While the fighting along the Eastern Front during World War II has not received as much historical attention among Westerns as has the fighting along the Western Front, it was the scene of some of the most brutal fighting in the history of warfare. Unlike the war in the West, the war in the East was one of extinction. The Germans had a deeply held pathological hatred of Communist Russia, so the Geneva Conventions were not applied there as they were in the West. In the East, millions of Russian civilians including men, women, and children were killed. Given the desperate situation in which the Russians found themselves, it is little wonder that they resorted to some very desperate measures themselves.
By 1942, the Germans had pushed far into Russia. They had caught the Russians by surprise and had conquered more territory more quickly than any other army in history. Their blitzkrieg destroyed the line after line of Russians and allowed the Germans to encircle and capture entire armies. Stalin refused to allow any of his commanders to retreat, so the Russians fought until they were eventually captured. After managing to keep the Germans from overrunning Moscow the previous Winter, the Soviets resorted to desperate measures to keep Moscow and Stalingrad out of the hands of the Germans. In July of that year, Stalin issued Order 277. This order provided for penal companies and made retreat punishable by death. It also provided for the Russian secret police to take position behind the Russian lines and shoot any soldier attempting to escape.
The penal companies were armies of criminals, both those who had broken the law and political prisoners. Some were guilty of nothing more than making disparaging remarks about the government. Many of these soldiers were political prisoners from the Gulags. Service in the army afforded them an opportunity to redeem themselves with their blood. They were sent on the most dangerous and into the worst fighting. Most of those in the penal companies died, but those who were just wounded could look forward to being discharged. Being wounded was the only way they could get out of service, so it should not be surprising that some inflicted injuries on themselves. That was not usually necessary, however, as they were often sent on suicide missions. Sometimes, those who returned without being sufficiently wounded were looked at with suspicion and faced being shot for cowardice.
Since these troops were essentially expendable in the eyes of their commanders, they proved an invaluable resource for judging the strength of the enemy. The regular army could send a penal unit to attack the Germans and any who survived could provide valuable information about the German positions. Even if the entire unit was killed, the Russians would be able to get a rough idea of where the Germans were and what their numbers were by the sound and flash of the gunfire.
Being in a penal unit was a thankless job, but they played an important role in the defense of Russia. They died by the thousands, but their deaths were not in vain. Eventually, the Russians were able to push the Germans all the way back to Berlin. Once there, they ravaged Germany almost as much as the Russians had been ravaged in their homeland. They did not forget the great cost it had taken to defend their homeland.
There is no doubt, that faced with the same attack, America using its politically correct, gentler and kinder methods, would have fallen to Hitler - and the world would have been vastly different.
Had Russia fallen to Hitler, there is no way we could have invaded France with success. Today, a vast Nazi state would cover a large part of the world - and much of the rest of the world would be friendly to it.