Hi!
Thanks for a fantastic series!
I have always been wondering: what was it like on the parts of the eastern front where there were no major offensives? Like between Moscow and Leningrad during the battle for Stalingrad.
Where there constant fighting or where there truce-like conditions where you don’t fire at the other side and in return he doesn’t fire at you. Where there trenches like in WW1?
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To comment briefly… Yes. There were plenty of quiet sectors and in some places this led to constructions of trench networks and even to construction of elaborate dugouts.
For example the frontline between the Finns and the Soviets from September/December (depending on sector) of 1941 all the way to summer of 1944 was mostly that. Especially in the parts south of the Lake Segozerskoye. North of that lines were static but instead of trench lines it was much more common to see there a sparse network of firebases connected with patrol paths.
At least on the Finnish side there were even competitions on who could build the best dugout of them all. Winner of the 30th Infantry Regiments competition: http://sa-kuva.fi/static/85/82/48582_r500.jpg - and the outside view of the runner up: http://sa-kuva.fi/static/85/94/48594_r500.jpg
Of course more complex stuff was also build like this massive dugout build into a movie theater like so http://sa-kuva.fi/static/03/57/120357_r500.jpg
However at least on the Finnish front there were no truce like conditions but instead snipers and the small caliber AT guns (which the Finns called ‘piiska’ or ‘crop’ (as in “short whip”)) were often used. Patrol raids, artillery and/or mortar engagements, and attempts to capture prisoners occurred as did attempts of mining the dugouts (as in by digging tunnel under the dugout and filling it with explosives).
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