yr12_induction_guevara_p

=**Why did Operation Barbarossa fail?**=

Video Version
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**Introduction**
The Operation Barbarossa was the greatest land-air attack in the history of war. June 22, 1941. Without a Declaration of War, the German Army invaded the Soviet Union with the operational goal of conquering the European part of the Soviet Union. The Wehrmacht (German Army) was composed by more than 3 million soldiers and more than 3,300 tanks. The Lutwaffe (German Airforce) was composed by more than 1800 aircrafts. Germany, the greatest European military power, with all her experimented troops faced the Soviet Union, the biggest country in the World, but (apparently) full of internal divisions and economical problems. The German Invasion, after huge casualties (in both sides), was stopped and the Soviet counter-attack reached Berlin 4 years later the Germans crossed the frontier. Timeline of the events: [|Operation Barbarossa - Timeline] [|O. Barbarossa - Images, biographical info, campaign map]

Why did it fail? Which factors caused the defeat of one of the best military organizations in history?


 * //Economical, political, military factors://**

Politically:
= = Hitler underestimated the internal Russian government. The Russian government was strong and the Russians were very keen on defending the Mother Russia. Despite of the purge carried out by Stalin to eliminate any opposition against his dictatorship government, Soviets felt more devotion for their land than hatred against Stalin. They had a main goal to fight for: The expulsion of the Nazis of the Mother Russia. The German abuse over the Soviets within the occupied areas enforced this feeling. //Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Pact//

Economically
The Soviet Union was economically stronger than Hitler though. Stalin had established a strong economy, and during the invasion the Soviet production was moved behind the Urals to save it from the Germans, so the Soviet factories could continue with the manufacturing of tanks, artillery, aircrafts and ammunition in large amounts (much more than those which Germany could produce). This enormous production made possible to replace the countless losses of tanks and aircrafts suffered by the Soviets during the first stages of the invasion. However, despite of the quality and quantity of the products, Soviet tanks, aircrafts, cannons, etc. had a very short lifespan so all the effectives had to be changed several times per year.

Patriotism and Russian Officers:
The Russian troops showed a fierce behavior in order to defend the Motherland, despite of the incapability of their leaders. This incapability was due to the Stalin’s purges within the Army (more than 35,000 Officers were killed). Only a few Officers had real combat experience. [|Stalin´s Purge of the Army] One of the most known generals was Georgi Zhukov who had defeated the Japanese. He was Chief of the Army General Staff, but he was dismissed due to a disagreement with Stalin. Zhukov was sent to Leningrad where the Germans were successfully expulsed. Some months after he was assigned to direct the defense of Moscow and his counterattack took the Germans away from the Capital. Finally, Zhukov was sent to the south (Stalingrad) where he oversaw the encirclement and surrender of the German 6th Army. He was probably the best Soviet general and one of the most qualified military leaders during the Second World War. Soviets had more and better tanks and their capability of replacing the losses was much better due to the countless factories still working behind the Soviet lines. Despite of losing a huge portion of territory, the defeated Soviets knew how to act in this sort of cases. All the lost buildings were burnt, the railways sabotaged, the food consumed, etc. When the Germans looked at the territory they had just conquered, they could only see ruins and the fields destroyed. Germans had always taken advantage of the equipment left by their enemies when those enemies were defeated. Soviets left nothing. //For the Motherland´s Sake. Go Forward. Heroes.//

//Hitler decisions://
Hitler ordered many divisions of the Central Army move to the South and North. By doing this the best chance of conquering Moscow was lost. If those divisions had remained there, Moscow might have been conquered and the Germans had had a place in which spend the whole Soviet Winter. However, Hitler was too impatient and wanted to advance to get the Soviet resources and factories (coal, petroleum, iron, etc.) in the North and the South. This is considered by many historians as the main factor that caused the failure of the Operation Barbarossa. If Germany had conquered Moscow before the Winter, at the beginning of the spring season the Germans could have launched the final offensive against the Soviets. But Hitler had others goals in mind and he wanted to control more Soviet factories in order to increase the supply of petroleum needed by his motorized army. It was one of the greatest German problems during the invasion, the shortage of fuels for the German vehicles.

German's slow advance:
Germany didn’t have enough motorized units for supporting the Army as neither had the aerial support and the petroleum reserves needed. These factors combined with the huge depth of the Russian territory made the panzer divisions wait for the infantry army instead of launching deep and quick attacks to encircle the Soviet divisions. The supply was carried out by trains, but the railway wasn’t the best way of facing a campaign in the East. First, because the railway design wasn’t the same for the Soviets than for the Germans, German railways were wider, therefore, they had to change all the structure to make them useful for the German train supplies. Furthermore, some German generals, as Guderian, had a revolutionary way of understanding the use of tanks; these tactics were quite useful during the battle for France. Nevertheless, during the conquest of the Soviet Union, Hitler’s negative against these sort of strategies was a constant. Some of the most brilliant German generals were dismissed by the Fuhrer. With Hitler as the supreme commander of the army, the German Army lost its flexibility, the cause of the victories in France, Poland and the rest of Europe. [|Logistical planning]

//German soldiers during the invasion.//

//Russian landscape and "Gen. Winter"//
The Russian territory, its depth and width as well as its ground and weather made impossible the task of advancing quickly. The Russian Winter, the huge forests, the marshes, the rivers, etc. caused a considerable delay to the German Army. German troops weren’t ready for this sort of war, a war against the nature. The tactic known as blitzkrieg couldn’t be used in this kind of territory. The tanks took too much advantage respect to the infantry. Furthermore, Hitler ordered to open 3 different fronts in the invasion. The Northern Army should conquer Leningrad and the Baltic Countries. The Central Army would help the Northern army to conquer Leningrad and then it would advance to Moscow. Finally the Southern Army should conquer Ukraine and then attack Stalingrad. That constituted a front of 1.600 km. Again the vastness of the Soviet territory was against the Germans. The weather during the winter between 1941 and 1942 killed many German troops due to the shortage of proper equipment they suffered. The cold was another ally of the Soviet Army, as it was during the Napoleonic Invasion. [|Russian Weather] media type="youtube" key="8L-GBHNNqrQ" width="425" height="350"