Germany's offensive into the USSR. An effort to take their land for extra living space for the master race -> Germans.

Barbarossa (literally 'Redbeard') the nickname of Frederick I, was an attempt to seize the coal and oil rich land of Ukraine and Caucasus with its agricultural capacity, secondly to take the Baltic area and also drive on Moscow. The brilliant pincer movement of Hoth's Panzer group 3 and Guderian's panzer group 2 (fast Heinz to his men) were closing on Minsk, certain of a drive through to Moscow,but Hitler who could not see Moscow as the nerve center of Russia, turned group 2 south towards the oilfields, always his favourite goal, and 3 to Leningrad. Instead of a quick victory,and with growing Russian resistance the German armies were brought up short. The pause proved fatal

AnswerThis was the invasion of Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and her allies. The plan envisioned a quick conquest of the Soviet Union based upon their performance against Finland in late 39 early 40. The German forces were split into three groups, Army Groups - North, Center and South. CommentEradicating Communism (or as he called it, Judeo-Bolshevism) had been Hitler's key aim since 1919. He saw it as his 'mission' in life.

Answer:

Operation Barbarossa started on 22nd june 1941 and ended on 4th deceber 1941. During this text you will find info about the Goals of Operation Barbarossa. How Germany fought. The tactics they used, The original German plans of Operation Barbarossa and many more...

