Last night I came across this interview with a ww2 russian tanker who used a lend lease american sherman throughout the war. It’s quite interesting to hear what he had to say about it:
wow, i read the whole interview. its really interesting to hear what he had to say about the sherman, and about combat and russian organization on the eastern front in general. ive had similar experiences reading about the russians use of the P-39 fighter plane we sent them. thats really interesting. mostly u just hear about how americans and our allies felt about the tank, and mostly then about its downfalls. sometimes its good to hear another’s point of view…
It’s a great article. If you’d like more, he’s written a book “Commanding the Red Army’s Sherman Tanks”…
http://www.ajarmsbooksellers.com/cgi-bin/ajarms/10754.html
It’s a great read. Here’s a review to give you an idea of what’s in it…
http://www.themilitarybookreview.com/html/loza.shtml
There are a few pics, but they’re rather small.
Amazon is selling it for $38, but they have a used one for $31 right now.
Loza also wrote on about the lend/lease Airacobra…
http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/lozatt.html
you can pick one of those up from Amazon for $23.
Another of his books is “Fighting for the Soviet Motherland: Recollections from the Eastern Front”…
Which is can be had here for $25 (Amazon’s price is $42 on that one)…
http://www.grenadierbooks.com/si/001885.html
Whoa! I just looked around a bit for the “Fighting…” book and noticed the publisher has it on sale for $5.50. Looks like a deal to me…
http://unp.unl.edu/bookinfo/3554.html
That was a good interview. It’s definitely interesting to read what the russians thought about the Sherman and other Lend-Lease equipment. However, I have read in another forum and in another modelling magazine some harsh comments about Dmitriy Loza. The comments suggested he may not have been the Sherman or Red Army expert that he claims to be. Replies to these comments have been harsh as well and I have tried to avoid them but they do crop up from time to time. IMO, I like his articles and find them to be informative and entertaining as well.
Personally I’ve never seen anything dertacting from Loza’s stories. I’m gad I haven’t because I’d be on the side which strongly defends him. His stories are told in such a forthright, detailed manor, I can’t imagine someone being able to make them up. Plus, he was in command of the brigade for over a year and has a footlocker full of metals to boot. I’m not sure what could be disputed.
The original manuscript was written in 1944. The translation seems to be well researched. You’d think if it were fictional, he would have been outted before publication.
Anyhow, it’s a great book with lots of M3 (and T-34) information.
Oh, I did find the review I was originally looking for. Check out what Cookie Sewell has to say abouth the book in his review of an M4A2 kit…
http://misc.kitreview.com/armourreviews/dml6188reviewcs_1.htm
It is not really surprising to hear this. Although I undestand that Shermans are looked upon as always inferior but IMHO only because people kept comparing them with Tigers and Panthers (which are not really in the same class as the Sherman is). The T-34 was a very good design but the Sherman (with all its shortcomings) is still a more sophisticated vehicle. I have read that the early T-34’s didn’t even have a turret basket and the gunner and loader have to move around to keep up with position of the turret when it is turned. A little comfort for the tank crew can at times also help them win battles.
I’ll go out on a limb here and say no T-34 had a turret basket. The Russian tankers all had to do the turret shuffle in them. Especially a problem for the loader since what they’re standing on were cases holding the ammo.
The T-34s had a heavy rubber mat that went on top of the cases, but I read that it, understandably, got pitched right away. Oh, and there was very little padding…just the seats and a little pad over the driver’s head.
But hey, the T-34s had great engines, were fast, and, because changes were striclty limited, parts were easily salvaged. Plus it meant less down time for producing more T-34s. The sloping hull and turret design was brilliant.
It would be curious to know what the motivation is of his detractors? Jealousy? Envy? Or the real truth? I don’t know since I wasn’t there.
Glenn
Loza Controversy: From what I recall, this was hashed out in the letters page of Military Modeling (UK). The detractor(s) cited the somewhat fantasical anecdotes included in Loza’s Sherman book. Added to this is the fact that he later writes the book on the P-39 (which the original detractor said that he wouldn’t have any first hand info on the P-39, therefore Loza is just a blowhard). FWIW, I enjoyed reading the Loza book and can accept it at face value. Memoirs must be taken w/a grain of salt and I know that going in.
The hardest to swallow story in Loza’s book is one instance when a column of Shermans was pinned to a forested area because German anti-tank aircraft were circling overhead. Loza says some sargeant decided not to cower any longer and ordered his lone Sherman out of cover. He drove it up an embankment while the schwarm of German jabos began their attack run. The tank raised its cannon and fired towards the first oncoming plane. He hits the plane with his shot disperses the rest. The Soviet tankers rejoice. There you go. Scratch one Nazi plane.
