Twilight, I have been meaning to address you on a remark you made on 20-21 March 2021, but I have not yet had the chance. It regards the Red Army. Please consult me whenever you get the chance (i.e. when the Roleplay is over.)

Description: According to Reese, Roger P.: Why Stalin's Soldiers fought. The Red Army's Military Effectiveness in World War II. University of Kansas: Kansas, US, 2011, p. 164; "blocking detachments had only small arms--rifles and pistols--and therefore were not considered tactical units. In fact, if the front lines broke during an attack, rather than gunning down fleeing soldiers, as the myth would have it, blocking detachments usually fled in advance of the retreat." Less than a paragraph later, Reese states that "depending on the personalities of the members, blocking detachments sometimes did not [shoot or] detain soldiers but merely warned them to get back to their units before they got into trouble." Other historians agree. In The Red Army and the Second World War. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2017, p. 357, writ by Hill, Alexander, it is stated "[...] on 14 September 1942 troops of [...] rifle regiments of the 399th Rifle Division, 62nd Army defending Stalingrad apparently fell back 'in panic' under enemy pressure; abandoning their defensive positions. In response, the head of the blocking detachment (junior lieutenant of state security El'man) ordered his detachment to open fire OVER the heads of those retreating. As a result the personnel of these regiments were halted, and within two hours the regiments had occupied their previous defensive positions." Citing Roger R. Reese from earlier, on page 165, if we look at the numbers of blocking detachments shooting their allies rather than arresting/detaining them or ordering them to return to their positions, it was more of the exception rather than the norm. "Of the vast majority of [the 140,755] men detained, 131,094 were returned to their units or [were] reassigned to different units. The authorities arrested less than 3 percent (3,980) of those detained. Subsequently, of the arrested, 2,776 sergeants and soldiers were assigned to penal companies, and 185 officers were assigned to penal battalions. Finally, by decree of military tribunals, 1,189 soldiers were shot by firing squads." On page 356, he states "[...] by 10 October 1941 the deputy head of the Special Section apparatus of the NKVD could claim in a report to People's Commissar for State Security, Beria, that 657,364 servicemen 'separated from their units and running away from the front' had been intercepted by special sections and blocking detachments of the NKVD, of whom 10,201 were recorded as having been shot of 25,878 arrested for various crimes, including 'being traitors,' 'cowards and panicmongerers,' and 'deserters.'" It should be noted that "recorded to be shot" does not mean "was shot", but even if we ignore that and assume that every single soldier was shot and killed, it would still mean only 1.6% of all deserters in the Red Army that were intercepted by the NKVD and blocking detachments were shot.