Operation Barbarossa was the name given to Nazi Germany's plan to invade the Soviet Union. The operation was named after Frederick I Barbarossa, the 12th century Holy Roman Emperor. In his days, the Roman Empire's military might was at its most formidable, though the Empire itself remained divided. Literally "Barbarossa" translates to "red beard." Before the war, Adolph Hitler decided to safeguard Germany from a possible attack by the USSR. In August 1939 Germany and the USSR signed the non-aggression pact, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The parties of the treaty agreed not to attack each other, and if one of them was attacked by a third country, the other was to uphold neutrality. A secret paragraph in the pact divided Northern and Eastern Europe into Soviet and German spheres of interest. On 1 September 1939 Germany attacked Poland. Two days later both the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. At the end of September, the Soviet Union brought troops into Poland and occupied the lands that had belonged to the Russian Empire before the October Revolution of 1917 (Western Ukraine and Western Belarus) while Germany conquered the Polish lands westward from the rivers Bug and Dniester. Germany and the Soviet Union shared a common border and Poland ceased to exist. In 1940, Germany occupied Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France. Wehrmacht (Nazi army) forces dislodged the British army from Europe, but did not succeed in defeating the UK or in forcing it to make peace. Hitler had an opportunity to win the war by setting up a naval and aerial siege around the UK, but he decided against this. In spite of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, he did not trust the USSR and did not want to concentrate all his efforts on the war with the United Kingdom. In addition, the UK government seemed to be hoping for help from the Soviet Union. The development of Operation Barbarossa started on 21 July 1940 under the supervision of General Frederick Paulus. On 31 July, during a meeting at his Berghof residence, Hitler spoke about the war with the Soviet Union and its aims. The war was to be a means of breaking the UK's illusions. In addition, if the USSR was defeated, the US was to rescind its support of the UK. The fall of the USSR was to lead to the strengthening of Japan and the US, thus resolving the problems in Eastern Asia instead of helping the UK. Obviously, Hitler underestimated the USSR's military potential. "It appears the mobilization in Russia is conducted not in the same way as in Germany. There is no system of reinforcement of combat divisions and of activation of reserve forces… The Russian government's agility is very poor, and the results of the use of Russian railways would be so low, that any troop shift towards the Western border would be linked with great problems and would take a long time," Hitler declared during a meeting about Operation Barbarossa on 15 September 1940. However, in November 1940, Germany initiated talks with the Soviet Union, inviting it to accede to the Triple Pact, according to which, Eurasia was to be divided among the countries, which signed the pact - Germany, Italy and Japan - into spheres of interest. Germany and Italy were to control Europe, and Japan was to control Asia. The Soviet Union agreed to join the pact, but laid down conditions unacceptable for Germany, so the German plan was foiled. The guidelines of Operation Barbarossa were recounted in "Directive 21" and were approved by Adolf Hitler on 18 December 1940. The plan presupposed using the strategy of the "blitzkrieg" - the "blitz war" - under which the Soviet Union was to be defeated in less than three months after the first attack. According to the plan, ground troops were to play the main role in the campaign, as the air force and navy were engaged in military actions against the UK. Three groups of armies - North, South and Center - were to attack the Soviet Union from three directions. The main Soviet forces, based in Western Russia, west of the Dnieper and the Zapadnaya Dvina rivers, were to be destroyed by tank attacks. On the eighth day of the war the German army was to reach the objectives of Kaunas, Lviv and Mogilev, and on the twentieth day - the objectives of the Dnieper, Orsha, Vitebsk, Velikie Luki and Pskov. Then, German forces were to attack Moscow, Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and Donbas. The occupation of these three cities was one of the most important aims of the German government. One of the largest Soviet coalfields was situated in Donbas, and the conquering of Moscow and Leningrad would not only bereave the USSR of two large industrial centers and rail interchanges, but also demoralize the Red Army. Moscow was the capital of the Soviet Union, and Leningrad was the "cradle of the Revolution," the symbol of the victory of Bolshevism. In addition, the occupation of Leningrad was to withdraw the Baltic Fleet from military actions. The final objective of Operation Barbarossa was to occupy the European part of the Soviet Union, where Soviet industry was concentrated, and to set up a barrier to fence off the Asian part. The attack was to begin on 15 May 1941, but the date was later changed to 22 June 1941, due to the situation on the fronts. The Directive was classified, and was printed only in nine copies. One copy was sent to the command of the land forces, another to the fleet command and a third to the aircraft command. The other six copies were kept in the safes of the supreme command of the German army. The Soviet secret services received information that Hitler had made some important decision concerning German-Soviet relations, but the gist of the decision remained unknown. In December 1940 Vasiliy Tupikov, the Soviet military attaché in London, reported that Germany was going to start a war against the Soviet Union not earlier then March 1941, after the UK, by Hitler's reckoning, had been be defeated. Tupikov had been misinformed. Directive 21 upheld that the Soviet Union was to be conquered without the cessation of hostilities against the United Kingdom. In addition, Soviet intelligence had no information about what type of possible military actions would be used against the USSR, and expected a dragged-out war, not a "blitzkrieg". The defense against German aggression was not worked through during the large-scale command post exercises carried out in January 1941, which seems to indicate that the USSR was not preparing for the German offense. The secret services detected the movements of German troops near the border, but seemed to underestimate their significance. As a result, in May 1941, the German armies were already staged near the Soviet borders, ready for battle. However, at the end of spring 1941, the Soviet government carried out actions, the real significance of which remains unknown. In the middle of May, four armies and one rifle corps secretly moved forward to the objectives of the Dnieper and Zapadnaya Dvina, and at the beginning of June, the commandment announced the maneuvers and conducted the mobilization. About 800 thousand men reinforced the divisions based in the Western districts of the country. In the middle of June, all officers' leaves were cancelled. In addition, the General Staff prohibited the commanders of the military districts to anchor the fore field. Some historians consider these actions as preparations for a Soviet offensive on Germany. On 17 June 1941 Hitler gave the order to attack, and three army groups moved towards the border with the Soviet Union. Hitler believed in victory. Several months earlier, he had called the Red Army a "colossus with feet of clay". Wars between major powers usually begin with border combat, and only after several days do the main forces enter into military actions, as the armies need time to stage the offensive. Germany had staged its troops beforehand and on 22 June 1941 attacked all-out with its main forces of three army groups.

Army Group North, commanded by General Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, was staged in East Prussia, at the objectives of Klaipeda and Godlap. It consisted of 23 infantry divisions and six tank and motorized divisions. The task of this group was to defeat the Soviet forces in the Baltic States and to conquer the Baltic seaports of Leningrad, Tallinn and Kronshtadt. 1070 battle planes of the First Air Fleet supported the offensive.

