be no relaxation of effort until final victory is achieved. “How the enemy will fight with special frenzy for every little patch of occupied territory for every step of our army forward brings nearer the hour of settlement with the Germans for the evil deeds committed by them on our soil.
“The struggle for final victory over the German Fascist invaders demands from the army and the people still greater efforts and new exploits.”
Stalin calls on the lower ranks of the armed forces to perfect their skill in battle, to carry out precisely the orders of their commanders and to preserve model order and firm discipline; on the officers to perfect their leadership in battle and their conduct of combined operations, to establish themselves firmly in newly won positions and to pursue the enemy forces relentlessly; on the whole Red army resolutely to smash the enemy’s defenses to pursue him day and night, to give him no opportunity to dig in on new lines, to cut his communications, to surround his troops and to destroy and capture his manpower and equipment; on the partisans to arouse the civil population to arms struggle against the Germans, to increase assistance to the advancing Red army, to destroy the enemy’s headquarters, to save Soviet citizens from death and deportation to Germany and mercilessly to destroy the German villains.