OPERATION BARBAROSSA

GERMANY ATACKS RUSSIA

(Directive 21)

22 June 1941, the army’s of Nazi Germany attack Russia.

Operation Barbarossa has begun!

About 3 400 000 soldiers and 600 000 vehicles started to move, the world is afraid!

First part;

On the early morning of 22 June 1941 a force of 3 400 000 soldiers, almost 3 000 000 Germans and about a half million German Allies (Finland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Italy and Croatia) attacks Russia, from the Baltic sea in the North to the Black sea in the south.
The defending of this big country exist out about 4 700 000 soldiers, called “The Red Army” , and everybody has thought that the Russian defense could hold the Germans in this first attack with their 138 Infantry divisions and 40 Motorized divisions and Pantserdivisions but this was not through!
It should be possible if Russia was prepared to defend this kind of war, but they where not and, certainly not on the 22 June 1941!
The Soviet leaders had refused to heed warnings from the western powers and where completely surprised and overwhelmed!
 

The first action from German side on this 22 June was at 3.35 in the morning, when they destroyed all Russian telephone lines.
At 4.15 the German troops removed all the barbed wires on the front line and to give this all a complete perfect start, the German Luftwaffe drop there bombs past the frontline with perfection and gives a complete disorder to the Red Army!
On these first days cities like Kiev, Odessa and Lviv were heavy bombed.

The Russian troops, between the rivers Neman and Dwina withdraw for almost 320 km.
Not much better was it for General Pawlow where he has placed his divisions in a line of almost 500km between Bialystok and Minsk.
The condition in the district Kiew was something better but not satisfied!
The powerful German forces swept eastward and capture huge territories.

Stalin was so surprised about the pact that was broken, that he was paralyzed by fear and not spoken for more than a week!
He gives his first words on 3 July and condemned the actions.
He announced also a scorched earth policy for Russia!

However, some of the villages welcomed the German Army with flowers, food, welcome hospitality and friendship.
Many soldiers of the German Army where surprised that they where welcomed as liberators.

In the battle for Kiev, two German Army groups surrounded 665 000 Red Army soldiers on 25 August and they where captured. That was the largest Army in History that surrender.
Unfortunately for this man, who surrender so willingly, the plans of destruction at this time, called for there destruction and they died in concentration camps in the winter 1941-42.
Not much better was it for the so many groups of civilians, who where prepared to welcome and help the German armies against Stalin, but the German racist plans has other ideas!

As the German Army into Russia, the so called “Einsatztruppen” followed the Army just behind and implemented mass murder operations!

On the 8 September Leningrad was cut off and Hitler transferred Army group north’s armor south for a drive on Moscow! Smolensk in the center and Dnepropetrovsk in the South where taken and Sevastopol was encircled by November!
On the 20th November Rostov fell but was taken back by the Russians by their first successful counteroffensive! That counteroffensive was on 30 November;
On 30 November a Russian force of 22 Infantry divisions, 9 Cavalry divisions and 6 Panzer brigades with 330 tanks Attack Rostov. After a though battle and hard fighting Germans, the city go back in Russians hands!

German units reached the outskirts of Moscow in early December.

Short thereafter, the Soviet Union launched a major counterattack against the center of the front, driving the Germans back from Moscow in chaos. Only weeks later were the Germans able to stabilize the front east of Smolensk.
Every time the Russians try to break the next defensive line, was a disaster and they loose a lot of soldiers.
This where the first good moments for the Russians, but however, much losses of soldiers and material begin to ask there prices!
Between 22 June 1941 and 6 December 1941 the Russians lost only on War Prisoners 2 800 000 Officers, Non commisioned Officers and Soldiers.
From Brest-Litovsk till the border of Moskou, Germans have taken a region as great as between London and Prague!

