Order of the Day No. 225, November 19, 1944
Comrades, artillerymen and mortar-gunners, engineers and technicians, officers and generals of the Soviet artillery!
Today the Soviet people are celebrating Red Army Artillery Day. The
whole country is marking today the great importance of the artillery as
the main shock-force of the Red Army.
As is well-known, the artillery was that force which helped the Red
Army to check the enemy's advance at the approaches to Leningrad and
Moscow. The artillery was that force which ensured the routing of the
German troops by the Red Army at Stalingrad and Voronezh, at Kursk and
Byelgorod, at Kharkov and Kiev, at Vitebsk and Bobruisk, at Leningrad
and Minsk, at Jassy and Kishinev.
With its devastating fire the artillery effectively blazed the path for
the infantry and tanks in the greatest battles of the Patriotic War, as
a result of which the enemy has been ejected from our Motherland.
At present the Soviet artillery together with the whole of the Red Army
is dealing crushing blows to the enemy's manpower, equipment and
fortifications in the last decisive battles for victory over Germany.
Everybody knows that the Soviet artillery has achieved complete
domination on the battlefield over the enemy artillery, that in
numerous battles with the enemy Soviet artillery and mortar-gunners
have covered themselves with the unfading glory of extraordinary
courage and heroism, while commanders and chiefs have displayed high
skill in directing fire.
This is a success of which our country may justly be proud.
Comrades, artillerymen and mortar-gunners, engineers and technicians,
officers and generals of Soviet artillery! I congratulate you upon
Artillery Day!
To mark the decisive successes of the Red Army artillery in the Patriotic War I hereby order:
Today, November 19, Artillery Day, at 19.00 hours, in the capital of
our Motherland, Moscow, in the capitals of the Union Republics and in
the cities of Leningrad, Stalingrad, Sevastopol, Odessa, Khabarovsk,
Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Gorky, Molotov and Tula, our glorious
artillerymen shall be saluted on behalf of the Motherland, with 20
artillery salvoes.
May the Soviet artillery live and prosper to strike fear into the enemies of our Motherland!
J. Stalin
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Supreme Commander-in-Chief , Moscow, Kremlin
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