Download World War II: Blitzkrieg and the Eastern Front

Operation Barbarossa
Military History
Mr. Odren
The Eastern Front
• Hitler had strategic and ideological
reasons for invading Russia
– Strategically he knew that the Soviet Union
and the US were critical to Britain’s
willingness to keep fighting
– He also felt he needed the agricultural and
raw material resources of Eastern Russia
– Ideologically he viewed the Soviet Union as
an amalgamation of his greatest enemies, the
Jews and the Slavs
Operation Barbarossa
• Hitler based his plan on the assumption he could
destroy the Soviet Union within one year
• Critical to his success would be to catch and
destroy the Soviet Army at the border areas
• If that did not occur, the Russians could use their
vast territory to trade space for time and cause
the Germans huge logistical problems
We have only to kick in
the door and the whole
rotten structure will
come tumbling down.
Operation
Barbarossa
• Hitler’s Invasion of the Soviet Union
• The largest military action in the history of
the world, ever. (yes, still…)
– 4.5 million troops invaded simultaneously
along a 1800 mile front
Operation Barbarossa
• On June 22, 1941,
Hitler invaded Russia in
Operation Barbarossa
• The operation
encompassed a total
troop strength of about
4 million men, making it
the biggest single land
operation ever
• Benefiting from initial
surprise, by the end of
July Hitler had
occupied a portion of
Russia twice the size of
France
Hitler's Commissar Order to his Generals:
"The war against Russia cannot be fought in knightly
fashion. The struggle is one of ideologies and racial
differences and will have to be waged with
unprecedented, unmerciful, and unrelenting hardness.
All officers will have to get rid of any old fashioned
ideas they may have. I realize that the necessity for
conducting such warfare is beyond the comprehension
of you generals, but I must insist that my orders be
followed without complaint. The commissars hold views
directly opposite to those of National Socialism. Hence
these commissars must be eliminated. Any German
soldier who breaks international law will be pardoned.
Russia did not take part in the Hague Convention and,
therefore, has no rights under it."
The Nazi execution of Soviet civilians kneeling by the side of a mass grave at Kraigonev,
USSR, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Anyone suspected of being a
Communist official, along with Red Army officers and male Jews were chosen for execution.
The Attack
• The Red Air Force took an incredible beating in the first
few days of the fighting…
– Basically ceased to function
• Three main German thrusts… North, Center, and
South…
– North surrounds Leningrad… (siege- but city doesn’t
fall)
– Center pushes for Moscow…
– South pushes into the Ukraine towards the Caucasus
oil…
• Stalin shoots generals who lose… great motivator
• Scorched Earth Policy… similar to Napoleon…
• Nazis make it to the gates of Moscow  Counterattack
 Nazis stalled
Operation Barbarossa: Battle of
Moscow
• With the Germans’ successes in the north and
south, Hitler assumed that Stalin’s regime was
on the verge of collapse
• He authorized an advance on Moscow before
the onset of winter
• Already however the Germans were suffering
from serious supply shortages
– By September the supply system was only meeting
current tactical consumption needs
– No supply stores for the winter season were being
built
Operation Barbarossa: Battle of
Moscow
• The Germans caught the
Russians unprepared and
made great advances
• The Soviet Army seemed
on the verge of collapse
• At this point the weather
broke and autumn rains
turned the roads to mud
• The German advance
stalled, allowing the
Russians to hurry
reinforcements from the
interior
Operation Barbarossa: Battle of
Moscow
• Despite dropping
temperatures and
critical supply
shortages, the
German high
command pressed on
with the attack
• The German soldiers
were still in summer
uniforms and suffered
terribly
German soldier during the
battle of Moscow
Operation Barbarossa: Battle of
Moscow
• Stalin responded to the crisis by
rushing his best commander,
Georgi Zhukov, to defend
Moscow
• Zhukov waged a delaying
defense in front of Moscow; the
first time the Soviets took
advantage of their ability to trade
space for time
• In the meantime he pulled
reinforcements from as far away
as Siberia to defend Moscow
• Zhukov’s plan was to allow the
Germans to exhaust themselves
and then go on the offensive
Operation Barbarossa: Battle of
Moscow
• By Dec 4 the
Germans had clawed
their way to
Moscow’s outskirts,
but they could not
continue
– That night
temperatures were -25
degrees Fahrenheit
– One infantry regiment
