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| Order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army No. 270, dated August 16, 1941 |
| 2023-08-17 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. Text taken from the V Kontakte page of MILITARY ARCHEOLOGY. ★ ☠World War II. Historical note: Order 270 was issued before the first Soviet counteroffensive (Roslavl–Novozybkov offensive)(before which time Soviet Marshal Timoshenko was pushing Soviet troops into local counterattacks against a resting Wehrmacht), before the encirclement battles of Kiev, Uman, Leningrad, and Vyaz'ma. Only Leningrad held. Order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army No. 270, dated August 16, 1941, signed by the Chairman of the GKO I. V. Stalin, Deputy Chairman V. M. Molotov, Marshals S. M. Budyonny, K. E. Voroshilov, S. K Timoshenko, B. M. Shaposhnikov and General of the Army G. K. Zhukov. I order: 1. Commanders and political workers, during the battle, tearing off their insignia and deserting to the rear or surrendering to the enemy, are considered malicious deserters, whose families are subject to arrest as families of deserters who violated the oath and betrayed their homeland. To oblige all higher commanders and commissars to shoot such deserters from the command staff on the spot. 2. The units and subunits that are surrounded by the enemy selflessly fight to the last opportunity, take care of the materiel, like the apple of their eye, make their way to their rear of the enemy troops, defeating the fascist dogs. To oblige every serviceman, regardless of his official position, to demand from a superior commander, if part of him is surrounded, to fight to the last opportunity in order to break through to his own, and if such a commander or part of the Red Army men, instead of organizing a rebuff to the enemy, prefer to surrender, - destroy them by all means, both ground and air, and deprive the families of Red Army soldiers who have surrendered of state benefits and assistance. 3. To oblige the commanders and commissars of divisions to immediately remove from their posts the commanders of battalions and regiments who hide in crevices during the battle and are afraid to direct the course of the battle on the battlefield, reduce them from their positions as impostors, transfer them to the rank and file, and, if necessary, shoot them on the spot, putting forward in their place brave and courageous people from the junior command staff or from the ranks of distinguished Red Army soldiers. Read the order in all companies, squadrons, batteries, squadrons, commands and headquarters. So was Order No. 270 of August 16, 1941, really necessary? After all, even after the order, Soviet military leaders were captured, and after the order the Red Army suffered bitter defeats. One thing can be said: it was dictated by the ideas of the Soviet command about the situation that had developed at that time. And about whether these ideas were correct, everyone is free to draw conclusions on their own. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 To oblige every serviceman, regardless of his official position, to demand from a superior commander, if part of him is surrounded, to fight to the last opportunity in order to break through to his own, I heard somewhere that some of those units actually broke through, much to the chagrin of the Nazis. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2023-08-17 12:28 |