Barbarossa

Barbarossa (World War II) (22 June 1941–Dec. 1941) The codename for the largest military campaign in history, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Planned from late 1940 (despite Hitler's previous warnings about the dangers of a two-front war), it was originally scheduled for 15 May 1941, but was postponed after German troops had to come to the rescue of Italian forces which were being defeated in the Balkans and North Africa. The German attack on the USSR occurred after a delay of seven weeks, on 22 June 1941; an important delay which gave the Germans even less time to achieve their ambitious plans before the onset of the harsh Russian winter. A total of 3.05 million German soldiers (75 per cent of its army), assisted by 65 per cent of its own air force, as well as Romanian and Finnish troops, attacked 4.7 million Red Army soldiers stationed in the European part of the USSR. Under the overall command of Field Marshal von Brauchitsch, the Army Group North under von Leeb advanced against Leningrad, the Army Group Centre under von Bock pressed against Moscow, while Army Group South under von Rundstedt proceeded against the Crimea. German blitzkrieg tactics produced swift results, and within six months the German army had advanced to the outskirts of Leningrad and Moscow, while occupying the Ukraine and the Crimea. Yet the Army Groups North and Central failed in their objectives to take Leningrad and Moscow respectively, while the German army had failed to break the Red Army.

Some (though not all) German military leaders, and, above all, Hitler himself, had underestimated the strength of the Soviet army. The German leadership had counted on a collapse of Stalin's regime, which did not occur. The Soviet army was reinforced by fresh troops from the east, released there after the conclusion of the Japanese-Soviet non-agression pact of 13 April 1941. As the war progressed, the Red Army became better equipped with superior arms, tanks, and planes. Finally, the German military leadership made tactical mistakes partly owing to Hitler's direct intervention. His orders to broaden Germany's attack to include the Crimea and Leningrad needlessly stretched German resources and diverted them away from an attack on the political and infrastructural centre of Moscow. By January 1942, the German army had lost almost 30 per cent of its soldiers, with a total of 900,000 casualties. The Barbarossa offensive thus failed, and ground to a halt in December 1941. Indeed, some of its gains were lost to a Soviet counter-attack (December 1941–January 1942). Despite further German victories in the summer offensive of 1942, the campaign turned decisively to Stalin's favour after the German defeat at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942–3.