Army Group Center, under the command of General Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, was staged in the former Polish territories, at the objectives of Goldap and Vlodava. It was to cleave through the Soviet defense front, to annihilate Soviet forces in Belarus and then continue the movement towards Moscow. This group consisted of 50 divisions, including 15 tank and motorized, and was supported by 1680 battle planes of the Second Air Fleet.

Army Group South, commanded by Gerd von Rundstedt, consisted of 57 divisions, nine of them tank and motorized, and 13 brigades, one of them tank, and one of them motorized. This group was also staged in former Polish lands, at the objective of Lublin at the Danube. The Fourth Air Fleet, consisting of 800 battle planes, and the Romanian Air Fleet with 500 battle planes supported this army group. The South Group's task was to annihilate Soviet forces at the Right-Bank Ukraine and to develop the attack, moving east from the Dnieper.

The Soviet General Staff did not anticipate such movements. In total, 3712 tanks, 47260 field guns and mortars, 4950 battle planes and more than 5.5 million men participated in the attack on the Soviet Union. On 13 - 18 June 1941 the Soviet General Staff sent directives to the western military districts, ordering them to move their assault divisions and follow-up forces towards the border and to place all troops at operational readiness. For reasons unknown, the commanders of several Belarus districts ignored these orders, so many corps at the Western Front learned about the German attack only when it started. This sabotage gave the Germans an additional advantage over the Red Army. On 21 June, the day before the attack, four fronts were formed by the decision of the Politburo:

The North-Western Front was formed in the Baltic States. It consisted of 34 divisions, six of them tank and motorized. The North-Western Front Air Fleet supported the defense. General-Colonel Feodor Kuznetsov commanded the front.

The Western Front, commanded by Dmitry Pavlov, was formed in Belarus. It consisted of 45 divisions, including 20 motorized and tank, and was supported by the Western Front Air Fleet.

The South-Western Front, commanded by Mikhail Kirponos, was formed in Western Ukraine, and consisted of 45 divisions, 18 of them tank and motorized. The South-Western Front Air Fleet supported the defense.

The Southern Front was formed in the territories of Moldova and Southern Ukraine. It consisted of 26 divisions, including nine tank and motorized, and was supported by the Southern Front Air Fleet. Ivan Tulenev commanded this front. On 22 June 1941, at 4 a.m., German forces crossed the USSR border. That same day, Italy and Romania declared war on the Soviet Union; a day later so did Slovakia and on 27 June Hungary did so as well. On the first day of the attack, Germans destroyed a considerable amount of Soviet ammunition, fuel supplies and military equipment. The German Air Fleet achieved air supremacy by bringing down about 1200 Soviet planes and targeting naval bases at Kronshtadt, Libau, Vindava and Sevastopol. German submarines attacked Soviet lanes of communications in the Black Sea and Baltic Sea. Underwater minefields, planted in the Baltic Sea by German minelayers, blocked the Baltic Fleet in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. On 23 June the Red Army started to counterattack, but the defensive blows were ineffective and only made the situation worse. Several days after the initial attack, German and Finnish forces invaded Soviet Karelia and the polar regions of the Soviet Union, but the military actions there were local and did not affect the situations at the main fronts.

The Central Sector

The situation on the Western Front had been difficult from the very beginning of the war. On the first day of the attack, the 3rd and the 4th flank Soviet armies incurred great losses near Grodno and near Brest. The defense of the Brest Fortress went down in history as a feat of arms by Soviet soldiers.

