War Without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa 1941

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War Without GarlandsOperation Barbarossa 1941
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Overview

• Prelude
• Planning
• Russia
• Ostheer
• War of Annihilation
• Operations
• Moscow
• Conclusions

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Prelude

• Track Record of Victories
• Poland
• France / Norway
• Balkans
• Technology and Training
• Racial Superiority
• Faith in Hitler
• Nazi Machine

4
Planning

• One Year Process
• Faulty Assumptions
• Faulty Intelligence Estimates (sort of)
• Logistics
• Winter
• Disagreement

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Russia

• Vast Distances
• Primitive or Non-Existent Road Network
• Few Large Cities
• Generals Mud and Winter

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Ostheer

• Nazi or Weimar
• Morale at its height
• Racism
• Disciplined
• Christian
• Well Equipped

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War of Annihilation

• The Commissar Order
• Battle of Ideologies
• Partisan Warfare
• Jews
• Scorched Earth

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Operations
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Operations
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Moscow

• The Grand Prize
• Surprise Lost

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Conclusions

• High Tide for Germany
• Wehrmacht Irrevocably Changed
• Incorrect Assumptions
• Reaping the Whirlwind