Many methods of psychological influence on the enemy in the Great Patriotic War were used by both belligerents. However, the Red Army sometimes used such methods of intimidating the enemy that the Nazis could not even imagine.
Death statistics first, then tango
Like the Nazis, Soviet troops often used loudspeakers or hand-held horns to create fear. Throughout the war, about 500 such "agitators" worked on the fronts of the Red Army, they broadcast over a distance of up to three kilometers. In particular, in the Battle of Stalingrad, classical music or pre-war German hits were heard from our side to the positions of the Nazis, which were supposed to remind the enemy soldiers and officers of a good peacetime without shooting and death. This musical idyll was interspersed with "news broadcasts": the Nazis were informed about the defeats of their troops on a particular front and reported how many Wehrmacht soldiers and officers were killed and wounded.
The Hitlerites who survived in the Hell of Stalingrad recalled that most of all they were terrified by the countdown of the metronome: after seven blows in an ominous voice, it was reported that in every seven-second period of time one Hitlerite soldier was killed at the front. And so it was repeated up to 20 times. And then the Red Army agitators played some nostalgic dance composition. Especially in Stalingrad, the already demoralized soldiers of the encircled Paulus army suffered from psychological influence from the Soviet side.
The armor is strong, and … our tractors are fast
Special tricks in terms of psychological influence on the enemy were used by the Red Army during offensives. For example, when they were defending Odessa and there was an urgent need for tanks, an engineer at the Odessa Machine-Building Plant came up with the idea of sheathing … caterpillar tractors. A group of such "tanks" was equipped with light weapons and on one of the September nights, turning on their headlights and sirens, they started up at full speed on the positions of the Romanians. The enemy immediately panicked. The modernized tractors were given the nickname "NI-1" ("Fear"). Subsequently, the number of this division of "supermachines" was increased to 55 units.
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Some types of psychic attacks by the Red Army did not just shock the enemy, but, it happened, even drove the Nazis crazy. In November 1941, in the battle for Moscow, the "Mongol" cavalry attacked. She flew in lava, one stream after another. German artillery shot the riders along with the horses at point-blank range, but the regiment did not stop advancing. From a strategic point of view, such actions did not make sense. But the Germans once again realized that the Russians are capable of any sacrifices for the sake of victory.
Another proof of such heroism of our soldiers is the fierce battle for the Sinyavinsky Heights (1941-1944) in the Leningrad region. Thousands of the lives of Soviet soldiers were paid for the capture of this strategically important stronghold for the defense of the German troops. The remains of a significant part of the dead, if not most, laid in several layers - one on top of the other, and to this day rest in the Sinyavinsky bogs unburied.
Hitler's machine gunners lost their minds, killing the storming Soviet fighters, line after line - there were so many of them and so strong was their persistence. Those terrible attacks are remembered in the memoirs of the surviving Germans. However, this is the case when the "take not by skill, but by number" technique can hardly be attributed to a kind of deliberate intimidation of the enemy - the command simply sent soldiers into battle as cannon fodder.
The surrendered Müller pulled thousands of
Soviet agitators and Germans in the war used such a demoralizing factor as leaflets, newspapers and other printed materials, thrown into the positions of the Nazis. It was developed by a special bureau of military-political propaganda. The fascists and their allies were persuaded to surrender. This was especially effective on the allies - the Dutch, the Finns, the Spanish SS Blue Division, which had low combat qualities, in the opinion of the Germans themselves.
The most famous of the captured Nazis is Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. In addition to him, during the war, three fascist generals, a gross admiral, two brigadeführer, an obergruppenführer, a gruppenführer and an SS Sturmbannführer were in Soviet captivity. The captured Lieutenant-General Vincenz Müller and other high-ranking military officials persuaded tens of thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers and officers to surrender to the Red Army.