Page:Joseph Davies Memorandum regarding Military Strength of the Soviet Union.djvu/13

 30. In the face of this double danger, the government has created two considerable forces which may fight independently and without expectation of mutual support. In the far east, the Special Red Bannered Far Eastern Army, numbering approximately 200, 000, occupies a strong defensive line well equipped with reserve supplies and supported by a growing rural population from which it can draw reserve personnel and necessary farm products.

31. On its western boundary the Red Array maintains three strongly garrisoned military districts. Red Army units of approximately equal number to the standing armies of those states which could be quickly aligned against the Soviet Union, are maintained in constant readiness near the border.

32. Although both the training and the equipment of the Red Army look toward the holding of defensive lines rather than toward the organizing of large expeditionary movements, the Red Army is nevertheless equipped with air fleets and with tank units which are used to best advantage in warfare of movement. It is unlikely that the Red Army would resort to purely position warfare if invaded either in the west or the far east. The recent utterances of army leaders as to the desirability of defeating the enemy "on the teritory whence he may appear" are not necessarily to be accepted literally as campaign plans, but they do seem to indicate that in case of attack 13