I've been watching a few documentaries about world war 2 and whenever they cover the German invasion of the Soviet Union, they talk about how at times the Soviet soldiers were so poorly equipped that they shared one rifle between ten men. It seems to me that if the soldiers were simply properly equipped they would have done a much more effective job at defending against the invasion. Why didn't the Soviet army issue enough rifles to go around? Did they simply not have the material or labor resources?
Hi, this "1 rifle between (typically) 2 men" line gets asked about quite often here, typically due to references in the film Enemy at the Gates or the game Call of Duty regarding the Battle of Stalingrad. /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov did an in-depth piece on this recently here
Here are a few more if you're interested; they've all been archived by now, so if you have follow-up questions, just ask here & mention the relevant user's username to notify them
How realistic is the depiction of Soviet soldiers lacking weapons and ammo at the Battle of Stalingrad? - featuring [deleted] and /u/facepoundr
is there any truth to the popular image of Russian troops being sent into battle during WWII with a single rifle for two men? and did the soviet union really use human wave attacks and one rifle between 3 men during WWII - both featuring /u/Acritas
Are these Popular Ideas about Soviet Tactics in WW2 Fact or Fiction? - featuring /u/Tsezar_Kunikov