Operation Barbarossa

1
Operation Barbarossa

• How was the German invasion different from other
  wars?

2
War of Annihilation
3
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

4
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

5
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

6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
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 USSRs 20,000 tanks were mostly
  obsolete, and its pilots for its 11,000 aircraft
  were poorly trained

13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
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

16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
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

20
(No Transcript)
21
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.)

22
SS Einsatgroupen
23
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 Hitlers
  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

24
Russian Peoples 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

25
What stopped the German advance?
26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28

• 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

29
(No Transcript)
30
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

31
(No Transcript)
32
Leningrad (October 1941-January 1944)

• Was surrounded in October 1941, and was besieged
  until January 1944 (900 days)
• The citys destruction was one of Hitlers 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

33

• 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

34
(No Transcript)
35
Stalingrad The Turning Point
36
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

37

• 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

38
(No Transcript)
39
(No Transcript)
40
(No Transcript)
41
(No Transcript)
42
(No Transcript)
43
(No Transcript)
44
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

45
(No Transcript)
46
(No Transcript)
47

• 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

48
(No Transcript)
49
(No Transcript)
50
(No Transcript)
51
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

52
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

53

• 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

54
(No Transcript)
55
(No Transcript)
56
(No Transcript)
57
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 Hitlers quest for
  Lebensraum

58
(No Transcript)
59
(No Transcript)
60
(No Transcript)