World War II: The Eastern Front Operation Barbarossa

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

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

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

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

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

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 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 Hitler was in the midst of a high command crisis and lost confidence in his generals Field Marshall Walther von Reichenau

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 At this point, Moscow would not be taken

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

Stalingrad On Aug 24 the Germans attacked Stalingrad’s suburbs and began fighting their way into the city The nature of the urban fighting favored the defenders and the Soviets mounted a stubborn defense

Stalingrad On Nov 19 the Soviets launched a massive counterattack north of Stalingrad 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

The Eastern Front 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.