Parading the Colors
 

 


DAY OF VICTORY

Moscow, 24 June 1945: Captured colors and standards of the defeated armed forces of Nazi Germany are presented to Marshal of the Soviet Union J.V. Stalin, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. This was the climax of the day's Victory Parade, the largest ever to traverse Red Square. In total some 40,000 troops and 1,400 military vehicles representing all arms and branches of the Soviet armed forces participated in the parade, which was watched by Stalin and other dignitaries from a reviewing stand atop the Lenin Mausoleum. After being presented to Stalin the captured flags were thrown down in contempt at the foot of the Mausoleum. The standard on the left is that of the 1. SS-Panzer-Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, the late Führer's personal bodyguard.



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