Operation Barbarossa
How was the German invasion
different from other wars?
War of Annihilation
Why the Soviet Union?
• 1) Lebensraum – Living space for the German
people (Volksreich)
• Would involved depopulating the areas of the
Soviet Union up to the Ural mountains, and
enable German settlers with lands to acquire
and settle
• 2) Resources – would provide the German
military machine with unlimited new natural
resources (oil, coal, agriculture)
• 3) Industry – Soviet industries would be taken
over by German companies and used to
manufacture goods for the German Reich
How long would the war last?
• Hitler believed 3 months
• While many German army commanders
feared a war on two fronts, Hitler
maintained that the blitzkrieg in the east
would last only three months
• Hitler believed the Russians were an
inferior race and incapable of resisting
superior German military might
German Forces
• 4 million men (136 divisions), 3600 tanks, 4000
planes, 600,000 motor vehicles
– Largest invasion force in history
- The key objectives of these army groups was to
capture the Baltic states and Leningrad,
Moscow, and the Ukraine and Caucasus
- Stalin had ignored the initial intelligence reports
about the German invasion, many Soviet units
were caught completely off guard
What were Soviet weaknesses?
• Total armed forces of regular and reserve
troops were 10 million men at full strength
• Had 134 divisions on the frontline during
the initial attack
• However, the USSR’s 20,000 tanks were
mostly obsolete, and its pilots for its
11,000 aircraft were poorly trained
1st Week Disaster
• Over 2000 Soviet planes were destroyed
during the first few hours of the war (many
still on the ground)
• Over 100,000 Soviet troops were captured
and over 100 tanks were destroyed in the
first week
• By the end of 1941, over half the Red
army had been killed or captured, and the
USSR had less than 1000 tanks
Scorched Earth Policy
• Stalin demanded the mobilization of all
resources in a “patriotic war of liberation”
• In occupied areas, citizens were instructed
it was their duty to wage guerrilla warfare,
and to employ a “scorched earth” policy to
evacuated areas
• Homes, towns and cities were to be
burned rather than give shelter to the
advancing German armies
Liberators or Conquerors?
• Early on, the Germans were welcomed in the
Baltic and in many parts of the Soviet Union, and
were seen as liberators
• However, the Germans were quick to wear out
their welcome
• Behind the German army advances, the S.S.
divisions followed and began to massacre
civilians that were deemed to be resistant
(partisans, Jews, gypsies, communist officials,
etc.)
SS Einsatgroupen
Himmler and the S.S.
• “I am not concerned with how many thousands
of Russian women die digging a trench, so long
as the trench gets dug.” H. Himmler
• The S.S. were in charge of carrying out Hitler’s
plans to “Europeanise” Russia, which involved
the subjugation of the Slavic populations that
resided there
• “Slav meant Slave, and slaves they would be.”
A. Hitler
Russian People’s Response
• In response to Nazi atrocities, partisan brigades
formed in areas of German occupation.
• These partisans set out to plant bombs, blow up
bridges, sabotage equipment and telephone
lines
• Women joined the Red Army in large numbers,
and the Soviet Union was the only nation to
employ women to fight on the front lines (over
800,000) during the war
What stopped the German advance?