Believeable? Hmmm, I dunno. Fun to read nonetheless.
I enjoyed “Commanding…” so much I bought a copy of his Airacobra book too. I’m more interested in Shermans than P-39s, but it was an enjoyable book too.
Anyone who dismisses Loza because he also wrote about P-39s clearly has not read the Airacobra book. In the preface, the translator, James Gebhardt, mentions in 1995 he prompted Loza to “find a Soviet P-39 pilot and get him to tell his story.” They were working on “Commanding” then.
Here’s a quote from the book…
“In early 1998 Dimitriy Loza began interviewing Hero of the Russian Federation Mikhail Petrov, former P-39 pilot and veteran ace of the 9th Guards Fighter Division. Colonel (retired) Petrov flew 352 combat missions, participated in eighty aerial engagements, and was credited with fifteen individual and one shared kill. He flew the P-39 Airacobra while assigned to the 100th Guards Regiment of the 9th Guards Fighter Division. Their collaboration, plus countless hours of archival and secondary source research and writing by Colonel Loza, has resulted in this unprecedented account of the Bell P-39 Airacobra in combat on the Eastern Front.”
Sounds like a lot of trouble to go through if one just wanted to make stuff up. Anyway, full credit is given to Colonel Petrov. Loza never caimed to have any first hand knowledge about the planes.
I agree with you completely about the story with the tank vs. the plane…but hey, if he were just out to glorify himself, wouldn’t he have said he shot the plane down?
Anyway, I especially enjoyed the nut and bolts view of what it took to just get the tanks moved around and supplied. How they delt with maintenance problems.
So, how do you get a bunch of Shermans off of railroad flatbeds without any ramps around? How does one get Serman tanks across Mongolia and the greater part of China at any time, let alone when fighting a war? Read da book and find out.
That was the last half of the book. The first half was his push from the USSR near Kiev to Bucharest in Romainia, into Hungary, Austria and finally Czechoslovakia near Prague.
Interesting stuff, and to the best of my knowledge, there’s nothing else like it out there which has so much detailed information about the lend/lease program and how the Soviets, so effectvely, put the equipment to use.
Thanks for clarifying Loza’s role in assembling the P-39 book. That’s cool.
In regards to “tall tales” that sometimes appear in historical writings such as soldiers’ memoirs, I’m just suggesting that stories that were believed at the time can take a life of their own. Facts, persons involved, places, etc. can get confused w/memory or retelling.
Take for instance the famous slogan of the US 8th ID.
When German General Ramcke surrendered following the seige of Brest (France), he asked the US officer for his credentials. The American pointed to the riflemen who accompanied him and said “These are my credentials”.
This story has been attributed to the asst Div commander, Brig Gen. Canham. It has also been attributed to an infantry captain who first met Ramcke. There are attestations to both officers’ saying it. Which was it? Who will know.
Also the 1000s of Tigers and "88"s that fought the Allied armies according to witness reports is easily countered by actual numbers of Panzer IVs and Pak 40s or other artillery pieces.
Good point. I see how it would be tempting to add some incedent which the author had heard and thought to be true. They could change the setting so it involved the already-established characters, just to keep things simpler.
Skimming though the book, I noticed the story of someone being killed myseriously while sitting inside a Sherman turret. The evidence led to the belief a bullet had managed to come down the up-turned barrel, through the opened breech, hitting the soldier. Hey stuff happens, who knows?
I believed every word…spraypaint me gullible (and well weathered with pastels…inside joke…I’m an artist). I certainly enjoyed his books.
i could be halucinating here but i think i remember an account or photo somewhere (i think it was in death traps) where a german 75mm shell actually managed to go down a sherman’s 76mm cannon. having a stray bullet go down the barrel doesn’t seem to unrealistic after that. pretty low odds but sounds possible. anyway, don’t know.
Goatmonkey: you’re correct that it was Cooper’s “Death Traps” about the German 75mm AP shell that went down the gun tube of a Sherman while its breach was open. Killed the three turret occupants. Cooper also recounted about a tanker who died of shrapnel wounds from a german aircraft that entered the tank through the open breach of the 75mm gun. How about the one about the B-17 that disintegrated at 10000 feet that plummeted to earth with the tail section whirling down? The unconcious tail gunner awoke w/only minor bruises. Now that’s a charmed life!