Stavka of the Supreme Commander directive Nr 11072 to the commanders of 1st and 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts about the necessity for humane treatment towards the German population and prisoners of war.

20 April 1945 20:40

Stavka of the Supreme Command orders:

1. To require the forces to change their treatment of Germans both towards prisoners of war and civilians and treat them better.
   Cruel treatment makes them fear and provokes more stubborn resistance without surrendering.
   The civilians, fearing revenge, gather into gangs. This situation is not good for us. More humane treatment of the Germans will make our fighting easier on their territory and without doubt will reduce their stubbornness in the defence.
2. In German regions to the West of the line between river Oder mouth, river Oder until Furstenberg and further until river Neise (western), create German administrations and put Germans as burgomasters.
   Do not touch ordinary members of the national-socialist party, if they are loyal towards the Red Army, only leaders may be taken into custody if they weren’t able to flee yet.
3. Better treatment of the Germansmust not lower your vigilance and cause familiarities with them.

Stavka of the Supreme command
J.Stalin, A.Antonov

ЦАМО. Ф. 148а. Оп. 3763. Д. 212. Л. 13.

Report of the Military Council of the 2nd Belorussian Front to the chief logistics officer of the Red Army about the heavy situation with fuel supply.

18 july 1944.

To the chief logistics officer of the Red Army
com. Khrulyov

The situation with gasoline is very difficult. The troops don’t even have fuel for one full fuel tank for all vehicles. Multiple requests to intensify the shipments had no effect. Supply routes reach up to 450 km in one direction and along bad roads. The front spends 400 - 450 tons of fuel each day, when the calculated limit is 7000 tons per month.

Our telegram about increasing the fuel limit to 12 000 tons for July was left unanswered.

Units started to feel shortages of ammunition and food while reinforcement units often are idle because of lack of gasoline.

The transport 72/25720 and 72/25649 will arrive at the unloading station of the Front on 14th and 15.07.1944, but the transport 61/25552 will not arrive earlier than 19.7.1944.

Gasoline stockpile bases should be moved closer to our troops. The transport 72/25397 is re-routed from Krichev to Minsk through Orsha, but it will take 4 days to reach.

From 15th to 19.07.1944 we will have an interruption of supplies of gasoline and we ask to cover it with 1500 tons of gasoline by rerouting the nearby transports. This request however was left unfulfilled.

According to the plan of the second decade, only one transport 72/25673 was sent to us which will cause even bigger interruption of gasoline supplies.

We could have routed the transports with gasoline to Minsk, but we lack the necessary gasoline transports and due to critical situations with fuel in the troops force us to unload transports at station Lukolovo which is 200km further from the troops. We use all our barrels and even captured barrels to carry fuels and oils on flatbed transports.

Because we lack barrels, we asked to send us 2500 barrels, but we have no response yet.

To prevent this extremely difficult situation, we find ourselves in, from becoming a crisis, we must once again raise the questions about gasoline supplies for our forces.
We ask for:

1. Deliver 750 tons of gasoline for the Front each day on 16th and 17.07.1944. Failure to do so will force hundreds of vehicles waiting for gasoline at station Lukolovo as the troops will spend all the gasoline they have left and the vehicles will not be able to carry ammunition and food.
2. Urgently dispatch 2500 fuel barrels for flatbed trucks to the front.
3. Speed up the movement of the gasoline transports that are on the way. Also, until 20.07.1944 dispatch in total 6 000 tons of gasoline with equal deliveries each day.
4. Solve the question about increasing the gasoline limit for July for the front.

Please inform us about your decision. Zakharov
Mekhlis
Russkih

Source: ЦАМО РФ. Ф. 233. Оп. 178503. Д. 3. Л. 107–109.