• While Hitler planned for a three month
war, the German army was not prepared
to fight a war in the winter
• By November, the snow had begun to fall
and the temperatures plummeted (-20 and
-30 degrees Celsius)
• Weapons jammed, gas lines in tanks and
vehicles froze, men began to freeze to
death
• German air force was grounded, and
supplies were cut off from the front
Moscow (October-January 1941)
• Although the German armies rapidly approached
the city, they were stopped short of capturing it
• In Moscow, Stalin refused to evacuate the city
and declared that his entire cabinet would stay
as well
• In December, the arrival of 20 division of crack
winter troops (250,000) allowed Stalin to launch
a counter offensive that sent the Germans into
retreat
• Hitler responded by firing many generals and
making himself the commander of the German
armed forces
Leningrad (October 1941-January 1944)
• Was surrounded in October 1941, and was
besieged until January 1944 (900 days)
• The city’s destruction was one of Hitler’s major
objective, since it was the symbol of the 1917
revolution
• Stalin had the city turned into a fortress, with
hundreds of guns and trenches built to defend
against the 700,000 German and Finnish troops
surrounding it
• Hitler ordered the German forces to bomb the
city daily, as well as target its historic buildings
and civilian inhabitants
• While Soviet forces managed to ferry in
some supplies, the people of Leningrad
made bread from sawdust and soup from
the bones of slaughtered animals
• By 1944, 600,000 people had starved to
death, and 200,000 were killed by artillery
fire and bombing from the air force
Stalingrad – The Turning Point
Battle for Stalingrad
• During the summer of 1942, with Moscow and
Leningrad holding off the German invasions,
Hitler decided to attack and capture Stalingrad in
the south with 300,000 men at first – 1 mill
eventually
• This was a major strategic industrial centre, and
the key to seizing the valuable coal fields and oil
fields that lay beyond
• With the capture of Stalingrad, Hitler believed
that Soviet industry would stop its production of
tanks and aircraft
• Soviet General Chuikov, commander of the
USSR forces inside Stalingrad, decided to
change strategy to null German air power
• Instead of meeting the Germans in the open, he
withdrew his forces inside the city, in order to
bring the Germans into close quarters fighting,
where they could not use their air or artillery
support for fear of killing their own troops
• Savage fighting occurred throughout the
autumn, with German troops fighting street to
street and house to house
The End at Stalingrad
• On November 19, 1942, Soviet forces led by
General Zhukov with over 1 million men attacked
the sides of the German invaders at Stalingrad,
and surrounded them inside the city
• Hitler refused any possible chance of an orderly
retreat, and all attempts to relieve the Germans
inside the city failed
• After the Soviets captured the airfield in
Stalingrad, the German air force ended its flights
inside the city
• On February 2, the last 90,000 German
troops (out of 1 million) under Field
Marshall Von Paulus surrendered inside
the city, becoming the first Field Marshal in
German history to do so
• Over a million soldiers were lost by
Germany, constituting a major blow that
could not be replaced
• Most German POWs would not return
home, being killed in captivity or in the
fields where they were used as forced
labour by their Soviet captors
Battle of Kursk (July 4- August 17,
1943)
• With the Soviet victory at Stalingrad,
German forces suffered their first of many
major defeats
• In order to regain the initiative, Hitler
ordered his final offensive against the
Soviet Union
• While the Germans expected to have a full
surprise, the Soviet forces had prepared
all winter for this attack
German vs. Soviet forces
• German forces
• 1 million men
• 3000 tanks, including
new Tiger and
Panther types
• 2100 aircraft
• expected to have a
full surprise attack
•
•
•
•
•
Soviet forces
1.3 million men
3600 tanks
2800 aircraft
20,000 artillery and
anti-tank guns
• Soviet forces had
prepared all winter for
this attack
• Over the next month and a half, the largest
tank battle the world has ever seen
occurred at Kursk
• Although Hitler had attempted to call off
the battle on July 13, German and Soviet
forces were too engaged in battle for
either to withdraw
• By the middle of August, the Germans had
lost 170,000 men, 720 tanks and 609
aircraft
• The Soviets lost over 300,000 men, 1500
tanks and 2000 aircraft
Retreat and Defeat (August 1943-45)
• After Stalingrad and Kursk, the German forces in the
East began a withdraw that would last until the capture
of Berlin in 1945
• Overall, over 16 million Soviet citizens were killed during
the German occupation and fighting on the Eastern front
• German forces suffered over 5 million dead and
wounded
• Soviet forces suffered over 11 million dead and wounded
• More than any nation, the Soviet Union suffered the
most of all as a result of Hitler’s quest for Lebensraum