The 3rd tank group from Army Group Center advanced at the Vilnius sector. On 23 June the commandment of the North-Western Front attempted a counterattack near the town of Raseniay, using the forces of the 3rd and 12th motorized corps. The counterattack failed. On 24 June the 3rd tank group occupied Vilnius and, continuing the offensive, gained the rear of the 3rd and 10th Soviet armies, intercepting their retreat. The 2nd tank group passed the Brest Fortress, broke through the lines to Baranovichi and left it on the North. On 25 June the 2nd tank group occupied Minsk, met the 3rd tank group and encircled the main Soviet forces of the Western Front. On 30 June the commander of the Western Front, General Dmitry Pavlov, was suspended from command and soon after was sentenced to death by a court martial. At first, General-Lieutenant Andrey Eremenko replaced him, and on 2 July the People's Commissar for Defense, Marshal Sergey Timoshenko took command of the Western Front forces. The front was reinforced with the Second Strategic Echelon. At the beginning of July, the motorized German corps cut across the Berezina River and headed towards the Dnieper and Zapadnaya Dvina. Between Vitebsk and Orsha, the Germans entered battle with the 22nd, 20th and 21st Soviet armies of the Western Front. The commander of the 20th army decided to counterattack at the Lepel sector, but the counterattack was defeated. On 9 July the Germans occupied Vitebsk and the Soviet units withdrew.

The Northern Sector

At the Leningrad sector, the 4th tank group moved across the Lithuania territories. On 23 - 24 June the 3rd and the 12th Soviet motorized corps counterattacked near the town of Raseniay, but were defeated and on 25 June withdrew to the banks of the Zapadnaya Dvina. On 26 June the 4th tank group cut across the Zapadnaya Dvina near Daugavpils and started the offensive at the Pskov sector.On 27 June Red Army troops left Liepaja. The 18th German Army occupied Riga and entered Estonia. On 9 July the 9th German motorized corps occupied Pskov.

The Southern Sector:

The German military actions in the southern districts of the Soviet Union were not as successful. On 23 - 25 June, Soviet planes bombed the Romanian cities of Sulina and Konstansa, and on 26 June attacked Konstansa with the help of the Black Sea Fleet. In an attempt to stop the movement of the 1st tank group, the commandment of the South-Western Front counterattacked the Germans with the 6th motorized corps. On 26 - 29 June Soviet forces lost the tank battle near the town of Dubno. They suffered great losses but managed to prevent the Germans from dividing the front and cutting the Lvov force command from the main Soviet forces. On 1 July Soviet troops withdrew to the line of Korosten - Novograd-Volynsky - Proskurov. At the beginning of July, the Germans occupied Zhitomir and Berdichev, but were bound to stop.On 2 July the German-Romanian forces cut across the Prut River and moved towards Mogilev-Podolsky. On 10 July they reached Dniester.

The Second Period. All-Out Attack

The Northern Sector

On 10 July, the Army Group North started the offensive at the Leningrad and Tallinn sectors, but on 19 July, the offensive on Leningrad was stopped near Soltsy by the 11th Soviet army. Only three weeks later the 4th tank group managed to reach the objectives of Narva, Luga and Mshaga rivers, where the People's Volunteer Corps fought a delaying action.

On 7 August the Germans breached the defenses of the 8th army and reached the banks of the Gulf of Finland near Kunda. The 8th army was divided in two. The 11th rifle corps moved to Narva, and the 10th rifle corps reinforced the Tallinn garrison. Together with the Baltic Fleet sailors, they defended Tallinn until 28 August. On 8 August the Army Group North reopened the offensive at the Leningrad sector. On 12 August the Soviet commandment conducted a counterattack near Staraya Russa, but the counterblow failed. On 19 August German forces occupied Novgorod and a day later, Chudovo.

The Central Sector

On 10 - 12 July 1941, the Army Group Center opened a new offensive at the Moscow sector. The 2nd tank group cut across the Dnieper south of Orsha, and the 3rd tank group attacked from Vitebsk. On 16 July German forces entered Smolensk and encircled three Soviet armies. On 5 August the battles for Smolensk were over. About 310 thousand Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner.

