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