OPERATION BARBAROSSA

Why Operation Barbarossa Failed In 1941

Operation Barbarossa

Introduction

Barbarossa was the Nazi tag for the assault on the USSR during WW-II. It was rooted in Hitler's Directive No. 21, issued on 18 December 1940. Operation Barbarossa was called after the medieval emperor Frederick Barbarossa (Red Bearded), who legend had it did not die, but was only sleeping in a cave until he returned to lead Germany to power. The goal was to destroy the Russian army by "deeply penetrating armored spearheads," and blocking its retreat eastward. Another goal was to push the Soviet Union's borders to the east so that its planes could not bomb Germany.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union was launched as Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941. The plans for the invasion and the circumstances of its launch are discussed in that article. This article discusses the course of the invasion itself. The Germans invaded with a force of nearly 3.6 million troops, 3,600 tanks, and more than 2,700 aircraft. Red Army formations available on the western front included 140 divisions and 40 brigades—some 2.9 million men. Although about 15,000 tanks and 8,000 aircraft were available, the vast majority of both were obsolescent and certainly inferior to the German weapons. This paper discusses why operation Barbarossa failed in 1941.

Discussion

There is no doubt that World War II was Hitler's war. It was rooted in the ideology of National Socialism and the quest for living space (Lebensraum) and began with the invasion of Poland. Hitler intended to reverse the Treaty of Versailles, which had made the German city of Danzig a free city and provided Poland with a corridor to the sea, an area composed of former German territory that also had cut off eastern Germany from the rest of the Reich. Now he demanded the return of Danzig and a territorial path through the corridor. Secretly instructing his generals to prepare a military campaign to solve the Polish problem, Hitler also diplomatically prepared the path for war by abrogating Germany's nonaggression pact with Poland. Then, on August 23 a nonaggression pact was signed with Russia, which protected the German armies from being attacked by the Soviet Union. Hitler's orders to his generals indicated the character of the coming war. They were to act brutally, without pity, and completely annihilate Poland.

The German invasion of Poland truly was a lightning war (blitzkrieg). Having learned from the slaughter of trench warfare in World War I, the German army wisely created a plan of invasion that used speed and efficiency, employing mechanized columns of panzer divisions (300 tanks) supported by massive air power in order to penetrate enemy lines and encircle and destroy entire armies. Needless to say, the Polish army was outnumbered and poorly equipped and was quickly defeated. To make matters worse, Russia attacked Poland from the east. Even though Hitler had desired to avoid a European-wide war, Britain and France disappointed him when within two days they declared war on ...