77 Years Ago Today: Operation Barbarossa

What a mess

Never understood why the Germans thought they could fight on so many fronts simultaneously. Cocky SOBs

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Thank god for Ivan and his will to just throw man after man into the jaws of death

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Agree....it didn't hurt that Germany had to cross a shitload of land

Imagine how things would have turned out had Hitlers vanity not gotten the best of him.

Let us all give thanks that Hitler and the German High Command were too goddamn arrogant for their own good.


The thing that gave them early success is what ended up losing it for them... a total lack of cold weather preparations.

The Russians figured that the Germans weren’t stupid enough to start an offensive without moving assets into place to withstand an inevitable Russian winter, so they weren’t on alert when the Germans rolled through and pushed them back.

It worked until they got bogged down and the weather changed, at which point the Russians said “We have reserves” and started bleeding the German military of men and resources through prolonged battles in places like Stalingrad.

The Germans were also hoping the japs would join in and strike from the south. They really tried to pressure, although not directly, japan into attacking the Far East before the onset of Barbarossa.

Of course, this didn’t happen. And once Stalin realized this, he pulled his elite troops out of the Far East and put them right on the front by Stalingrad (I believe) which helped play an important role in that battle.

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Never understood why the Germans thought they could fight on so many fronts simultaneously. Cocky SOBs

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This is a very good question. The long-held German nightmare had always been the dreaded “two-front” war. This fear had dominated Germany military thought since the 19th century and was why the conflict that started in the Balkans in 1914 had turned into WWI.

As to what made Hitler to decide to risk this nightmare once again, two things factored into it.

1. Hitler thought that while Britian still remained in the War, they could not really do anything. Remember in spring 1941, America was not in the war. France has been conquered. And Britian, had no real army left. Sure they had rescued thousands of British troops at Dunkirk. But they’d had to leave behind almost all their heavy equipment like artillery and tanks. So I’m Hitler’s mind, it would be years before Britian was a threat again. He saw his western flank as secure for the foreseeable future, which it was.

2. Hitler knew the Red Army recovering from the Stalinist purged of the 30’s. And even more alarming he saw the Soviets were starting to build up the Red Army to the point it would be a serious threat in the near future. In spring 41, the Red Army was in a transitional stage. It was not close to being ready for war. But Hitler knew that within the next few years, it would be.

So basically it came down to a matter of Hitler seeing it was “now or never” when it came to achieving his longtime goal of crushing the Soviet Union and establishing is dreamed of German Empire in the East. In his gamblers eyes he saw a window of opportunity that would not stay open for much longer. Thus, he decided to strike while he could.

This stuff is so intriguing to me

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Of course, this didn’t happen.

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It's really strange when you think about it. Obviously, the Japanese had their hands full with American action in the Pacific, but that the USSR didn't make tremendous gains in China/Mongolia and to press southward and cut off Japanese war resources is pretty odd. I guess it was a logistical issue because manpower sure as shite wasn't a problem.