oporation bardaossa

• Adolf Hitler launched a surprise attack against the Soviet Union, the start of Operation Barbarossa


  June 22nd 1941
• Operation Barbarossa


  The Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War two with an enormous combat force causing unprecedented death and destruction
• Operation Barbarossa is considered the largest invasion and also the bloodiest conflict in human history
• Nazi Germany's plan to invade Soviet Union

  Insisting on the necessity of Lebensraum (living space) for the Germans who Hitler believed were a superior Aryan race
• Nazi Germany signed the Munich Agreement with Italy, Britain and France by which Czechoslovakia must cede its border regions and defenses to Nazi Germany to avoid a possible Soviet German conflict


  September 22nd 1938
• The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Germany signed the Treaty of non-aggression which provided a written guarantee of peace between each party towards the other and a declared commitment that neither government would ally itself or aid an enemy of the other


  August 23rd 1939
• Each side was highly suspicious of the other's intentions
• The tension between the Soviets and Germany over the Balkan territories intensified and Germany began to suffer from the severe depletion of oil supply


  Summer 1940
• Hitler had no other option but to start the war with the Red Army
• Hitler issued directive number 21 Operation Barbarossa, a codename for an offensive war against what he perceived to be his biggest enemy of the Soviet Union


  December 1940
• To prepare for the battle, 3/4 of the German force along with the axis soldiers were deployed for the blitzkrieg to completely destroy the USSR
• Despite continuously enhancing military and munitions by the start of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union was still inferior to the German army in terms of quantity and quality of weapons and equipment
• As a result, the Soviet Red Army despite superiority in armed forces continuously failed in the early stages of the war
• German and Soviet preparations

  • Based on three primary strategic objectives set out by Adolf Hitler in the Barbarossa
  • Army Group North with the target of Leningrad
  • Army Group Center in charge of Moscow
  • Army Group South attacking Kiev and Ukraine with 29 divisions and the support of Lithuania and Hitler's Finnish allies
• German forces were divided into three great army groups

  1. Army Group North under the command of Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb advanced to the north with the aim of capturing Leningrad

  2. Army Group Center under the command of Field Marshal Theodore von Bach with 50 divisions and two brigades in the support of Luftflotte to attack capital Moscow

  3. Army Group South under the command of Field Marshal GERD von Rundstedt with 46 divisions destroyed a large part of Ukraine
• Many of the Soviet Union's most important cities such as Pskov, Novgorod, Riga, Smolensk and Kiev were seized by the German army
• Field Marshal Theodore von Braun captured Smolensk, the key to Moscow


  July 17th
• After the Battle of Smolensk and Kiev, the Red Army no longer outnumbered the Germans
• To defend Moscow, Stalin had to employ 800,000 men in 83 divisions, but no more than 25 divisions were fully effective
• The Germans unleashed the operation Typhoon, the drive to Moscow


  September 30th 1941
• The first blow took the Soviets completely by surprise when the 2nd Panzer group took Orel which was just 75 miles south of the Soviet first main defense line
• Three days later, the Panzers captured Bryansk while the German Second Army tackling the south encircling the Soviet third and 13 armies to the north
• The third and fourth Panzer armies attacked by Vyazma, defeating the 19th, 20th, 24th and 32nd armies of the Soviet Union
• Moscow's first line of defense had been shattered and over six hundred and sixty three thousand Soviet prisoners were captured bringing the tally since it started the invasion to three million
• The Soviets now had only 90,000 men and 150 tanks left for the defense of Moscow
• On 13th October, the third Panzer group was only 87 miles from the capital
• Martial law was declared in Moscow
• Almost from the beginning of Operation Typhoon, the weather worsened with heavy rain and accumulating snows turning the unpaved road into a glutinous mud and hampering the advance of German tanks
• The supply situation for the Germans rapidly deteriorated
• The German army High Command ordered a halt to the operation Typhoon so that the Germans could reorganize and resolve the increasing severe logistical problems


  October 31st
• The pause gave the Soviets time to solidify their positions and organize formations of newly activated reservists
• In over a month, along with 1,000 tanks, 11 new armies including 30 divisions of Siberian troops that were better suited in such a tough condition were deployed to assist in defending the city
• With the mud problem solved due to the cold weather, the Germans resumed the attack on Moscow


  November 15th
• The Germans intended to move the 3rd and 4th Panzer armies across the Moscow Volga canal and envelop the city from the Northeast while the 2nd Panzer group attacked Tula and then closed on Moscow from the south
• In two weeks of fighting, lacking sufficient fuel and ammunition, the Germans still slowly advanced to Moscow
• In the south, the 2nd Panzer group was being blocked by the Soviet Army
• However, the 4th Panzer group pushed the Soviet 16-2 army back and succeeded in crossing the Moscow Volga canal, the last major obstacle before Moscow
• The German 7th Panzer Division stood less than 22 miles from the Kremlin and the Red Square
• But a powerful counter-attack of the Soviet Army on 28th November drove them back
• In the northwest of Moscow, the Germans had reached Khimki, present-day Lobnya, which was only 18 miles from the Kremlin