Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa, military operation of World War II that lasted from June to December 1941 and saw German forces bid to conquer the European Soviet Union. The campaign was halted outside Moscow.

At dawn on June 22, 1941, German and pro-Axis forces from Finland, Hungary, Italy, and Romania invaded the Soviet Union, crossing the border from the Baltic to the Black Sea, taking the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin by surprise. Altogether a total of 153 divisions, with 3,600 tanks, 7,000 guns, and 2,700 aircraft, were involved in the invasion. This was the culmination of the long-held dream of Adolf Hitler—a German-occupied Russia stretching from the Volga to Archangel, which would provide Germany with vital raw materials and the German people with “living space”, or Lebensraum. Hitler also persuaded himself that the invasion was justified by the need to secure Soviet oil and natural resources to sustain the expansion of the Third Reich, and by the belief that Stalin was already preparing for war with Germany. Hitler was convinced, especially after Stalin's far-reaching purges of the Red Army officer class in the late 1930s and its dismal showing against Finland in the Winter War of 1939-1940 (see Russo-Finnish War), that the “Russian Jewish Bolsheviks” were incapable of prolonged resistance—“smash in the door and the whole rotten structure will come tumbling down”. For Hitler this was a war of competing ideologies and of race hatred.

The German operational plan for the invasion divided the German armies into three groups: Army Group North in East Prussia was to occupy the Baltic States and then advance to seize Leningrad (St Petersburg); Army Group Centre was to occupy Moscow; and Army Group South was to conquer Ukraine and the Caucasus. However Hitler weakened Army Group Centre by insisting that the seizure of Ukraine and Leningrad should have priority over the advance to Moscow. During the summer German Panzer forces with close Luftwaffe support encircled and destroyed four Soviet army groups, together with their tanks and aircraft. In the wake of the victorious German armies SS Einsatzgruppen (killing formations) butchered the captured Soviet commissars (Communist Party officials attached to the Red Army), partisans, and Jews. During the late summer and early autumn the German advance seemed inexorable. The Ukrainian capital, Kiev, was captured in September, and Kharkov and Rostov in October and November. Meanwhile, Army Group North had advanced across the Baltic States and was besieging Leningrad (see Siege of Leningrad). Despite heavy casualties fresh Soviet formations, inspired by Stalin's appeals to Russian patriotism, kept appearing. At the same time, the German armies were finding it increasingly difficult to bring up supplies, especially fuel, spare parts, and replacement tanks, as their communications became over-extended as a result of the difficult terrain and the onset of the rainy season. In August, after fierce fighting, Marshal Fedor von Bock's Army Group Centre captured Smolensk on the shortest route to Moscow. However, despite pressure from his generals, who were convinced that the fall of Moscow, the centre of the Soviet Union's government and communications, would deliver a mortal blow to Stalin's regime, Hitler did nothing to hasten Army Group Centre's advance on the Russian capital until the end of September—pending this moment, many of the panzer divisions earmarked for this campaign were still trying to capture Leningrad. Not until October did Bock's army begin its advance towards Moscow, capturing Orel on October 6.

As the German forces advanced Stalin was desperately trying to strengthen the defences of Moscow and was bringing up fresh troops from Manchuria. In early November the Germans were threatening Moscow on three fronts. Late November saw heavy fighting between the German invaders and the Soviet defenders on the outskirts of the city. By this time the Russian weather had changed for the worst. Snow, bitter winds, and temperatures of -20° C froze the engines of German tanks and immobilized the frostbitten German troops, still without winter clothing, in hastily constructed bunkers. On December 5 the Russians under the command of General Georgy Zhukov, with fresh troops wearing winter clothing, 1,700 tanks including the new T-34, and aircraft brought in from the Far East, launched a major counterattack on the three German flanks, supported by partisan attacks in the German rear. Bock was forced to withdraw 160 km (100 mi) in December, amid appalling confusion, but managed to establish a defensive line east of Smolensk. Moscow was saved and the Germans had suffered a major setback.

During Operation Barbarossa the Red Army lost over one million men either killed, wounded, or missing, and although German losses were much lower, they included a high proportion of experienced and well-trained men. This was a severe check to Hitler's ambitions, but not a fatal one, since he and his generals now began to plan for renewed offensives in 1942.