On 16 July, on the northern flank of the Western Front, German forces occupied Nevel and started the battle for Velikie Luki, but were defeated in a month. On the South flank, the 21st Soviet army attacked at the Bobruisk sector and did not manage to occupy Bobruisk but paralyzed the 2nd German army and one third of the 2nd tank group. Soviet forces continued to attack at the flanks to prevent the Germans from the offensive on Moscow. On 30 July the Army Group Center was forced onto the defensive. On 8 - 12 August the 2nd tank group and the 2nd field army started to move southward, to reinforce the Army Group South. On 19 August Germans occupied Gomel, and the Central Front was crashed. At the end of August, the Germans defeated the Soviet forces near Velikie Luki and on 29 August occupied Toropetz. On 30 August Soviet forces attacked full-scale at the Western sector, and occupied Yelna on 6 September, but were defeated and forced onto the defensive on 10 September. The occupation of Yelna became the first successful operation of the Soviet Army of World War II. On 30 September the Germans started the offensive on Moscow.

The Southern Sector:

The Soviet commandment tried to stop the Romanian offensive in Moldova, but the counterattack of two motorized corps was defeated. On 16 July the Romanian army occupied Kishinev, and at the beginning of August forced the Soviet units back to Odessa. The defense of Odessa paralyzed the movement of the Romanian forces for two months, but in October, the Soviet forces were bound to leave the city.

At the end of July, German forces began the offensive at the Bila Tserkva sector. On 2 August the Germans cut the 6th and the 12th Soviet armies from the Dnieper and encircled them near Uman. 103 thousand people were taken prisoner, including army commanders.

The Germans penetrated into Zaporozhye and moved to the north to reach the rear of the Kiev group of the South-Western Front. On 4 August the commandment ordered the 2nd army and the 2nd tank group to turn to the south to encircle the forces of the South-Western Front.

On 25 August the Bryansk Front attempted to stop the offensive, but did not succeed. At the beginning of September the Germans cut across the River Desna and occupied Konotop on 7 September.

The 2nd tank group continued the offensive, reached the rear of the South-Western Front and on 15 September united with the 1st tank group near Lokhvitsa, finishing the encirclement of the Kiev group of Soviet forces. 665 thousand prisoners were taken, and the front commander, Mikhail Kipronos, committed suicide.

The Germans occupied the Left-Bank Ukraine and cut off the Soviet forces in Crimea from the main forces. The way to Donbas was clear. Only in September the Southern and South-Western Fronts re-established the defense line Psol River - Poltava - Dnepropetrovsk - Zaporozhye - Melitopol.

The analysis of three German war campaigns, conducted in 1939 - 1941, show a resemblance in the actions of the defender. The Soviet Union, France and Poland followed the same scheme.

During the first days, the commandment tried to carry out the pre-war plans of defense and showed optimism, based on a lack of information about the enemy.

After the first defeats and the failed counterattacks, the commandment tried to stabilize the situation at the deteriorated fronts. On their own, the stabilization plans were fine, but the commandment did not have enough time and resources to carry them out. After the wreckage of the plans, the defense crashed, and fear, despair and apathy consumed the military men.The Soviet army reached the last phase several times but, contrary to German expectations, continued to fight.

The final aim of Operation Barbarossa was not reached. In spite all the German victories, the "blitz war" strategy appeared to be useless. Hitler underestimated the Red Army's qualifications and its mobilization capability, though the German commandment had rather accurate information about the strength of the Soviet forces. In September, the Soviet commandment sent 324 divisions to the front lines, while the German commandment was expecting to meet about 40 Soviet divisions. In addition, it was hard for the German commandment to coordinate the actions of three army groups.

The Army Group North did not occupy Leningrad. The Army Group South did not abolish the Soviet forces in the Right-Bank Ukraine in time. The Soviet forces of the Southern and South-Western Fronts had time to withdraw to the Dnieper and to establish themselves.

The Army Group Center turned from Moscow and lost time and strategic initiative. In the autumn 1941, the German commandment developed a new plan of military action against the Soviet Union known as Operation Typhoon.

Source(s)

The information of this is based on real fact and information, NONE of this was copied off any website. Most of this is knolledge of what i know and studied whiles some fact such us times and dates were copied out from world war 2 books. Some of this information is based in a TV program caled Soviet Union, War in the East and another called Soviet storm.
This was the planned invasion of Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and her allies. The plan envisioned a quick conquest of the Soviet Union based upon their performance against Finland in late 39 early 40. The German forces were split into three groups, Army Groups North Center and South.

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