The capital was in terror. Armed troops tried to keep order and prevent a mass evacuation until it was organized. Stalin himself left the city. But by December 5 Heinz Guderian, hero of France and commander of the panzer spearhead from the South, reported that his troops were exhausted and could not continue. The German general charged with taking Moscow, Colonel General Heinz Reinhardt, said he could only hold if the Russians did not attack.
Stalin feared that the Japanese would attack his East flank if he withdrew his troops there to fight the Germans. The Siberian units were snow-equipped, battle-experienced, and ready for combat. But Stalin did not bring them over to the European front until Richard Sorge, the Soviet spy in Tokyo, revealed the Japanese plans to attack the Western powers in the south Pacific.
Meanwhile, the German front-line units were reporting previously unrecognized Red Army unit designations in radio transmissions and POW debriefings. Clearly the Soviets were rebuilding the Red Army, and initial reports of its size were wrong. OKH took these reports in stride and stuck to their assessment that the war would be over soon.
In fact, the Red Army was rebuilt under three powerful generals that would fight through the entire conflict. At dawn on December 6, the Red Army counterattacked along three fronts that intersected Moscow. General Georgi K. Zhukov’s West Front, the Kalinin Front under Colonel General Ivan S. Konev, and the Southwest Front under Semyon k. Timoshenko exploded in artillery fire and the great counteroffensive began. The Army Group commanders and Brauchtisch resigned after clamoring for Hitler to permit a retreat. They all went off to retirement, and Hitler took command personally. He was growing tired of the professional military men and wanted to motivate the troops with the knowledge that he was personally commanding them. On December 18 Hitler ordered that all units were to fight to the death. Without proper plans for defense, or even the ability to dig into the hard frozen Russian soil, the Germans could not mount an effective resistance.
On January 15, 1942, Hitler authorized the first German retreat of the war. Army Group Center moved its line 85 miles to the West of Moscow, not far enough to escape the growing danger of encirclement. A gap 160 miles wide tore open the German lines between Army Group North and Army Group Center. One hundred thousand German troops were surrounded in February and supplied by air. A year later this convinced Hitler to believe Goering's claim that he could supply the Sixth Army besieged at Stalingrad.
The Red Army did not have the military ability to complete the encirclement of Army Group Center. By mid-February the Soviets had lost the momentum, and both sides used the early spring to stabilize their lines while the rains and mud prevented serious operations.
The Russian power on the front end 1941 was;
200 Infantry divisions, 35 Cavalry divisions and 40 Pantserbrigades with about 2600 tanks.
Separated from that, 63 Infantry divvisions, 6 cavalry and 11 Pantserbrigades.
The Russians started also to move there important factory’s to a region behind the Oeral.
 

The heavy rains of October 1941 turned the roads into seas of mud and the 6th Army's supply conveys began to get bogged down. On 19th October the rain turned to snow. Paulus continued to make progress and by the beginning of November he controlled 90 per cent of the city. However, his men were now running short of ammunition and food. Despite these problems Paulus decided to order another major offensive on 10th November. The German Army took heavy casualties for the next two days and then the Sovjets launched a counterattack Paulus was forced to retreat southward but when he reached Gumrak Airfield, AH ordered him to stop and stand fast despite the danger of encirclement. Hitler told him that Goering had promised that his Luftwaffe would provide the necessary supplies by air.
Senior officers under Paulus argued that they doubted if the scale of the airlift required could be achieved during a Russian winter. All of the corps commanders argued for a breakout before the Red Army were able to consolidate its positions. General Hube (Hans) told Paulus: "A breakout is our only chance." Paulus responded by saying that he had to obey Hitler's orders.
Throughout December the Goerings Luftwaffe dropped an average of 70 tons of supplies a day. The encircled German Army needed a minimum of 300 tons a day. The soldiers were put on one-third rations and began to kill and eat their horses. By 7th December the 6th Army were living on one loaf of bread for every five men.
Now aware that the 6th Army was in danger of being starved into surrender, Adolf Hitler ordered Field Marshal Erich von Manstein and the 4th Panzer Army to launch a rescue attempt. Manstein managed to get within thirty miles of Stalingrad but was then brought to a halt by the Red Army. On 27th December, 1942, Manstein decided to withdraw as he was also in danger of being encircled by Soviet troops.
In Stalingrad over 28,000 German soldiers had died in just over a month. With little food left Paulus gave the order that the 12,000 wounded men could no longer be fed. Only those who could fight would be given their rations. Erich von Manstein now gave the order for Paulus to make a mass breakout. Paulus rejected the order arguing that his men were too weak to make such a move.
On 30th January, 1943, Adolf Hitler promoted to Paulus to field marshal and sent him a message reminding him that no German field marshal had ever been captured. Hitler was clearly suggesting to Paulus to commit suicide but he declined and the following day surrendered to the Red Army. The last of the Germans surrendered on 2nd February.
The battle for Stalingrad "Operation Barbarossa" was over. Over 91,000 men were captured and a further 150,000 had died during the siege. The German prisoners were forced marched to Siberia. About 45,000 died during the march to the prisoner of war camps and only about 7,000 survived the war.

 

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