suffered 300 frostbite
casualties
– On Dec 6 the Soviets
counterattacked
Operation Barbarossa : Battle of
Moscow
• Rundstedt, the German
commander of Army
Group South, ordered a
retreat and Hitler fired him
• Field Marshall Walther von
Reichenau replaced
Rundstedt and confirmed
the withdraw order and
then suffered a heart
attack
• Hitler was in the midst of a
high command crisis and
lost confidence in his
generals
Field Marshall Walther
von Reichenau
Strategic Situation
• On Dec 7, 1941, Japan attacked the US at
Pearl Harbor
• In spite of his troubles in Russia, Hitler
decided to support Japan and also declare
war on the US
• Now the US would join with Britain to
adopt a “Europe First” strategy that would
destroy Hitler
Operation Barbarossa : Battle of
Moscow
• As the Russians pushed forward, Hitler
refused to allow a retreat and relieved or
court-martialed generals who did so
• Hitler named himself commander-in-chief
of the army
– Each military service began to operate
increasingly independently and Germany
suffered from a lack of an overall strategy
Operation Barbarossa : Battle of
Moscow
• On the Eastern Front the Germans’ stiff
resistance and control of crucial roads and
supply centers slowly took the punch out
of the Russian counterattack
• The German Army survived but it suffered
losses from which it never recovered
• Both sides licked their wounds and
prepared for renewed operations in the
spring
Stalingrad
• As spring 1942 approached, German
commanders recommended remaining on the
defensive but Hitler believed the Germans
must destroy Soviet military potential before
the American industrial power could come into
play
• Hitler developed a plan to capture Soviet oil
– At first Hitler considered Stalingrad of little
importance other than the fact that its
capture might block the movement of
petroleum up the Volga River
Stalingrad
• On June 28 the Germans
launched their summer
offensive
• The Germans made good
headway with one
advance moving east
toward Stalingrad and the
Volga River and another
moving south into the
Caucasus
• In August Hitler’s erratic
attention swung from the
Caucasus to Stalingrad
Stalingrad
• On Aug 24 the Germans
attacked Stalingrad’s
suburbs and began
fighting their way into the
city
• Hitler began shifting forces
from the Caucasus to
Stalingrad
• The nature of the urban
fighting favored the
defenders and the Soviets
mounted a stubborn
defense
• Stalingrad began to drain
the German army but
Hitler would not back off
Stalingrad
Stalingrad
Stalingrad
Stalingrad
Stalingrad
Stalingrad
• On Nov 19 the Soviets
launched a massive
counterattack north of
Stalingrad
• Hitler’s overly centralized
and completely out-of-touch
command system broke
down in the face of the
Soviet onslaught
• The Soviets encircled
Stalingrad and Hitler ordered
his commanders to stand
fast anyway
• By this point in the war, no
one was willing to confront
Hitler
Stalingrad
• All attempts to
breakout or break
through failed and on
Feb 2 the Germans
surrendered
– Out of 250,000
soldiers trapped in the
Stalingrad pocket,
approximately 90,000
became prisoners
– Barely 5,000 survived
the war
German POWs
Greatest Extent of Axis Control
Surprise!
• Weather played a huge part in the failed plan of
the German’s.
• Hitler was so confident in a quick win that he did
no preparation what so ever for winter weather.
• The ground was very loose sand in summer,
very sticky and muddy in autumn, and heavy
snow in winter.
• Should have called Napoleon!
• “The German army is
like an elephant
attacking a host of
ants. He will crush
and kill thousands,
perhaps millions; but
in the end, their
numbers will
overcome him, and
he will be eaten in the
end. “
– - German Soldier
Outcome
• Ultimately enormous logistical shortcomings
made Barbarossa a failure
– Germany proved capable of fighting battles
very well, but was less capable of fighting a
war of prolonged duration
• In the total four years of fighting on the Eastern
Front, an estimated 4 million Axis and 9 million
Russians were killed in battle
• 20 million Soviet civilians were killed as a result
of extermination campaigns against Jews,
communists and partisans, casual massacres,
reprisal killings, diseases, and (sometimes
planned) starvation.
End Game
• The Soviet Union was simply able to out
produce the Germans who were not prepared
for a long war.
• After three years of constant warfare the
Germans were exhausted and so the Soviets
were finally able to defeat the Germans
decisively in Operation Bagration in summer
1944. This led to a chain of fast Soviet victories
which now pushed the Germans back to Berlin
in just one year, leading to the surrender of
Germany on May 8, 1945.